Linus Tech Tips coverage of CES 2014 is brought to you by ncx.com, your source
for great technology selection and service along with Corsair Memory and
Western Digital. So, we're here at Stick and Find. It's actually the last
possible minute of the show, but I needed to run back and see these guys
because they have something that I personally think is really cool. Now,
we've seen little devices such as uh things you can put on your keychain to
notify you when you move away from your phone and stuff like that, but what I haven't seen before is something that um
is able to achieve this kind of range and this kind of battery life. So, this
one right here is the micro beacon. It's
it has a 8-year battery and a 50ft
range. Next up, we have the standard stick and fine beacon. It has a one-year
battery and a 100 foot range. When you step up to the Pro, you get water
resistance. You also get, see, I'm totally cheating here, a 100 foot range
and a three-year battery. And then when you step right up to the extend, you get
a 9-year battery, water resistance as well. And then I believe that's pretty
much that's the advantage. Okay, so 9-year battery. So this is the kind of thing if you're absent- minded, you
always leave your car in the parking lot. This is what I'd put on it. It's that small. It's that small. We can do
B-roll. It's okay. It's that small and it has a 9-year battery. Then the last
one, and also yeah, 200 foot range on that one as well. The last one, this is
the rechargeable unit. This is the HQ beacon. And the battery doesn't last for
a phenomenally long time and before you have to recharge it. But what this one
does is it works up to around 3,000 ft
using a combination of Bluetooth and GPS technology. So it can be configured to
do things like show you the last place that you left a device that had this
stuck to it. So when it goes out of range, it can go, "Oh crap." And it can
drop a pin on a map. You can go ahead and see where all your stuff was, where
you last saw it. You can also set it up to notify you in the event that you walk
away from something. So luggage, keys,
phones, things like that would be very very relevant here. But the application
that I actually see as most relevant to me is putting it on something like a
beloved pet or child. I didn't suggest that second one actually pet. Let's just
say pet and using it to find it. So I'm going to be the beloved pet for our
little demonstration here. And I'm going to use the standard beacon and I'm going
to have my lovely assistant hold up a phone in front of the camera while I
walk away. So here we go guys. I am walking away with it.
How are you? Good. How are you? You have something for sale.
What do you want? We have this, right?
Yeah. The big one. This one is what? Better here. This one more sensitive.
What? Yeah. Range. Different battery life.
Thank you very much. So once it reaches about 98% signal strength, you know,
your game of hot and cold is pretty much done. Now, unfortunately, it works as as
a game of hot and cold as opposed to, you know, dropping pins on the radar
exactly around you. But to me, the most fascinating thing about it is the
battery life because you can have all the great technology in the world that
you want. I mean, I think something like the Samsung Galaxy Gear is a great example of this. Great piece of
technology. Battery lasts for like a few hours, so you're constantly tethered to
a to a wall socket. This one, not so much. You set it, you forget it, you
remember like once a year to change your cat's battery and then it's all good. Now, if I didn't feel like playing hot
and cold, there are other options as well. I could have simply clicked page it.
It's got a little LED on it. It's got a little noise that it makes. Makes it a
little bit easier to find. I saw the LED a second ago. Where'd that LED go? Well,
the LED goes off at the beginning. Anyway, we'll do B-roll of that. Thank you guys very much for checking out our
booth coverage of the Stick and Find. Remember, the applications of this
technology go beyond just finding something. You can use them for things
like um you know, instore navigation. For example, if a retailer were to
deploy these 9-year batteries all over their store, you could actually like
navigate the store and go to clothing just by following around the little little beacons beacons because you can
label them wallet or you can label them like, you know, bathroom or whatever the
the case may be. Imagine a store that never had to direct people to the bathroom anymore. Anyway, guys, remember
our trip to the show this year is powered by ncx.com, your source for
great technology selection and service, as well as Corsair Memory and Western
Digital. Without those guys, there's no way we would have been able to be here
bringing you this content. So thanks a lot.