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Fi's GPS pet tracker lasts three months between charges
From keys to luggage, smart technology lets us keep track of pretty much everything these days -- and that includes our pets. Whistle is perhaps the most prominent company in the pet tracking business, but now a new contender has entered the ring with a feature-packed dog collar that makes keeping tabs on our furry friends even easier. Fi's smart GPS dog collar monitors your pet's activity, tracks its location instantly and, most importantly, has a whopping three-month battery life.
ICYMI: Quick launch UAV box, dog translation collar and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-878392{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-878392, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-878392{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-878392").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A new crowdfunded collar for dogs purports to translate activity levels and temperature into how the animal is feeling, then let you know. The KYON collar is basically the dog from the Pixar movie Up in beta version. A nesting box for storing and charging UAVs between flights aims to get surveillance states a drone on standby. And the Emi by Moodbox wants to be the Amazon Echo-like device you turn to for music selections, since its AI is designed to learn your song preferences and curate according to your mood.
Garmin DC 50 dog collar promises better satellite reception, longer battery life
Your dog can run, but it can't hide from Garmin's latest dog tracking collar. The DC 50 ups the game for the GPS company's satellite-friendly canine wearables, offering a more rugged, waterproof (up to 10 meters) design and improved battery life at 26 hours with the five-second update and up to 54 hours with two-minute update. There's also a Dog Rescue mode to automatically switch the collar to the latter when the charge gets down to 25 percent -- so you'll still get signal should you lose your pooch at the end of the day. And, to make him easier to find, the DC 50 promises more reliable satellite reception, thanks to the antenna's placement at the top of the collar and its utilization of both GLONASS and GPS nav systems. When paired with Garmin's Astro 320, users can track a pack of up to ten pups at once should you have the money to outfit them all with DC 50's. The collar will be available later this month for $230, or $600 if you buy it bundled with the aforementioned Astro 320.
Garmin announces new dog collars, talks up 'Bark Odometer'
Garmin's not content with just a spot on your dashboard -- the company's also hoping to help you out with your pet problems. The GPS-maker's got a couple of new additions to its line of dog collars, including the BarkLimiter series, which offers up an accelerometer-powered bark identification system and a Bark Odometer to help you keep track of your canine's woof mileage. The collar is lightweight and waterproof and promises to increase "stimulation" as barking continues. The collar'll run you $80 for standard and $100 for the deluxe edition. You can also get the BarkLimiter technology in the company's Delta series of collars, which let you set a virtual leash up to three-quarters of a mile. That line runs $200 without the bark limiting and $250 with.
DIY GPS dog collar helps your pup fulfill its mobile computing potential
Yeah, you love your dog, but is he or she really pulling his or her weight? A new project from Adafruit brings an on-board computer to your roaming canine, tracking the distance to your and your pup's goal with a progress bar. The project is pretty simple, and Adafruit offers up most of the supplies, including the GPS and Atmega32u4 breakout boards -- though you'll have to procure your own fabric to make the big flower and some black nail polish to blot out the bright LEDs. The functionality isn't quite as advanced as, say, products from Garmin -- nor is it going to fill up your Twitter stream, but the collar does have the potential to track your mutt's walks around the neighborhood with a few tweaks.
Fujitsu collar monitor proves that all dogs go to the cloud
Sure, you're having a grand old time in the cloud, but what fun is it, really, if you can't bring your pets along? Fujitsu today announced a new collar-mounted device designed to monitor your dog's activity level. This one does more than just filling up a Twitter stream, however, aimed at actually providing helpful health monitoring, including activity, external temperature and the like to a cloud-based health service set to launch later this year. According to Fujitsu, the device is small and lightweight, with minimal power consumption, assuring that your canine can wear it at all times, so you can monitor your pet's activity while you're away. Not much in the way of availability at present, but you can find a bit more info in the PR after the break.
Garmin's Astro 320 GPS handheld offers nine-mile coverage, keeps your hunting dogs in line
Before you and your pooches head out to hunt innocent ducks this year, you might wanna check out Garmin's new Astro 320 dog tracker -- a handheld GPS device designed to help hunters keep even closer tabs on their four-legged sentries. The latest addition to the Astro family can simultaneously track up to ten hunting dogs per receiver, with a revamped antenna and three-axis electronic compass covering up to nine miles of flat terrain. Boasting a 20-hour battery life, the 1.7GB handheld can also tell hunters whether their canines are running or pointing, while its mapping capabilities provide their precise coordinates relative to powerlines, buildings, and individual trees. All this information is displayed on a 2.6-inch display, where users will be able to access 100k or 24k topographic and satellite maps. A keypad lock function, meanwhile, will make sure you don't accidentally press any buttons while you're in the thick of a hound-led hunt. The handheld will be available in July for $500, with the full system (including a DC 40 tracking collar) priced at $650. You can flip through the gallery below for images of some antenna-toting doggies, or head past the break for a more testosterone-laced pic and the full PR. %Gallery-125121%
Garmin upgrades its doggone Astro tracking system with DC 40 collar GPS tracker
Chances are the closest you've come to hunting with a pooch is swearing at that giggle-happy mutt who shames your every miss in Duck Hunt. In the real world, dogs are sent out to flush game and track down new things to shoot at, often way out of sight. Garmin's Astro receiver, combined with the DC 30 collar tracker (pictured above), made it easy to keep the all seeing eye on your very own mutt even when miles away, and now the DC 40 makes it even easier. The DC 40 sports a redesign that should make it a more reliable companion, including a new charging connector that won't get clogged with mud. Also new is the ability to create a PIN so that other Astro users can't spy (and possibly even steal) your pooches. The Astro receiver can track up to 10 hounds at once at seven miles of range, and will even let hunters mark where their companions scurried up some prey for future reconnaissance. The price? Garmin isn't saying just yet, but the current DC 30 and Astro receiver package goes for $599, and we'd expect this to cost about the same, though the DC 40 collar unit itself is also said to be available separately if you just want to make sure your hound has the latest couture. Update: Garmin was kind enough to send us a picture of the new DC 40, above.
AT&T to provide wireless service for Vitality GlowCaps, Apisphere dog collar
We'd already heard about Isabella Product's new Vizit photo frame that relies on AT&T for wireless service (and is available today), but the carrier has just now announced that it will also be providing service to two other fairly unique products. One of those is Vitality's GlowCaps pill bottle caps, which are able to call or text you if you forgot to take your pills, and keep track of each time the bottle is opened and ensure that prescriptions are refilled before the bottle's empty. The other announcement comes from Apisphere, which is working with AT&T on a SIM card-equipped dog collar that will let dog owners keep track of their pet. Details on it are otherwise still fairly light, but pet owners will apparently be able to establish a "geo-fence" where their dog can roam freely, and be able to receive a variety of alerts if Buster slips outside of the established parameters. Unfortunately, there's not even so much as an image of the collar just yet (let alone a price), but it is expected to launch later this year.
Vladimir Putin finally acquires satellite collar for his dog
Just under a year ago, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced his hopes that one day he could pinpoint the location of his black Labrador, Koni, at any time of the day. Today, a dream has been realized. Mr. Putin has finally procured a satellite collar that will enable him to track the lab regardless of which of the eleven times zones she may be in while waltzing through Russia. Once the collar was slipped on, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov immediately said "she looks sad, her free life is over." Putin didn't miss a beat when snapping back: "In Soviet Russia, GLONASS track you!"[Image courtesy of Picasa, thanks MJ]
Float-a-Pet inflatable collar helps track, save dog's life
While the list of random junk humans can affix to their canine companions is embarrassingly long, we have seen a few meaningful accessories that can prevent dogs from straying too far from home. Jed Berk's latest prototype has apparently wrapped as many beneficial aspects as he thought possible into what outwardly appears to be a run-of-the-mill pet collar (with a NOS tank strapped on for good measure). But the Float-a-Pet -- as the name so aptly implies -- has a few hidden tricks that presumably act to give you the upper hand in locating your pet after it makes a mad dash for that "bump in the night," or makes a not-exactly-premeditated splash into a body of water. The collar sports flexible solar cells that gather energy during the day, and are used to power light-emitting LEDs when a low-light environment is detected. Aside from turning Fido into a light show, a secondary function of the "Swiss Army knife of dog collars" is to automatically inflate around your pet's neck if the integrated "humidity sensor" tips off the built-in CO2 cartridge. You'll probably be happy to know that if your dog takes a plunge at night, not only will the collar inflate as advertised, but it will supposedly activate the blinking LEDs as well to help catch your eye while it wades to safety. Although this hasn't escaped the testing phase just yet, we can definitely envision serious dog aficionados snapping up this extra precaution for their precious pet, but if your canine has a thing for sticking its head way down in the water bowl while replenishing fluids (and this humidity sensor is a bit too sensitive), it could end up in some deep water of a very different kind.
