Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
num8 says that it has also implemented its own “proprietary Cell ID technology which provides a swift approximate location of your child” which then works with GPS signals for the claimed 3 metre accuracy.
The benefit of using this dual locating technology is that “the child can still be located in instances where normal GPS technology may not be sufficient.”
Parents can connect to the LOK8U customer portal from any computer or Internet equipped mobile phone to locate their children, and they can do this wherever they are in the world, although the service is currently only sold in the UK.
Operating for “up to” 100 hours on a single charge, the device is also fully waterproof, even when swimming, and because it sends an alert if the watch strap is undone without your authority, it certainly sounds like a very robust and hard to defeat solution.
num8 says they’ve worked hard to make the device “look cool”, gives them “the freedom to play without visible adult supervision”, and provides more opportunity to play with other kids outside away from the TV, computers or games consoles.
With allergies being an important issue for parents and children these days, the LOK8U has also been “dermatologically tested and designed for all-day comfort” with the makers saying it is “ideal for children aged 3 - 12 and also young adults”.
There’s plenty more detail at the num8 website, but one question you’ll want to know is how much it costs.
The site notes that “subscriptions start from £4.99 per month”. This gives you 10 text messages per month if your kids stray out of their safe zones or messages need to otherwise be sent.
There’s also a £9.99, £12.99 and £19.99 per month package, with additional SMS message alerts able to be purchased in add-on packs, and international tracking available with any of these three more expensive packages.
If you’re a “heavy user” of the service, then the £19.99 per month package will be the one to go for as it offers “unlimited” text messages.
The watch comes with a 12 month warranty.
Some telcos now offer similar services through increasingly standard GPS-equipped mobile phones, and third party software programs that use GPS location and link in with online maps are also available.
Big Brother was here long ago, and I saw a newspaper headline referring to this as “Big Mother”, but it’s legal and if parents want this for their children, the technology is simpler and easier to use than ever.
Certainly if it helps find a missing child it could save a lot of Big Bother, although in cases of child abduction and removal of the watch, you’ll only get to know where the child last was and not where they are now.
Truly paranoid parents might want to buy two such devices and attach one to a child’s school bag, although a separate GPS-equipped school bag may well be available, as they've reportedly been on sale in Japan for some time.
David Bass
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