It seems to me that using a low-power short-range protocol like BT isn’t the most effective way to find your car in a large lot or garage.
What kind of world do you live in where you can’t find your car in bluetooth range?
I think a well designed app for your phone that automatically drops/picks up a pin for where you parked would be a good idea.
…using its smartphone app, Zus acts as a honing device for finding your car…
This thing will give your car a sharper edge?
Waze does that for you. Of course, that doesn’t work so well on a multi-storey car park.
Well, I guess that Bluetooth can have a range of 300ft, but that assumes there’s nothing metal in the way. Like, say, a car. It also assumes your car has an always-on cigarette lighter. Which mine doesn’t.
But, more to the point, who the hell parks in this carpark?
Yea the few times I “lost” my car was way beyond bluetooth range. Now I use my phone to take a pic of the parking garage location and/or save a note.
LOL, looks like the lot where they store the cars just off the train or boat I’m guessing.
This charges at “2x normal speed” by using roughly 5x the amperage that your phone is designed for (4.8A, most phones use 1.0, most tablets only 2), which will indeed charge it up faster, and also reduce your battery’s maximum capacity much faster than normal. It’ll produce a lot of heat inside the phone, too, which probably won’t break anything but certainly won’t do it any good.
TL;DR: This will ruin your battery. Never trust anything from the Boing Boing store.
(Paging @awjt, I might be #DisappointedWithBoingBoing)
Not only that, the phone HAS to accept that kind of amperage. It’s likely that the phone’s charging circuit and/or the battery’s circuitry limits the current.
Also: if I read the copy correctly, your care will be where I left it, even if it’s towed? Wow!
Sharper edge or Sharper Image?
I use Tasker to create a script that stores my current coordinates whenever I shut off my car. Tasker detects the disconnect with my car’s Bluetooth. A second script, which I also converted into an app, reads those stored coordinates, and passes them to Google Maps in walking mode, in case I need directions back to the car. And the Adaptive Fast Charger in the car can give me 4 hours of use with a 10 minute charge.
That’s really cool. I have a different method. For places I routinely visit which have large parking areas, I ALWAYS park in the same spot. This means parking far away from the door, which lets me do a little extra walking. I’ve adapted to this behavior over the years, and it feels completely effortless to me and doesn’t rely on any technology (your tech solution is still pretty cool and I’d like to know more about how that works, I guess I’ll look up Tasker).
For places I visit rarely, or even just once, I just use my brain to remember where I parked. Even in unfamiliar places like a ten-story parking garage, I’ve not had any trouble.
I hope that my mind holds out for as long as I am able to drive places.
Tasker shows up on virtually every “most useful Android apps” list. But it is only available for Android. Apple refuses to let people have apps that give them control over the devices they they own. It does have a bit of a learning curve, but there are tons of examples on the net, and downloadable tasks available.
I also use it to change the screen timeout and screen-lock settings on a app by app basis. It starts playing my podcast app whenever my phone connects to my car’s Bluetooth. It automatically changes from playing talk radio on I Heart Radio to music on Radio Paradise, at a specific time, but only Monday - Friday, because I’m usually in the shower when the talk show I like ends.
I’ve looked it up and it does look really cool. Though finding my car isn’t a useful function, it does appear to be a supertool of sorts for many things. Of course, my main phone is an iPhone, and although my offhand weapon IS android, I just don’t use it for the sorts of things Tasker could make easier.
Blame Hipstamatic. If they would get with the program and port to Android, I’d be gone the day it released.
Homing. Not honing.
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