Let's say you are meeting friends at a large outdoor concert, how do you provide your location? A street address may get them to the entrance gate, then what? What3words has proposed a solution that solves the issue of finding exact locations on a map?

What3words has divided the entire planet into 57 trillion 3mx3m grids and assigned each grid a unique three-word "address".

If I want to meet friends at the entrance of Union Station in Toronto, I can search for "Union Station" in Google maps, and it will take me to the building but not necessarily the front entrance:

Or I can give my friends the What3Words address for the main entrance 3mx3m square which is: tens.listed.surviving

The What3Words address takes them directly to the entrance where I want to meet them. No ambiguity and no confusion.

In most western countries, we have mailing addresses but these aren't always easy to find. The most accurate mechanism has been latitude and longitude (which would look like this 43°38'43.3"N 79°22'51.9"W). Obviously, the three-word descriptor is easier to communicate and remember than the latitude/longitude.

The entire world is mapped using about 40,000 words (it is available in multiple languages including French, Spanish, Arabic and more). Obviously, great care has gone into choosing the words to ensure there is nothing offending and no double meanings. They have assigned more common words to locations in major centers.

What3Words claims their tech is being used in over 170 countries by dozens of organizations from delivery companies (Aramex) to disaster relief coordination in the Philipines by the Red Cross.

The entire mapping can be downloaded for use offline and consumes about 10MB of space. They are partnering with companies to build this tech into third-party apps.

I really think this is a wonderfully unique approach to a problem everyone experiences and I hope more companies start using the What3Words technology. In the meantime, you can download their free Android and IOS app to get started. You can find the What3Words location address or navigate to any What3Words address (using your favorite Nav app installed on your IOS or Android phone (Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze).

Android App showing the entrance of Union Station

Once you enter a three-word address, you can click on the navigate app and it will send the exact GPS coordinates to the location to any GPS app installed on your device.

Once you enter a three-word adress, you can share the exact location using any messaging app installed on your smartphone (Google Messages, Facebook, Whatsapp, etc).

The Trackr Bravo Review

September 5, 2016GeneralEdward Kiledjian

The Trackr Bravo is a small watch battery sized Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) device that promises to help you locate your lost or misplaced items. The device costs about $US29 each and you attach it to your keys, put it in a bag, wallet or anything else you may want to locate (think pet collar).

You can use the Trackr apps to locate the item on a map and make it ring (if you are within Bluetooth range). You can also press the tiny button on the Trackr and make the app ring (even if the phone is set to silent) to locate it.

The final trick the Trackr Bravo can perform is initiating a separation alarm (if you enable it). As an example, you can set the separation alarm to on when in a restaurant so if you walk away without your keys, it will ring.

The last promise Trackr makes is that if you do lose an item and it comes within range of any other user with the Trackr app open (even in the background), you get a location ping for your lost device.

Its main competitor is the Tile and I'll also draw some comparisons.

Let's get physical

I bought a 3 pack from Best Buy Canada for $50 (was on special - regular price was $79). It is a small plastic disc that measures 1.2 inches in diameter and is 0.2 inches thick. It weighs a mere 0.3 ounces.

It is smaller and lighter than the Tile.

The Trackr Bravo has a small ring on top to attach it to a keyring and comes with round double sided tape if you want to attach it to something like a bicycle or other belonging.

There is a Trackr logo on one side (in the middle) and a small pairing / alert button under it.
I paired it with my trusty iPhone 6s Plus using the Trackr apps and it took all of 30 seconds.
The device is expected to run for one year on the included CR1616 battery (which is user replaceable). Unfortunately my 6 Trackr Bravos came with dead batteries. I sent a support request via email (following the directions on their site) and never received a reply.

“3 weeks after sending my first support request (and sent another one 2 weeks ago) The Trackr support has never responded.”

This is my first big issue. I sent them a tweet and 2 emails. Nothing. So I bought replacement batteries from Amazon which cost me $20 (for 10 batteries). This was my first annoyance. We are not over 1.5 months since I made my support requests providing proof of purchase and I have not received a response.

The apps did not warn me that the batteries were low (even though it does provide battery level in the device settings tab). I was able to paid my devices but they soon stopped responding. This is problematic if you batteries are low when you misplace or lose your item.

Tile does not allow you to replace the batteries but does warn you when the batteries are running low.

Because the Trackr has a user replaceable battery, it is not waterproof. My 3 pack included a plastic sleeve to make it more water resistant but this is a cheap flimsy plastic and my wife's Trackr fell out somewhere (before I had a chance to replace its battery) and we couldn't find it. How ironic. We lost the Trackr which is supposed to help us find lost items.

Usability

The separation alert (if enabled) does warn you if one of the paired items goes missing. I had a trackr in my wallet and enabled separation alert. When I purposely left the wallet with a friend and walked away in a restaurant, the alarm on my phone rang. The opposite also worked. I took my wallet and left my phone, my wallet started ringing.

Here is my second problem with The Trackr Bravo : The alarm is very weak.

There is an alarm and it does work but you may have trouble hearing it in a noisy restaurant. You can also set a custom alert tone using any MP3 on your device.

The Tile has a much louder alarm that makes locating lost items easier.

If you press the black pairing button the Trackr, it will sound the alarm on your phone (to help you locate it) and you can ring the trackr token from your phone's Trackr App.

As a test, a colleague hid my keys somewhere in the office (which is large enough to be out of bluetooth range). As soon as I opened the app, it showed me the last location if key the Trackr token was in but showed it greyed out (aka out of range). The bottom of the map screen shows the Bluetooth strength which is used to indicate how close or far the token is from the phone.

The Tile and Trackr are about the same here but the Tile has a more granular strength meter which is more useful.

As I walked around the office (and got closer to my token) the app started to show I was getting closer and switched the dull grey location to a green one. I then force the alarm (using the app) and I heard it sound but it was so low I had trouble identifying the location.

The Trackr says the alarm is 85db but it sounds much more muted to me. The Tile has a 90 db alarm but the sound is sharper and easier to identify.

I know the trackr website says a community of trackr users will help me find my lost items but I couldn't figure out how this works. A tweet requesting clarification just said "It works automatically". What does that mean? How? How do I ask the network of user to "search" for my lost item. Not much information is provided and Twitter support was less than useful. Again an email to support requesting help for this feature went unanswered. Surprise... Surprise...

Conclusion

Having used it for close to 1.5 months and having shared it with family, what do I think? It is worth the investment? The idea is good and I love the fact the battery is user replaceable but it had a tone of shortcomings.

My biggest complaint is the lack of response from support. Why did I have to buy replacement batteries for something I just picked up? Why is documentation so scarce and features like the global lost and found not clear?

The alarm is low and the location information is often too wishy washy to be useful. They have a home pluggable device called the Atlas which is supposed to help you locate the tokens with more accuracy but I couldn't get my hands on one to test it.

If you check out the Amazon reviews from verified buyers, you will see that many echo the same complaints I had. Poor battery life. Poor support. Low alarm. Slow reconnect when you do get close to the token. So my conclusion is to pass on The Trackr Bravo. Maybe the next iteration will be good enough to justify the $US29 price tag but this version certainly isn't.

Apple launches HomeKit with a handful of partners

June 2, 2015technologyEdward Kiledjian

We knew it was coming but didn't know exactly when. Apple's home automation platform, HomeKit, finally launched and you can expect the first slew of products to hit retail shelves shortly.

Launch parters include Insteaon, Lutron, Elgato, Caseta and Ecobee.

“We’re excited to be shipping our HomeKit-enabled Insteon Hub and releasing the Insteon+ mobile app, enabling the mass consumer market to live in a world where all of their connected devices work together in perfect harmony,” “HomeKit streamlines home automation for consumers, brings together multiple manufacturers and offers advanced features like remote control and voice control through integrations with Siri.””

— said Joe Dada, CEO, Insteon

The Insteon HomeKit Hub will be available through Amazon and Smarthome.com for $149.99 shortly and in retail stores in July.

Expect Apple to talk up HomeKit at its annual developer conference (WWDC) with new features probably included in IOS 9.

In addition to these companies, we expect to see a slew of other manufacturers jump on this bandwagon as the home automation market heats up.

Microsoft to launch global wifi network for enterprise customers

June 2, 2015technologyEdward Kiledjian

Microsoft's Skype entity already offers a product called Skype WIFI (link) which allows you to buy WIFI access in millions of locations by the minute. A barebones webpage now may indicate that Microsoft has bigger plan for it's WIFI resale business and may be branding it Microsoft WIFI (link).

The service (purportedly) will offer access to its millions of WIFI access hotspots to Office 365 Enterprise subscribers, Surface 2 owners or buyers of the Work & Play bundle.

The DNS lookup of the website seems to indicate that it belongs to Microsoft so I am assuming it is legitimate but it is still very sparse and missing tones of information. Based on the info it does contain, it looks like this service will continue in the path started by Skype WIFI where Microsoft will resell WIFI hotspot access belonging to other providers such as Boingo, XFinity WIFI, BT and more. And yes, it does look like a global service.

We don't know the model they will use. Will it be a subscription based model, a pay-per-use model or a hybrid? Will some access time be included in the base subscriptions?

We do know, based on the website that they will have apps for most platforms including Windows, Android, Mac OS X, iOS and Windows Phone. Skype WIFI also offered an app for these platforms but also included one for Linux (which the Microsoft WIFI page does not mention right now).

At this point that's all we know but I'll keep watching this site and report back when things develop further.

New Gillette razor changing a 100 year business model?

May 8, 2014GeneralEdward Kiledjian

It seems every couple of years, Gillette releases a newer, better, closer, more precise shaving razor system that turns out of be incompatible with all previous blades. Many have said this is a technique to keep the price of blades high.

Now there is a twist to the story with Gilette releasing the new ProGlide with Flexball technology (link) which accepts the previous series of ProGlide blades. No one know for sure but many analysts have said it is an admission that companies like DollarShaveClub, Harrys or Dorco (link) are really starting to hurt the king of razors. These other companies are often 60-80% cheaper and offer blades of similar quality.

So perhaps they pushed Gillette to innovate its shaving tech and its business model. We'll have to wait and see. Even by using the same blades, they still cost many times more than the new young upstart competitors. The only benefit to consumers is that they can continue using the same blades they may already have bought with this new Dyson-like shaving system.

The best way to share your location with friends or family