2239 Losers Weepers

Technology sure has made it easier to find stuff. And I don't just mean your way around the city. I mean actual stuff.

Like your smartphone itself. These days if it gets stolen there are apps that will kill it so your personal data can't be harvested, and apps that will help trace it down, using its GPS and other features. They can do so even if your phone wasn't stolen, but was just forgotten. Which, judging by people I've seen pinching, swiping, and loading their phone with every imaginable app, doesn't seem at all likely. Those phones are stuck to their hands like a tattoo.

But what about your sunglasses? Well, if you spend $350 on a pair you can get those back when you forget them too. The Tzukuri company has come up with new sunglasses that feature a solar-powered Bluetooth chip which syncs with your phone's apps. You'll be alerted if you wander away and leave your glasses behind. 

I only wish they had a similar technology for us in the northwest. For our oft forgotten umbrellas.  

I also read about a new set of luggage that offers similar features. "Never lose your luggage again," trumpeted the ad. "Find it wherever it goes in the world."

Sounded like a pretty cool use of technology to solve an age old problem. As old as the commercial airline age at least. Still, I worry that taking luggage-finding into your own hands may give the airlines one more excuse to be less than attentive. "Sorry sir, you should have bought that Finders Keepers luggage brand. That'll be $35 for your new bag for this trip."

Obvious question: If they have cheap consumer technology to find lost sunglasses and lost luggage, why can't they find lost airplanes?

America, ya gotta love it.