The amount of times I’ve lost my keys is utterly ridiculous (it’s not a good sign when you have your local locksmith on speed dial). At the time of writing, I have never lost my phone but my keys? They have a tendency to just vanish into thin air. True story – I once locked myself INSIDE my house. My wife had gone to work and locked the door behind her. Fair enough, safety first. I turned the house upside down trying to find my keys. After half an hour I had to admit defeat, call my boss and get a brutal rollicking, “THAT’S LITERALLY THE WORST EXCUSE I’VE EVER HEARD!”. I could almost see the vein on his forehead bulging with rage from my bedroom window. This was shortly followed by an embarrassing yet much more pleasant call to my good old buddy, Mr Locksmith. He’s always nice to me. Probably because I basically put his kids through college.
I know I know, I should keep my keys in the same place every day…but where’s the fun in that? So when I was introduced to Chipolo bluetooth trackers, I knew it was a game changer. With a few different products available, I went for the Chipolo Classic. The coin-sized device clips on to, well, anything. Obviously, I attach mine to my keys, but through the growing online Chipolo community, I hear of people attaching them to bike seats, cat collars – basically anything they don’t want to lose.
After a simple setup process on Chipolo’s easy-to-use app, I give my new red disk a wee test. The search function works through Bluetooth so I call the Chipolo from my phone, and there it is! This function actually works both ways; if (touch wood) I do eventually lose my phone, double tapping the Chipolo calls it for me – as my man Garth from Wayne’s World once said, “It’s almost tooooooooo easy”.
I share a car with my other half and you guessed it, I’ve misplaced those keys on multiple occasions too. Chipolo to the rescue! I attach a second disc (green this time, if you’re wondering) and sync it with my wife’s account. Now if I lose the car keys again, she can easily find them. Genius. In fact I’m pretty certain I’m going to get one of these things for everything I own. Would it be weird to clip them on to my kids? Probably.
Ironically, I haven’t actually misplaced my keys since owning the Chipolo Classic but it’s still very early days. The only problem with these handy chips is, as they’re so darned efficient, I’m going to have to get more creative with my excuses for being late for work!
I know one thing for sure, my locksmith will be taking me off his Christmas Card list this year… I’m gonna miss that guy.
