Tiny gizmo will make you less of a loser

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The O wearable and app
The O wants to make sure you never forget your unicorn again.
Photo: The O

A new gadget hopes to help you keep tabs on your important items before you lose them.

The O is a small, electronic tracker that pairs with an app on your iPhone. You place it on (or attach it to) something you don’t want to leave behind, and you’ll get alerts if you do. It’s kind of the same “You forgot your phone” feature that we were hoping to get out of the Apple Watch when it strays out of range of its paired handset, but these little pucks are cool, too.

O’s creators are crowdfunding final development of its project on Kickstarter, and they’ve solidly reached the £32,000 (app. $49,000) goal heading into the drive’s final day. And I’m not surprised it’s doing so well — I just spent 20 minutes looking for my jacket, only to discover that I was already wearing it.

You can preorder up to eight sensors through the campaign, and they’ll retail for about $80 for a pack of four when they launch early in 2016. They’re designed to be sewn onto bags and clothing (hence the thread-friendly grooves), and the app lets you mark individual items as essential so that it will always let you know when you leave them behind.

I really like this idea, but we can think of a few minor issues. Cult of Mac writer Rob LeFebvre wonders what happens if you forget your phone. That’s kind of the heart of this whole operation. I like the cool keychain attachments available, but I’m curious whether the O’s response time and sensor range are good enough to remind you before you’ve locked yourself out of your house and can’t get back in to retrieve all of the other things you left behind.

If you’re curious about the weird name, the “O” stands for “octopus” because why not? It’s “an animal we love for its superior ability to cling onto things and to perfectly blend into its environment by changing its shape, texture and color,” the creators say on the campaign page.

So that makes sense, actually.

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