BiKN Review
BiKN Review
It's sort of like Marco Polo for your iPhone and keys -- they take turns finding each other.
BiKN is a simple piece of hardware that tethers your phone to anything you don’t want to lose: your keys, your wallet, your cat, even your kids. BiKN comes with an iPhone 4/4S case and two tags (additional tags are $49.99 a pair), which you can attach to just about anything. A free iPhone app lets you communicate with the tags in Leash, Page, or Find mode. In Leash mode, the tag “pings†audibly when it gets far enough away from the iPhone. Page makes the tag beep wherever it is, so you can locate it by sound. Find mode tells you how far away from your tag you are, and which direction it’s in. And if you misplace your phone but have a tag handy, you can press a button to page your phone.
While BiKN worked perfectly as described, its drawbacks make us hesitant to recommend it, even just for keys. The case, while not unattractive, is bulky and must be charged with a standard USB cable. If you use dock-connected accessories frequently, this gets annoying. It’s easy enough to remove the bottom of the case, but in the few days that we regularly did this, the case already developed a small crack. But you should charge the phone and BiKN case together via standard USB anyway, because the BiKN loses half its charge in a couple of days with minimal use. The tags need to be charged periodically too. The app itself, while effective, is a little clunky. Buttons, menus, and maps could be more streamlined, though this isn’t a major issue.
The bottom line. At $100, BiKN might be a little much for people who just tend to lose their keys. But we imagine worried parents will love attaching it to a child’s backpack or belt loop--just add “keep the system charged†to their list of worries.
Comment