Finally, “Find My Wallet” technology

There’s been so much attention surrounding lost or stolen tablets, laptops and smartphones with location-based tracking like Prey Project and Apple’s “Find my iPhone“, it almost feels like we’ve forgotten about the oldest common loss in the books; Our old fashioned leather wallets.

Options

With typical wallets being “too analog” for some, many eagerly await a completely mainstream e-wallet which is poised to do away with the wallet altogether.

An e-wallet uses NFC technology in your smart phone (which replaces your bank/credit cards), and a secure networked merchant solution like Google Wallet or PayPal (which replaces the bank machine).

For those that aren’t so quick to do away with their wallet altogether, the SmartWallit is for you. As reported on Bit Rebels;

 

It seems the most common reason why people either lose their smartphones or their wallets is because they forget to take them with them when they leave a public area. When they go back to look for it, it is usually gone. It’s not a very pleasant feeling. There have been countless apps that try to secure our phones, but they are usually nothing more than a lock mechanism. The SmartWallit smart wallet could solve this universal problem for good this time around.

 

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It appears that the SmartWallit Kickstarter reached their funding goal on May 4, 2013 and they are currently taking orders on their website. The device is a little thicker than we’d like, and it has a key chain attachment.

Similar alternatives

Although it doesn’t have proximity-based alerts or give analytics for it’s use like SmartWallit, CardNinja is only $20 bucks or less, and it fastens your trackable-if-lost smartphone to your cards. It doesn’t use batteries, it doesn’t beep, and it doesn’t require bluetooth.

Updated Summer 2013: Tile

A new awesome solution for locating your lost stuff has emerged: Tile. The tracking hardware is smaller, and since the app is cloud-based, it allows near-by users to help you locate items. This one is by far the most effective, and the most connected; In lieu of recent PRISM headlines, maybe this lost item locator solution is too good? Let us know in the comments.