Targus made a backpack with a built-in Find My tracker
Targus made a backpack with a built-in Find My tracker
The company also unveiled a docking station with a fingerprint reader at CES.
Apple’s Find My tech is making its way into more products, including a backpack from Targus. The Cypress Hero Backpack has a built-in location tracker that could help its rightful owner find it through the Find My network if it goes missing. Conversely, if you misplace your iPhone, you can press a button on the backpack to ping your phone, as long as you’ve set things up in the Targus app.
Targus says the tracker is “highly integrated” into the backpack, which should offer some additional anti-theft protection. You can set up geofencing alerts, so if the backpack moves out of a certain area, you’ll receive an alert. The tracker also has a built-in sound alert (which will likely be around as loud as an AirTag) that you can trigger remotely.
The tracker has a replaceable battery that you can top up via USB, though Targus says it will run for around a year before you need to recharge it. Targus crafted the backpack with sustainability in mind, as it’s made with 26 recycled water bottles. The Cypress Hero Backpack, which has an IPX3 water resistance rating, should be available sometime in the spring or summer. It costs $150.
On top of that, Targus announced the DOCK720, a docking station that supports a single 8K monitor or up to four 4K monitors. The company says it’s the “first biometric device and docking solution in one” — in other words, it has a fingerprint reader. You can expect an array of ports too, including USB-A, USB-C, Ethernet, HDMI and a combo audio jack. The dock will be available this month for $443.
The Targus Docking Display, meanwhile, is a 24-inch 1080p LCD monitor with a built-in 2MP webcam, microphone, speakers and USB-C docking station. You can daisy chain it to a second monitor and power both displays from your computer. The Docking Display will ship in February. The primary monitor costs $400 and the secondary monitor (which doesn’t have a webcam) is $180.
In addition, Targus is expanding its lineup of antimicrobial products, which now includes backpacks, shoulder bags and protective sleeves for laptops. The company claims its DefenseGuard Antimicrobial Protection effectively prevents the growth of 99.9% of germ-causing microorganisms.
It will also release the UV-C LED Disinfection Light next month after debuting it at CES 2021. For five minutes every hour, the $300 device will bathe a surface (or, more likely, a keyboard and mouse) in ultraviolet light to effectively kill 99 percent of pathogens.
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