

Show HN: Hone for iPhone 4S - never lose your keys again - litwack
http://kck.st/KEDJ6B
Hone is a Bluetooth low energy device for the iPhone 4S and new iPad that erases the annoyance of losing your keys - my partner (Louis Gerbarg) and I built it for ourselves, and then decided to put it on Kickstarter. It lasts for 6+ months on a CR2032 battery, has a 50 meter range, and we're making the whole thing in the USA - case, PCB, and component assembly. We've gotten lots of help and support from HN users (esp. Eric Migicovsky's Solid State Hardware talk, curtgeen's hardware design guide) and we'd love feedback now that we're launching.
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xutopia
I find it funny how much emphasis creators are putting on how things are
developed in the USA. If someone puts that up as a feature of their product
all I hear is "We have issues in our product but you'll put up with them
because we are playing the demagogic card."

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litwack
We set up our supply chain in the US because it sped up our development and
saved us from customs issues and the like, not for jingoistic reasons; we
don't have an issue with global manufacturing. I assure you, we will stand
behind our product!

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timerickson
What do I do when I can't find my iPhone?

Snark aside, this looks great. The beauty is that it's not necessarily for
your keys, its for anything you lose often, if you can figure out a way to
attached this to said object.

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lukifer
That would significantly increase its value: a button on the unit to cause the
phone to buzz, so that one can always be used to find the other.

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litwack
My description got eaten - anyway, Hone is a Bluetooth 4.0 low energy device
for the iPhone 4S and new iPad that helps you find your keys when they're
lost. 6+ month battery life on a single CR2032, 50 meter range, weighs 0.6oz.
HN posts inspired me and my partner (Louis Gerbarg) to do this, especially
Eric Migicovsky's Solid State Startups video and curtgeen's guide for the
design of physical products. We'd love your feedback!

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coob
Awesome, I've just backed it.

One question: What happens when there are multiple devices around?

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lgg
The app will support multiple devices when we ship.

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huhtenberg
I still have a key-chain thingy that beeps back when you whistle. No Bluetooth
and no proximity sensor, but it runs on the same battery I put in in early 90s
:)

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tumblen
Are there any iPhone/Android + Doorknob solutions out there? I don't want keys
at all! I would love to replace my doorknob and just have my phone transmit a
key to unlock the door as I approach.

One problem could be if the phone ran out of battery. Perhaps a small usb
charger near the door for emergencies?

Man I would love that.

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downandout
I thought I recognized his sister (featured in the video). Turns out she is
Kat Dennings, a relatively successful actress. -
<http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0993507/> . Anyway, nice project...most of the key
locator products currently on the market are junk.

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8ig8
Simpler solutions have been around for years. For less than a dollar, you can
buy a keychain that responds to claps or whistles...
[http://www.alibaba.com/product-
gs/535558081/clapping_key_fin...](http://www.alibaba.com/product-
gs/535558081/clapping_key_finder.html)

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candre717
I knew I recognized his sister. She starred in 'Nick and Norah's Infinite
Playlist.' Awesome, awesome movie.

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martinshen
I love how they used the celebrity sister. Why didn't he explain that further
in the video or something?

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eridius
Explain what? The video is about the product, not about the sister.

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kelsokennedy
This is a great idea! I'd love to see how much slimmer they can make the fob
though. Between my car key and my apartment fob, it's almost impossible to
lose my keys because they take up so much room!

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dmvaldman
how does this differ from phone halo? <http://www.phonehalo.com/products-2/>

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coob
It appears to work with iOS and low power bluetooth 4.0.

~~~
litwack
Exactly right. The Cobra Tag uses traditional Bluetooth, so it has to be
recharged every couple of days; we use Bluetooth low energy and a removable
battery that lasts 6+ months. They don't support iPhone and we (currently)
don't support Android.

~~~
daeken
I'd love to have this but it being iOS-only kills it for me. Any thoughts on
opening up the spec? I'd love to implement this for both my laptop (Linux) and
my Boot2Gecko phones.

~~~
litwack
It uses a custom UUID for advertising, but other than that it uses standard
Bluetooth LE profiles for notification and battery status, so you should be
able to do it...

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drivebyacct2
Seems like you could pick up another large pool of users for almost no cost,
the on-the-phone software can't be hard and new Android devices have BT4
support.

~~~
lgg
We would love to support Android, but two issues are currently preventing us
from doing that:

1) A low percentage of currently shipping devices support Bluetooth low
energy. We expect this to change in the future, but it's hard to explain to
consumers which models will and won't work. We think we would probably get a
lot of users buying are device for incompatible handsets, which would result
in a lot of returns and unhappy users.

2) BLE isn't supported in the base Android distribution. In order to support
it you need to use different BLE stacks depending on the device vendor, which
would be a huge potential ongoing maintenance and QA burden.

Having said that, we're hopeful Google will add support for BLE with a
standard API in a future release, and at that time we will seriously evaluate
supporting it.

