Making Tech Headlines · Page 7
Fi Pet Trackers Go on Sale Before the Dog Goes Somewhere
· New York time
Fi is offering 30 percent off pet trackers through October 25 with the checkout code SCARY, The Verge reports. The promotion includes several satellite-connected trackers, including the Fi Ultra GPS model previously tested by the publication. The stated deadline is October 25, not the end of the month. The products are aimed at owners whose dogs or cats may wander, as well as people who take pets on adventures. The consumer proposition is a way to track an animal's location, making it part of the growing category of connected devices devoted to very old domestic problems. The discount concerns the advertised tracker purchase. It should not be stretched into a claim that every cost associated with ownership is reduced or that a tracking device guarantees a pet cannot get lost. Location information and physical containment remain different jobs. The promotional code gives the transaction a seasonal mood, although the underlying scenario is less festive: an animal deciding that the interesting part of the neighborhood is wherever its owner is not currently standing. There is something admirably specific about this technology market. Rather than promising to transform civilization, it offers help answering one urgent question: where did the dog go? Satellite infrastructure has acquired a customer with muddy feet and no interest in the dashboard.
Read this story in the full newspaper →Satire. Not factual reporting. Read the original reporting from the linked publishers.