Smartphones to the rescue for lost cats, grandmas

Inventors and manufacturers at the world's biggest mobile fair in Barcelona showed off new inventions to make the ubiquitous mobile even dearer to owners' hearts.

You don't have to be human to benefit.

If you buy a GPS pet-tracking device from Tractive, you can attach it to your dog's or cat's collar and get an immediate alarm on your smartphone the moment he or she leaves from the garden, or any other area you have defined.

Your pet's hopes of escape can be quickly squashed with the help of your iPhone or Android-powered mobile.

“With the Tractive live tracking feature you can see your pet's location and see where they are going,” the firm boasts.

“By simply flipping a switch in the Tractive app, you can turn on the integrated light on the tracking device to help find your pet in the dark.”

Forgetful grandparents can be traced easily, too.

A new black and silver flip phone for seniors, Emporia Connect, comes with a system called Emporia Me, allowing a child or grandchild to check the device's location, battery status, or even turn up the volume on the phone to make sure the elderly owner can hear it.

While it is not a smartphone, it does have an orientation feature that lets a user push a single button to get turn-by-turn audible instructions for returning to a car while on a shopping trip, for example.

In a crisis, a dead battery can render any smartphone dumb.

Xpal's new phone, SpareOne Plus, has the answer: the telephone takes a single AA battery, some of which can last 15 years.

It comes delivered in a waterproof pack, just in case, so you can keep it ready for an emergency in the next decade or so.

“That means I can keep the telephone in a drawer, in a car for example for 15 years, switched off, and if ever I am in an emergency and I have to make a call, it is always charged,” Xpal director Alan Cymberknoh told AFP.

There is no need for a contract because emergency calls are free, but it will take a SIM card if you want to make regular calls.

One year since the first version was launched, sales — mostly online in the United States — are going “very, very well,” said Cymberknoh.

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