Since your grandparents were children, the only notable innovations to suitcases were the addition of smartphone and tablet compartments. Not much else changed apart from their colour. Now, a young group of designers has created the Bluesmart connected suitcase with modern technology. It weighs itself, you can lock or unlock it remotely via your smartphone, it can recharge your devices via USB, and it will even warn you if you are leaving it behind. Before I continue, I don’t want to excite you with all the features and then tell you that Bluesmart only supports certain operating systems, so i’ll tell you from now: It supports Android and iOS, as is the case with most other apps. Unfortunately, there is hardly any support for Windows and Blackberry smartphones these days.
This is a $260 suitcase, and if you want the personalized edition, it will cost $330. Despite having terribly convenient built-in technology that can recharge your smartphone 6 times over. Is it worth the money? That depends on your situation. Let’s look at what usually happens to suitcases: They sit unattended in storage for months or years at a time. If you occasionally travel, I wouldn’t recommend it because if you rarely use it, the battery is going to end up ‘bricked’ because you’re likely to forget about it, so it won’t be recharged (all batteries self-discharge). You may not even be able to get a replacement by the time you need to. Unfortunately, this rule applies to battery-powered devices in general.
If you do travel frequently, I think it is worth it because it makes it easier to unpack your electronics for scanning, and of course the other features above will come in handy as you pass through many checkpoints. It also tracks everything, including your location. I don’t see a reason for this, but hopefully it’s a good one!
The Bluesmart Indiegogo campaign has surpassed its funding goal by far and wide, but you can still purchase the Bluesmart suitcase through it.
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