GOkey

[MacAttak]

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gokey-charger-cable-locator-memory-all-on-your-key-ring

I usually am not interested in USB flash drives / dongles / etc, but this one seems useful. It is rare that I would need a flash drive, or a (lightning port) charger cable, or a battery boost for my phone. But the situation does come up from time to time, usually while traveling on business trips where it's best to have consolidated "all-in-one" gadgets whenever you can. I never lose my phone or keys, so that part is completely uninteresting to me.

A few thoughts on this item though:

• Am I reading this right? They haven't even started on the engineering yet?!?
• How can they even be making claims of BT range and battery capacity when they don't have a design on paper yet (much less a working prototype to characterize).
• It claims to have a 400 mAh battery. Is that really enough to give "and hour or two" of extra talk time?
• I don't see this getting by Apple's approval dept. Devices that use the lightning connector are very rare - why would these folks think that they would be able to get it where others don't?

And lastly - if this device is possible it seems like someone should already have done it. Are there comparable devices on the market already with these features (battery boost, charging from USB, flash drive, lightning connector)?

I smell enough bullshit to steer clear of this project (too early in dev process, flex funding, sketchy "team members", etc). There is also a strange lack of critical comments posted, which makes me wonder if they are deleting those. And the whole "referrer discount" thing smells like a pyramid scam, especially since they would have to send you a refund for it since by being flex funding you are giving them the full amount up-front. Lastly, the estimated delivery date is so far out there (Jan 2015) that there will be zero recourse available if they fail to deliver.

[PlainName]

Are there comparable devices on the market already

Seperately, I believe so. I have a small WiFi router that's also a phone charger; USB storage on anything with a USB connector isn't at all unusual; Bluetooth locators are getting to be ten a penny, etc. The only thing not common, AFAIA, is the Thunderbolt thing.

I would think this is completely plausible, but it smells of another Mu in that they don't know what they've let themselves in for.

[Stonent]

I suppose they could take existing lightning cables and cut the ends off.

[scientist]

"GoKey is capable of charging your phone for up to two hours..."
Yeah, at 2mA, maybe. The whole deal sounds pretty HoKey.

[Legit-Design]

"GoKey is capable of charging your phone for up to two hours..."

Well they only have some mock-up of the case, between now and final designs they can make it look like almost anything. Quite possible they can fit a small LiPo(or Li-Ion, LiFePo4) pouch in there to have it output 5V 500mA (5Wh) for two hours that comes to around 1350mAh 3,7V (~5Wh) cell not including any losses, so maybe 1500mAh of 3.7V lipo cells. They can put two thin square cell on top of each other and make the final design little thicker.

But like with everything, if it looks too good to be true, it probably isn't true. Indiegogo and flexible funding attracts scammers. Crowd funding projects who have shown actually working prototype hardware have been really late, not to mention projects like this which have not even seen PCB yet, so quick forecast says this will also be late.

EDIT:
I didn't bother reading the campaign page 


What is the battery size of GOkey?

GOkey has a small size battery. Around 400 mAh. It is meant to be used as an emergency supply to keep you going for an hour or two. Once you get to a USB port, use again GOkey to give your phone a full charge.

 
So two hours -> an hour

and that hour -> more than half an hour, nah that's good enough for us since this product is awesome already.

[corrado33]

The idea is cool, but fitting all of that into one tiny device is a pain.

Let's just look at normal keyfinder keychains. They're already that big. And they're saying that they are going to put charging circuits, flash memory, batteries, among other things in it?

Good luck.

I don't get the whole "flash memory on keychain" idea. I don't want my keys hanging off of my usb port. That sounds like a terrible idea. I've seen much sturdier devices get ruined by hanging keys off of them (car ignitions.)