[NewsPoster]

Trakdot has announced the Trakdot Luggage, a new tracking accessory for travelers. The device is roughly palm-sized, and is meant to go into checked baggage before a trip. As luggage makes progress from city to city, the tracker can broadcast its location to Trakdot's website or a dedicated iOS/Android app, or else fall back on email and SMS updates. Still another app can be used for tracking baggage once it arrives at an airport carousel.

A single tracker can be linked to multiple phones, or vice versa. The Trakdot Luggage is shipping in March at a base cost of $50. Users must also pay a $9 activation fee, though, and then another $13 per year in subscription costs.

[Inkling]

Simpler, cheaper, and better might be a WiFi transponder you'd turn on and put in your luggage. It'd do nothing but listen until it picks up a coded signal from an app in your iPhone as you wait at the luggage carousel. Then it would respond, saying in essence, I'm close and coming your way. The user via the app could then tell it to begin beeping, making the bag easier to locate.

[coffeetime]

It's a very cool idea but... if I were the airport Security/TSA, this thing looks darn suspicious and your luggage maybe confiscated by the FBI.