Tracker collars & home cameras

Two different questions, and they only feel similar from the outside. Where is she? is the question of the day the door was left open. What is she doing? is the question of every ordinary evening you are not home.

The collar answers the first. An Apple Find My tracker sits in a silicone sleeve on an adjustable nylon collar: she appears on the map in the app already on your iPhone, relayed anonymously by the Apple devices that pass near her. No SIM, no account, no subscription — and a replaceable button cell rather than a rechargeable battery that is flat on the day it matters.

The robot answers the second, and does something the collar cannot: it plays. A 4 MP camera with full-colour night vision in a shell that drives from room to room, with a built-in laser and a clip-on feather wand she can actually catch. Two-way audio, so she hears you.

The limits, plainly. The collar needs an iPhone, iPad or Mac — it does not work with Android — and it is not live GPS: her position updates whenever an Apple device passes near her, which is near-constant in a town and sparse in open countryside. It is a way to find her, not a fence. The robot runs on 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and goes down when the connection does.