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Gadgets help parents track kids Wall Street Journal | April 29 2006 A host of new products that help parents keep tabs on their children are hitting the market, including one-touch phones and even electronic tags that can be sewn into clothing. Some technology-based trackers have been available before, but many of the previous products have required parents to be sitting at a computer. The latest services offer more mobility. Some examples: • Sprint Nextel recently launched its “Family Locator” service, which enables parents, using their own cell phone, to pinpoint the location of their child’s mobile phone. It costs $85 for the handset (with a one-year contract) and $9.99 a month for unlimited location requests. Another company, Wherify Wireless Inc., plans to begin selling a mobile phone in August, called Wherifone, that will have a one-touch “find me” button to reach a parent instantly in an emergency (it sends an instant message to the parent’s phone). The phone will be priced at $99.95 with a one-year contract, and service will cost $19.99 a month for 100 requests. • SmartWear Technologies, which uses the “radio frequency identification” technology that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. relies on to manage its inventory and that cities deploy to read water meters wirelessly, plans in the next few months to begin selling RFID tags that can be sewn into children’s clothing or embedded into a wristband. Using a “reader,” parents can keep track of their children’s movements as much as 600 feet away; the whole package costs $260. • Disney Mobile of Walt Disney, which leases Sprint’s network to provide wireless service under the Disney brand, will launch a service in June, also called “Family Locator.” It’s similar to Sprint’s but won’t have the preset safety alert feature. The price isn’t yet available. ---------------------------------------------------
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