If your furry little friend has a penchant for wandering off, the Tractive pet tracker may help keep your mind at ease. Shown at Mobile World Congress, the Tractive tracker snaps onto the collar of your cat or pooch and uses 3G data and GPS tracking to give you updates and information about your pets whereabouts, as well as electronic fence features and a light to help you find your pet after dark.
The collar is extremely light and connects to a collar via a clip-on backing, which seemed fairly secure as we snapped it on and off. The USB charger, which pinches onto the tracker like an alligator clip, was easy to put on and remove and helps keep the device waterproof by circumventing the need for exposed ports.
There is a free app for both Android and iOS that helps you keep track of your pet, wherever you are in the world. Through this app, you can watch the animal's trail in real-time, keep track of his or her exact GPS location and even get instant alerts if he or she has wandered beyond your set boundaries. The rechargeable battery is designed to last around a week between charges.
The collar begins shipping worldwide in April and costs $249, along with a monthly usage fee of 5 Euros (around $6.50) for 3G data. Unfortunately, there's no preorders available for U.S. orders, but there there are dozens of countries that can place orders now on the Tractive website.
