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It's funny. Laugh. Technology

First Cell Phone for Dogs 395

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the ground-control-to-major-tom dept.
revelCyllufyalP writes "A company called PetsMobility has come out with PetCell, the first cell phone for dogs. The phone will allow users to call their dogs in case the dog gets away and also includes a GPS tracking device if the dog doesn't respond to the call. In addition, the PetCell will feature GeoFence, which will alert owners whenever their dogs wander outside a prescribed area. Will the PetCell actually prove useful to dog owners or is it just another cheap gimmick?"
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First Cell Phone for Dogs

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  • I have a feeling this will cost a pretty penny, of course that won't stop most people that are insecure enough that they would feel they need this to ensure their dog doesn't run away (crazy idea, why not look after your dog responsibly?).

    That's why I'm a cat person. Kitty goes out, Kitty comes back in. She ain't dumb, she knows where her food dish is.

    • Re:I don't think it'll be cheap (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      That's why I'm a cat person. Kitty goes out, Kitty comes back in. She ain't dumb, she knows where her food dish is.

      I am a cat person as well. I got my cat for free [geeknewz.com] and was suprised to see that its previous family didn't even wanted it. It made such a good pet - of course it didn't seem that active like most other cats - but I loved it anyways. One day I found it dead, and was very heartbroken. Since then, I haven't been able to find a companion that touched my heart like this one did.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:36AM (#14200499)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:I don't think it'll be cheap (Score:5, Informative)

      by JanneM ( 7445 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:49AM (#14200537) Homepage
      Kitty goes out, Kitty comes back in.

      Except when Kitty gets run over, or sneaks onto a truck bound for Vladivostok, or urinates on the wrong car, or gets caught by animal control, or... Quite apart from the lack of consideration towards your neighbours (people can be allergic, phobic or just plain don't want kittycrap in their yards), it's not good petkeeping to let it run free either.

      If you want to have a cat in a city, keep it indoors or walk it leashed. Seriously. Just like with dogs, if they are trained to wear a leash as kittens they have no problem with it.

      • Not everyone lives in a city. Our cat runs free, as do most other cats in the neighbourhood. Given the fact that I live in of a small town* that's perfectly okay as long as one doesn't mind the occasional slaughtered bird on the doorstep (hey, it's supposed to be a present after all). Of course I wouldn't let a cat run around in a large city, but then again I'd probably not keep a cat there in the first place.


        * In Germany, the town is considered rural; according to American standards it's probably a subu
    • What about when Kitty decides to go to France? [postcrescent.com]
    • The cellphone part is overboard, but I'd argue that the GPS tracking feature could help dog owners be even more responsible. I'm extremely careful with my $1300 Bracco Italiano, since there have been instances when they've been stolen from backyards. My dog has still gotten out of my fenced backyard twice due to people not latching the gate completely, and once when I was pushing a wheelbarrow through. I caught her every time within 2-3 blocks snooping around in neighbor's yards. Being able to know EXAC
      • The cellphone part is overboard, but I'd argue that the GPS tracking feature could help dog owners be even more responsible.

        Without the cellphone part, how is it supposed to send the GPS coordinates back to you?

        I won't be buying one of these, however, unless they take out the cellphone portion and make it into a GPS transmitter and receiver.

        You must have watched too many bad movies. There's no such thing as a GPS transmitter. GPS modules are passive devices - they listen for satellite signals and work out t
    • What is supposed to be affordable is Woznet, [woz.com] the tracking network from Steve Wozniak's new company, Wheels of Zeus. [woz.com]

      Steve Wozniak's old company is, of course, Apple. [apple.com]

  • Calling Rex (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:26AM (#14200470)
    Gives a whole new meaning to "calling the dog."

  • Bah, beaten to it by years (Score:5, Funny)

    by nihilistcanada ( 698105 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:27AM (#14200472)
    http://www.fido.ca/ [www.fido.ca]

  • Just in time for Christmas... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by boog3r ( 62427 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:27AM (#14200473)
    another worthless widget to consume!

    Please, go fulfill the American Dream (TM) and buy one today!
    • This is very useful... Sometimes when walking your dog(s) in the forest they will get a scent. At that point it is nearly impossible to stop them, especially if you have a hunting dog. Or how about those people that own "fighting dogs", where you can react very quickly if they break out of garden. Overall a good idea I find... I know I would get it for both of my dogs.

  • Sure... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Nichotin ( 794369 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:28AM (#14200476)
    Fine for those serious pet owners who would die if their pet ran away, but it will be a total mess if people just purchase these things and let their dogs run loose just because they can track them.

  • Or as Snoop Dogg would say (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:29AM (#14200482)
    ... an easier way of callin your b*tches!

    fo shizzle...

  • How chew proof is it really? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PrinceAshitaka ( 562972 ) * on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:29AM (#14200483) Homepage
    My dog can pretty much chew through anything it wants. I am not sure I want him chewing on something with a battery inside. If I attach this cell to him, he will think it is his, and think he is allowed to chew on it.

  • First cell phone for dogs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by pulaski ( 80692 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:30AM (#14200486)
    I could be wrong but $350 to $400 doesn't sound too much like a cheap gimmick.

  • What the fuck? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Legion303 ( 97901 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:38AM (#14200502) Homepage
    "A company called PetsMobility has come out with PetCell, the first cell phone for dogs. The phone will allow users to call their dogs in case the dog gets away and also includes a GPS tracking device if the dog doesn't respond to the call."

    You know, just on the one-in-a-million chance your dog either doesn't answer the phone at all or does answer it but can't quite make out the street signs so he can tell you where he is.

    I saved a bundle my just giving my dog a quarter. Last time he got lost he found a payphone and asked me to come pick him up. It worked out well enough, but I'm also considering getting him one of those Franklin translating electronic phrasebooks, in case he gets lost in the Spanish-speaking area of town and needs to ask for directions.

    "Will the PetCell actually prove useful to dog owners or is it just another cheap gimmick?"

    Gosh, that's a real stumper.

  • For Dogs? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ignoramus ( 544216 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:40AM (#14200509) Homepage

    A thinly disguised means of putting a GPS leash on your kids... My guess is the pet angle just makes it look more friendly/gets more press, whereas the paranoid parent market will be the real revenue generator.

    bleurk. Must be nice to be treated like a parolee by your parents... really inculcates that sense of responsibility. Ah well, you get the kids you deserve--and then we all deal with the consequences.

    • Re:For Dogs? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Eivind ( 15695 ) <eivindorama@gmail.com> on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @04:44AM (#14200648) Homepage
      And the strange thing is: there actually exists people who think stuff like this will actually help. It's bullshit.

      If you do this to a kid, one of two things will happen:

      • The kid accepts it (perhaps grudgingly) and bows down to an unreasonable invasion of privacy. You've now got a kid less prepared to stand up for its rigths. Unless you think the same kid will later grow up able to figth back when government wants to invade the same rigths with pretty much the same reasoning ("safety")
      • Or the kid will outfox you. He'll give the handy to a friend who's attending school while himself/herself going to the beach. Or he'll announce he's going to do homework with a pal, then leave the phone-device there and head somewhere else. Or he'll find and use any of the other millions of ways of tricking a device like this. You've now established yourself as an enemy of the kid, someone who must be lied to, someone who doesn't rtust the kid and which the kid should therefore in return not trust.

      I actually consider alternative 2 the best case scenario. But for the life of me I can't figure out why any parent (and I am one) should want either of these scenarios to come trough.

      • . But for the life of me I can't figure out why any parent (and I am one) should want either of these scenarios to come trough.

        Beacuse it didn't happen that way on the commercial, of course...
        • No ? What *did* happen on the comercial then ?

          I fail to see the third alternative: Either the kid bends over and takes this invasion, or it figths back and refuses to accept it. What's the third alternative then ? The one that happens in the comercials ?

      • Come on, now. Parents can't be expected to raise their kids, so why should they be expected to look after them? Really, the only thing that's missing is an artificial uterus capable of giving birth to in-vitro children so that the parents don't have to ever meet their offspring at all.

    • Dunno, my parents used to leash me when we walk in the neighborhood when I was 4-5 years old, because I was far too curious for my own sake and would flee running anytime I'd see something looking interresting.

      They considered that I was better leashed, looking stupid and safe than unleashed, looking cool and very flat after trying to headbutt a truck by accident.

    • Heh. That reminds me of the Dane Cook [danecook.com] bit about implanting GPS trackers on your kids. He proposes also putting remote detonators in your kids, too, 'cause if you can't have your kids, NO ONE CAN! (sorry, Flash-heavy site)
    • bleurk. Must be nice to be treated like a parolee by your parents... really inculcates that sense of responsibility. Ah well, you get the kids you deserve--and then we all deal with the consequences.

      Hey, you are the one who came up with the idea.

  • It's all a plot (Score:4, Funny)

    by MDMurphy ( 208495 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:42AM (#14200518)
    Next thing you know the government will use these things to tax our dogs. Take it outside your backyard, pay a walk tax.

  • Forget about dogs... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:42AM (#14200519)
    This would be useful for a girlfriend, lets see:

    - "The phone will allow users to call their girlfriend in case the girlfriend gets away", very useful feature!

    - "and also includes a GPS tracking device if the girlfriend doesn't respond to the call", very nice, I definately want to check where she is going!

    - "In addition, the GirlCell will feature GeoFence, which will alert owners whenever their girlfriends wander outside a prescribed area.", also very useful. No more going to shopping/partying to a nearby city without my knowledge.

  • Lassie! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Umuri ( 897961 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:54AM (#14200547)
    *answers his cell phone*
    What boy? There's trouble at the well? Little timmy's stuck?
    GOOD BOY! I'll be there right away!

  • $350 is not "cheap" (Score:3, Informative)

    by 1u3hr ( 530656 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:58AM (#14200558)
    Gimmick, yes; cheap, no.
    • 1. Buy XBox 360
      2. Affix Xbox 360 to dog
      3. Connect XBox 360 with a wall/pole/etc. using a chain

      You have just made your dog more secure and it might still be cheaper than a cellphone for canines.

  • Cheap? (Score:3, Funny)

    by vanyel ( 28049 ) * on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @03:58AM (#14200559) Journal
    Will the PetCell actually prove useful to dog owners or is it just another cheap gimmick?

    Sounds like just another expensive gimmick to me...

  • Dogs call You! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @04:01AM (#14200569)
    In soviet Russia, dogs call you!

  • Cell sounds like least useful of its features (Score:3, Insightful)

    by caenorhabditas ( 914198 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @04:03AM (#14200573)
    The GPS and GeoFence features sound like they'd be much more useful to the pet owner than the cell phone capabilities. What, exactly, are pet owners going do tell their dog over the phone? "Sit?" "Stay?" And how will the dog respond to a disembodied voice that seems to be coming from behind its head?

    That's why this seems like a giant gimmick to me. If it weren't a gimmick, and were actually useful, the designers would have ditched the cell phone capability as a very expensive add on and just marketed it based on the dog-tracking capabilities. This will probably be bought by those pathetic dog owners who make ridiculous outfits for their pets to wear and visit pet psychologists when Fido barks twice more this week than he did last week.
    • It's bought and used by hunters. They get the dog's position sent to them via SMS and can call the dog up to hear what he's up to (barking at a bear), but the main reason for the phone is the SMS capability. The alternative up to now has been a transmitter and triangulation gear, but that's slow and cumbersome. How else do you propose the owner would get the GPS info, if not from some kind of transmitter on the dog?
      • A market for hunting terriers? Sometimes they send terriers underground. I suppose you could call the dog and listen for the ring. Then call in the diggers...

        OTOH, to call a dog, the voice has to be somewhere else. As a poster elsewhere has said, a dog can't respond to a call just behind it's head. That's ridiculous.

        umm. How would a dog react to the standard ring *just* behind its head?

  • This won't work because... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nuckfuts ( 690967 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @04:07AM (#14200575)
    When you call a dog it comes to you because it hears your voice coming from the direction you want it to go. So how is the animal supposed to understand where you are calling it to when your voice is coming from a speaker beside its ear?
    • Maybe it will start running in circles trying to orient itself toward your voice? :)

      Or more probably it will remember your last location and come there. My dog comes running to me when it hears me calling for it on a home video playing in another room, but I don't know how it would react to a moving source of voice.

    • Re:This won't work because... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Vo0k ( 760020 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @04:53AM (#14200670) Journal
      Not because of this.
      You could still shout "stop you stupid fleabag!" and then using the GPS catch up with the dog waiting for you. Or shout "Go home" or such. Smarter dogs understand it and would obey.
      But it won't work, because all the dog will hear would be some nonrecognizable screech. GSM is a psychoacoustic(sp?) audio compression model meant to be understandable and working for humans. Dogs have wider recognizable audio spectrum, focus on other frequencies than humans, and generally catch different features of the voice than humans. Shout "come" and the dog will come. Play the same "come" from mp3 player to speakers, and the dog won't recognize the signal. For dogs things like mp3, computer-generated music etc are just some nondescript noises. Sometimes, rarely they understand some very characteristic noises - barking, cat's meow etc. Audio CDs are for them about the sound quality of 72rpm vinyl records. GSM is just a random noise.
      • My pet maltese will happily "sit", "speak", (lay) "down" and "roll over" whenever my girlfriend calls and I set my phone on speakerphone ('crappy' GSM combined with uberscreech of a small speaker).

        It may be true in general, but there's exceptions as always.

        That said, she also looks oddly at the phone and will savagely attack it if I let it go on for too long ;)

      • GSM is a psychoacoustic(sp?) audio compression model

        I believe the GSM compression is just a linear-predictive coding model. It's band-limited (low pass), but that really doesn't qualify as a psycho-acoustic model like music CODECs are. Here's a link to a summary of audio CODECs for telephony: http://www.broadcom.com/products/software/mobmm_au diocodecs.php [broadcom.com]

        Dogs have wider recognizable audio spectrum, focus on other frequencies than humans, and generally catch different features of the voice than humans

    • I don't think that'd make much sense. If I were asked to design a similar device, it'd be a stripped-down phone with no audio capability. Just a radio transceiver and all the extra GSM circuitry, including a slot for the SIM card that would provide my dog's phone number, and of course the GPS. It'd work a lot like those mobile services that seem to be popular in countries that have heavy GSM deployments. Maybe I'd text it 'locate' and it would reply with the current readout of the GPS tracker. Or I cou

      • In fact, the GPS may not even be necessary, if one has access to cellsite location information, but of course this approach will never be as accurate as GPS
        I believe GPS units are much more accurate than cellsite information, even with all the triangulation tricks you can throw at it.

  • They need to work on their Marketing copy (Humor) (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gryftir ( 161058 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @04:07AM (#14200576)
    Apparently the company doesn't have that great opinion of kids, the elderly or outdoor sports enthusiasts.

    From the article (italics are mine)

    "Sturdy and slobber-resistant, the PetCell isn't just for dogs. PetsMobility's parent company, On4 Communications, is simultaneously rolling out models for kids, the elderly and outdoor sports fanatics who enjoy snowboarding and kayaking."

  • I may get one (Score:3, Interesting)

    by uspsguy ( 541171 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @04:19AM (#14200598) Homepage
    OK, dis me if you want but I happen to have a $1000 dog. Unusual purebreds come high. When he gets nervous or excited, he can scale a 6-foot fence. I'll likely wait 'till the price drops a bit but it would be a valuable service to know if he leaves the area and to be able to go out and positively track him down. The "call your dog" feature seem to me to be a subset of the other necessary functions. To call and get GPS location, you need full-bore cell functionality anyway. Hey, maybe next they will add a camera and I can see where he is.

    • Just buy a real dog instead of a crappy wimp of a stupid poodle.

      Seriously, poodles are only good for kicking them across the fields, and feeding their rotten brains to their stupid owners.

      Get a f'cking Siberian Husky or an Alaskan Malamute, feed him raw frozen meat as God meant him to be fed, and see if he gets "nervous or excited"

      Or just get a Saint Bernard or a Great Pyrenee, these dogs had "nervousness" ripped out of their genomes centuries ago.

    • I also have an expensive dog ($1300 Bracco Italiano and worth every penny) and would consider something similar for her. However, it would be more due to my attachment to her than the replacement cost.

      The cell phone functionality is kind of stupid. I'd much rather see some type of mid-range (1-2 miles?) transmitter paired with a receiver. The receiver would just show you the direction and distance to the dog. If it works via GPS even better... have the receiver act as a normal GPS device so I can use it

  • Ok so you call your dog and do what exactly? Give it directions home? I've yet to meet a dog that understands "left and then the second right after the kebab shop". Perhaps this inventor has a particularly clever dog.

  • with your pet already then he'll know what he can and can't do. Which is why you should buy this first [bowlingual...slator.com]

  • Can't wait for the law suit... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by syousef ( 465911 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @04:24AM (#14200607) Journal
    ...when someone's dog is run over because their owner calls on one of these gadgets and the dog is distracted. I mean most humans would be confused if a voice started coming out of some place on their body. I can just picture one of my dogs cocking his head from side to side in confusion.

    • I'm surprised nobody has asked this question yet, but shouldn't owners be worried about the consequences of attaching a relatively high-powered RF transmitter directly to their dog's neck at all times? Think about it. RF penetrates soft tissues the easiest. Seeing as how the neck is about as soft as it comes on a dog's body, I think this product is a legal disaster waiting to happen.

      If there's a lawsuit, it's going to be pet owners (legitimately or not) suing the company for giving their dog(s) cancer

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Shielding can be easily applied on the bottom of the device as if your dog is on it's back, it is either dead or playing dead (in which case you shouldn't have called him/her and told him/her to play dead) and you no longer need to locate him/her.
  • .. So we deveice being mentioned is NOT the first one.

    http://www.pointersolutions.com/eng/hunting.htm [pointersolutions.com]

    My dad bought one for his dog last summer.

    it's based on benefon esc gps-enabled mobile phone,
    and has been on market for couple of years now.

    the kit contains two phones, one wiith full phone functionality ( for the hunter ) and one without keyboard and display ( for the dog ).

    the hunter can see where the for is going from his map display, and can also call a call and listen if the dog is barking.
  • I get the feeling someone's taking Cockney Rhyming Slang [wikipedia.org] a bit too far...
  • If we're going to start equipping our companion animals with electronic devices, why not have them achieve something useful at the same time. For instance, you could get any old WinCE handheld, install NetStumbler, duct tape it to his back, and let him go wardriving.

    Or get several and set up a wireless mesh network using all the neighborhood strays!

    We don't need no stinkin' municipal wifi.

  • Once again /. is reporting something that has been in the market for over a year. Pointer Solutions [pointersolutions.com] has been doing this for a while; my father is one of the early adopters.

    As others have pointed out, the idea is that you can listen your dog working. Compared to the older radar equipment this GPS system has been a tremendous help, even though the prices are quite high/unit. I don't know how useful this thing is for US hunters - in Finland the GSM has almost 100% coverage. If you guys have connection proble

  • Oh, yeah. It isn't sufficient that we have an electronic leash on ourselves by the "powers that be"; we have to make the same indignity to the rest of the world, too.

    Suicide is looking more and more as the "thinking mans option"

    I am looking to the new ice age; maybe nature will get this broken species off Gaia. We seem to have been a supreme f**k-up. Starting from our own sexuality, for one

  • Repurpose this device (Score:3, Insightful)

    by klubar ( 591384 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @06:32AM (#14200897) Homepage
    This device seems more designed for tracking people than animals. If I was marketing the device, I'd sell it as a security device for children/memory impaired adults. The value of tracking is higher, and the wearer is more likely to respond to voice commands.

    It didn't say if the phone is two-way so the responder could respond--but I guess it would be useful to be able to hear the background. I wonder if there is a "stealth" mode, where the owner can hear what's going on in the background, but the wearer doesn't hear any ringing or other noises---kind of scary.

    I could also it be useful in an auto--I wonder if the GPS is good enough to find your car in a parking lot--uncovered of course. Presumably, all the auto theives/chop shops have learned to put stolen cars in covered building, but the voice listen capability might be useful--hey you could hear your car being chopped up until the very end.
  • How about selecting a ring tone for your dog?

    "Runaway" by Dell Shannon?
    "Walkin' the Dog" by Rufus Thomas?
    "Hound Dog" by Big Mama Thornton?
    "The Dogs of War" by Pink Floyd?
    A Snoop Dog medley?
    "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window", by Petula Clark?

    The possibilities are endless.

  • Cartoon bubble (Score:3, Funny)

    by Wylfing ( 144940 ) <[brian] [at] [wylfing.net]> on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @07:43AM (#14201124) Homepage Journal
    Rrrrriiinnnggg.

    Reh roh?

  • Nifty idea... (Score:3, Funny)

    by EmagGeek ( 574360 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @08:30PM (#14206851) Journal
    But the first time my dog holds up the line at Starbucks because he's yapping on the phone with his little bitch of a girlfriend, I'm gonna put his ass down...

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