HOUSTON – It always seems to happen when you're in a hurry. You can't find your keys or your purse; and you just need to get out the door. The iTrex promises to find anything you lose, from a backpack to your pets, even your kids. Consumer expert Amy Davis tested the iTrex for "As Seen on TV Tuesday."
The motto on the product's box is "Consider it Found." You just attach a small disk to anything you need to keep track of, and never lose it again. First, you have to download the app to your smartphone or tablet and sync the iTrex device with your Bluetooth.
Davis enlisted Owen Conflenti's help with the test.
"We're taking his keys," Davis explained. "We attached the iTrex device and synced it to an Apple phone. I'm gonna take these and put them somewhere in the building. And see how long it takes you to find them."
"OK," Owen said.
But Davis had only gotten about 15 feet away from Owen when he said the device disconnected from the iPhone. It was no longer tracking his keys. The second time, iTrex didn't guide Owen to his keys at all.
"This thing's not telling me which direction I need to go at the moment," he said.
So he just started moving. The synced phone was supposed to show him if he was getting closer or further from his keys.
"I've gone 30 feet, yet this still says I'm the same distance from the keys," he explained. "It's been on 11 meters since I've been walking all over the place. It hasn't moved."
iTrex fails on its tracking function. It also claims to sync with your phone's camera to let you take long distance selfies by pressing a button on the iTrex disk. Davis tried it with colleague Sofia Ojeda; but that didn't work either.
Online, consumer reviews were poor. "Don't waste your money," wrote one guy in the Play Store.
In the Apple store, another person wrote, "Don't bother. The tracking portion on the map kept shutting the app down."
Those reviews, combined with Owen's assessment, lead us to one conclusion: The flaws with the iTrex may help you lose your mind, but it probably won't help you find it.
The iTrex cost us $19.99 at Fry's. Online, in the company's "Frequently Asked Questions" section, iTrex does say the range of the tracker is only about 30 feet, which makes it completely useless if you're trying to track a pet or a child.
