CoalBit

Portable Power Bank

By Anca Gagiuc on May 18, 2016 in Technology

Power banks are no longer an innovation, but a Latvia-based firm designed a new device it hopes will differentiate itself from the rest. Draugiem Grupa came up with CoalBit, a 23-gram, 2×1.4-inch coal-shaped portable power bank which features a 560mAh battery, enough to juice your smartphone with three hours of talk-time, two hours of surfing the Internet, or listening to 10 hours of music. And this is not all.

CoalBit includes a flashlight, in case you need one handy. But the novelty that makes the Latvian device differentiate itself from the rest comes from the inclusion of a Bluetooth locator which enables it to sync with any smartphone. By syncing it with the phone you can keep track of both your phone and whatever you attach to your CoalBit.

Due to its small size, misplacing it is easy (as is your smartphone). The developers thought about it and found a solution: you can enable a distance alert that will buzz your phone when you get a little too far away from the tiny power bank. In the event you’ve lost it somewhere and haven’t enabled the feature, the firm built an app, available on iOS and Android platforms, which will inform you of the CoalBit’s last known location. Furthermore, in case of emergency you can send an SOS signal to your friends and family. Pretty cool feature, no?

Like what you’re reading?

Draugiem launched a Kickstarter campaign that you can back, aiming to reach an $84,000 funding goal that will enable them to finish development and begin production. The firm offers two versions of the product—the basic one, CoalBit Lite which removes the Bluetooth locator, and the regular one, CoalBit Standard, with all the features described above. In addition, CoalBit comes with either an integrated Micro USB or Lightning cable.

The Lite version starts at $15, while the regular one goes for at least $39. You can also opt for the CoalBit Family Pack that will bring you 3 standard edition devices or for the CoalBit Corporate Pack, which includes 10 devices that you can customize with the company’s logo. Either one you want, you’ll also get to choose the color from the five available: white, black, yellow, blue and red.

The campaign had drawn $15,149 from 347 backers at the time this article was written and 17 days to go.