The #1 most commonly requested feature upgrade from Zoombak users is a longer battery life between charges. So, without further ado, this week we’re happy to introduce the Zoombak Power Extender.

You can now purchase a Zoombak Power Extender Accessory for $29.99 here. It dramatically reduces the frequency with which your Zoombak needs charging. The Power Extender relies on four AA lithium or alkaline batteries, connects to Zoombak via its mini USB port and stays attached to the small GPS unit with a VelcroTM strap. The Power Extender lengthens the battery-based usage of a Zoombak unit by approximately seven additional days when using lithium batteries.

We hope this new accessory improves your Zoombak experience and look forward to hearing how things are going! Drop us a line at www.myzoombakstory.com and send us your latest Zoombak tracking stories. We’re curious to know what you and your Zoombak are up to.

- John Cullen, VP Marketing

I’m excited today to let you know that we are launching a feature that has been in development for some time, and which should greatly improve your Zoombak tracker performance. It’s called Locate AssistTM.

Chances are, there have been times when trying to locate your Zoombak that you’ve received the following message from us: “Unfortunately no current location data is available. Please ensure your locator is powered ON and has a clear view of the sky.” You may have thought to yourself. “Thanks Zoombak, but my device is definitely on and I can see the sky.” Frustration!

When this happens, it is usually because Zoombak can’t get a clear signal lock on a GPS Satellite. This can occur for many reasons, the most common of which are that your Zoombak is in an “urban canyon” (that’s GPS geek speak for being amidst a bunch of high rise buildings) or its deep inside a big building or parking garage. For some customers, this can happen up to 40 percent of the time. That number is not good enough for us. We want you to be able to find your Zoombak all the time. So, we created a back up system call Locate Assist.

Locate Assist uses cell tower signals in place of GPS signals to locate your Zoombak when it can’t get a satellite lock. Starting today, if your device is not reachable by GPS satellite, Locate Assist will approximate the devices location using cellular signals from nearby towers. It won’t be as spot-on accurate as a GPS locate, but we will be able to tell you approximately where Zoombak is, with varying degrees of confidence – within 150 yards, within .75 miles or within 1.5 miles. Here’s a .75 mile example.

We know that seeing your device within 150 yards or .75 miles is not as great as seeing it within 50 feet, but in the case of an emergency or urgent need to track someone down, it is great to have a back up system.
To get Locate Assist, simply power on your device and we will update its software for free, over the air. We are rolling out these updates over the next 1-2 weeks.

We are constantly looking for ways to make Zoombak better, and we think this will greatly improve personal tracking for many of our customers. For questions or to give us feedback about Locate Assist, please visit http://zoombak.custhelp.com

As always, we’d love to hear how you’re using Zoombak, so that we can tell the world about the benefits of tracking devices for real life users. Please tell us your Zoombak story at www.zoombak.com/myzoombakstory

John Cullen, VP of Marketing

We’ve seen Zoombak used in some interesting ways, but this one takes the cake! Congratulations to Melinie and Dillie! Everyone check out Dillie’s story on YouTube, share with your friends in Facebook and on Twitter (#Dillie). Our goal is to get Dilie’s story viewed 100,000 times by Christmas.

We also want to know how you use Zoombak, so please tell us your story at www.zoombak.com/myzoombakstory.

Cheers!
Simon Buckingham

As you’ve probably heard, this week we launched a free iPhone App that lets you track your Zoombak straight from your iPhone. We’re excited to make tracking the people and things most important in your lives even easier and more convenient. This App has a number of cool features: When you do a “Find Now”, you can locate your Zoombak via street view, satellite view or a hybrid of the two. You can also turn on “Continuous Tracking” to receive “push” alerts with the location of your Zoombak every 5 minutes.

Zoombak Application Screenshots

Demand was so high for the new app, that it crashed within the first few hours of launching. We apologize, and that problem is now fixed, so please visit the iTunes App Store to download it. And as always, please let us know what you think.

Cheers,
Simon Buckingham, CEO Zoombak

Last Friday, Zoombak’s pet tracker was featured on the Today Show with Steve Greenberg, author of Gadget Nation. It was a fun segment full of some whacky and practical products. Both Hoda and Kathie Lee seemed to dig the Zoombak pet tracker!

The Philadelphia Examiner’s “Gadget Girl” June Reich reviewed Zoombak and interviewed a Philly-area Zoombak customer Barbara Kuehmstedt, who uses Zoombak to track her children as they go to and from school every day. Thanks Barbara for sharing your story! June is giving away her Zoombak to a lucky reader. Check out her story for entry information.

Any Lucky Day, a blog that runs giveaways of cool and innovative devices and gadgets, is now featuring a Zoombak Universal giveaway. Dozens have entered to win, but don’t let that stop you! Thanks to the team at Any Lucky Day for giving away a Zoombak, we’re looking forward to seeing who wins. http://anyluckyday.com/

Cheers!
Simon Buckingham
Zoombak CEO

Today we pushed out a software upgrade to all Zoombak devices that we are very excited about. At the request of our users, and because we are always working to improve Zoombak, we have made the following changes.

• * 90-Day Tracking History (as opposed to 7 days from before)
• * Bigger maps to make location identification easier
• * Improved calendar features on Zoombak.com that let you search by date
• * Log Displays that let you download or print historical location Log Files
• * Instant, automatic Location Upload. No more waiting 4 hours for it to load
• * New Browsers! Firefox 3 and Safari 4 are now supported at Zoombak.com

We hope you are happy with these upgrades and as always, look forward to hearing your feedback and ideas for improving Zoombak. More details are available at http://static.zoombak.com/historical-tracking-upgrade.html.

Cheers,
John Cullen
VP Marketing

Just a quick note to let you know we’re on Facebook. If you’re on Facebook and love your Zoombak , please join our Fan Group!  Along with the blog, we’ll keep you updated on new features, company updates and more.

Cheers,

John Cullen

VP Marketing

A little over a month ago, at the request of our users, we launched Speed Tracking and Speed Alerts for all Zoombak devices. About eight weeks later nearly 80% of users have installed their software update, and about 1,000 Speed Alerts per day are going out to users via SMS text or email. We’re happy to see so many people using this highly-anticipated feature. If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a shot!

Here is what one user said about Speed Tracking…

“Wow!  Now this is what I have been interested in finding out….I knew my child had a lead foot but I didn’t know had bad of one she had until the Speed Tracking update took effect.  I was shocked at how fast she was driving on certain roads.  Now I print out the Safety Notifications and we review them together.  She has definitely improved her driving speed now that she knows I am monitoring her where ever she goes.  Thanks Zoombak for improving an already great product and for helping to keep my 16 year old safer.”

- Carolyn, Tennessee

If you’re using Speed and have found it to be helpful, we want to hear from you. Please send us your story at www.zoombak.com/myzoombakstory. We want to hear how its been going out on the roads.

John Cullen
VP Marketing, Zoombak

First, we have a large and rapidly growing community of Zoombak customers all around the U.S. and we want to get to know you better. We hope that you will share your stories with us and each other through this blog. Has your relationship with a teenage driver improved since using our Car & Family Locator device?  Have you recovered a stolen item or a beloved pet with Zoombak? Do you have an elderly parent who Zoombak helps you monitor? Tens of thousands of Zoombak customers are using our devices to track their most important belongings… we hope you’ll tell us your story.

Second, from time to time there are things happening at the company that we want everyone to know about. We’ll tell you about changes to our products or service policies and new features that are coming out. Check back often for updates and to comment on our news.

Lastly, you won’t just be hearing from me on the blog. You’ll hear from the marketing team, our customer service team, our technology team and maybe even some of our users. We want this to be a two-way dialogue, so we’ll do our best to get back to you quickly. As a company we are always trying to improve, so please let us know what you think. We welcome your feedback and we will answer the question, “What’s going on at Zoombak?”

Simon Buckingham, CEO of Zoombak