Leoht’s tech handbag will charge your gadgets and help you find them

Leoht’s “tech” handbag is one of those things you won’t necessarily need, but may really (really) want. As you might have guessed, it’s a purse for modern times. The bag’s simple, black leather exterior is stylish, but it’s what’s on the inside that’s interesting. The tote hides a built-in (6,000- or 10,000-mAh) battery in the base for charging your gadgets on the fly, plus some interior lights to help you find whatever you’re searching for faster. Oh, and a secret compartment for… well we’ll leave that up to you.

A battery in a bag isn’t exactly novel, but it is useful, and Leoht did add a few flourishes. For one, you charge the bag itself wirelessly via a custom Qi inductive charging plate (included in the price), that works with all the three styles in the range (which Leoht is calling the “Seed” collection). Should you need to replenish its power while away from home, there’s a microUSB port you can use to top things up the old-fashioned way.

The secret bottom compartment — or “Alcove” — that you can use to tuck away valuables like cash or a passport is perhaps a little more gimmicky. It’s cool in theory, but one hopes you wouldn’t leave your bag unattended while carrying such precious cargo anyway. There’s also a small exterior light, which is more of an attention-grabbing detail than anything else. Unlike the interior lights, which are truly something to rejoice over.

Why? Because if you ever wasted several minutes of your life trying to find a pen because the interior of your bag has suddenly become a black hole, or find yourself aimlessly feeling around the bottom for your keys at night, you’ll know how useful these will be. Basically, with this bag, those days are gone — just click a button near the top of the purse and everything is illuminated by bright LEDs.

The downfall of having such a souped-up handbag though is that all that tech makes it quite heavy. Completely empty, the tote version I tested weighed about three pounds, which sounds like a small number, but can start to feel large after resting on your shoulder for extended periods of time. And if you decide to cart around a laptop or fill your bag with personal items? It could make the bag a downright pain, especially given the thinness of its straps.

Leoht’s Co-Founder and CEO Carnise McIntosh assured me they are addressing both of these things. It is, afterall, a prototype. Once the interior tech is improved, it should drop the weight of the tote by about a pound, and McIntosh says straps with more cushion for your shoulders are in the works. The price of the Tote will be around $300-350, while the full collection of three (the other two styles being a cross-body satchel and a “Hobo” handbag), could cost you anywhere between $300 and $650 each (the company is still working that one out).

The handbags will be available for pre-order on Kickstarter early this spring and all going well, should be available in stores by fall.

James Trew contributed to this report.

Filed under: Wearables

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CES 2015, the year cars got truly smart

CES 2015, like last year’s event had a very large auto presence, perhaps even a banner year for CES. Expect it to grow again next year; in fact we wouldn’t be surprised to see it start to run over into other halls. Not only did the likes of Ford, GM, Audi, BMW, Audi and Hyundai have a presence, but we saw a new prototype lunch and the very first glimpse of the new Chevy Volt. Imagine that, a week or so before the Detroit Auto show, the North American International Auto Show, and yet still we got very significant car teaser. Of course, It’s no surprise that CES is getting so much attention from automakers, cars have become synonymous with tech and CES is still the pre-eminent tech show. Jump in to the post and let us walk you through the highlight reel.

So what tech companies are driving the trends at the show? More than most other maker in the space, QNX and its QNX Car platform is proving to be the most disruptive. Consider the little Ottawa, Canada Company has it fingers and code in the likes of Audi, Volkswagen, BMW, Porsche and Land Rover to name just a few. In fact, in early December QNX announced with Ford that Microsoft was out as the software provider for Sync and QNX was in. Little known companies like QNX and Elektrobit are contributing so much to the space and most of us have never even heard of them.

Of course autonomous and semi-autonomous cars were everywhere. Notable was BMW’s 360-degree collision avoidance and parking assist. Imagine pulling up to a grocery store or shopping mall and hopping out of your car only to see it park itself. Sound farfetched? Well it isn’t, that technology exists now and works very well. We sat in the back of an i3 that could park itself a hundred times a day without incident in an unlit garage with the very smallest spaces imaginable. Audi has already demonstrated that it can self-drive as fast as its cars can go and so has BMW. Those things are simply extreme examples, beacons if you will, to make us feel OK about the technology. With these things as guidance, baby steps, we slowly approach the inevitable point where we can choose to hand the task of driving over to our cars.

CES 2016 will be a bigger deal for sure and we’ve no doubt it’ll be packed full of wonderful auto tech. Our CES, the wonderful tech show we worried about in the last couple years has a found a new direction. Will automotive be its salvation? It’s too early to tell for certain, but judging by the car’s uptake, we have lots of hope.

BMS’s Automotive laucnch

Audi at CES 2915

Mercedes CES 2015

Ford at CES

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