Keyport Key Thing In Production
It looks as if the "Keyport," which was shown as a concept a few months ago, will actually be making it into limited production. Your likelihood of getting one seems slim, though: you'll need to have already been on the "I'm interested" list; the process for getting your keys cut involves sending six copies to the company; the whole thing cost $300. Maybe you could just drill a hole through your keys and pin them all together instead? Or what if someone made a small, metal ring...?
KEYPORT PRODUCTION [Notcot.com]
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yeah, cause I wasn't interested in using my car keys with the transponder chip and built-in alarm fob anyway.
I have been looking forward to the day when I could lose all my keys in one easy to drop package, and that day is finally here. Huzzah!
Simon, just think, you could engrave your name and address on it too! That way, whoever found your keys would know exactly what house they belonged to, where to find your car, the whole nine yards! I bet there's even room for your work address on the other side!
Leatherman or Victorinox should get in on this by making a keys, knife, bottle opener, etc. combo.
I've been looking for a way to make all of my keys look the same! This saves me the trouble of being able to tell them apart by feel or sight. Now I can have fun trying each indistinguishable one in the car door while standing in the rain. Yay rain!
This looks like something Bang & Olufsen would come up with: symmetrical, featureless, impossible to use with gloves on and bound to dent the first time you fumble it.
In principle this doesn't strike me as a bad idea. I can't be the only person in the world who'd prefer it if my keys didn't scratch everything they share a pocket or bag with but don't like regular key fobs because they're too bulky.
Personally, I'd be prefer it in kit form, where they ship you the container and a bunch of blank keys you can have cut yourself. Some people will never trust FedEx with their keys, no matter how many security guarantees they're offered, and it would hugely reduce costs and hassle for the manufacturer.
@RossinDetroit: The image seems to be an old render. The version they're showing on their site has the ring on the side, presumably to deal with the symmetry problem.
Haven't they been selling a credit card dispenser version of this in catalogs for years? And hasn't, so far as I can tell, no one ever ordered or wanted one?
hey Marshall, I love that wallet!
@MARSHALL,
Yes, you are referring to the {pulls wallet out of back pocket and reads end} ACM Wallet, available many places on this here interweb. I gave them to my groomsmen at my wedding, engraved. When they arrived, I was kicking myself for not ordering one for me. My lovely wife gave me one for my birthday when it rolled around, and I love it!
Pros:
Looks nifty, and gets lots of "dude, where'd you get that?!?" questions.
Keeps my cards organized.
Has a money clip on the back. I can tell by feel whether I've got cash or not.
Only holds 6 cards (or 5 when one slot is filled with obligatory wedding photo) and does not have room for lots of other crud. This was the only way I have ever found to cut down on the sheer amount of crap I used to carry around. Now I have the most important cards already loaded, and have one slot I swap out day to day depending on what I'm doing. One or two "cash card" or "gift card" type cards will fit in the moneyclip ok too, if I need to pack more.
It's smaller than my wallets used to be with all the crap in them.
Cons:
Causes a different wear pattern in rear pants pockets - I've one pair that has a hole now that never would have been there with a regular wallet.
Collects dust internally and needs occasional cleaning to maintain grip on cards.
Hard - takes some getting used to and/or rearrangement in pocket so your butt doesn't get sore.
As ROSSINDETROIT mentioned, it's darn hard to use with gloves on.
Really, all in all I like it. So far it's lasted at least as long as leather wallets I've owned, though the eelskin wallet I put aside to use this one wasn't worn out yet. Eelskin is the ticket for "standard" style wallets - wears much better than leather, and I got one for ~$10 at a flea market. Outlasted the probably $50 one that I had recieved as a present some 2-3 wallets prior.
As for the Keyport device, it looks kind of neat. I rather like the "switchblade" style key my wife's new Mazda5 came with - been trying to track down a non-transponder "generic" with blank to fit my old Chevy. I don't know that I would want more than 2 keys in one package - say both car keys since you're only likely to be using one at any given time. The house/garage keys could go on another one, with a BallSeal quick disconnect between them like I have now - allows leaving engine on while running back into the house for a forgotten item. This device would prevent that.
As for popularity, I think it was George Carlin who said something along the lines of "People will buy anything - you could nail two boards together in some odd way and someone would say 'I'd buy that for a dollar!'"
Don't forget the "exclusivity" bit - given the pricetag and the requirement to be on the preorder list and that's there. Give it a few months and there'll be knockoffs flooding the market from overseas.
Have fun,
cajun
In the UK we also have Chubb locks, which require bigger & bulkier keys. I'd like to see a version that tried to incorporate those too.
I'd rather prefer the swiss army knife setup for my keys. Seems less likely to be damaged.
I have a lot of things keyed alike, so if I'm not driving I only need two keys for work, my home, padlocks etc.
At one point I cut all of the extra metal off my keys, drilled some holes and used a small bolt to join. The result was a tiny pair of fold out keys only a little larger than the actual required section of a key.
Everyone said `You're going to lose those!' but I didn't, because I never needed to take them out of my pocket like a big keyring.
Okay, eventually I lost them, but they lasted a LOT longer than any of my previous keyrings.