We’ve known about the Tile for some time, and Apple’s supposed to be joining Samsung’s SmartTags with its own AirTags soon (perhaps sooner than you think). Vodacom has its own entry into the not-especially-crowded GPS tracker market coming in the form of the Curve, which is due to land in South Africa… soon. Ish.

Ahead of the Curve

The Curve looks exactly the way it sounds — it’s a little circular GPS-tracker doodad that you attach to items you misplace often — bags, pants, wallets, smartphones, children — you know, stuff that wanders off on its own. The tracker uses GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular, and Bluetooth in order to show its location to the companion Vodafone Smart App.

The cellular connection is courtesy of a built-in Vodafone Smart SIM (which roams more than 100 countries, so you can tell if your Curve-fitted car was shipped overseas as part of syndicate activity — once it makes landfall, the tracker doesn’t work over the ocean). It does require charging however — there’s up to seven days of battery life in this little bugger so… find your stuff before that time runs out.

Vodacom products and services managing executive Johnny Dos Santos said, “The versatile Curve GPS tracker builds on our existing IoT platforms that provide meaningful solutions to bring a light to everyday living, whether it’s to find a misplaced school blazer, keep up with kids whereabouts, or to track if furry friends have roamed a bit further than they should.”

The Curve forms part of the company’s new Designed & Connected by Vodacom range and is due to drop in SA soon. At present, there’s no pricing for the little device but we’ll let you know as soon as there’s an update.