The New Samsonite backpack uses Google tech to connect with your phone gets a lot of attention
So let me guess you are looking for a way to interact with your phone without actually looking at it? if so samsonite might be your only solution
The company’s new Konnect-i backpack uses Google’s Jacquard tech to connect to your smartphone. The Jacquard is a smart module inserted into one of the backpack’s straps, and the backpack also has a touch-sensitive part on the same strap. The backpack supports several gestures, such as swiping up or down and double-tapping, which you can assign to perform various tasks on your phone.
A customer review: The Good: The design of the bag is both visually appealing, and highly functional with the pockets, and general layout. The zippers are of good quality and function excellently. As other readers mentioned there are soft-lined pockets for your laptop, tablet, and sunglasses/headphones. The water bottle pockets just barely fit a Nalgene bottle. Nice fit & finish. Very comfortable.
How useful all of this is remains open to debate, as many of these tasks can be easily performed on a smartwatch or even the smartphone itself (yes, even without looking — remember iPhone’s Back Tap feature?). On its website, Samsonite has a fun ad where a sloth (yes, the actual animal) steals one of these backpacks and then uses it to play music and take selfies, which I guess isn’t the least realistic of usage scenarios. Joking aside, urban dwellers that never part from their backpacks (I often turn into one of those when traveling) might create a custom setup that could be helpful, especially if you’re often traveling on a bike or scooter.
Project Jacquard is a Google collaboration with other brands to put this technology in products designed by others. The first time we saw it on a real product it was on a denim jacket in collaboration with Levi’s. In this jacket, by brushing and making gestures on its sleeves, we could control the phone, for example, since the fabric was essentially tactile.
Later, other products such as sports soles have arrived in collaboration with Adidas. These soles act in a similar way to a quantifying bracelet, allowing to count steps but also technical details when playing soccer. For example, you can count the passes that are made or the force with which a ball is shot.
Finally, the backpack that they presented in collaboration with Saint Laurent stands out. A backpack similar to the one they have presented now but of course, with the Saint Laurent luxury brand as a strong point. This brought its price to $ 995. Although its technology is apparently the same as the $ 200 Samsonite backpack.
