Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Powerstick Hawkeye review: An alarm system for your USB devices

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The Hawkeye by PowerStick.com is a personal alarm system and reminder tool that connects to your USB-enabled device, allowing the user to monitor his USB cable, and whichever device is connected to it.

Design and Setup

The Hawkeye is incredibly easy to set up. It looks like any other USB dongle, but there is a button on the reverse side. The button activates the alarm. Since the Hawkeye works with any USB device, there is no setup, and it is device-agnostic. Once the device is out of the box, it is working immediately.

Features

We mentioned that the Hawkeye is both an alarm system and a reminder; they function in essentially the same way. Once out of the box, plug your USB cable into the Hawkeye, and then the Hawkeye into either a wall charger or a USB port and press the only button on the dongle. This now activates the alarm. Any time the device is removed from the cable that is connected to the dongle, the alarm sounds.

Designed for travelers, the alarm is ideal when in an airport or a coffee shop to ensure the security of your device if you need to step away. The reminder or notification use-case would be ideal when in a hotel.

Personally, I have walked out of a hotel room on more than one occasion and forgot to grab my charger, and the Hawkeye seeks to stop that from happening again. When you unplug your phone, but not from the wall, the alarm will sound, reminding you to grab your cable as well.

Conclusion

For the price ($14), the Hawkeye does exactly what it says. The alarm is slightly less-quiet than a standard mobile phone on the loudest setting, so don’t expect to hear it from several rooms away or a crowded airport, but inside a hotel room, or a moderately-quiet coffee shop, it can absolutely be heard.

The simple usage of the dongle with only one button is both a blessing and a curse–it turns on and off with just one press of a button, making it incredibly easy to disarm it. Also, if it becomes unplugged from the wall, no alarm will sound. Because of this, I think it is a great tool as a reminder in a hotel to not forget to grab your charger, but not exactly ideal in an airport to prevent someone from running off with your device.

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