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Qipp debuts 'Clippy for your STUFF' app

Bluetooth tags turn turns things into things on the internet

It looks like it's time to oil your bike chain. Would you like to 1) check warranty instructions 2) just oil it already and/or 3) check if the kids' bikes need attention?

A new mobile app called Qipp aims to help you organise your life by putting all of your possessions into a database.

You enter details of your things such as fridge, vacuum cleaner, pet cobra and can attach actions - such as renew warranty, change filter, milk venom - and the software will remind you when to do it.

There is a large database of things you might own to search and that provides you with the specifications and data of the product into your personal database. It's quite fun seeing what it knows and doesn't. It didn't know about the Raleigh Chopper, perhaps it never made it to Switzerland, the home of Qipp.

Qipp is, however, getting ahead of itself when it describes the simple database as being "the internet of things". Yes it is a database of things and yes, the database is kind of on the internet... But that does not make it part of the Internet of things – generally held to mean devices which can be operated via the interwebs like the Goodnight Lamp and Bubbulino. Just putting your possessions into a database doesn't count.

Where Qipp will get closer to IoT is when it announces the Bluetooth low energy (BLE) tags in March. This will connect the items you've tagged, both in hardware and software, with your phone and in turn with the internet.

This might still not qualify it as part of the "internet of things" unless the BLE allows some interaction with the object, but it's good to know that your snake won't go unmilked. ®

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