Tenbu's Nio: Bluetooth guardian

Security is an increasing concern for everyone these days. If it isn't emails saying that you've won the Kazakhstani lottery then its nefarious tech savvy fraudsters trying to nab your personal data from your phone or laptop. Now, thanks to British innovators TenBu, we have a new weapon in the fight to keep our personal details safe.

The Nio is a compact and user friendly gadget that is a Bluetooth tag with a software link that downloads directly to your phone. This will create a personalized security zone (we prefer to think of it as a force field) of up to 25 metres. This zone protects both your phone and the Bluetooth tag, which can be attached to a valuable item such as a laptop. When the zone is breached by some wannabe techno gangsters both the tagged item and the Bluetooth tag emit an audible alarm. A blue light also flashes, presumably to give the impression that the fuzz is on its way.

Nio is designed to be as easy to use as possible. The Nio software enables you to control multiple tags simultaneously and you can name each tag and assign an image to it which makes things pretty easy to manage. If you are in an extremely high risk environment like an airport or Russian Mafia meeting, you can even activate a motion sensor so if your tagged items are moved then a helpful alarm chimes automatically.

We think the Nio is a great idea and anything that keeps our precious mobiles safe is alright with us. We'll be testing the Nio out thoroughly over the next few weeks and will report back if there are any major issues. One thing that concerns us is forgetting to charge the tag but TenBu tells us that the mobile software features a battery indicator that should let you know when the tag needs to be charged. Hopefully this is the mobile security system we've been waiting for.