Yes, I was suspicious and/or cynical at first. Fuz Designs has launched a Kickstarted campaign to create Noke, a padlock that requires no key.

You’ve got a lot of questions already but I can predict some of them:

1. Eh?
Lock your bike or whatever you want by snapping the Noke padlock to it as you would any other padlock. Then to unlock it, just press on the Noke – if you have your smartphone with you.

The Noke looks Bluetoothily for a phone that it recognises and if yours is there in range, the padlock opens. You don’t even have to take your phone out of your pocket or purse.

2. Battery
Yeah, that was my first thought: what happens when the battery dies on the Noke. You are screwed. Except that you get a warning on your smartphone Noke app long before that happens and there is also a little secret way around it that you set up in advance.

There’s only one more thing I would say: Fuz Designs made the Everdock, which I backed on Kickstarter before and now use every day. I backed it twice over, buying two of the things. So I both like and trust the firm.

Now, watch their video. I can’t embed it so you need to visit their Kickstarter page – but that does also have a lot more detail. A lot. Check out the Noke Kickstarter page by Fuz Designs.