Hyper was kind enough to send me an early production sample of the HyperPack Pro a few days ahead of the launch, so I've had a bit of time to test out its extensive set of features that goes well beyond the Find My integration. Rather simply taking an existing Targus backpack and adding a Find My module to it, Hyper sought to design a backpack from scratch that will appeal to Apple users with functionality, protection, and design.
The HyperPack Pro features three main compartments: a laptop compartment that fits up to a 16-inch notebook, a catch-all compartment for other items, and a tech organization compartment with lots of small pockets for keeping your chargers, accessories, and other items organized and easily accessible. Additional compartments include a cloth-lined sunglasses pocket and an easy-access front pocket on the exterior face of the backpack, a hidden lumber pocket that rests against your body to provide extra security for valuable items like passports and wallets, an expandable water bottle pocket on one side, and a unique MagSafe Charger-compatible pocket on the other side.
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With all of its various compartments and pockets, the HyperPack Pro is designed not only for organization and protection but also to support charging your devices while on the go. Hyper has designed a number of passthroughs and routing loops into the backpack, making it easy to run cable from a battery pack stored in one compartment to your computer, phone, iPad, or other devices stored separately in other compartments.
The side MagSafe pocket includes a mesh interior divider to securely position Apple's MagSafe Charger and a passthrough to let you route the charger's cable to the interior of the backpack where it can be hooked up to a power bank. Once that's set up, you can simply slide your iPhone into the zippered pocket, where it will latch onto the MagSafe Charger and let you top off your device wherever you are. The easily accessible side location of the pocket makes me a little nervous about the potential for theft, but if you're vigilant about maintaining awareness and control of your belongings, it's a convenient charging solution.
Moving on to the Find My functionality, the HyperPack Pro is one of only a few third-party accessories so far to support integration with Apple's item-tracking system. An IPX4 water-resistant module nestled on the top of the backpack provides the Find My functionality, with the prominent location providing optimum placement to allow you to hear the 90db alert beeps it can make if you've misplaced your pack and want to ping it from the Find My app on your Apple device.
As with AirTags and other Find My-enabled products, the HyperPack Pro can alert you via the Find My app if it's been misplaced, forgotten, or stolen and goes out of range, and the Find My network will allow you to track its location. Similar to AirTags, the Find My module in the HyperPack Pro runs on a replaceable CR2032 battery that Hyper says should last about eight months.
Setup of the Find My tracking is simple, requiring a few button presses on the module to get it into pairing mode and then handling everything else via Apple's Find My app. On the Items tab, you can select the option to add a new item, and it will enter a discovery mode where it will find the backpack and pair with it, automatically recognizing it as a backpack. The setup process will suggest a name for it like "Eric's Backpack" and suggest a backpack emoji as the icon to be displayed for it in the Find My app, but both the name and emoji can be customized. At that point, the Find My module in the HyperPack Pro will be linked to your Apple ID and show up in the Find My app alongside other items like AirTags as well as your Apple devices.
The question that immediately leapt to my mind when I learned about the HyperPack Pro was why I would want to use this solution rather than just tossing an AirTag into a backpack I already own. The latter is certainly a viable solution (and a cheaper one), but if you're in the market for a new tech backpack, the HyperPack Pro offers a solid set of features even beyond the Find My functionality. And on the security front, a thief might be less likely to recognize the Find My module in the backpack as a tracker, compared to an AirTag that is immediately recognizable once spotted and can be easily removed and discarded. With Hyper's Find My module built right into the bag, a decent amount of effort is required to remove it or its battery.
The HyperPack Pro is made of 1260D Cordura, so it should stand up to daily wear and tear quite well. Hyper offers a lifetime warranty on the bag itself and a two-year warranty on the Find My module. The laptop pocket is lined with faux fur to cushion your computer and keep it scratch-free, while the pocket is also suspended to help protect against impacts and jostles.
With padded shoulder straps and sternum straps to distribute weight across your chest, the HyperPack Pro offers a comfortable fit even with a good amount of gear in it, and the padded shoulder straps and back panel promote airflow to help keep you cooler. There's also a luggage passthrough on the back panel so you can slide the pack over the handle of a carry-on to pull it along with your luggage or help keep your belongings together while waiting in an airport or elsewhere.
In addition to the Find My support and hidden lumbar pocket in the back panel, the HyperPack Pro includes a few other security-focused features such as an interior RFID-blocking pocket to prevent thieves from skimming your credit cards or other RFID-enabled documents like passports. The laptop compartment also includes interlocking zippers, allowing you to thread one of the zipper pulls through the other one to slow down thieves who might try to unzip the pocket to access your belongings.
As it does for many of its products, Hyper is launching the HyperPack Pro via a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Despite the sometimes uncertain nature of crowdfunding, Hyper has a long history of fulfilling its campaigns and the product is essentially ready to go. Hyper says the first bags are scheduled to begin shipping from the factory next month with delivery to the first backers coming in February.
Crowdfunding via Indiegogo also provides an easy way for Hyper to reward early backers with steeply discounted pricing. While the the HyperPack Pro will eventually sell for $200, a very limited Super Early Bird Special tier in the Indiegogo campaign is available for $100.
Increasing quantities are available at other tiers with smaller discounts, priced at $120, $140, or $150 depending on how quickly you get your pledge in. Several 2-pack and 3-pack bundles are also available via the campaign, although they don't offer any additional discounts over the single-bag pricing at the various tiers.
At the moment, Hyper is only shipping the HyperPack Pro to the continental United States, but is aiming to add international shipping as soon as possible.
This article, "Hyper Debuts HyperPack Pro Tech Backpack With Find My Integration" first appeared on MacRumors.com
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