Why it's on the list
The city is wide, and a phone is a poor plan once the battery dies or the service drops. The Totem Compass is the puck people wear for that gap. It reads its own position from satellites, then shares that position with the compasses you bonded, over a 2.4 GHz mesh. Bonding takes both devices side by side, and you can drop a bond later. One compass finds nobody. Everyone you hope to meet needs their own. The box is the compass, two lanyards, and a USB-C cable. Chains, skins, and their pocket battery are separate products on the same shop.
How we use it
Bond them at camp, outdoors, before anyone leaves. Give the satellite lock a clear view of the sky. Totem lists a direct range of 1,000 meters between two compasses, and says a crowd of other compasses can carry the signal farther through the mesh. A dim, breathing light means you are following the last place it heard that friend. Inside about 100 meters the light grows as you close the distance. Their manual puts full-brightness Vibe mode around 6 to 8 hours and Eco mode around 22 to 24 hours. The product page also says all-weekend battery. Charge it from the bank you already pack, before you leave camp. Their app can stretch the range when both phones have data. That path needs a signal. The mesh does not.
Heads up
The product page calls it dust-proof. The manual tells you to keep it away from excessive dust, sand, and debris, and WIRED's review said they would bag one before taking it to the playa. Rain and splashes are what the manual allows. Swimming is outside that. Keep the bike light, and keep the meetup you agreed on. When we wrote this, their compass page said in-stock orders ship within one to two business days. Read that line again before a late-August week. The same shop has had a backlog.
