A sleek, ¥10,246 leather-clad padlock being marketed by Tokyo-based startup DentsuBlue might look like another extravagant toy for the wealthy — but this one can be used in many different ways and even link itself to the Internet.
The product, to be marketed as the 246 Padlock next year, is among an increasingly popular line of goods incorporating a new concept dubbed the "Internet of Things" or IoT. The concept roughly refers to trend of making all manner of things linkable to the Internet under the assumption that doing so will make life more convenient in a wireless age.
Indeed, life with Internet-capable devices is becoming more futuristic and has been deemed by some as the future of personal computing.