Review of the AMBER Stick: the Newest Tool to Proctect Your Children

What if your child were suddenly missing? According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the chances of a child being abducted are 1 out of every 42. The FBI reports the first three hours of a child's disappearance are the most crucial. Regrettably, it takes an average of two hours to collect the vital identity information to issue an AMBER Alert! The AMBER stick™ reduces those hours to mere seconds. This small device is the only fully portable child identification device.

As parents, we are always looking for effective ways to protect our kids. The AMBER stick™ is the new must-have for parents. It is convenient to carry, easy to use, and extremely affordable. A child identification product must be immediately available to be effective. Unlike fingerprint and DNA kits kept at home, the AMBER stick™ is designed to fit on a key ring or in your wallet. Smaller than a car's keyless entry remote, it goes wherever you go. Most adults never leave home with out their keys or a wallet.

AMBER stick™ is a self-contained USB drive with it's own innovative software. Made for Windows based computers, it requires no software installation or downloads. Most impressively, it requires no service activation and no fees. It is capable of generating missing persons posters, and importable police files. It will hold hundreds of individual files, you can keep photos, medicals records, and vital statistics of your entire family.

As of December 12th 2006, AMBER stick™ and Code Amber have launched a new program. In case of a true missing child emergency, the AMBER stick™ can now send all of your missing child information directly to Code Amber (codeamber.org) for immediate activation of the Code Amber, Amber Alert Ticker.

The AMBER stick™ is very simple to use. Just plug into to any available USB port on your computer. Start the program and enter your password. Add your loved one's information and photos. When you are finished, close the program, unplug from the computer and attach it to you key ring or slip it into your wallet. In a crisis situation, just plug it in and have instant access to all the information in the files. Law enforcement officers can even plug it into a USB port in their vehicle, and with your password, access your child's file quickly.

Sophisticated data encryption technology protects any information stored on the AMBER stick™. Without the password you set, the files are virtually unreadable.

AMBER stick™ System Requirements are minimal; a computer with Windows 98se or higher (Windows 2000/XP recommended), 64MB of ram (128MB recommended), an available USB port (USB 1.1 is ok, USB 2.0 recommended for speed), a printer (needed to print "MISSING" flyer), photos of your loved ones in a digital form (.jpeg image format).

This sturdy little gadget is shock resistant and has a three-year warranty. It really stands up to the everyday use of the average key ring. Mine even survived my two year old chewing on it. I feel better having the AMBER stick™ at my fingertips. I've loaded not only my children's information, but also my husband's and mine as well. Just in case I never need it.