Loving gadgets can be an expensive habit, so we're always looking for new ways to protect our high-tech valuables. To help nail gadget thieves, one Australian company has a new twist on a fairly old technology: the microdot. DataDot sells personal kits that let you stick personalized microdots to your high-priced gear so it can be traced back to you should anything… uh, wander off.

While the microdots won't actually prevent theft, the idea is that your stuff will be easy to get back should the police come across it. Cops can easily check for the dots since the invisible glue-like applicator that comes in the DataDot DNA kit can be seen under black light. If you're worried the thief will still spot the dots, each about the size of a grain of sand, just put on a bunch — on the back, in the battery chamber, wherever — the kit comes with 400 microdots, all with the same number.

Once you get the kit, you need to register its number on DataDot's site and you're off. The kits are available at retail in Australia, though we found a few websites selling them for $25 to $50 as well. That seems like a pretty good price until you realize the NYPD will do the same thing for you for free. For you non-New Yorkers, though, DataDot DNA sounds like a decent alternative. — Peter Pachal

DataDot, via Batemans Bay Post