Although the iProbe is currently available in Europe, it is not expected to arrive in the USA until the Fall of 2008. I tested the iProbe briefly (indoors) in early 2008. This review is based on that experience and conversations with representatives from Pieps.

Searching: When the tip of the iProbe is within one or two meters of a transmitting beacon (the actual distance depends on the orientation of the antenna in the transmitting beacon), the handle of the iProbe will beep. When the tip is within approximately 50 cm, the beep changes to a solid tone.

Multiple Burials: When the iProbe is near a transmitting DSP or Freeride, pressing a button on the probe's handle causes the iProbe to send a signal to the transmitting beacon instructing it to stop transmitting. If you move the iProbe away, the victim's transceiver will resume transmitting within approximately 10 seconds.

This is a new concept in multiple-burial searches (i.e., the probe deactivates the transmitter when the victim is located so you can search for the next victim). It eliminates the need to use electronics to ignore the victim's transceiver and reduces the challenges caused by signal overlap during multiple burials. Of course, it does rely on more electronics and requires that the victim has either a Pieps DSP (with the version 5.0 upgrade) or a Pieps Freeride.

A small oddity that people may encounter when testing the iProbe is that once the probe is instructed to disable a transmitting beacon, the iProbe will continue to disable nearby beacons until it is turned off. If you use the iProbe to search for a second transceiver (without first resetting the iProbe), it will suppress that transceiver when it gets within approximately one meter. That is the proper function, because the iProbe should be left in the snow after disabling the first victim's transceiver so you use your traditional transceiver to search for the next victim. The slight confusion occurs when experimenting with the iProbe when you are moving the probe between multiple victims.

Controls: The iProbe is turned on/off using a twist-dial. The iProbe should be turned off until you begin probing. Pressing a button on the handle instructs the victim's transceiver to stop transmitting. It is easy to quickly assemble the iProbe with a simple toss-and-pull.

Other: The iProbe uses one AA battery. My Pieps contact says that a few iProbes may make it into the USA during the 2007/2008 season, but not to expect full-scale distribution until the Fall of 2008.