I have the Tiles on key rings. I also find them useful in other ways, for items that may be stolen in the unlikely event that my home is burglarized like my gun cases, camera case, and some of my shop tools. I hide the Tiles behind the foam inserts within the case.
Everything I might lose (iPhone, AirPods, iPad) are already covered. It’s my glasses that are always getting lost. If only it was small enough for that! Or thin enough not to make a giant bulging disc in my minimalist wallet.
Yeah tried the wallet thing too thinking that would be a great way to find it around the house or maybe even recover it from a thief. Ummm, not really....
when I first got Tile they had non-replaceable batteries which made them pretty worthless long term. Hear they have changed that. Lost my bag in Spain during a transfer from one carrier to another. Would have killed to have had a tracker in it!
Everything I might lose (iPhone, AirPods, iPad) are already covered. It’s my glasses that are always getting lost. If only it was small enough for that! Or thin enough not to make a giant bulging disc in my minimalist wallet.
Yeah tried the wallet thing too thinking that would be a great way to find it around the house or maybe even recover it from a thief. Ummm, not really....
when I first got Tile they had non-replaceable batteries which made them pretty worthless long term. Hear they have changed that. Lost my bag in Spain during a transfer from one carrier to another. Would have killed to have had a tracker in it!
Oh, never considered that use case and no doubt I've overlooked others too. Perhaps I will replace the batteries in the four Tiles I have that allow it. Suppose it wouldn't hurt to give 'em one more go. Maybe.
The advantage that Apple has over Tile is pure volume. The user base of Tile isn’t large enough for the crowd sourced model to work. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an iPhone!
Perfect example of Apple leveraging the size and standardization of its ecosystem to achieve value to the end-user that other company’s will be unable / find very difficult to replicate.
As will the number of sueball's heading Apple's way for both privacy and patent violations. {sigh}
The advantage that Apple has over Tile is pure volume. The user base of Tile isn’t large enough for the crowd sourced model to work. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an iPhone!
Exactly, the Tiles concept depended on crowd uptake. When the word spread about the crap quality, crowd uptake was destined to fail. Testimonials on their web site are borderline fraudulent when reading actual reviews. If the whole idea is instantiated by Apple in their ubiquitous iPhones then just might work.
I might be too wishful, but if Apple allows us to carry a Tag on our bodies and then configure Apple Home to accurately turn HomeKit enabled lights on and off depending on where I am, then I could get rid of motion detectors and have a much more responsive smart home system. but that would be innovative and I'm not sure Apple is going to be innovative or just copy their competitors' dumb products here.
I thought most people used the phone in their pocket as the "body tag" to do this already.
The advantage that Apple has over Tile is pure volume. The user base of Tile isn’t large enough for the crowd sourced model to work. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an iPhone!
While Apple's advantage is volume—and not just the iPhone, but the Watch, iPad, HomePod, and Mac—it's not fair to say that "Tile isn't large enough for crowd sourcing to work." It can't possibly work as well as Apple's Tile-like option in the US, even with Tile being available on Android, but it's still high enough to work.
I was gifted a tile a few years ago and enjoyed its functionality. But! Once the battery dropped out the app became quite obnoxious at demanding the entire device be thrown away and a new one purchased to replace it. Not good cost wise or environmentally. any improvement on the system by Apple will certainly be worth looking into. Especially if it can simply be placed on a Qi charger every once in a while and have the battery replaced at five or more year intervals.
I might be too wishful, but if Apple allows us to carry a Tag on our bodies and then configure Apple Home to accurately turn HomeKit enabled lights on and off depending on where I am, then I could get rid of motion detectors and have a much more responsive smart home system. but that would be innovative and I'm not sure Apple is going to be innovative or just copy their competitors' dumb products here.
I thought most people used the phone in their pocket as the "body tag" to do this already.
I've bought several Tiles over the past few years.
While initially impressed I ended up disenchanted with the original ones for two reasons: Had to replace them roughly once a year, and I didn't find I needed them as often as I would have thought. That still didn't prevent me from buying four of the Pro version with replaceable batteries when they came out. Don't know why I thought I'd be any more impressed because I still didn't put them to use more than a handful of times. In fact I accidently activated them and sent a finder signal to my phone more often than I needed to find a misplaced Tile'd item.
Time to replace the batteries now but not sure I'll bother. They're smallish but not small enough, kinda get in the way on the keyring, and too large to play well on a remote or earbud charging case. Great idea but....
I use the Findster Duo as a GPS real-time tracker on my dog who likes to go AWOL in the woods. Works well most of the time (direction/distance pretty accurate). I also have a Tile Pro on her harness for those times when I need to detect where she is by hearing the Tile tone. They work fine together but it would be nice to have a single unit that did it all.
Everything I might lose (iPhone, AirPods, iPad) are already covered. It’s my glasses that are always getting lost. If only it was small enough for that! Or thin enough not to make a giant bulging disc in my minimalist wallet.
Yeah tried the wallet thing too thinking that would be a great way to find it around the house or maybe even recover it from a thief. Ummm, not really....
when I first got Tile they had non-replaceable batteries which made them pretty worthless long term. Hear they have changed that. Lost my bag in Spain during a transfer from one carrier to another. Would have killed to have had a tracker in it!
Oh, never considered that use case and no doubt I've overlooked others too. Perhaps I will replace the batteries in the four Tiles I have that allow it. Suppose it wouldn't hurt to give 'em one more go. Maybe.
Not sure the robin huber use case is all that useful if you want to track where your bags go in airports. Tile Pro asserts it has 300 ft / 90 metre blue tooth range. but as with all thing BT, your mileage may vary (a lot!). In a crowded airport, I wouldn't bet on Tile picking up a lost item more than 50 ft away in direct line-of-sight.
Everything I might lose (iPhone, AirPods, iPad) are already covered. It’s my glasses that are always getting lost. If only it was small enough for that! Or thin enough not to make a giant bulging disc in my minimalist wallet.
Yeah tried the wallet thing too thinking that would be a great way to find it around the house or maybe even recover it from a thief. Ummm, not really....
when I first got Tile they had non-replaceable batteries which made them pretty worthless long term. Hear they have changed that. Lost my bag in Spain during a transfer from one carrier to another. Would have killed to have had a tracker in it!
Oh, never considered that use case and no doubt I've overlooked others too. Perhaps I will replace the batteries in the four Tiles I have that allow it. Suppose it wouldn't hurt to give 'em one more go. Maybe.
Not sure the robin huber use case is all that useful if you want to track where your bags go in airports. Tile Pro asserts it has 300 ft / 90 metre blue tooth range. but as with all thing BT, your mileage may vary (a lot!). In a crowded airport, I wouldn't bet on Tile picking up a lost item more than 50 ft away in direct line-of-sight.
Anyone have any better info?
The Tile uses other Tile users for crowd sourcing location when out of physical range of your own phone.
Apple limited “Find iPhone’s” real-time tracking functionality some time ago. The “refresh” icon when a device has been located seems to do nothing now. Several minutes can pass before position is updated (if at all). The only way I’ve been able to prompt a current-location fetch is by force quitting “Find iPhone” and restarting it.
Anyone else notice this?
If you swipe down on the left hand side of the screen where the list of devices is, it will update the locations for all devices. The little circular arrow (refresh icon) doesn’t seem to work consistently anymore however. Cheers.
We have one tile that is attached to my wife’s keys (comes in handy at least a couple times a month). The battery recently died though so now it’s not so handy. Almost bought a bunch of trackr’s on meh last month but quickly cancelled my order after reading some reviews. I also remembered Apple was possibly working on something similar so I’m waiting to see what they release. I’m guessing wireless charging will a feature.
I have the Tiles on key rings. I also find them useful in other ways, for items that may be stolen in the unlikely event that my home is burglarized like my gun cases, camera case, and some of my shop tools. I hide the Tiles behind the foam inserts within the case.
I had a Tile hidden in my car. It ended up being stolen and being used to carry stolen goods for a couple of weeks before the cops caught them. I had the Tile on lost mode and didn't get a single ping off it until I arrived at the impound lot.
In theory having a Tile on important items in case they are stolen is a great idea. In practice there just aren't enough people with the app to make it worthwhile.
If Apple releases this product and it really can be tracked by any iPhone running IOS 13 or newer then it would work great for the use case of finding stolen items.
I have the Tiles on key rings. I also find them useful in other ways, for items that may be stolen in the unlikely event that my home is burglarized like my gun cases, camera case, and some of my shop tools. I hide the Tiles behind the foam inserts within the case.
I had a Tile hidden in my car. It ended up being stolen and being used to carry stolen goods for a couple of weeks before the cops caught them. I had the Tile on lost mode and didn't get a single ping off it until I arrived at the impound lot.
In theory having a Tile on important items in case they are stolen is a great idea. In practice there just aren't enough people with the app to make it worthwhile.
If Apple releases this product and it really can be tracked by any iPhone running IOS 13 or newer then it would work great for the use case of finding stolen items.
If you have an old iPhone, don't have a problem activating a line for around $10 per month, and know how to wire the iPhone's charging system to ignition-controlled power in your car you could have an inexpensive Lo-Jack-like system that would work wherever cellular data and GPS works using Find My iPhone.
I have the Tiles on key rings. I also find them useful in other ways, for items that may be stolen in the unlikely event that my home is burglarized like my gun cases, camera case, and some of my shop tools. I hide the Tiles behind the foam inserts within the case.
I had a Tile hidden in my car. It ended up being stolen and being used to carry stolen goods for a couple of weeks before the cops caught them. I had the Tile on lost mode and didn't get a single ping off it until I arrived at the impound lot.
In theory having a Tile on important items in case they are stolen is a great idea. In practice there just aren't enough people with the app to make it worthwhile.
If Apple releases this product and it really can be tracked by any iPhone running IOS 13 or newer then it would work great for the use case of finding stolen items.
If you have an old iPhone, don't have a problem activating a line for around $10 per month, and know how to wire the iPhone's charging system to ignition-controlled power in your car you could have an inexpensive Lo-Jack-like system that would work wherever cellular data and GPS works using Find My iPhone.
I have the Tiles on key rings. I also find them useful in other ways, for items that may be stolen in the unlikely event that my home is burglarized like my gun cases, camera case, and some of my shop tools. I hide the Tiles behind the foam inserts within the case.
I had a Tile hidden in my car. It ended up being stolen and being used to carry stolen goods for a couple of weeks before the cops caught them. I had the Tile on lost mode and didn't get a single ping off it until I arrived at the impound lot.
In theory having a Tile on important items in case they are stolen is a great idea. In practice there just aren't enough people with the app to make it worthwhile.
If Apple releases this product and it really can be tracked by any iPhone running IOS 13 or newer then it would work great for the use case of finding stolen items.
If you have an old iPhone, don't have a problem activating a line for around $10 per month, and know how to wire the iPhone's charging system to ignition-controlled power in your car you could have an inexpensive Lo-Jack-like system that would work wherever cellular data and GPS works using Find My iPhone.
I like your idea Soli. Perfect use for even an old cheap "other" phone, tho you'd have to use "other" find my phone. Yeah, LOTS cheaper than LoJak. Smart guy....
I have the Tiles on key rings. I also find them useful in other ways, for items that may be stolen in the unlikely event that my home is burglarized like my gun cases, camera case, and some of my shop tools. I hide the Tiles behind the foam inserts within the case.
I had a Tile hidden in my car. It ended up being stolen and being used to carry stolen goods for a couple of weeks before the cops caught them. I had the Tile on lost mode and didn't get a single ping off it until I arrived at the impound lot.
In theory having a Tile on important items in case they are stolen is a great idea. In practice there just aren't enough people with the app to make it worthwhile.
If Apple releases this product and it really can be tracked by any iPhone running IOS 13 or newer then it would work great for the use case of finding stolen items.
If you have an old iPhone, don't have a problem activating a line for around $10 per month, and know how to wire the iPhone's charging system to ignition-controlled power in your car you could have an inexpensive Lo-Jack-like system that would work wherever cellular data and GPS works using Find My iPhone.
Soli - what??? Speak English please.
I reread my comment. I didn't see any typos or any confusing language. Feel free to point out what part is confusing to you.
Comments
any improvement on the system by Apple will certainly be worth looking into. Especially if it can simply be placed on a Qi charger every once in a while and have the battery replaced at five or more year intervals.
Anyone have any better info?
In theory having a Tile on important items in case they are stolen is a great idea. In practice there just aren't enough people with the app to make it worthwhile.
If Apple releases this product and it really can be tracked by any iPhone running IOS 13 or newer then it would work great for the use case of finding stolen items.
Smart guy....