Amid 'Apple Tag' Rumors, Tile Announces New 3M Adhesive 'Sticker' and Updated 'Slim' Electronic Trackers

[mannyvel]

If Apple's UWB-only then their market is going to be relatively small to start, since only the three new phones support it.

Ideally they'd be BLE/UWB.

The nice thing about Apple's is the "find it anywhere" feature. For example, let's say you're a musician and stick one on your guitar. When it gets stolen normally you'd be SOL. However, with Apple's Find-Everywhere tech once it gets near an iPhone it'll call for help and you can get a device location.

For any high-priced item that's subject to theft and Apple tag will be sort of mandatory. Camera equipment, instruments, heck even your child's Nintendo Switch would be pretty good candidates for this...at the least.

And it's not just protection against theft! if you leave it behind somewhere you can find it again, as long as there are iOS users around - which is pretty much everywhere. Left your wallet in church or at a mall store? Yeah, you can find it again.

I suppose you could put one on your child as well, for all those helicopter parents.

 

[MadGoat]

Ridiculous product. Never needed such a thing to find my belongings.

I'm not sure why people are so fascinated with these. Seriously, how many people actually bought and used these things?

If these work as expected, and assuming the battery lasts at least a couple of years, they will be fantastic for tracking assets. Hide one inside of our construction trailers(which, unbelievably get stolen), one in our trucks... and so on.

Then I assume, if any iPhone comes even close to it, we, as the owner of the tag will get a location of the asset. There are enough iPhones in the wild, that the tag should ping an iPhone quite often. A passing car on the highway, an unassuming thief with an iPhone who doesn't know these exist, hell anyone who uses the asset in the future before the battery dies.

 

[mannyvel]

If these work as expected, and assuming the battery lasts at least a couple of years, they will be fantastic for tracking assets. Hide one inside of our construction trailers(which, unbelievably get stolen), one in our trucks... and so on.

Then I assume, if any iPhone comes even close to it, we, as the owner of the tag will get a location of the asset. There are enough iPhones in the wild, that the tag should ping an iPhone quite often. A passing car on the highway, an unassuming thief with an iPhone who doesn't know these exist, hell anyone who uses the asset in the future before the battery dies.

Yeah, I was thinking this would be an awesome asset tag, especially for construction equipment which apparently gets stolen all the time. I know a bunch of contractors that are constantly "losing" stuff at job sites. And those tools get expensive.

You could do this for valuables in luggage as well.

 

[iReality85]

This is the potential power of Apple making similar devices. The rumors are that the Apple device will be able to send out a constant beacon signal that ANY Apple device within range will get and report back to the server. This beacon will not contain any identifying information but will be coded so that the server can report back to you. So, with all of the Apple devices in the world, especially in the United States, you will have a very good chance of having your "tag" in range of one at any given time. This will report to you the general location. Once you arrive at that location, the UWB chip kicks in and guides you to the precise location.

If these work as expected, and assuming the battery lasts at least a couple of years, they will be fantastic for tracking assets. Hide one inside of our construction trailers(which, unbelievably get stolen), one in our trucks... and so on.

Then I assume, if any iPhone comes even close to it, we, as the owner of the tag will get a location of the asset. There are enough iPhones in the wild, that the tag should ping an iPhone quite often. A passing car on the highway, an unassuming thief with an iPhone who doesn't know these exist, hell anyone who uses the asset in the future before the battery dies.

If this is how Apple Tags will work, this sounds like a privacy nightmare. The same exact situation of putting an Apple Tag inside a company car could be done by a nosy husband or wife, snooping on their spouse. Or really anyone for that matter, who is intent on knowing your location without you knowing.

Apple would have to implement safeguards to prevent privacy abuses like this. Maybe something like you getting a notification on your phone if a nearby Apple Tag -- that is not your own -- is detected repeatedly over time. Obvious examples that are ripe for privacy invasion are cars, coats, and hand bags.

 

[alexandr]

Yeah, I was thinking this would be an awesome asset tag, especially for construction equipment which apparently gets stolen all the time. I know a bunch of contractors that are constantly "losing" stuff at job sites. And those tools get expensive.

You could do this for valuables in luggage as well.

ha ha ha, a super from the building our shop is at got fired recently for selling his drill to another super))) these tags would help prevent this))

 

[gavroche]

Comments like this make me chuckle.
I'm not sure the Apple solution works on Android, with that in mind you think Tile will be dead in the water given Android users probably won't buy the Apple version?

i could be wrong... but when I read his comment I took it to mean dead in the water with regards to Apple users... as that is the user base of this forum for the most part.

 

[danny1305]

Ridiculous product. Never needed such a thing to find my belongings.

So because YOU dont need it...its a ridiculous product?? The world doesnt revolve around you

 

[wayoutwest5505]

Ridiculous product. Never needed such a thing to find my belongings.

Purchased 4 Tiles a few years ago. ($79) Couldn't find them. Just Found them in a drawer last month. Ironic City ! Utah

 

[randyhudson]

Tile will become synonymous with having an Android phone.

 

[melgross]

Yah, nobody wants to pay a premium price just because it has an Apple brand on it and zero innovation right?

Oh wait... Of course they will because it will be priced appropriately and will work well like all Apple stuff.

Ha ha. We don’t know how Apple will price these. These are $20 apiece. That’s nuts. I doubt Apple would price them higher. I imagine they will price them lower. I feel that these are priced so highly because they’re a small company and sell very few, so there’s no scalability. Apple could scale more easily.

 

[iGeneo]

It won't be able to with the site isn't populated with u1 chip and could be accidentally shatter by construction equipment.

I am very confident that the tag will work with phones that do not have the U1 chip...

That alone is a game changer... Tile has such a small ecosystem compared to apple, it won't even be close

 

[MadGoat]

The tag is not able to if most smartphone without u1 chip so it could be harder to tell the positions for the lost items that are not within distance.

In the short term, yes, but people will be buying new phones and eventually there will be enough in the wild to give enough feedback for.

You don't need saturation of iPhones, just one of two, here and there.

If this is how Apple Tags will work, this sounds like a privacy nightmare. The same exact situation of putting an Apple Tag inside a company car could be done by a nosy husband or wife, snooping on their spouse. Or really anyone for that matter, who is intent on knowing your location without you knowing.

Apple would have to implement safeguards to prevent privacy abuses like this. Maybe something like you getting a notification on your phone if a nearby Apple Tag -- that is not your own -- is detected repeatedly over time. Obvious examples that are ripe for privacy invasion are cars, coats, and hand bags.

I don't assume that it will invade any privacy, the phone will see a tag and say, "Mothership, I saw a random tag with the number 5F2DE4C8 at this location." The phone doesn't know or care who it is or who it belongs to. However the owner of the tag can open "Find My" and see the tag in real time, assuming a phone is nearby.

Nosy husband, these won't change their bevaviour. They'll use another phone, a gps unit, or any myriad devices that can snoop on people.

 

[Ankaa]

Ridiculous product. Never needed such a thing to find my belongings.

Well, good for you. Some people do.

 

[iGeneo]

If this is how Apple Tags will work, this sounds like a privacy nightmare. The same exact situation of putting an Apple Tag inside a company car could be done by a nosy husband or wife, snooping on their spouse. Or really anyone for that matter, who is intent on knowing your location without you knowing.

Apple would have to implement safeguards to prevent privacy abuses like this. Maybe something like you getting a notification on your phone if a nearby Apple Tag -- that is not your own -- is detected repeatedly over time. Obvious examples that are ripe for privacy invasion are cars, coats, and hand bags.

There has been both stopping anyone from doing this in the past with Tile. It's a non issue IMHO.

Imagine a notification when I'm in a meeting with 10 people that all have these... the "nearby tag notification" isn't happening.

 

[mannyvel]

The tag is not able to if most smartphone without u1 chip so it could be harder to tell the positions for the lost items that are not within distance.

It depends if it's UWB and BLE or just UWB. I would think it was BLE-enabled just so they could sell to a bigger market, but who knows until it's released?

 

[iReality85]

There has been both stopping anyone from doing this in the past with Tile. It's a non issue IMHO.

Imagine a notification when I'm in a meeting with 10 people that all have these... the "nearby tag notification" isn't happening.

Tile does not work nearly as ubiquitously as what some people here are saying about how Apple Tags will work.

Also, you're not imagining it correctly. Notifications wouldn't go off for simple one-off or occasional events like meetings or being in a public setting. The tag system would have to be smart enough to learn and know the difference. As I said before: an Apple Tag that is not yours coming into close proximity with you multiple times a day, every day. Like with a car, piece of clothing, or personal accessory.

Most forms of snooping are either expensive, cumbersome, or involve the risk of being detected. $20 Apple Tags with long lasting batteries that interact anonymously with Apple's large installed user base and servers would mean there is almost zero risk to anyone who wants to invade someone's privacy without adequate safeguards put into place.

 

[Ankaa]

If this is how Apple Tags will work, this sounds like a privacy nightmare. The same exact situation of putting an Apple Tag inside a company car could be done by a nosy husband or wife, snooping on their spouse. Or really anyone for that matter, who is intent on knowing your location without you knowing.

Apple would have to implement safeguards to prevent privacy abuses like this. Maybe something like you getting a notification on your phone if a nearby Apple Tag -- that is not your own -- is detected repeatedly over time. Obvious examples that are ripe for privacy invasion are cars, coats, and hand bags.

Because there's absolutely no way this can be and is already happening, right? It only starts becoming a problem when Apple starts selling something like this, right?

Paranoia will remain paranoia. Things like these have existed for years. Well before Tile.

 

[iReality85]

Because there's absolutely no way this can be and is already happening, right? It only starts becoming a problem when Apple starts selling something like this, right?

Paranoia will remain paranoia. Things like these have existed for years. Well before Tile.

So Apple shouldn't do anything to safeguard against it, right? What a stupid comment.

 

[jeffh]

Granted in real life use I haven’t found them to be as reliable either that or the situation beats the tech, to me they’ve seemed more of a novelty. It would be great if they did work and if they worked in conjunction with a database so you could look at you phone for a packing list. Personally if they were a sticky label priced where you could have a hundred then they would be useful.

You can do something like this now with a combination of NFC tags (which are cheap!) and Shortcuts.

 

[iGeneo]

Because there's absolutely no way this can be and is already happening, right? It only starts becoming a problem when Apple starts selling something like this, right?

Paranoia will remain paranoia. Things like these have existed for years. Well before Tile.

Exactly!

So.. I buy my wife a few tiles to track her stuff, purse, gym bag and what not... Happy Birthday babe!

Now... she is in the "Tile" Eco system because she has the app and is willing to crowdsource for others... such a do gooder!

Now... I as a jealous husband decide that I want to track her.. easy enough, I buy a Tile of my own and pitch it into her car or even her purse (most women have so much crap in there they wouldn't ever notice) Since she is part of the "crowd" she reports back to me without knowing, where my Tile is..

And bam... I'm now "tracking" my wife.

Apple is doing nothing new here in general, just that their implementation will be much better, no 3rd party tracking me as Time does.. and a FAR larger ecosystem.

 

[citysnaps]

I can't wait for Apple's 'pin-point solution" if it lives up to the hype. I have several power tools (Festool) which are in similar looking boxes. If I could search for the "router" or the "planer" and see a red balloon point me to this end at one end of the garage or to the other end of the house, I would (hopefully) be able to find my tools faster and be more productive as opposed to spending so much time searching.
Yes, if I was disciplined to put things away, I wouldn't need Apple-Tiles but its hard to change a leopard's spots this late in the game! 😏

I also have Festool tools - they're pricey, but great. I could see attaching a tile inside the box or on (some) tools in case they should ever be stolen. I might then have a chance of recovery.
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Tile has a longer range so it could be better than 1st gen apple tag so it might not be the right apple tag for your needs.

I'd like to see range claims tested. I'm skeptical of the 400 foot range claim in common house/work environments with multiple walls. UWB would have a better range for a given RF output power.

 

[iReality85]

Exactly!

So.. I buy my wife a few tiles to track her stuff, purse, gym bag and what not... Happy Birthday babe!

Now... she is in the "Tile" Eco system because she has the app and is willing to crowdsource for others... such a do gooder!

Now... I as a jealous husband decide that I want to track her.. easy enough, I buy a Tile of my own and pitch it into her car or even her purse (most women have so much crap in there they wouldn't ever notice) Since she is part of the "crowd" she reports back to me without knowing, where my Tile is..

And bam... I'm now "tracking" my wife.

Apple is doing nothing new here in general, just that their implementation will be much better, no 3rd party tracking me as Time does.. and a FAR larger ecosystem.

You and your wife both made the decision to install the Tile app. Therefore, you chose to be tracked in this manner, even if in your example you slipped a Tile into her car. Shame on her, I guess. But the point is, you have to have the Tile app. Throw a Tile into her car without her having the app, and it's basically useless.

But that's not what we're talking about here with Apple Tags. You even correctly point out that Apple has a far larger ecosystem, and so is able to leverage that for extreme accuracy and ease of use. Basically, anyone who has an iPhone. And that wouldn't necessarily require having an app. I'm not sure if you're being intentionally disingenuous (it sounds to me like you're mocking the situation), but it's a legitimate concern, no matter how funny or smug you want to be about it.

 

[DrwMDvs]

We need a banana for scale.

 

[Ankaa]

but it's a legitimate concern

It's a legitimate concern. Or you're just paranoid. One could even go as far as wonder what YOU have to hide to spend so much time worrying about this.

You do realize there already are myriads of ways to be tracked?

Ok, what do you suggest to do about that? How do you suggest implementing safeguards? But maybe you just keep resorting to calling other comments "stupid".

 

[frankly]

You might not able to pin point solution on most places since most device doesn't come with u1 chip and could not actually retrieve if someone accidentally shatter the apple tag.
...
It might report back if the signal isn't long for checking the lost item so it could work better if U1 chip is kicking which still has low quantity device have that function.
...
Tile has a longer range so it could be better than 1st gen apple tag so it might not be the right apple tag for your needs.
...
The tag is not able to if most smartphone without u1 chip so it could be harder to tell the positions for the lost items that are not within distance.

You are making all of these statements without any knowledge of how Apple's devices that haven't even been released yet will or won't work. It is possible that they will use BLE for compatibility with all existing iPhones and UWB for precision location when the owner of the tags gets to the general area.

Lol! This ^.

I'd love to know what comes next. These paranoid fears don't actually happen. Ever. Where are all the people who've died from Apple engineers listening to Siri recordings? Or Amazon?

Meanwhile these same people will publish every step of their day on Facebook complete with location tagging.

This is an ignorant and callous response that is completely lacking in empathy. Just because you don't have first-hand knowledge of this, you think it doesn't exist? Because you see many people post their locations on Facebook, that means that everyone does it? You are naive and you need to do some research. This is a real thing that happens to real people every day.

For other people that read this response, does this mean that Apple shouldn't do something like this? Of course not. But it does mean that people who are in physical danger from someone will have to be aware of this new technology when keeping themselves and their loved ones safe.