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Apple to Begin Selling AirTag Competitor Chipolo's CARD Spot for Wallets

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Apple's online store will begin selling the Chipolo CARD Spot on Tuesday, March 14, according to a Chipolo spokesperson. Like the AirTag, the CARD Spot supports Apple's Find My app. The circular Chipolo ONE Spot will not be sold by Apple.

Chipolo-CARD-Spot-iPhone.jpeg

Priced at $35, the Chipolo CARD Spot is a card-shaped item tracker designed for use with wallets. The accessory allows you to easily track the location of a wallet in the Items tab of the Find My app on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple does not offer a card-shaped version of the AirTag, giving the CARD Spot a unique advantage for wallets. For additional information, read our hands-on review of the CARD Spot published last year.

Apple launched the AirTag in April 2021, and the hardware has not been updated since. Apple did refresh its AirTag accessories lineup last week.

Update: The Chipolo CARD Spot is now available on Apple's online store.

Article Link: Apple to Begin Selling AirTag Competitor Chipolo's CARD Spot for Wallets
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/03/13/apple-to-sell-chipolo-card-spot/
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Reading the past MacRumors post, seeing that it is the thickness of three credit cards is decent but I'd love for it to get to about half that thickness.

No user-replaceable battery is too bad but it's probably a necessary trade-off for being water resistant and not needing to make it thicker to accommodate a removable design.

It's great that it works with Find My, but do you need to create a Chipolo account or otherwise use a Chipolo app to use it? I would love to set it up within the Find My app and not create a third-party account or use a third-party app for this kind of thing, just like how you can set up a HomeKit-compatible smarthome product from within Apple's Home app.

I hope this product does well and in turn that Apple makes a card version of the AirTag.
 
I had the Chipolo Card Spot in my wallet, which I keep in my back pocket. I was surprised one day when I went to "Find My" to add an AirTag that the Card Spot had last been "seen" three days ago - despite being with me! It just quietly died without any notification. Also, since its lacking UWB like Apple's AirTag, you cannot enable left behind notifications that might have helped.

Another downside is that it was frequently beeping and making noises when I'd sit down - the Card Spot has a button on it unlike Apple's Airtag.

I had used a Tile Slim Tracker for years in the same wallet. It too had the beeping problem, but it lasted years vs 22 days for the Chipolo.
 
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I have one of these in my Secrid Wallet. Very happy with the size. It is already my second Card Spüot as the first one had a non working speaker after a few weeks. It got replaced without an problems.
 
My wife and I both used these, and they are a great idea, but they simply result in countless false positives of "you've left your wallet behind". We have completely separate iCloud accounts, etc and we both actually have very different lives in the sense of work, usage patterns, etc: and we both were incessantly alerted that "you've left your wallet behind" when it literally was was right next to our respective iPhones each time. To the point it was a joke, and I stopped using them (as did my wife) because then when I actually leave it behind I won't trust it, and the "stop, panic, realize it's nothing" every few days in an airpot, restaurant, whatever was more disruptive to life than actually leaving my wallet behind.

This just has never happened with an AirTag. So, I am living with the ugly bump of an AirTag until I have the time to disassemble one into a flat form factor to fit better into a wallet.
 
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I do NOT recommend this card. In theory it was exactly what I was looking for but then every time I kept my wallet in my back pocket it started chirping due to the pressure apparently being put on the button. Super annoying stopped using it after a month.
 
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The Chipolo Card is great idea, but mine lasted 2 months before it failed. Repair or replacement under warranty in convoluted. Let's see what happens once the returns start coming in to Apple.
 
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I just YESTERDAY installed a new Tiles version of this style tracker - replacing older with dead battery in my wallet. With FindMy compatibility, Chipolo's version definately goes in when that new Tile battery conks out. Tile is great - used these for years but have limited reach/coverage and have added AirTags to some of my kit like luggage - if these Chipolo "cards" are truly compatible with AirTag system and thus almost ANY bluetooth enabled mobile device coverage will be way better and more powerful. Tile has been a Godsend over the years but it's interesting to be able to actually track your luggage in real time even if it's on another plane or in the depths of a terminal somewhere.
 
Can't see how I would like to be tracked continuously for any reason what-so-ever.

Now if the tracker was completely dormant (and provable that it was) when not within 10m of my watch, iPhone, iPad, or mac then that might make some sense. Of course, the provable part would never happen because the point is to be able to track the person.
 
mystery hill said:
For those of you that still use physical wallets, what do you store in them?
Click to expand...
Driver’s license (Ohio doesn’t have digital yet), CC’s (not everything is contactless), insurance cards (health, vision, dental, prescription - providers want a physical card), HSA debit (again, no contactless) and cash (some places I frequent are cash only)
 
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nt5672 said:
Can't see how I would like to be tracked continuously for any reason what-so-ever.

Now if the tracker was completely dormant (and provable that it was) when not within 10m of my watch, iPhone, iPad, or mac then that might make some sense. Of course, the provable part would never happen because the point is to be able to track the person.
Click to expand...
The location of an AirTag is end-to-end encrypted, and can only be accessed from your devices.
 
Chipolo Card is great. My son and I have used them for probably a year - year and a half? Works flawlessly and no issues with the beeping other people report. Great product.
 
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Got one of those a few month ago. It broke within a month. This plastic tracker is not built for a "wallet" (the way I use it - it's more or less always in my back pocket and I sit on it...)

Fair to them, they replaced it quickly, but the replacement also broke quickly.
 
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