Chipolo ONE Spot Now Available to Pre-Order as Cheaper AirTag Alternative With Find My Integration

[KennyJr]

The Chipolo has two other features that make it stand out (other than the hole in the tag):
1. Squeeze it twice and it finds my iPhone (more effectively than my Apple Watch does).
2. When I leave house, restaurant, or wherever without it (and what it's attached to), I receive a message on my iPhone telling me I left it behind.

 

[Westside guy]

yes, that is useful! but knowing t-mobile — they won't have service there anyhow

You know, as a T-Mobile customer - I should have thought of that little detail! 😁

 

[Morgenland]

Chipolo ONE Spot lacks Ultra Wideband support

If that had been the headline, I would not have wasted the time of reading such ad article.

 

[KennyJr]

yea, but for $60 + $5/mo though?..

Have I missed something here .. I bought two of these Chipolos along with a Chipolo wallet card for $52 and change. They definitely work well and I don't pay any monthly charge (where did you get this $5 bit?).

 

[3xBoom]

It'd be nicer if it didn't say "Chipolo" on it... 🤣

Should simply show a modified Apple logo. Otherwise, a pretty dumb name IMHO... just like millions of products from Asia named so sound "English" or "American".

 

[palemonkey]

The Chipolo has two other features that make it stand out (other than the hole in the tag):
1. Squeeze it twice and it finds my iPhone (more effectively than my Apple Watch does).
2. When I leave house, restaurant, or wherever without it (and what it's attached to), I receive a message on my iPhone telling me I left it behind.

Unfortunately the Chipolo compatible with Find My doesn’t support these features.

 

[alexandr]

You know, as a T-Mobile customer - I should have thought of that little detail! 😁

it's the first thing that i thought of. as a t-mobile customer)

 

[alexandr]

Have I missed something here .. I bought two of these Chipolos along with a Chipolo wallet card for $52 and change. They definitely work well and I don't pay any monthly charge (where did you get this $5 bit?).

no no, you're good — i was referring to the t-mobile offer that i posted on p1 of this thread.

 

[gene731]

It'd be nicer if it didn't say "Chipolo" on it... 🤣

I see it and every time I see Chipolo my mind goes right to Chipotle.

 

[anek007]

Lose lose situation for 3rd party to have find my crowd sourcing. I mention in the other post in other threads. There’s no way chipolo selling these when it’s same price as airtags. Chipolo lost features with this crimple device. Until Apple allows more features. 3rd party trackers with find my are DOA.

 

[gene731]

ewwww, you flushed it

Yuck!!!! Grosssssss

 

[CubeHacker]

Precision Finding is one of the key features of the AirTag. Often I misplace my stuff within my room, whether it's in my jacket or my nightstand or my backpack. Having that available on AirTags has saved me a lot of time and hassle with quickly locating things like my wallet, AirPods Pro, and vape pen.

Spend the extra dollar and get the superior product.

How exactly do you affix a tracker to a vape pen? Serious question. Adhesive tape?

 

[0924487]

They couldn't do it or price it competitively because of the MFI Apple Tax, probably.

Imaging for every tag you sell, MFI royalty is $10 per tag + 20% of the final sales amount.

 

[SFjohn]

While some cry like babies, others do good business using Apple’s infrastructure. Way to go.

Less waterproof, less functional for just a dollar less? Hard pass for me.

 

[leicaman]

So apparently the U1 chips costs $1.00? Otherwise, how is it so expensive without a significant benefit of the U1 chip?

No sale. Even if the hole is really great and Apple should do it.

 

[M87]

Does the logo on these scratch off if you breathe on it?

 

[anek007]

So apparently the U1 chips costs $1.00? Otherwise, how is it so expensive without a significant benefit of the U1 chip?

No sale. Even if the hole is really great and Apple should do it.

Apple tax for using find my app.

 

[7149041]

so undercut airbags in price by $1 and $2.25 per in a pack of 4 but without ultrawideband? Tile and Samsung think ultrawideband is a $10 feature, so --- not much of a deal. s/b $19 for one

At least you don't need an expensive accessory to actually attach it to your stuff. Not that I care, still planning to replace my Tiles with AirTags as soon as the latter start selling in my region.

 

[gtg465x]

Apple needs a flat version for wallets. I would also like to see alerts / notifications when you leave the tracker behind like Chipolo offers for free and Tile offers for a monthly fee. Will probably go for a Chipolo for my wallet, which is the only thing I ever really lose.

 

[V.K.]

Interesting that they're going for that $28 price. I feel most people -- even the average consumer who doesn't even realize what the U1 chip does -- will say no thank you and opt for the "official" tracker from Apple that costs a dollar more.

That's one way to look at it. But for specific needs like a key chain this is much cheaper than an AirTag which needs a separate holder. But I am not sure many people will consider this when buying.

 

[dankron]

hahah suck **** Tile, instead of crying like a little ***** if you sprint into action and take advantage of the apple find my network you wouldn't be so far behind the competition now...

 

[Roadster Lewis]

Apple needs a flat version for wallets. I would also like to see alerts / notifications when you leave the tracker behind like Chipolo offers for free and Tile offers for a monthly fee. Will probably go for a Chipolo for my wallet, which is the only thing I ever really lose.

I think that the beauty of Apple opening up the Find My network is that soon we will be able to buy Find My enabled wallets/cameras/vape pens/whatevers.

 

[1262385]

Why's it got a weird little hole in it?

So you can hang it on a stud in your nose (or elsewhere), obvi. It's next-gen body art + a political statement on the loss of privacy and electronic surveillance.

 

[jhollington]

Yes, but if they wanted (and Apple allowed it,) you might be able to keep it on the Chipolo network until you actually lose an item and then switch to the Find My network to hunt down your lost item...

edit: I went to Chipolo website and it says the ONE Spot works "exclusively" with the Find My network. So no "out of range" alerts. Oh well.

Yup, I'm pretty sure you can thank Apple for that one. It's a requirement of companies joining the Find My network that their tags work exclusively with the Find My network.

 

[jhollington]

So apparently the U1 chips costs $1.00? Otherwise, how is it so expensive without a significant benefit of the U1 chip?

I strongly suspect Apple is selling AirTags at much closer to cost. It doesn't need to make a huge profit on them, as they're ultimately designed to increase the value of the iPhone ecosystem. Plus, Apple is cranking them out at a much more massive scale.

Chipolo, by contrast, is a much smaller company that only makes tracking tags. That's their bread and butter business, so they pretty much have to turn a profit.

At $25, their standard Chipolo ONE tags aren't much cheaper, so I don't think this is simply an MFi thing. Granted, those do a bit more thanks to their own app, but that doesn't mean the tags themselves are any more complicated to build. In fact, the ONE Spot probably has the same hardware capabilities — they're just not compatible with the Find My network simply because those features aren't even there on the other end right now.