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Exclusive: Apple's Tile Competitor Will Include 'Items' Tab in iOS 13's Find My App and Much More

I think we can all predict what is going to happen here. Apple release a tracking device let’s say for $99 each. Then there will be uproar as people compare them to Tile and moan about the price. Is it going to be cheaper than an Apple Watch Sport band or power adapter? Highly unlikely.

I very much doubt that Apple will release an exact replica of Tile or any other similar tracker on the market. It’s a huge risky move to enter such a relatively small market, so they must be confident that they have something that’s game changing.
 
How does work with Do Not Disturb which automatically turn on when driving?

Im sure I already own something that notifies me if left at home but I don't get the notification if driving away

Or the geofence circle is too large
 
archer75 said:
A lot. I don't know the exact number. Depends on the company. Tile being the largest. But keep in mind they work on both IOS and Android so you benefit from 2 different ecosystems.

I imagine not everyone is going to want their phone to be used to relay this data and apple will let people opt out, or opt in. And thus you won't have the entirety if ios for this network. Just a guess.
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So they automatically ping the tile tags automatically without you having to open the app?
 
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BlazednSleepy said:
So they automatically ping the tile tags automatically without you having to open the app?
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As far as I know, yes. As long as the app is installed and you've granted it the necessary permissions. It's crowd sourced and their site said anyone with the app installed relays data for lost trackers.

My trackers are on my dogs. I just opened the app and it says there are 1278 people nearby with tiles. And the community updated the most recent location for one of my tiles which is at home.
 
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Tile charges $35 for Tile Pro (longer range, louder speaker) and $25 for Tile, and the company offers lower priced bundle (essentially buy 3, get 1 free).

Hopefully, Apple's offering won't be much more expensive. $49 each will be pushing it.

Apple should instead make and/or license accessories to bring in more revenue -- wallet (with dedicated Apple Card slot?), luggage tag, keychain, Apple TV Siri Remote case, bicycle lock, etc.
 
archer75 said:
As far as I know, yes. As long as the app is installed and you've granted it the necessary permissions. It's crowd sourced and their site said anyone with the app installed relays data for lost trackers.
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Nope, Tile does not work on the basis of covert autonomous crowdsharing signals which is the new technology we are discussing.

See here: https://www.thetileapp.com/blog/shared-tiles-feature
 
I was hoping that Apple would bring this, it needs a big player to really work good. This will change a lot for stolen cars and bikes, sadly also for stalking somebody but I guess that's inevitable going forward.
 
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A new batch of Apple branded routers & extenders would help with this in the home too. Imagine the technology that they could put into new Airport Routers:
- Bluetooth mesh
- HomeKit hub functionality
- Caching of iOS updates (so one download per household, instead of one per device)
- Combined with iPhone ‘mapping’ the house layout, they could be used to triangulate the *exact* position of these ‘tiles’ and overlay in their position AR
 
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nutmac said:
Tile charges $35 for Tile Pro (longer range, louder speaker) and $25 for Tile, and the company offers lower priced bundle (essentially buy 3, get 1 free).

Hopefully, Apple's offering won't be much more expensive. $49 each will be pushing it.

Apple should instead make and/or license accessories to bring in more revenue -- wallet (with dedicated Apple Card slot?), luggage tag, keychain, Apple TV Siri Remote case, bicycle lock, etc.
Click to expand...

To compare these anticipated devices to Tile would not be wise.

archer75 said:
That article has nothing to do with how tile works. That's just sharing your tile with another person. I share the tiles with my wife so we can both direct access them.
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The Tile website mentions nothing about the technology we are discussing. You are just wrongly assuming that Tile can covertly and autonomously share location data via crowdsourcing which is wrong. Show me a link to prove otherwise.

This type of technology will be embedded in the software code for iOS 13.0.
 
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GadgetBen said:
The Tile website mentions nothing about the technology we are discussing. You are just wrongly assuming that Tile can covertly and autonomously share location data via crowdsourcing which is wrong. Show me a link to prove otherwise.
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lol, just look at their site! Do a quick search! I posted the link to their site where they say it. I can see it in my own tile app where it shows how many people in my area are using tile and it also shows the location of one of my trackers being reported by the community. That's exactly how they work! Otherwise, how would it report it's location when it's out of range of my phone?

https://www.pocket-lint.com/gadgets...ile-how-does-find-with-tile-work-what-devices

"But there's also a much bigger community play here. If you're no longer in that area, you can tap the button to notify you when your device is found and the rest of the Tile community comes into play. When your lost item is detected by another Tile user, the location is passed back to you.

It's all anonymous, so you don't know who detects your item and they don't know they've detected your item, you will just have the location passed back to your app so you can go and find your missing possessions.

It's using this wider community that Tile has a big advantage - if you live in any sort of urban or suburban area, there's likely to be thousands of Tile users around you - so locating things you might lose becomes easier. As the community grows through more partnerships, the density of the Tile community will increase, again boosting the likelihood of your missing item being found."

"Tile connects you to the world’s largest search party so everyone using the app within range of your lost item can update its location for you." https://www.thetileapp.com/en-us/how-it-works
Is that not crowdsourcing?
 
MacRumors said:
Users will receive a notification when they are separated from a tagged item, according to strings in the internal Find My app bundle.
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So how come we haven't been able to have this very basic feature (native, not 3rd party app crap) between iPhone and apple watch? My better half almost left his iPhone in an airport chair once, we were on the plane but they let him go back out and get it. Ugh, smart device failure.
 
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archer75 said:
lol, just look at their site! Do a quick search! I posted the link to their site where they say it. I can see it in my own tile app where it shows how many people in my area are using tile and it also shows the location of one of my trackers being reported by the community. That's exactly how they work! Otherwise, how would it report it's location when it's out of range of my phone?
Click to expand...

Yeah just as I thought, you are not understanding what we are talking about. You are talking about reporting lost devices to a community.

We are talking about the Apple devices doing this on a software level, built into the code of iOS 13.0. Tile can’t compete with that.

Tracking will likely run autonomously on a code level, so that every single Apple device running the latest software will be able to form the worlds biggest beacon for millions of people.
 
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GadgetBen said:
Yeah just as I thought, you are not understanding what we are talking about. You are talking about reporting lost devices to a community.

We are talking about the Apple devices doing this on a software level, built into the code of iOS 13.0. Tile can’t compete with that.

It will likely run autonomously on a code level, so that every single Apple device running the latest software will be able to form the worlds biggest beacon for millions of people.
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OMG man it's the same thing! In either case devices with the software are reporting devices locations using other peoples phones with the app or software running. They are relying on a network of devices to do this.

In either case, both tile and the apple device, you must both set them as lost when you need the community to report their location.
It's using the network of other users to report it's location.

Just because it's part of IOS doesn't necessarily mean it's turned on for every device. I bet apple will make it an opt in or opt out feature. Not everyone is going to want their phones doing this.
 
archer75 said:
OMG man it's the same thing! In either case devices with the software are reporting devices locations using other peoples phones with the app or software running. They are relying on a network of devices to do this.

In either case, both tile and the apple device, you must both set them as lost when you need the community to report their location.

Just because it's part of IOS doesn't necessarily mean it's turned on for every device. I bet apple will make it an opt in or opt out feature. Not everyone is going to want their phones doing this.
Click to expand...

No, no you really don’t understand. Tile does this on an App level and requires community participation. Apple will do this on a code level.
 
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GadgetBen said:
No, no you really don’t understand. Tile does this on an App level and requires community participation. Apple will do this on a code level.
Click to expand...
Same thing! It's just software. It's nothing magical. Both require a community and network of devices. Both require you to report the device lost. Both devices relay location to another users device, when in range, which then relays it to you. It's the same thing! It's crowd sourcing.
Aside from marking the device as lost, which you have to do on both, reporting is automatic for either and does not require any user intervention for either. Both rely on the community of devices working together to report the location of the lost tag.

Tile does this in the tile app. IOS does this in the find my app. It's the same thing.
 
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MisterSavage said:
I am so buying this for my father. He is constantly losing his keys. His battery in his Tile has to be near end of life anyway.
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I thought you were actually buying it "for your father"... because you keep losing him. :p

But seriously, how long before boyfriends give these to their girlfriends as earrings, so they can find them in the mall, or parents attach them to their children? :eek:
 
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GadgetBen said:
No, no you really don’t understand. Tile does this on an App level and requires community participation. Apple will do this on a code level.
Click to expand...

archer75 said:
Same thing! It's just software. It's nothing magical. Both require a community and network of devices. Both require you to report the device lost. Both devices relay location to another users device, when in range, which then relays it to you. It's the same thing! It's crowd sourcing.
Aside from marking the device as lost, it's all automatic for either.

Tile does this in the tile app. IOS does this in the find my app. It's the same thing.
Click to expand...

I think you are both correct. Stop the bickering. :p

GadgetBen is trying to say that this tracking feature will operate at the "operating system" level, which is lower and deeper than individual apps. Apple's "Find My" app will be able to plug into the system-level functionality, whereas the Tile app needs to implement everything within itself, and is then constrained by restrictions, such as Bluetooth not being available 100%.

As for being "magical", Archie, I think Apple will bring the goods.

I just wish they would release this as a system API feature that any app/service can tie into instead of competing against existing tracking solutions. Apple should facilitate healthy competition on their platform, and that's what puts iPhone on the map, not having yet another feature implemented by Apple themselves. Just my take.
 
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archer75 said:
Same thing! It's just software. It's nothing magical. Both require a community and network of devices. Both require you to report the device lost. Both devices relay location to another users device, when in range, which then relays it to you. It's the same thing! It's crowd sourcing.

Tile does this in the tile app. IOS does this in the find my app. It's the same thing.
Click to expand...

It really isn’t the same thing at all! All
I’m asking you to do is educate yourself before you make false claims:

https://www.wired.com/story/apple-find-my-cryptography-bluetooth/

P.S have you read Tide’s privacy policy? It’s not a great read. I suspect this is another area Apple will capitalise on for these devices.
 
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GadgetBen said:
It really isn’t the same thing at all! All
I’m asking you to do is educate yourself before you make false claims:

https://www.wired.com/story/apple-find-my-cryptography-bluetooth/

P.S have you read Tide’s privacy policy? It’s not a great read. I suspect this is another area Apple will capitalise on for these devices.
Click to expand...
That article doesn't disprove anything I said! Devices relaying location automatically using a community of devices. Which is what tile does. In either case it's anonymous, you don't know your device just relayed a location. It's seamless.
 
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