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Lost-and-Found Bluetooth Accessory 'Tile' Passes $1 Million in Pre-Orders

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Apr 12, 2001
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Tile is a Bluetooth Low Energy device that connects to the iPhone to assist users in finding lost items like keys, wallets, computers and more. The company is offering Tiles for $19 each via a Kickstarter-like preordering process.

The company has more than 18,500 backers and just passed $1 million in orders with 7 days to go.

The device uses Bluetooth LE to connect to supported iPhone and iPad models. If something with a Tile attached to it is lost -- car keys, for example -- the iPhone can show you the last place it remembers seeing the tile, and can also make the tile play a sound via a built in-speaker.

If something is lost or stolen, the system will have other Tile devices look for it and report back on its whereabouts.

Bluetooth Low Energy was introduced in Apple devices back in 2011 and made its debut on the iPhone with the 4S. The specification paves the way for a lot of interconnected devices like smart watches, health monitoring and electronic leash devices like the Tile.

Tile only supports the iPhone and iPad because of Apple's strong Bluetooth 4.0 support -- the company specifically addresses the lack of Android support in its FAQ:
At this time Android does not support Bluetooth 4.0. A few Android phone manufacturers have released BLE SDKs, however they are lacking in quality and stability. At Tile, the quality of our products is of utmost importance, and until there exists an Android platform that meets our quality standards, we will not be releasing a Tile app for Android.
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Currently, Tiles are available for $19 each, though they will eventually be $25 each. A tile has a battery life of around a year and will need to be replaced after that time, though the company makes it easy to recycle them.

The preorder period will run for another week.

Article Link: Lost-and-Found Bluetooth Accessory 'Tile' Passes $1 Million in Pre-Orders
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/15/lost-and-found-bluetooth-accessory-tile-passes-1-million-in-pre-orders/
Only works with iOS. Chances of it being in range of someone else with the Tile app if your device gets stolen are almost non-existant.

There are a number of products out there already just like this for much less and that have a much smaller footprint so you can place them inside devices like laptops.
 
"If something is lost or stolen, the system will have other Tile devices look for it and report back on its whereabouts."

So they can talk to each other? Hmmm. Wonder how secure that will be...
 
The reviews of StickNFind are so awful.. Quality control does not exist.

I'm hoping HipKey is a better and interesting option.

The Tile concept is great, except that they die before a year is up.. In the real world, I suspect they won't make a few months.
 
I backed for a single Tile. Listen, if these guys are successful, these things (either Tiles, or other things much like them) will be down to a few bucks each in the next few years. At which point it only lasting a year is no big deal. But they have to get some traction.

And really... It's a nickel per day for a year, folks. If that's truly a deal-breaker, time to upgrade your life. :rolleyes: I don't even pick up pennies when I see them on the street. I could easily pay for a Tile for a year if I did, times several.
 
Nicky G said:
I backed for a single Tile. Listen, if these guys are successful, these things (either Tiles, or other things much like them) will be down to a few bucks each in the next few years. At which point it only lasting a year is no big deal. But they have to get some traction.

And really... It's a nickel per day for a year, folks. If that's truly a deal-breaker, time to upgrade your life. :rolleyes: I don't even pick up pennies when I see them on the street. I could easily pay for a Tile for a year if I did, times several.
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Yeah.. $19 a year is cheap for what you getting and these guys seem hell bent on quality
 
Icaras said:
It's only $6 more...?
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You need to buy 2 and the one in MR is also expensive in my book.
These should be $8-10 each to be feasible in the open market.
I will wait until more people and cheaper bt licenses come to get one of these
 
If you lost keys in your own house this might work. But if you lost anything outside of your own home the chaces are very small this could work. You have to be VERY lucky to just happen to have some other person with a Tile App on the iPhone tobe withing a few feet of you Tile.

These things need to...

1) use a UNIVERSAL protocol some all leash type gadgets can interoperate. This way there is at least some small chase some one will have the right app near your tile. It will never happen if there are 100 apps that don't interoperate

2) the Tile needs to by 10x cheaper and paper thin. It needs to apply like a property ID tag. I thin RFID is the right technology NOT Bluetooth

3) in needs to go INSIDE the device it protects, nt an ugly and bulky "tile".
 
-Tiny Knife/Blade
-Glue
-10mins

I am sure it wont be to hard to change the battery if you really want to
 
Neat, but make it a little bigger to allow recharging--or better yet, build kinetic-recharging right into it (like some watches, IIRC).
 
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