Here's a hint. There's a little app inside our brain called memory. Unfortunately, it's rarely used these days.
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You set off remotely "an alarm" contained in your incoming airline luggage?
"I pressed a button to play an alarm from the Tile; it was just loud enough for me to spot my luggage as it arrived."
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Put away your Apple TV remote. There's an app for that on your iPhone.
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Look, if you are a couch potato who is always losing your remote, the very last thing you need is this little gimzo that eliminates any reason for you to do the little exercise you get when searching high and low for that remote.
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@CFXK I take it you don't have kids who manage to loose the remote on an hourly basis. :D
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There are smarter ways that don’t require technology.
Luggage: purchase a unique color or attach a unique high viz color to a regular suit case. I use a bright yellow one from Away. It is literally impossible to miss when it drops off the belt and I’ve had multiple comments on it as I grab it.
Car: your phone will do this for you either with the maps app or simply taking a photo if there are identifiers seen from afar.
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I want a tiny tile for my glasses!
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Actually, the network of tile users is a "privacy disaster".
The fact that Tile says that its data are 'anonymised' doesn't make it so. Data anonymisation is actually a really hard problem, and even if you could demand a thorough audit and analysis of their procedures for blending and releasing data, they would never be able to prove to you that they aren't collecting your data for their own purposes, sharing the data with business partners, selling access or targeted advertising based upon the data, or using the data for parallel construction (i.e. learning how to look for other sources of the same data). They would never be able to prove to you that they did not maintain records of the data, and of course it would be available to law enforcement, hackers, unscrupulous insiders, and others.
This is not okay.
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I've thought about getting Tile, but what happens when I can't find my phone?
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Then you use tile to find your phone.
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I gave Tiles away as client holiday gifts last year. In all my years of gifting, I have never has such wonderful response. Clients loved them. I did not put any corporate logo in them and sent along a note saying it was perfect for re-gifting!
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I have used bluetooth trackers in my checked luggage for the past 5-6 years. Very handy. I know that my bags are near even before they have emerged onto the carousel. Also useful when airport staff remove bags from busy carousels and stack luggage elsewhere. If the luggage is lost I may be able to get an approximate location using the crown network feature. I am surprised by the large number of Luddites in the comments...
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Are we becoming more useless....?
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I'm sorry but this is ridiculous, more gadgetry we don't need. Want to find your car? Try using your eyes to find it, same with your (God forbid) lost remote and your luggage at the airport.
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Someday, we will be in the airport and be regaled by someone's lost luggage...
"Never gonna give you up,
Never gonna let you down,
Never gonna run around,
Or Hurt you!"
Endlessly. Around the baggage claim carousel.
I'll pass, I think.
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Are we really so -- here I'm having a hard time coming up with the adjective, but it's not a flattering one -- that it makes sense to spend that much money to find our remotes? Why not just pay attention to what you're doing? (And how long will your beeping suitcase be easily found when everybody else's suitcase is beeping away.)
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I hope Mueller has put one of these things on his report...
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Hilarious! And oh, if it were only true. Do ya think Don out one on Vlad during that Helsinki meeting? More likely the Russian "press" dropped them all around the WH and Oval Office, and in Don's increasingly blonde hair piece. During their US-press-free tour at the start of Czar Don's reign. I mean, so convenient!
Seriously, though, much now-common technology originated from DARPA or Defense Dept. RFP's & resulting R&D grants.
A lot of misinformation in these comments:
1. You CAN change the battery (button cell) on many Tile Pro Models but but not on Tile Mate or Tile Slim.
2. Tile very clearly tells you on their website which ones have batteries that can be replaced.
3. Tile does not track beyond 30 ft since it uses Bluetooth so you cannot track people in real time. If you use the anonymous Bluetooth network then yes someone may pickup the signal and you get a 'sighting' but it is more for helping you find a lost wallet or keys than a moving person. People with privacy concerns should be much more concerned about Google or Icloud or a rogue app being used to track them or as we recently saw on NYT, facial recognition using cheap cameras and software.
4. You can find your Tile using your phone but also your phone using your Tile
People with environmental concerns should remind themselves that the same is true of toothbrushes, dog litter bags, saline bags, newspapers, books, milk cartons etc. And if you are really concerned consider also air travel, driving and frankly living, especially in a big city. Everything has a social cost even a book of poems.
And those who think such 'aids' dumb us down consider spellcheck, calculators, crutches.
If you don't like it, just don't use it.
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@Pantagruel ~ Thank you Pantagruel. I won't.
3
I misplace my Airpods (in the case) in my house pretty regularly, so I bought a little silicone case with a keychain attachment, added a Tile, and now I can always find them. I suppose I could just become more responsible and only put them down in a specified location, but if it hasn't happened in the past 48 years, I don't have a lot of hope there.
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Network of users that share precise location info? Yes, it sounds like a privacy nightmare. "Anonymized" sounds like "anonymous if you are not a hacker."
No thanks.
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Could we attach one to every child that the border patrol captures at the border? It will help us find them later after they are separated from their parents.
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Is Tile really working "real-time"? I tried to use it to tag my car, but it always gives me the prior day's location, which, by the way, is not very accurate.
I recently read somewhere that the batteries on these items were good for about a year....and are non replaceable. You might want to take that into consideration before plunking down $20...it's almost like an annual subscription.
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@Brian the newer versions of the Tile have a replaceable battery.
2
We have a batch that are still working more than a year after we started getting "your battery will die any day now!" warnings. In other words, more than two years and still working. The warnings were automated emails, based on the day we registered them.
What I don't like about Tile is that it relies on my phone having Bluetooth enabled. My phone is an older model so Bluetooth drains the battery quickly.
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Waste of money. More bits of plastic to pollute the world.
13
Do these things have lithium ion batteries? If so, then I don't think you can put them with your checked bags.
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They are lithium. I don’t know if that qualifies but you can check lithium-ion if they are in something. Spares are restricted.
2
I’ll get a tag when it’s small enough to fit on my glasses, misplaced almost daily.
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Big tech companies requiring all of your personal info, then holding all of your data and insisting you're anonymous while you use your cell, wifi, and bluetooth that each pinpoints your location?
They're all heart, helping us find our keys.
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What I find about tech solutions is that after a while the solution is another thing that needs fixing. No tech solutions can be better.
Bright colored 'tails' solve a lot of problems. I kept losing my TV remote in my bedcovers and under books and things. I doubled over blue masking tape to make about a 6" tail. Try it. It is far more effective than you can imagine. And you never have to turn the dumb thing around before using it. (I got the idea after my first night on a long backpacking trip. I lost two small aluminum stakes. The even smaller dark red ones had yellow string tied to them. So I tied a 6" loop of orange tent cord to the aluminum ones, over the next three months I never lost another one.)
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I've attached one to my head. It comes in handy on days when I'm losing my mind.
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@Elle
But how can I find my temper when I lose it?
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Thank you for making me giggle
Absolutely best response to this invasive overpriced useless tech
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@Elle
I lost my patience the other day. Tile didn't find it.
9
A tracker for luggage is overthinking it. A simple, brightly colored ribbon on one's bag does the same thing.
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@JustSayin
Yes, I'm imagining an entire baggage carousel of high-tech tags singing to their owners like lost canaries. If they all have the same tone, it would even worse. Maybe owners should be required to program them with their most embarrassing favorite song.
18
What are the implications of this technology for victim-survivors of domestic violence or stalking, and their families and friends?
For victims of and witnesses to other serious crimes?
8
@MSW . It's an excellent point, but this is not what these trackers do (at least not those that are currently on the market).
If you took the tracker attached to my house keys and drove them to Ohio, all it would show me on my smartphone is that the last time the tracker "saw" my keys they were near my house.
You can't follow all the places the tracker has been.
All a friendly FYI.
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@MSW This reminds me of a warning video someone put together of technology an abuser could use to track an escaped victim across the globe. It was chilling.
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You'd be shocked at what some abusers/captors/kidnappers might do, and how they might use even basic tracking to control their victims, including just around their residence. I remember reading a
horrifying account of a woman who was forced to spend all day in a coffin-like space under the floor boards until the abuser got home from work. Sounds like those Bluetooth or RFID mini-gadgets could easily be misused to control or otherwise harm others or deny or place obstacles to them accessing basics such as food or medicine stored in a certain location, their own wallet, or the bathroom. Can't help thinking about those three young women held for years by sociopath in Ohio at a house that the police had visited without recognizing it as the prison it was.
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How about also using your moral-ethical compass as well?
What are or may become the privacy, health & safety, and environmental implications and/or risks of this technology and its increasingly wide-spread use?
What will our great grandchild make of our ultra-reliance on electricity, batteries, chemical-laden and often short-lived screens, of natural resources that are needed for other more worthy purposes such as production of medications or that pollute or otherwise put people and environment at unnecessary risk?
I write this as someone who has worked or lived with hundreds of people with memory- or attention-related challenges, so I know the utility and accessibility that the technology promises. But still....
7
The item I lose most at home is my IPhone. When this happens I just call it from my iPad. Non new gadgets No extra plastic.
The keys I always hang on my purse, with a bright-colored climber's hook (LLBean). Again: no extra plastic or tech junk.
All of my children and dogs were trained not to run away. My cats always came back on their on.
A spouse may escape though. Not sure you will want to secretly tag their underwear.
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@Astasia Pagnoni it's so lovely:). I don't want to boast, but years ago I got some attention training. And it helped. It's not in trend to say that now, I would have more affection if I said I had tagged everything including my spouse (as you've said :D), but still, don't remember losing many things after. It's not about super intelligence. It's about living on an average level of the peace of mind and letting the world, including your dog, live at it's own pace.
2
I put a tile on my dog 2 years ago. It works great, however, the batteries die and you have to buy a whole new tile. So, buyer beware. They don't tell you that in the marketing materials.
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@gabrielfan . This was far and away my greatest complaint about my TIle brand tracker... until the new models came out, which have a replaceable battery. All a friendly FYI.
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What the tracking companies really need to invent is a tracker that will easily fit on my glasses.
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@Kevin Stevens Take a look at Orbit.
But if I am prone to losing the phone itself, setting it down somewhere ...
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@SFR Daniel
The tile makes your phone ring if you press it. That is one of its main functions.
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@SFR Daniel
I have a Tile “Slim" in my wallet (I got it after I lost or misplaced my prior wallet and never got it back). The Tile Slim is really thin — a little bit thicker than a credit card — so space is not an issue, and now if I lose my wallet again, I’ll be able to find it.
BUT...as a BONUS FEATURE that I didn’t even know about until I bought it, the Tile works in reverse to help me find my misplaced mobile phone....I just squeeze the the middle of the Tile for 2-3 seconds, and my phone starts playing the alert sound I picked. Let’s me find where I put that dang phone.
One big downside of the “Slim” version is that it’s battery cannot be changed, so after about a year it tells you you’ll need to buy a whole new unit soon (and it’s not cheap, but they do give a modest discount for the replacement unit. I heard the company might be changing that, and allowing batteries to be replaced, but I don’t know if that’s a rumor, or company PR spin, or what, and as of now, you need to shell out an extra $20 every 13 months or so.
@Nick . I agree -- the non replaceable battery is a pain. The new Tile's DO come with a replaceable battery.... but not the super-slim model. All a friendly FYI.
This would be great - if they actually worked. The few times I've tried to use the Tile in the car to find the car, it wasn't any help. It didn't have the last location.
2
I wish they made something small enough to attach to a cat's collar for tracking a lost pet. Everything I've seen is too big, only suitable for dogs.
@kat
Agree - My dog is big and noisy, hard to misplace, and stays close to home. The cat is quiet and sneaky -- did I lock her in the laundry room? Did she go outside? Oh, but she also slips her collar quite quickly.
2
I swallow one ten minutes before a big dinner. A day or two later, the app notifies me ten minutes before I will need to go to the bathroom.
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Instead of even more tech junk, people should just slow down, simplify their lives a bit, and relax more. Don't waste your money.
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@Cyclist and what is funny, when they do it, they start getting more peace and stop losing things. Some even get more money.
4
Of course, one could simply use the Apple remote app on your phone instead of using the tracking app on your phone to locate your Apple remote...but to each his own...
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@Matt or they could download and use the Apple Remote app, making the actual remote obsolete
@Matt Exactly!
I have a tile taped to my Apple remote, and it’s invaluable. I have them in wallets, on keys, kids’ jackets, backpacks and my teen son’s car keys. We’ve used tiles to track lost jackets, backpacks left at the park, and lost keys. For absent-minded adults and kids, these trackers are time and money savers.
4
I use a Tile in my sunglasses case, but more importantly, I have one in the pouch holding my blood glucose monitor, which, as a diabetic, I'm using several times a day and I never know where I last left it.
12
I have a Nut tracker on my key ring. Not to find my keys (though if I ever lost them, I guess that would be useful), but if my keys get too far away from my phone (that has the app on it), the tracker plays a series of tones, so you have to pay attention. The reason I did this? Because I am notorious for leaving both my phone and iPad either at home or at work and then not realizing it until I get to my destination. So I'm using mine as a kind of early warning system so I don't inadvertently leave my phone behind when I go somewhere. So far it's saved me from making a trip back to work twice, so it has paid for itself already. It's a great system, if you need something like that, and I do.
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@A Bird In The Hand ~ I know a woman who put a sticky note on her steering wheel that reads: PHONE! It has worked perfectly for her. When one can use low-tech, it's far more effective ... and free ... and doesn't generate pollution or embedded energy in it's manufacturer and shipping (with throwaway cardboard box and associated plastics).
Have you considered the amount of trash the Tile (and it's siblings) create each year? How many have been sold? I'm guessing it's in the tons, many tons. And every bit ends up in the trash at some point.
The trick with tiny remotes is to eliminate the tinyness, not attach trackers.
For instance, to deal with a tiny black remote for a fan, I bought some cheap children's flip-flops and cut them up. Now the remote is attached, however crudely, to a piece of hard pink foam rubber and is thus quite easy to see and correspondingly hard to misplace.
Now to figure out why anyone thought a fan, likely to be used in darkened bedroom, should have a tiny black remote control....
Designeritis, the epidemic disease of the 21st century.
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@Daedalus When I was carrying larger handbags I attached my car keys to a cat collar with a little jingle bell on it. The texture of the collar was helpful when groping in the bag, as was the little ringing sound.
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@Daedalus "Designeritis, the epidemic disease of the 21st century." - may I quote it to my friends. I love it, really.
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@Stacy
Please do quote it. And think about it every time you see a car with side mirrors clipped like the ears of a Doberman, or running lights that look the smile on the Cheshire Cat.
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