Tile – the new home of the “Lost & Found”

Gadgets, iPad, Tech Gadgets Vidyut Singhania

Chances are that you’ve misplaced a set of keys (any keys, don’t try and disrupt the flow of the article with such questions! 😛 ) or your mobile phone or that favorite ol’ tote of yours .. at least ONCE till date! There is (probably) even a moment when all hell breaks loose in the process, of finding it, and you end up becoming a misanthrope when no one can find it. And you end up discovering the item in the last place you expected to find, right?!
Well, Nick Evans and Mick Farley (the guys behind this cool project) seem to have come up with a better way for you which involves less cardiovascular workouts of the sort – the Tile!

The Tile
The Tile

Yup, that small little white thing with ’tile’ inscribed on it is exactly what’s causing such a massive stir! Tile is a small Bluetooth LE radio which enables you to trace just about anything which you believe you can lose – simply stick / attach / drop the Tile to / in the concerned object! However, you need to first download the Tile app (currently only available on the iOS) to get started.

the Tile iOS app
the Tile iOS app

There are a number of features of this small, nifty and neat device which are as follows –

  • The app shows you how close / farther you are away from the object and the Tile (in terms of distance vis-à-vis a bluetooth signal)
  • The Tile’s range is 50 – 150 ft
  • Now before you say that’s not much, let me also add that if there is another Tile user in the vicinity / range of your Tile+object, their phone picks up the signal emitted by your Tile and the app informs you with an update regarding the location of your precious items.
    When this happens, you will be able to see a pin on the map view for your Tile – thereby, making the range of the Tile limitless, provided there are enough users in your area.
  • Suppose you are in close vicinity of the Tile, you can even activate the Tile to ring.
  • Moreover, you can sign in to your Tile account (on the app) from any one else’s compatible phone as well – thereby making it easy to even track your phone!
  • The app also remembers where it last ‘saw’ the Tile – thereby making it even easier to trace objects.
  • You can add upto 8 Tiles to one single account.
  • Tile is small, waterproof and you do NOT have to change the batteries on this baby!
  • However, the downside is that the Tile lasts only for a year (from the date of activation), resulting in many heartbreaks – especially for us Indians (more so for Marwaris like me!)
Tile Features Overview
Tile Features Overview

The Tile is open for pre-booking at a price of US $19.95 currently.

In the current state the Tile works seamlessly with the iPhone 4S and newer, iPad Mini, iPad 3rd gen and newer and iPod Touch 5th gen and newer. Sadly, the Tile is not available for the Android, Windows and other platforms as the Tile requires Bluetooth requires 4.0. In the words of the guys over at Tile,

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.

On a further sad note, Tile is only available in the following select countries –

  • USA
  • Canada
  • Countries in the EU
  • New Zealand
  • Australia

Check out this video to get the complete picture