Photographers are not necessarily known for being the most organized people on earth. I know I am constantly putting things down in one place and forgetting where I put them, this is true for my camera gear as well as normal stuff such as keys and my tablet/laptop.
Enter ‘Tile’, the new locator app that aims to help you never lose anything ever again. Tile comes with these little tiles that you can place in your bag, or attach to items. Then if you lose the item or can’t find it you can load up the app and it will help you find what you are looking for. You can even set up the tile to beep.
Tile also has a pretty neat theft recovery feature, so for example if your gear bag gets stolen from your car you can mark that tile stolen. Then if that tile comes within range of any other tile app user it will send you a notification telling you where the item is located. This could be invaluable for getting information to the police to help them recover your stolen gear.
They have a neat demo video i’ve embedded below.
I think that this looks pretty promising for helping people find lost gear, and keep track of items that are important. Sure, its not quite a robust as a GPS unit that can be tracked anywhere (without the need for an app). But it is a whole lot cheaper and more accessible, so that is a win in my book.
Tile is currently available for a special pre-order price of $18, which you can take advantage of on their website.
What are your thoughts on Tile? Let us know in a comment below!
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Can they make on that fits into the card slot in my camera. Then I have a chance of finding it before the thief figures it out.
I love it, but I can’t help to think how severely limited this device is due to the fact that it does not support android devices. (according to http://www.wpcentral.com/its-official-windows-phone-third-most-popular-smartphone-os it holds to 75% of the worldwide mobile market. )
I love the idea! Looks great for finding items that I misplace, which I do often, but as far as someone stealing the gear and being able to find it, not so much. A thief is just going to pull the tile off and throw it away.
I would like to have one!!!! I can test it out for you.
My first thought was that these are great! What a wicked idea! I will put them on everything!! Then I saw the price. At almost $20 per item for a tile that only lasts 1 year means that this little tool could get fairly expensive.
(also the price will keep the userbase low which means the ability to find lost/stolen items via other users is likely going to be fairly low)
Just don’t lose your phone, and you’ll be all set.
Dumbest. Comment. Ever.
So, if you’re out of range of your Tile, you’ll only be able to locate it if someone else is using Tile? I’m not sure I’m liking that.
If it’s out of range, you use other people’s Tile as signal repeaters and cast a net. I’m pretty sure that that happens silently without those other users knowing that you’re using their Tile to look for your missing gear. I mean, they’d still have to log into your account to specifically track for that gear.
This looked great however the non-replaceable battery that lasts for just one year (then you need to re-buy a whole new tile!) is a completed deal breaker.
If there is a version 2 it would need Inductive charging.
I think that I will be purchasing a couple for my bags and keys. Thanks for sharing!