Tile: A tiny device that lets you track and find your lost items with an iOS app

BY Gautam Prabhu

Published 16 Jul 2013

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If you tend to misplace things frequently then you should check out Tile, a Bluetooth Low Energy device that lets you keep track of your stuff like keys, wallets, laptops etc.

It’s quite a small device so you can attach it to your keys, put it in your wallet or even stick it to your laptop (it comes with double-sided adhesive that can go on the back of the Tile). 

The device also comes with an iOS app that will allow users to track things on their iPhone and iPad. It syncs the GPS location to your iPhone and iPad over Bluetooth. So if you misplace or lose any item, you can track the distance to it with the iOS app. The app shows you the distance as you get closer to the lost item.

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Tile has a range of 50-150 feet from your iPhone. If you’re wondering what happens if your Tile/lost item is out of your phone’s range, then Reveal Labs has come up with a crowdsourced solution to help you find your lost item even when it is out of range. If any other Tile user’s phone is within 50-150 feet of your Tile then it will update the location of your Tile, which is quite neat.

It comes with a built-in speaker so you can activate the Tile to ring so you can find it by sound.  You also don’t need to recharge the device. The developer claims that a Tile will last for one year after activation with the Tile app.

Since it uses Bluetooth 4.0, it only works with iPhone 5, iPad mini, iPad 3, iPad 4 and iPod touch 5.

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Reveal Labs is offering Tile for $18.95 via a Kickstarter-like preordering process. You get bonus Tiles when you order 3 or more Tiles. They were looking to raise $20,000, but they have already crossed the $1.2 million mark with more than 22,500 backers at time of writing this post, and with 6 days still to go.

It will ship later this winter. I am looking forward to getting my 3+1 Tiles. I have been looking for something like this, though I hope these things get even thinner and smaller. You can reserve your Tiles here to be part of the first shipment.

Let me know what you think of the device. Do you plan to buy it?