While Tile is now releasing a much thinner tracker, dubbed the Tile Slim, it’s also bringing the technology to other companies’ products. The tracking device will come to retail stores as well, though it’s unclear where in Canada.
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Among a sea of competing devices, Tile has become the one to beat. For instance, sticking a Tile to your notebook would have been unseemly; in your wallet, it would have stretched out the leather.
It’s easy to attach a tracker like the Tile to a key ring, so you can track its location if you misplace it.
According to Tile, the company’s new tracker, beyond obvious design differences, is the same as the last-generation device. Because Tile has achieved scale, you actually have a better chance of finding your item via another Tile user – and this makes Tile more useful than other, similar devices.
At longer distances, crowd Global Positioning System, meaning the community of Tile users with the app and Bluetooth turned on, will anonymously send the location to the owner if another person’s app located the tile. The ultimate goal, Farley says, is to “blanket the world in smart location”.
Tile, the smart location company, today unveiled its newest consumer product – Tile Slim, a Bluetooth tracker designed specifically for wallets. A credit card measures 3.4 x 2.1 inches. There’s no hole, so you’ll still want the original Tile for your keychain. Competitors with thicker tags offer you the ability to replace the batteries.
The new Tile Slim is meant to address some of users’ complaints with the original Tile – that the device was too fat for numerous items they wanted to track. “We did our calculations to make sure that they would last more than a year, but of course we didn’t really know”. That information is then shared back with you over Tile’s network. But along with its own hardware, Tile is now bringing its software to other devices that can tap into the same network of apps to help people find their stuff.
Fresh off an $18 million round, Tile is also beginning to sell its tracking tech to third-party hardware companies, starting with scooter maker EcoReco, PowerPack maker Nomad, and “smart wallet” maker Zillion.
The device, a small, square-shaped dongle that can be attached to items like luggage, bikes, keychains and more, works in conjunction with a Tile mobile application to help track those items when they become lost.
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That said, it’s possible for Tile’s partners to make special accommodations.
