Unsolicited plug: Tile trackers

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A few months ago, mostly out of curiosity, I ordered a few Tile trackers. I’d backed earlier Kickstarters for similar products, but the Tile seems like a smaller, sleeker package. After they finally arrived a few months later, I didn’t have an immediate need for one so I just attached the first to my keychain.

I honestly didn’t think I’d get much use out of it, but after a couple months I’ve had to invoke it about twice a week, and it’s been amazing being able to find my keys within a few seconds. I honestly didn’t think I lost my keys that often, but it’s way more often than I thought.

About the only downsides to the Tile is that it works only within about a 50ft radius of my phone/WiFi, so it’s not good for a roaming pet that wanders your neighborhood or a laptop bag you might lose on a plane.

I’ve also found that after setting up a second one, I tried to give it to a friend but there’s no universal “reset” to a Tile. You have to manually email customer service, wait about a week, and ask them to change the owner accounts on a specific tile.

Is that because they want people to be able to track people on the sly? So maybe thieves can’t turn a Tile off? I found it a bit weird, as well as the included high strength double-sided tape that came with the devices. I know they were aiming for things like TV remotes with it, but the tape gave off a vibe of “stalk your ex by attaching this to their car” when I first opened the box.