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Samsung Appears To Have a New Tile Competitor On the Way (theverge.com) 64

Posted by msmash from the up-next dept.
Samsung seems to be close to launching a new Tile-like device for tracking lost items. The tracker, likely called the Galaxy SmartTag, has been leaking out over the past month, and there's some speculation it could be announced alongside the Galaxy S21 later in January. From a report: The Galaxy SmartTag would use Bluetooth to connect with nearby devices and broadcast its location, so owners could find it later if they misplace whatever it's attached to. It'll be powered by a replaceable button cell battery, according to a regulatory filing spotted by GSMArena, so you won't have to throw it out and buy a new one when the battery dies. Samsung's tracker sounds a lot like a Tile, and it'll apparently look a lot like one, too.
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Samsung Appears To Have a New Tile Competitor On the Way More

Samsung Appears To Have a New Tile Competitor On the Way

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  • Of course they do (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Apple was rumoured to have one, so obviously Samsung would have one immediately they heard the rumour.
    • And as usual, Samsung will miss out on doing anything new or innovative until Apple shows its hand...then the Galaxy SmartTag 2 will launch as fast as possible.

      • Well, lucky for you, tharmt "innovative" in the sense of aiming exactly in the not-even-wrong batshit insane direction, is still "innovative".

        But yes, there is only one thing even worse: Running behind the crazy person, and hence by definition never able to surpass it.

      • apple should approach this strategically to sucker them in . . .

        --It worked for the US in a Star Wars missile test (remotely detonated to look like a success to the soviet "trawler" spying on it; soviets waste billions trying to replicate) . . .

        --it worked for Schwarzenegger hinting that he wanted to be in "Stop, or my Mom Will Shoot!", suckering Stallone into seeking out and doing it . . .

        and so many more . . .

    • Either way, Apple will claim they innovated it.

  • I'm kind of wondering what people use this for. It's too big for a wallet, a phone doesn't need it. The only thing I can think of is a fancy keychain.

    • There are wallets out there you can buy that have Tile built in. I have a Tile pro on my keychain that helps when I need to find my keys, which is like, never. However, the concept of what Tile can do is really great but it has needed a first party hardware manufacturer to get the thing off the ground. If people don't have the Tile app, they can't help you find the Tile when they're in range...but if that were a native API, which is what Apple has been doing with all of its hardware for the past couple of

      • then you could potentially put Tiles in anything you think might be stolen. I experimented with putting them in my guitar cases at one point, you could probably squeeze one inside the seat post of a bike too.

        That is kind of cool.

      • The summary says the tag broadcasts via Bluetooth. If you're within Bluetooth range of a stolen item, it must've been stolen by someone in your household.

        • The summary says the tag broadcasts via Bluetooth. If you're within Bluetooth range of a stolen item, it must've been stolen by someone in your household.

          The idea is that whenever any Samsung phone comes within Bluetooth range of a tagged object, it will relay the location to a server. You would then be able to use an Android equivalent of the "Find My..." app to map that location.

          • For this to work it would require all Samsung phones to: 1-connect with an unknown device (to get ID). 2-transmit on the internet (with no user interaction). I don't want my phone doing either without permission.

            • Replace the word "connect" with "hear".
              The phone doesn't need to "connect to" the tag, simply hear the tag's advertisement beacon.

              In fact, if the tag were connected to a phone, the Tile protocol wouldn't work. That's because the tag only sends out advertisements when it's *not* connected to anything.

              More info about BLE advertisements:
              https://www.novelbits.io/bluet... [novelbits.io]

            • For this to work it would require all Samsung phones to: 1-connect with an unknown device (to get ID). 2-transmit on the internet (with no user interaction). I don't want my phone doing either without permission.

              1-how do you think millions of Tiles work today, and 2-you assume "your" smartphone isn't doing this already, or that it needs your "permission"? Seriously?

              • If you don't think your phone should not be able to do anything you don't give it permission to, you're fucked in the head.

                • If you don't think your phone should not be able to do anything you don't give it permission to, you're fucked in the head.

                  My point was giving permissions isn't really "your" choice anymore, and companies sure as shit aren't bothering to ask for your permission. If they do, it's buried in that EULA you never read and always agree to anyway. Their lawyers certainly seem to know who's "fucked in the head".

                  What we want in this world, and what we get, are usually vastly different.

                • I am sure there'd be a way to turn that off, and for those who won't know that I am sure they'll bury it in the EULA somewhere (you do read the EULA, don't you?). I am not saying it's right, but most people don't care about privacy. That's enough people to make something like this work.

            • This is pretty common these days. How do you think those COVID tracking apps work? The app can see the periodic beacons that are sent out and report them to a server. Once you have one of these apps going on enough phones, turning off your location data is of only limited effectiveness if anyone in the same room has their enabled.

    • I'm kind of wondering what people use this for. It's too big for a wallet, a phone doesn't need it. The only thing I can think of is a fancy keychain.

      I use a BLE tag on my keychain. It's helped me find them several times.

    • Wallet, keys, purse, dog, phone (Score:4, Informative)

      by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Friday January 01, 2021 @11:39PM (#60886468) Journal

      Tile makes one in a credit-card sized format that I have in my wallet. It's twice as thick as a credit card.

      I have one on my keychain, and one on my dog's collar for when she runs off. My wife has one for her purse.

      The tags on my wallet and keys can be used to alert me when if I leave my phone behind, or find it when I misplace it around the house. The phone doesn't need a tag, the app works as one.

      If my phone, keys, and wallet are more than 10 meters apart while I'm not at my house I may be accidentally leaving one of them behind.

    • I could use one of these for my dog. Once she escaped and fell in a hole and couldn't get out.

    • Tile has been very helpful for me looking after my mother living with Alzheimers in long term care. Have one on her keys, her purse, even have one securely gorilla taped to the remote for her TV, so if it ends up under her bed or in a cupboard it is always easy to find.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by labnet ( 457441 )

      We have tried a few tile products and found them nearly useless. They either don’t respond, battery covers fall off, buzzer is too quiet, and one we tracked around the city for a while, but it was useless for actual recovery.

  • Don't mess with the plan, Samsung (Score:4, Interesting)

    by roesti ( 531884 ) on Friday January 01, 2021 @09:51PM (#60886248)

    Don't mess with the plan, Samsung:
    1. First, wait for Apple to do it.
    2. Then, make fun of Apple for doing it.
    3. Finally, do the same thing.

    • 4. Merrily go along making fun of Apple for not being innovative.

    • 1. First, wait for Apple to do it.

      There’ve been rumors about Apple Airtags floating around for a couple years now. Obviously Samsung just got tired of waiting.

    • Don't mess with the plan, Samsung:
      1. First, wait for Apple to do it.
      2. Then, make fun of Apple for doing it.
      3. Finally, do the same thing.

      You can swap Apple and Samsung around and have the same joke apply too. Oh wait no sorry you were right. When Samsung does something and Apple does it later it's only because the "technology wasn't ready yet and the world was waiting for Apple to perfect it".

    • 4. Put a non-removable Bixby button on it, despite nobody actually being a willing user of Bixby.

  • Well, given that it takes a battery, just sits or attaches, and transmits a beacon (not its location), how could it not appear like a Tile?

    • Well, given that it takes a battery, just sits or attaches, and transmits a beacon (not its location), how could it not appear like a Tile?

      Uh, it can't?

      I'm not sure why you're asking about this. The existence of many tile-like competitors in the find-my-shit-via-bluetooth market implies that there will be no patent war. Apps like this depend on "herd" adoption, so this will be reduced to a popularity war.

  • Ykes, more bloatware for Samsung PHONES! (Score:3)

    by itsme1234 ( 199680 ) on Saturday January 02, 2021 @02:11AM (#60886648)

    Yes, this is how this thing it's supposed to work, Samsung phones would look for nearby tags 24/7 and report them to Samsung (together with its own location)! The launch of the actual tags was in fact preceded (and predicted from) the introduction of these bluetooth scanning features in the regular software for phones and tablets (they are pushing it as a great feature to locate your device even when it doesn't have internet and can't report itself where it is).

    • What a great way to drain your phone battery!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by adolf ( 21054 )

        The data transfer is background noise in the sea of other things our phones do, and passively looking for BLE devices in the background is something that is already being done.

        *yawn*

      • It really doesn't. You realise bluetooth uses so little energy you can literally have a device send 3600 updates a day for an entire year on a tiny coin cell right? Of course you didn't.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Rakhar ( 2731433 )

          Maybe that's possible, but it still hurts my phone's battery life if I leave it on. Whether that's due to the technology or the implementation is irrelevant to me as a consumer. I just disable bluetooth.

          • Maybe that's possible

            No maybe about it. Google BLE. The technology is now over 10 years old.

            but it still hurts my phone's battery life if I leave it on

            No it doesn't. What you have is some misbehaving app using the bluetooth constantly, quite different from what is being done here. Don't blame a technology for a crappy app you have installed. Bluetooth being enabled hasn't made a difference in phone battery life since the days of Android 4.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hawk ( 1151 )

          leaving bluetooth on all the time doesn't wipe out battery life.

          Leaving the tile app loaded in the background, however . . .

          • Leaving the tile app loaded in the background, however . . .

            Also doesn't. There's a way to use Bluetooth periodically without having the app awake at all. iOS and Android both provide an API to do this. Mind you that doesn't stop some incredibly stupid developers not knowing this and instead coding junk that keeps apps backgrounded and prevents the OS from putting it to sleep. I have one such app on my phone that I have to forcefully kill when I'm done using it. I have plenty of others that record bluetooth events in the background that don't show up on the battery

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by hawk ( 1151 )

              >Also doesn't.

              Been there, done that. It *does.*

              Whether it can be done sanely or not (and I assume apple wouldn't release if it can't be done with modest drain), the Tile app *does* gut battery life. It took me a couple of days before I considered the possibility.

              Short life started when I got the tiles, and ended when I started auto-killing.

              My suspicion, which I can't prove either way, is that it goes nuts pulling GPS data. But that's just a SWAG.

        • YOU probably don't realize that sending 3600 small packets is nothing, it's 1.18s in total that radio on. On the phone side on the other hand the radio isn't only BLE, it comes with all the baggage and standards for the last 15+ years and it also needs to listen to everything all the time. Also once it gets any tags around it should contact Samsung and see what to do about them. Either that or Samsung would have to periodically push all the "wanted" tags to all phones, on at least all phones from a large ge

          • Actually I realise that just fine. You biased ignorance comes from this idea of "baggage". There is no "baggage". Rather bluetooth has been optimised over and over again, and even prior to BLE being supported (and will be the technology used here) bluetooth has been a completely insignificant consumer of battery for any well written application. Even 10 years ago we didn't need to "listen all the time". Just a few stupid programmers setup their software to do so.

            Scanning for bluetooth tags isn't something n

            • You are offering just plain false statements and bombastic hopeful ones, nothing else. We do know how designers "do their job" most of the time, never mind that their job this time is to build a remote sensing network without a care about bandwidth and power for the sensors! There are like a billion lemmings out there that would pay even well into 4-digits (be it in dollars or euros) for a phone and then not care the battery barely lasts one day, when lucky.

              As a side note have a look here if you think peopl

      • I bought a stack of tiles after my wallet went missing for a couple of weeks (before being found in the butter drawer; it fell off the top of the refrigerator) and then the keys for a car I"d just bought (on the way into the house, before they were duplicated).

        I initially let the tile app do its thing on my iPhone--but it *gutted* battery life. Something like half . . . .

        So now the app only gets loaded when I want to find a key, and gets force-unloaded as soon as I find it.

        Hopefully, apple does far better

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      There needs to be a standard for this and a way to anonymously report location data. Then it won't be reliant on someone with the same make of phone locating it for you.

    • One man's bloatware is another man's killer feature.

      Except for Bixby, no one wants that trash.

  • I wonder how I've managed to live my life without this. OK, that's a lie. I guess if you can't manage your own shit, you probably aren't bright enough to realize that tech giants shouldn't be able to track every aspect of your life. And you are personally counter to every privacy measure that people are trying to bring in. This seems like a giant societal hold my beer moment.

    • Usually through stead stream of "Honey! Have you seen my ..."

      I guess if you can't manage your own shit

      Yeah I'm not. Neither are you. Nor is anyone else. To pretend otherwise is just ignorant.

      • Speak for yourself. I haven't lost anything that you could actually attach these to. If you have, get your shit together like a grown up, and stop being ignorant.

    • I wonder how I've managed to live my life without this. OK, that's a lie.

      I kind of agree that on the face of things, these tile things seem pretty marginally useful...

      However, I can see a few possible uses:

      1) Keep in wallet, phone alarms if you get very far away from your wallet. Useful in case you leave your wallet in a restaurant or you get pick-pocketed.

      2) I think everyone has soem item that they keep putting in various places around the house and forgetting where it went. For me, that's a good pair of

  • This sounds like one of those sugar-coated knifes. How sweet it looks until you think about it. Sure, it has some value but I wonder if I really want my phone or other devices being able to signal a location where ever I am. If they can send a location they can send any other data, and given the fact that your devices are as easier to hack as the Pentagon this makes me a bit unnerved. AND given that modern IT can't even get a flawless product out into the wild without requiring an update by the time the
  • Cheap GPS locator if you can't find your car in the parking lot ... or if it is stolen ... or if you are stalking someone and have enough time to drop one in their car -- anyone with a phone that gets in the car will report its whereabouts (or maybe the smart car will do it). Good uses and bad uses often go hand-in-hand ...

  • Have I somehow skipped a decade?

  • Tile's existing business model seems to be centered around the fact that their customers misunderstand how their product works. This fits their leadership perfectly.

  • I swear Apple and Samsung must have a Dropbox account because they both seem to come up with nearly identical products at roughly the same time. How long is it going to be before Samsung announces an electric car?

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