Tile is the device you throw on your keys or your luggage to give you the ability to track the device anywhere in the world. This leverages a network of other Tile devices to triangulate and locate your stuff.
Phones use a different technology, but Find My iPhone is another demonstration that we often lose things and when that thing is a valuable laptop, potentially with sensitive data on it, you’d really like the ability to know where it is.
Tile has teamed up with Intel who will now bring Tile’s finding power to PC device makers. This is the first finding technology solution to-market for a broad group of PC OEMs and means upcoming Intel-powered laptop and notebook models can be findable.
The ability to pull out your phone, fire up the Tile app and find your laptop is a really neat idea.
“Most of the world is working from home right now, making laptops and portable devices more critical than ever. We rely on them to maintain continuity and keep information safe. But we’re also relying on them to stay connected with loved ones.
Our work with Intel means we’ll be ready to help PC users avoid disruption and keep track of their devices once we’re all on the move again.”
CJ Prober, CEO of Tile.
The updated Intel solutions are expected to be available later this year for OEM adoption and will allow PC users to find their laptop or notebook even when the device is in sleep mode. The Tile and Intel teams are already working closely with PC manufacturers to determine the best Tile experience for their customers.
“This collaboration with Tile is an exciting addition to our world-class wireless connectivity solutions. We are always looking for ways to further enhance PC platform experiences and in this case, we enable new capabilities including enhanced security by simplifying device tracking and recovery for both consumer and commercial PCs,”
Eric McLaughlin, Vice President, Compute Client Group, General Manager Wireless Solutions Group, Intel.
Tile recently announced its first commercial laptop product with HP; the Intel collaboration further solidifies the company’s expansion in the PC vertical. In a recent global survey conducted by Tile, nearly half of all respondents said the most common place they lose items is in their own home. Seventy-two percent said the ability to locate their lost or misplaced laptop would be “very” or “extremely valuable”.
This effort builds upon Tile’s collaborations with leading BLE chip manufacturers announced in 2019. By working with Intel, and other major technology leading companies, Tile has the potential to integrate its valuable finding technology into nearly 30 billion consumer electronic devices at the chip level over the next five years.
What kind of halfwit can’t find a laptop in their own home? A set of keys maybe, a phone yes, but a laptop? The problem with software like this is that it gets baked into the device and can’t be turned off. Like Intel ME ports lurking on the network that have all sorts of bugs and are closed source as well. Great if you are a company and want to keep your laptops under control, terrible if you want some privacy.
This is definitely a technology for a time when we’re allowed to move around again. There’s plenty of people who leave laptops in the back of a taxi or on a bus and if that has corporate data on, you’ll want to track that down.