For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Tile to give MacRumors readers a chance to win a set of Tile Bluetooth trackers that are designed to help you keep track of your most precious and essential items.
Tile makes small Bluetooth enabled tracking accessories that you can put on anything that you don't want to lose, from keys and wallets to your phone, your camera, your watch, your purse, or anything else you don't want to lose.
The idea is that you attach a Tile to something like your keys, and then if and when those keys are misplaced, you open up the Tile app and use the Bluetooth connection between the Tile and your phone to see a map with the location of your keys and to play a sound on the Tile itself. If you lose your phone, you can tap on the Tile and it'll ping your phone, so there's two-way tracking available.
Tile makes a whole range of trackers for different items and purposes. The Tile Pro, for example, is Tile's most advanced tracking accessory. It has a Bluetooth tracking range of 300 feet and it's 3x as loud as other Tile trackers, so it's best for your most valuable items.
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With Tile Pro's long tracking range and loud volume, it's appropriate for your purse, your camera bag, your laptop bag, and other things you want to make sure you can keep an eye on and protect from being lost or stolen. Tile Pro is Tile's most expensive tracker at $35, but discounts are available for multi-pack purchases.
Tile Mate is similar to the Tile Pro, but it's a bit more compact and it's more affordable at $25. Tile Mate, like Tile Pro, has a user replaceable battery so you can use it indefinitely. Tile Mate can work from up to 150 feet away over Bluetooth, and 1.5 times louder than other Tile products.
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Tile Slim, priced at $30, is Tile's slimmest Bluetooth tracker that's perfect for tucking into a wallet, a passport, or sticking onto the back of a device like a laptop or iPad. Tile Slim has a 100 foot range and it's not quite as loud as the other Tile trackers, but it's still perfect for items where thinness is key.
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All of Tile's trackers, from the Pro to the Mate to the Slim will last for one year with the original battery that ships with them. On all trackers but the Slim, you can replace this battery when the year is up, a feature that was added to Tile trackers last October. If you don't want to hassle with battery replacements, Tile has a premium program that offers free battery replacements along with a detailed location history and unlimited sharing, so you can let friends and family help you find a misplaced item.
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Tile's trackers are designed to locate your devices close by when they're in Bluetooth range, but the Tile app has a Community Find feature that leverages all the Tile trackers out in the wild to find a lost item if it's not in the vicinity of your own phone, which is a useful bonus.
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For MacRumors readers, Tile is offering two tracker bundles that include four Tile Pros, four Tile Mates, and 1 Tile Slim so you can add Bluetooth tracking to all of your important belongings. To participate in the giveaway, use the Gleam.io widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.
Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)MacRumors never says who wins but it wasn't me :).
I normally like to preserve the privacy of our readers, but Dane tweeted about winning the AirPods 2, so here:I'm still waiting to win my first give away.
https://twitter.com/danemachiela/status/1108788254957096960
So who won the AirPods 2 giveaway you guys did?
MacRumors never says who wins but it wasn't me :).I'm still waiting to win my first give away.
Can anyone give me their experience with previous generations of these Tile trackers?
Just before Christmas past, I ordered a set of 4 Tile Mates- they only function once the app is on my phone. I bought that version because the battery is replaceable. Connection is sometimes slow. Sound is not as loud as I would like. Their thickness makes them impractical for some uses, and the Tile Slim would be better for placing in a wallet - except that it would be difficult to hear it AND its battery is not replaceable.Can anyone give me their experience with previous generations of these Tile trackers?
Mine gave me fits so when the batteries died (they were a gift - set of 4) I just didn't replace them. This was about a year and a half ago so maybe they've improved. They just weren't reliable for me so it was extra frustrating when they did not work and I couldn't find an item (keys, etc.) that had a tile on them.Of course, others may have a different experience with them, but this was mine. I wanted to love them as I am the perfect candidate for this type of device. Find my iPhone has been a beautiful thing for yours truly.
What wasn't reliable? The location ability? The sound? The bluetooth range? I'd like to know before I buy a set.
The sound was fine, but for us they were just terribly unreliable (location, bluetooth) even when the batteries were brand new in them. They did send us a couple of replacements early on free of charge with the return of the problem tiles. Maybe we just had bad luck with the ones we were shipped, but our frustration was high enough to not give them another try after the batteries died on the replacements (they had a trade in program that may still be running). I've heard others (similar to some of the posters, above) who have had an overall good experience with them and if their return policy is decent I don't want to completely deter you from trying them.After reading your questions I approached my wife and said, "Do you remember why the tiles didn't work out for us?" just to confirm it wasn't just poor memory on my part. She used some 'offensive language', which reinforced my sentiments (and made me laugh).
Sometimes when the tile was in range (according to the app) it still wouldn't ping the tile - or show it at all. There were also times where we would hold the tile next to the iPhone and it still wouldn't pick up the tile and other times it worked just fine with the same exact tile. I contacted customer support and went through trouble shooting exercises a few times to ensure it wasn't user error. We could just never get them to work as advertised.
I hope this helps.