“Apple is working on a new app that’s going to replace the Find My Friends and Find My iPhone apps,” Guilherme Rambo writes for 9to5Mac. “With codename ‘GreenTorch.’ the app is currently being tested by engineers at the company.”
“The new app will have the same features of the two existing apps, but combined into a single app, which will be available on both iOS and on macOS, as a Marzipan app,” Rambo writes. “The new unified app includes an improved ability to find a user’s devices. Called ‘Find Network,’ the feature allows devices to be tracked even when not connected to Wi-Fi or to a cellular network.”
‘Apple also wants users to be able to track any item – not just their Apple devices – using this new unified app. The company is working on a new hardware product, known only as ‘B389’ by the people involved in its development,” Rambo writes. “This new product will be a tag that can be attached to any item – similar to other products like Tile.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: With a plethora of Apple devices, Find Your iPhone (which, via iCloud, also tracks iPads, Apple Watches, AirPods, and Macs) already works very well; so well, in fact, that we’ve often wondered where Apple’s answer to Tile’s Bluetooth hardware tags was. Looks like it’s on the way!
I use Tile and it’s a product that seems built as if Apple had done it. Very well done.
Does it still last for only one year before the battery runs out and they make you buy a new one?
That’s very Apple like, today.
No, now they have replaceable batteries
I wonder how many people who buy Tiles (and similar devices) use them to keep tabs on a spouse… or others.
You know… “just to be safe”.
Since Tile is simply a bluetooth beacon, your suspected significant other would only be trackable within shouting distance.
Apple is again trying to monetize its icloud. Since every IOS gadget pings home constantly, Apple would like to sell this as a subscription feature to consumers, not just to the advertisers it currently sells it to (“anonymous” if you believe Apple, as if a gps track can’t be linked to a specific individual).
Don’t tiles have a very limited range? Only extended I tnought because they can piggyback through others tiles as and whe in range to create a sort Of extended detection net. Well if that is indeed the case then Apple is at a massive advantage with a similar process as its users will far outnumber tile users and clearly with their various more powerful devices potentially offer far expanded capabilities.
They don’t piggyback on other tiles, they get picked up by other smartphones running the app. When a tile is marked as lost, if it is picked up by another smartphone, it will relay the location to your app. But yes, having ALL iPhones be Apple “tile” trackers will increase the coverage by leaps and bounds.
What would be nice is 5G in the MacBook Pro. Then you could find it anywhere.
Think you miss the potential here. You wouldn’t need 5G. The ‘tile’ chip inside a mbp would track the location by piggybacking on any local iPhones. Including the friendly thief’s. Or the people passing by his window. Game changer.
Find iPhone has helped us out a few times. If people (you know who) would just activate it!
This could be a headline grabbing feature. Using similar tech to Tile – even a powered off iPhone could attach to a ‘network of iPhones’ to display its location. Making theft of them an even riskier deal. Tile IMO was a poor product as yo generally lose an item away from a known place – making Tile redundant for ‘tracking’ it ( unless someone else with a Tile walks past…er ok.