Apple is expected to introduce its own Tile-like tracking device and service, via their new Find My app, perhaps as soon as fall.
Jonny Evans for Computerworld:
There are hundreds of tracking devices available today. These cost anything from tens to hundreds of dollars and in most cases require you sign-up to a network provider for SIM card-based network access. That SIM is how your position is tracked.
If (as I suspect) the company chooses to supplement – or even replace – SIM-based location tracking with its Bluetooth mesh-like ‘Find My’ service then it could cut the cost of these solutions… [And with] highly secure Bluetooth signalling, encryption and all tied up to your iCloud account. The impact is that no one else – including your network – knows where you or your possessions are.
MacDailyNews Take: There are so many possibilities with a simple mesh-tracking product/service! We’d want one in every vehicle, on bikes, keys, MacBooks, iPhones, iPads, in wallets and purses, luggage… maybe even inside packages, on the wrist (turn every Apple Watch into one, Apple!), and…
Hang on, Wasn’t Bluetooth described as a security nightmare and we were warned to turn it off whenever possible only last week? If so what’s changed since then to have it described as ‘highly ‘secure signalling?’
I want one on my cat. And a GoPro 😉