Tile, the company known for its Bluetooth-based location trackers, will have its tech available in more laptops this year, thanks to a collaboration with Intel.
A version of this debuted earlier this year in the HP Elite Dragonfly G2, a business laptop that used a second m.2 card to implement the technology. But by partnering with Intel, Tile is moving its tech onto Intel’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards “utilizing driver firmware and bios configurations in conjunction with Tile technology.”
Tile says that the first PC OEM partner with the new version of the technology will be announced later this year and declined to name any upcoming partners.
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The Tile functionality, which will presumably work with the Tile app on the Windows store, as well as Android and iOS, will let users find their laptops whether it’s awake or in sleep mode. Because Tile works with both Android and iOS, lost laptops will be platform agnostic.
If you’re worried about what happens when your laptop battery is truly dead, the Tile app displays its last-reported location. And if you’re so far from your laptop that you’re out of range (150-400 feet is the range of the company’s current Tile devices), the company has a community feature that anonymously lets all available Tile devices know your device is missing. And if any other Tile device comes within range of your laptop, you’ll get a notification of its whereabouts.
There are certainly consumers that will find the Tile feature helpful, and it will be interesting to see exactly how Tile and Intel integrate their technologies. But there are of course privacy and security concerns around adding a Bluetooth-enabled tracking device to your business or personal laptop.
Time will tell how consumers will respond to the feature. But as is often the case, if enough people find it helpful and convenient, it will probably see wide adoption. Convenience almost always trumps concerns about security in the long run.
