Apple's Tile Killer Is Launching Tomorrow (Report)

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Never lose your keys or wallet again.

iPhone 11 design
(Image credit: MobileFun)

If you have ever desperately searched for your keys or wondered where you may have lost your wallet, Apple’s new Ultra Wide Band object finder will be able to find them all for you.

According to the most reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the tracking accessory — a small piece of plastic that can be attached to keys, wallets, or any other object you may lose — will launch at tomorrow’s Apple iPhone 11 event.

As reported by Apple Insider, the object tracking thingamajig uses Ultra Wide Band to make itself “findable” by iPhones or any other device with this UWB support. It’s supposed to work like Tile, a $25 key finder that tracks whatever object you attach it to.

Tile uses Bluetooth to find your objects, connecting with your phone, pairing the tracking plastic patch with your handset and keeps track of it while in close proximity. If you ever lose your keys, the phone can point you to them. This works in theory even if it’s not within range

Tile uses a mesh network of other Tile users to provide tracking services so, if you left your wallet in a bar, a phone with Tile installed can actually pick its tracker signal and relay it to the network, pointing at its location.

Apple's device, on the other hand, reportedly uses Ultra Wide Band, a radio technology that runs on very low energy. This tech will allegedly come in the iPhone 11 to improve indoor map navigation and enable this precision location technology like this. 

The UWB-based tracking information will be available in the Find My app in iOS 13 and iCloud web service. But instead of just pointing at its general vicinity, it will be able to find your iPhone or your keys hiding under a sofa cushion thanks to UWB, which is theoretically more accurate and granular than GPS or Bluetooth-based location services.

The first evidence of Apple supporting UWB tech in iOS came ten days ago, when code was found in iOS 13. If Kuo’s report is confirmed tomorrow, it will be logical to expect the arrival of UWB to every Apple device soon, from the Apple Watch and MacBooks to iPads.

Jesus Diaz
Jesus Diaz

Jesus Diaz founded the new Sploid for Gawker Media after seven years working at Gizmodo, where he helmed the lost-in-a-bar iPhone 4 story and wrote old angry man rants, among other things. He's a creative director, screenwriter, and producer at The Magic Sauce, and currently writes for Fast Company and Tom's Guide.