Apple’s Next Takeover: Tile
September 19, 2019
By Jake Derouin
Today is Thursday September 19. A few hours ago, Apple released IOS 13 to the masses of iPhone users (iPads will have to wait a few more days for the debut of iPadOS 13). As many people know, IOS 13 brings many new features to the world of iPhone. Dark mode, a new photos experience, faster app launches, and much much more. As with nearly every IOS release there are always a few apps that end up being victims of “ Sherlocking” by which their app is no longer needed as Apple has implemented their app’s functionality into the operating system itself. This year two of the major victims of the annual sherlock include all of the hundreds of menstrual cycle tracking apps which now have an Apple branded replacement preinstalled on all Apple Watches running the new watchOS 6 as well as the Health App and the popular SwiftKey keyboard extension which now has a clone directly integrated into the keyboard by default. But there is one major accessory company that is likely the target of Apple’s next Sherlocking attack, Tile. One of the not so well-known features of IOS 13 is the new Find My app.
Upon installation of IOS 13 the apps Find my iPhone and Find my Friends become merged into one app called Find My. In addition to being a one stop shop for finding your lost devices or tracking your friends whether you find that creepy or not, your device also becomes capable of offline finding. One of the biggest complaints about the Find my iPhone feature is the fact that you cannot locate your device when it is offline. This is a major issue especially for iPad and Mac users, who usually do not have a cellular connection when they are out and about. How offline finding works is that your device will periodically send out short range Bluetooth signals that include a special key (also called a public key to all you tech nerds out there) that will piggyback on the data traffic of nearby iPhones anonymously and relay location information back to your iCloud account with the location of the device. This location information is encrypted (locked) with the public key so it can ONLY be read by you by using your private key to decrypt (unlock) the data. What this means is that every single iPhone running IOS 13 is a searchlight for lost Apple devices. This technology is very similar to how Tile’s Bluetooth trackers are able to be tracked by other users’ devices except for the fact that all that is required for tracking other Apple devices is IOS 13 rather than a separate app that you have to download as in Tile’s case. This puts Tile at a huge disadvantage when it comes to tracking capability. The more devices that are able to relay Bluetooth information, the better chance you will find your lost device. But what does tracking Apple devices have to do with Tile’s devices that are used for tracking purses, wallets, and keys?
As of today, Tile is safe as Apple has yet to announce any trackers that are capable of tracking non-Apple items. However, there have been many rumors of an upcoming “Apple tag” tracker of some sort. Some dataminers (people who dig through the code of the operating system) have reported seeing references to such devices in the code of IOS 13.1 beta. Additionally, one of new features of the iPhone 11 that was only briefly mentioned on Apple’s website and in the Keynote is the new U1 chip. This chip is capable of tracking other devices with the same chip with high accuracy and speed. Apple compares the accuracy of the chip to it being like “GPS at the scale of your living room”. With the new chip being featured it seems that this Apple Tag rumor has gained even more credibility. It will be interesting to see how Tile responds to this new feature and when Apple decides to announce the so-called Apple Tag if this rumor indeed proves true. In the meantime, IOS 13 users can at least rest a little easier knowing that they can now track their devices even with they go offline.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
