Tile announces partnership with Intel to find PCs

May 21, 2020

Tile has announced a partnership with Intel to bring laptop tracking technology to help customers find lost or stolen PCs.

To establish this partnership with Tile, Intel will provide "updated solutions" to OEMs later this year. Which means we could start seeing Tile laptops in late 2020; or early 2021.

Tile announces partnership with Intel to find missing PCs

These smart health connected objects connect, via Bluetooth, to a mobile application, which you can use to check their position on a map; if they are within Bluetooth range. You can also set off an alarm.

If your tracker is out of Bluetooth range, you can ping Tile's crowd finder network. This will send you a notification with the location of your mobile phone each time it approaches another Tile device.

Tile and Intel haven't released a ton of details on how Tile integration will work. Their main promise is that integrated Tiles will allow you to track PCs. Even when they are in standby mode. Details of Tile integration may vary by manufacturer. Intel says it "works closely with PC manufacturers to determine the best Tile experience for their customers."

But we already have an example. The first attempt to integrate with a laptop – the HP Elite Dragonfly – was announced at CES 2020. It is already on the market. This laptop is equipped with a Tile physical tracking device built into the device. The tracker has its own separate hardware. It includes a battery and a speaker. This means that it can operate and sound its alarm for a limited time even when the Dragonfly is turned off. It actually draws some power from the system. But the impact on battery life is a matter of seconds, according to HP.

The Elite Dragonfly is an expensive business laptop. It might therefore be interesting to see it arrive on the market for more affordable consumer devices. Let's just hope that the impact on battery life remains minimal in these cases too.