Tile

The tile is a tiny techy piece of gear that can help you find anything you attach it to, in this context most pointedly your bike, via an iTunes app and your idevice. The tile is a small plastic square that attaches with double sided tape to whatever you might lose and want to be able to find, think keys, wallet, laptop, bike etc. The genius of this is that your idevice can track the tiled item and locate it while it’s within bluetooth range. Outside this range, for example if your bike was stolen (and importantly, the tile was not discovered and removed) others users’ idevices (there are currently almost 50,000 of them) carrying the tile app who came within range of your errant tile, would discreetly message your idevice and its location. You can even have the tile sound an alarm so that you can track it down by the noise it makes. The tiles’ non user-replaceable battery will last about a year so the unit must be replaced annually – a subscription system of sorts. Check it out at crowdfunding platform Selfstarter where the tile has attracted $2.6M. Tile will begin shipping around the end of 2013.

RRP: $18.99

Distributed by Tile