“When Apple does something, it does it right,” Lucien Harriot of Mechanism Digital once told me. We don’t have to look any further than the current Air Tag-ification of America to see his point.
The same product has been available for some time, known as “smart tags.” They were usually from companies that no one ever heard of — until something called Tile entered the scene and took over a large share of the market. Samsung eventually joined the party with a smart tag that is designed for, and only works on, its Galaxy line of phones.
There is a big difference with the way Air Tags and generic smart tags work. Apple has set up a thing called the “Find My…” network. From what I can gather, our individual phones are used passively in this process.
In contrast, Tile and Samsung don’t connect to phones, instead they check in with wifi networks that are nearby. This sounds sort of shabby, but people have said in reviews that it works fine over thousands of miles.
The one thing Apple, Tile, and Samsung share is how useful they are. I’ve been wishing for something like this for many years — I’m giddy at the amount of time I’ll save.
Of course the “nuclear option” of these tags is for use with law enforcement. There’s a famous case of that happening in which a lost bag was found in a baggage handler’s house. Maybe getting your baggage stolen and waylaid to a suburb is an unlikely event, but I know the reassurance I’ve seen on the faces of my friends and family because of Air Tags. That’s important too!
As travel season starts breaking, the peace of mind of having a tag on every piece of luggage seems priceless. Add some travel insurance and mix it all up for a worry-free vacation. Contact us for more information!
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