I tried Tile, and for a number of reasons it didn't provide real coverage.
It just crowdsourced the bluetooth range of people connected to the internet who are willing to run the app, which is a really small zone of moving flashlight cones, densely clustered near civilization.
I really needed Tile to work in the middle of nowhere. It's not an all-terrain device. And honestly, if it's not going to work in any location, it means I can't ask it where I dropped my thing, while engaging in outdoor activities. That was what I wanted it to be for.
I needed Tile to take new batteries too. That said, Apple devices are also battery hostile, and I despise Apple for pushing that trend.
I also wanted to not have to give personal details to use Tile. I can think of procedures for operation that obviate personal identification, passwords and periodic logins to accounts, and if Tile didn't offer the option, then the motive for why they left that part out is clear and user hostile.
Wow this is totally cool, but also totally fucked.
Granted, anyone who's been unaware of the insane accuracy of inertial tracking (prevalent since the iPhone 4) is in for a rude awakening. In short, inertial tracking / positioning uses Apple's CoreMotion co-processor to figure out the relative direction and speed a device is traveling. This makes it possible to navigate for miles without cell service or GPS in maps (I've done this for over 30miles in google maps, while keeping the car icon on the road) and also works accurately enough to tell which floor or room of a building someone is in.
It's also been found that the co-processor can remain on for up to two days and stores info without needing the rest of the device to be on.
Where were you going that you didn't have GPS coverage for 30 miles?
GPS coverage works even without Network/WiFi coverage. I find it very, very unlikely inertial tracking using iPhone inertial sensors would be accurate up to 30 miles.
Could you provide a source please on the fact that iPhones use inertial navigation for predicting location (either public or private apis)
It doesn't really matter how rural the area is - GPS works pretty well outside of the polar circles. AGPS does use data connection to accelerate first fix time, but will be accurate after that without data.
The inertial trackers in current-day phones do not have anything like that kind of stability. They accumulate errors at an accelerating rate (they are essentially doing a double-integration of the error).
Using just MEMs based accelerometers, your position error would be hundreds of feet within a minute or two. Gyro and compass can slow the error down a bit, but not enough to be within a road width over 30 miles.
I think it's more likely that GPS was working in the anecdote above. It would be hard to find a place that had 30 miles of road and couldn't get a GPS/GLONASS fix.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 27.0 ms ] threadBut Tile and its competitors could now (in some regards) be DOA.
If there were, say, a cadre of bureaucrats trying to build an Antitrust probe into Apple [0], this is landing on their desk tomorrow morning.
[0]https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/3/18650861/apple-department-...
It just crowdsourced the bluetooth range of people connected to the internet who are willing to run the app, which is a really small zone of moving flashlight cones, densely clustered near civilization.
I really needed Tile to work in the middle of nowhere. It's not an all-terrain device. And honestly, if it's not going to work in any location, it means I can't ask it where I dropped my thing, while engaging in outdoor activities. That was what I wanted it to be for.
I needed Tile to take new batteries too. That said, Apple devices are also battery hostile, and I despise Apple for pushing that trend.
I also wanted to not have to give personal details to use Tile. I can think of procedures for operation that obviate personal identification, passwords and periodic logins to accounts, and if Tile didn't offer the option, then the motive for why they left that part out is clear and user hostile.
Apple should not be penalized for offering something inherently more private than the competition.
In other words, I am ignorant to how Apple's implementation is more private or feels more secure than Tile's.
https://www.wired.com/story/apple-find-my-cryptography-bluet...
Granted, anyone who's been unaware of the insane accuracy of inertial tracking (prevalent since the iPhone 4) is in for a rude awakening. In short, inertial tracking / positioning uses Apple's CoreMotion co-processor to figure out the relative direction and speed a device is traveling. This makes it possible to navigate for miles without cell service or GPS in maps (I've done this for over 30miles in google maps, while keeping the car icon on the road) and also works accurately enough to tell which floor or room of a building someone is in.
It's also been found that the co-processor can remain on for up to two days and stores info without needing the rest of the device to be on.
GPS coverage works even without Network/WiFi coverage. I find it very, very unlikely inertial tracking using iPhone inertial sensors would be accurate up to 30 miles.
Could you provide a source please on the fact that iPhones use inertial navigation for predicting location (either public or private apis)
I was driving through rural Kentucky shortly after the 2017 eclipse.
Using just MEMs based accelerometers, your position error would be hundreds of feet within a minute or two. Gyro and compass can slow the error down a bit, but not enough to be within a road width over 30 miles.
I think it's more likely that GPS was working in the anecdote above. It would be hard to find a place that had 30 miles of road and couldn't get a GPS/GLONASS fix.