That Time We Talked About The Tile App

This is episode number 14 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is my friend Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are so glad that you can join us today for another special episode of The Homeowner Show. If you have not yet done so, go ahead and hit the subscribe button And there in iTunes, Stitcher, whatever podcast app you're using to listen to us, I hope you're enjoying that. Also hit the subscribe button, notification bell there on YouTube. However, we recommend the audio version of us because on the video, Kevin, we ugly. We so ugly.

It's bad, man.

Um, but the show's so good, it just makes up for it anyway.

Sure.

Um, so we encourage you to watch it in whatever means you find most enjoyable.

Or listen.

Or listen, yeah. But you can put it on mute. I mean, like, there's somebody out there that finds me mildly attractive. Kevin, how you doing, man?

Man, I'm doing pretty good. Yeah, it's, uh, man, it's holiday season. People are rushing around trying to get their last-minute gifts purchased and taken care of. I'm sure that the UPS drivers are going crazy right now. So yeah, We're pretty good. Everything's good around my place. How about you?

Yeah, doing pretty good, man. Hey, your comments about last-minute shopping reminded me of one of my favorite worst Christmas movies of all time, which would be Jingle All the Way. Are you familiar with that?

Yes.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad?

Yes.

Amazing.

Yes.

Absolutely. How did that not win the Academy Award for something?

It's beyond me.

Yeah.

Obviously, I have no idea how to rate movies.

They don't know how to rate movies. Oh yeah, they don't. That's the problem.

Yeah.

So in your mind— now everyone always talks about the best, and I don't care about the best.

Okay.

We always talk about the best. What's the worst Christmas movie of all time?

The worst Christmas movie of all time?

I'm obviously going with, with Jingle all the way. And I say that with all affection for that film. I love it because it's sort of like when it's your ugly dog. Yeah, you know, I love— I'd love that dog, but I'm also gonna be honest and just tell everyone that it's just ugly. And yeah, so worst holiday film?

Oh, see, I've— I'm gonna be hugely unpopular with this answer.

There's nothing Like being consistent in life, Kevin.

Hey, some things are just on par, right? So, so for me, it's A Christmas Story. Ah, you're the worst. I hate that one.

You're the absolute worst.

And they play it over and over and over and over for 24 hours straight.

Yeah, it's because it's good.

Oh man.

What don't you like about it?

It's just, it's never been a movie that I've thought Did you never get a BB gun as a child? No, I did.

Uh-huh.

I just— I've— I never have watched that and went, this is high-quality comedy.

Uh-huh.

I just— I just never enjoyed it.

Did you relate more to Randy? Is that—

No, I just didn't like it. It's not about relating to any of it.

Oh, I see. You're Scott Farkas. That's what you're bullying good movies.

Okay, you can tell me that all— my, my favorite Christmas movie is Home Alone. I'm a huge fan of Home Alone. Like, that's high-quality comedy in my opinion.

So you're a slapstick guy? I see how it goes. All right.

Yeah, it's good.

At least we're not having like a discussion as to whether or not Die Hard's a Christmas movie.

Well, because we all know the answer to that question.

Yeah, we all know stuff. So what are we here for, Kevin?

Well, today we're gonna—

It's not to talk about Christmas movies.

Absolutely not. Although that could be a fun show, but not today. Today we're going to do another product review. It's a product that is becoming a lot more popular these days, I think, partly for its functionality, but also for its affordability. And so today we're gonna be reviewing the Tile.

Yeah. And, uh, not like one specific because they have several different kinds, but like just, you know, the Tile family.

The family of Tile.

Yes.

Yeah, so, and they've got some new ones available right now that, um, some cool features. Yeah, some, some new features that I think, um, a lot of people are asking about, you know, hoping to find in a new model. And, uh, so yeah, they've also got a new premium service that we'll talk about as well that I think, um, could be useful for, for certain situations for certain people. Um, but yeah, we're gonna spend some time just reviewing this and giving everybody, um, some information on what the Tile is.

Yeah.

What kind of functionality it has, um, and those sorts of things.

Yeah, I'm excited about it. I, I, I actually have some Tiles.

Yeah.

Uh, that we use for our family. They've been super, super helpful, um, and we, we've really enjoyed them as a product. And now that they've come out with these new ones, we, we actually just We bought a new batch of them, um, to replace our old ones, um, and some of the new features on the, on the new ones are, you know, features looking at the old ones going, yeah, I really wish that that had that. And so like, these guys have obviously been paying attention to what I want.

Well, yeah, obviously most people are listening to you specifically saying, what does Craig want?

As all producers of excellent products should.

Well, they apparently—

In my humble opinion.

Yeah, so, uh, I guess eventually we're gonna get the finger wagging Ursula then.

Yes.

It's obviously— it's inevitable.

I sent out several emails, and, um, of those emails sent, all of them have been viewed.

Hmm, by you?

Well, I wrote them. Yeah.

So, so back to the Tile. So there's multiple models, um, and originally, uh, they came out, uh, with, with, uh, the Mate, the Tile Mate. And, uh, they also had the Tile Slim, the Tile Sport. Yeah. And they still have those, um, but they've made some updates to them. that have been really good. But I guess to begin with, why don't you talk just a little bit about what the Tile is for those people that may not even have a clue what we're talking about? What is it? Why do you need it? And how might it be helpful to homeowners?

Yeah, so the Tile, and really if you're still rocking the Razr, this is probably not gonna be super helpful because you're gonna need a smart device to pair this with, but it's essentially a Bluetooth tracker. Um, and it has, you know, limited range and different things like that. But what it is for are the items that you have in your home that if you're not a, you know, well-organized person, or if they're items that you tend to, you know, misplace, or if you're like me and have a 3-year-old that is gleefully constantly hiding things from you and says, where is it, Daddy?

It's a game.

Yeah, it's fun. The, the Tile is a Bluetooth tracker that will allow you to attach it to these items like your keys, like your purse, a toy, maybe a backpack or a briefcase. I mean, really, you can attach these things to just about anything. And through your smart device, either an iPad, an iPhone, an Android phone, really any of the smart devices that allow you to download the Tile app, you can, through just a tap of the button on the screen, locate that item. And the way it locates it is it can either, you know, get you close to that item. If you have the sound turned off on the Tile, it'll tell you, like, you're within 10 feet of it, you're within 5 feet of it, sort of a hot and

cold kind of a game. Um, Or the Tile itself can be turned on to emit a chirping noise, you know, and allow you to find that item, whether it be your keys, your purse, your briefcase, your backpack, your gym bag, your shoes, whatever.

Yeah.

So very, very cool.

Yeah, and it also works in reverse as well.

Yeah.

So you can tap the button, there's an actual physical button on the Tile, and double tap that, And it will help you locate the smart device that it is attached to.

Yeah, and that smart device, if, so like say you have, like me, I keep my phone on silent pretty much all the time.

Right.

So I don't get interrupted when I'm doing these wonderful podcasts.

That would be the worst.

Yeah, just the absolute worst. Just thinking of all the rude people that leave their phones on while doing interviews. Just wanna throat punch 'em. But yeah, so what were we talking about? I got distracted with the alien.

We were talking about the fact that even if your phone or your smart device is on silent, then—

Oh yeah, you double tap that button on the Tile and it'll still allow your phone to make a noise. Your phone will make a noise because it's interacting with the Tile app.

Yeah, so the app basically overrides your silent function to play a sound.

Very much the same way if you're an Apple user. I don't know how it works on Android because I don't use that stuff.

Yeah.

But I'm sure it's nice.

Whatever.

But if you've ever used the Find My Phone app on another device to find your phone, or if you have like an iWatch, is that what they're called, iWatches?

Yeah.

Yeah, there's like a function on the iWatch to locate your phone or tablet or something that always overrides the silent mode.

Correct.

So it's the same idea. Yeah, same concept.

So, so basically what this device is going to do, it is going to help you locate something that you attach it to. So, uh, what, what you, you mentioned just a minute ago that you, you pair it with a smart device. So, so let's just be generic here and say you're, you're pairing it to your smartphone. Um, so immediately whenever you unbox this thing You will connect it to the app, which you can download from the App Store or the Google Play Store. You download the app and it will immediately find the Tile once you press the, the button.

Right.

It'll find it, it will connect it, and it leads you through a series of questions that basically says, which Tile do you have? Is this the Mate? Is this a Slim? Is this the Sport? Is it the Pro? Which one do you have? It will connect it, and then you have the opportunity to name it. And so, for example—

Well, I think actually when you, when you turn it, when you double tap it and you have the app on, it automatically identifies what kind of Tile it is.

Oh, it does?

Yeah.

Okay.

So you just have to tell it what you're attaching it to.

Okay. Yeah, so you tell it, I'm attaching it to my keys, to a toy, to a purse, whatever that is. And—

Yeah, I'm actually looking here on their website, and like they have a picture of it being attached to like a multi-tool and to a tennis racket. Um, so I mean, like, sky's the limit here.

Yeah, really, it, it all, it depends on what you choose to attach it to, because these things have a little, basically a little eyelet that you can, you know, you can put a zip tie through, or you can put a keyring through.

What are you the most absent-minded about? Attach it to that.

Yeah. What are you prone to lose?

Please don't attach it to your child.

I don't know. I mean, you know, if you're Maybe you're at a Disney theme park, as most people should be. Slip it in their pocket.

Hey, Susie, we decided to get your ears pierced.

Maybe not the best use of the tile. It's not as stylish as some earrings.

Yeah. Everyone out there, I mean, really, you want to see Kevin get his ears pierced with a tile.

No, you don't.

This is— I mean, like, somebody out there can make this happen, at least through Photoshop.

Well, maybe through Photoshop. Man, you want to talk about being really ugly. We'd be really ugly at that point.

Hey man, when you're down, you got to accessorize.

There's only so much you can accessorize this with.

I'm sure your wife would love the ability to find you from time to time.

Well, maybe. Let's not ask her. So yeah, this pretty much anything you want to attach this to, you name it in the app. And what's really cool is then you, you can tell it, uh, the app itself, um, I've named it, you know, my keys, right? Okay, so, um, then you can use, for example, on iOS, which is what you and I both have for iPhone, you can use Siri function and say, Siri, find my keys, right?

Right.

And all you have to do is speak into your phone at that point and it'll ring wherever your keys are, so long as you are within range.

Right.

So let's talk about that for a minute.

Well, I mean, just, just to bounce back for just a second, I mean, like, it's not— yes, it does work with Siri, absolutely does work with Siri, but that also extends out. And so it works with other smart devices too. So, you know, if you're in the iOS family, it's going to work with your HomePod. If, you know, if you're an Amazon person, it'll work with your Alexa. If you're Google, it'll work with the— what is the Google device?

A Google Home.

Google Home.

Yeah.

And so, yeah, Google Assistant. Yeah, it'll work with all those things. And so you can tell those things, hey, find my keys. And if that's what you've named that tile piece, it's gonna make that tile piece start chirping and you can go and find it.

Right.

So very, very cool.

Yeah. And to take that on a little bit further, so I just mentioned distance. So distance is an issue. Um, but what's interesting is if you were out of range and, uh, you're trying to locate your device— so let's say your keys, um, you've left your keys somewhere, you don't know where they are, you're with— you're, you're outside of range, which we'll talk about here in just a minute— if someone else with a Tile comes within range, right, of your Tile, it will alert you, right, to where it is.

Yeah.

and not them. Yeah, they don't, they don't know. It doesn't alert them.

It's just feedbacking off their app.

Absolutely. It is just bouncing off theirs back to you saying, hey, I've located this. Yeah, it's here.

Yeah, and all of our fun conspiracy theorist friends are gonna just find that super creepy. Yeah, I have to admit it makes me feel a little creepy, but it's a really cool feature.

Yeah, it— now if it actually alerted that person that they just passed someone else's device That would be different. But the fact that it does it, they don't even know that it happened.

Yeah.

I find that to be a really smart feature that they added to this.

Yeah, and so I can see this working. And let's run with the Disney analogy. Like, say you dropped your keys at Disney.

Yeah.

And it has a Tile on it, and you're like trying to locate it. And it's like, no, it's not in range. And another Tile user walks by, it's going to bounce off their phone, bounce down to your phone, and be like, hey, another Tile user just walked by your phone, and this is where it occurred. Walk near there.

Yeah.

And so, you know, now you have an idea as to where to go to relocate your item that's missing.

And then you're probably gonna be within range once you say, hey, it— they told me that it's in this area. You walk toward that area, you're gonna be in range at that point, most likely.

And so I think it's probably a pretty good idea to talk about a little bit the range, because the ranges have changed a little bit with the new updates. But you essentially have 3 different devices. You have the Pro, the Mate, and then the Slim.

Yeah.

And so the Slim is gonna have the, the least distance and range, and that one can reach up to 100 feet, which is still a pretty good distance. I mean, like, you know, for most people, that's gonna be anywhere in your home.

Yeah.

Just about.

Yeah.

Um, and if you have the Mate, uh, that one is gonna reach up to 150 feet, and then the Pro This was really impressive. The Pro will reach up to 300 feet.

Yeah, that's 100 yards. That's a length of a football field.

That's crazy.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a pretty good distance.

Yeah, and so they've— with the updates on these new tiles, I mean, there's aesthetically the Slim is basically the same. The changes have really been made with the Mate and the Pro. And with the Mate, it's just a little bit thicker, a little bit bigger than it was before. The big difference though is with the Pro, and what I really like about this one is before it kind of had like this weird triangle circle hole for, you know, where you could put like a keyring through.

Triangle circle? That's what you're going with?

Well, it's like, it was like, I don't even know how to describe it. It was just, it was a weird hole.

It was in a corner. Yeah, it was like a little hole in a corner.

It wasn't a circle, but it was like they cut out like a a thin edge of the circle, right? And then it was sort of in a triangle shape.

It was difficult to attach things.

These things are square, and so like, that's why I'm saying triangle, because it had 3 sides, but they're like curved.

Sure.

So, but now it's just a circle, and then the edge is like a beveled piece of metal, and so it's easier to get, you know, like, because those keychain things are annoying to— Yeah, they're the worst.

They're hard to get on and off of things.

Right. And so now it's got like a bit of a bevel to it, and so it, you know, you can kind of slide that edge in there like a knife to pry open the keychain ring. The, the Mate doesn't do that, but it has a ring on it, and so you got to kind of pry it open like you did before and stick the key ring in there. Actually, one of the reviews I watched about it, this guy kept complaining, like, like 5 times he mentioned, and by the way, it didn't come with a key ring. I was like, who doesn't have a key ring?

Yeah.

I mean, like, if you don't have a key ring, why are you buying this thing?

Right. And they're pretty easy to find.

So quit your whining, YouTube blogger. Yeah, go get yourself a keyring.

Yeah, so cheap to get a keyring. Yeah, so, um, there you mentioned a difference in, in the new models, and they are a little bit different size, but it is minimal. I mean, we're talking like 1 millimeter difference in size, um, both in, you know, the, the height and width of it, uh, but also the, the depth of it, you know, the, you know, how, how thick it is.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, changes just a little bit, but it is so minimal that I don't think anybody would, would, uh, really notice. But there's a reason that they changed the size of it, and there's 2 primary reasons. The first reason is, uh, a lot— what a lot of people were giving them feedback on was this device just isn't loud enough. So if I'm, if I'm using this and I'm trying to locate something, I tell it to play the sound, I can't hear it, right? Especially, you know, if it's, you know, maybe I left my keys on the bed and they got covered up by the covers.

I just—

it muffled the sound. I couldn't hear it, right? So they increased the decibel level, which means they had to use new hardware in there. So yeah, that changed the size a little bit. But probably the biggest thing that they, that they changed was the ability to change the battery.

That was huge.

Yeah, so—

Because these things are, I mean, like the original devices, like the ones that we had, they're designed to last a year.

Right at a year, yeah.

And that's pretty accurate. I mean, that's about how long ours lasted, and then they just pooped out.

Yeah, and at that point they're useless.

Yeah.

Throw them away.

That, that's about all they're good for.

Yeah, so—

Or unless you have a kid that likes taking things apart. Even then, it's gonna be a short experiment.

Yeah, it's not gonna take long. Yeah, so the, the great thing is, um, they're pretty common batteries.

Yeah.

Uh, you know, the, the, the one that's in the Pro is a CR2032. It's a very common, inexpensive battery to, to purchase, um, and, uh, you, you can find those pretty much anywhere. And really easy. Just open the compartment, pop out the old battery, pop the new one in. And in the Mate, it uses the CR1623 or 1632.

Yeah.

It is. And, uh, it's just a little bit smaller battery, but you're gonna get about a year out of each one of those batteries. So rather than having to just purchase a whole new device, which is just annoying and you feel like you're wasting money, you can go buy a pretty inexpensive battery, pop the new one in, you're good to go.

Right, and I'm sure the, you know, the anticipation here is like you're gonna buy it and then they're gonna come out with a new one next year and, you know, you're gonna have to decide, do I want the battery, do I want the new one, here's the cool new features.

Sure.

But I mean, like, these are— I mean, like, the main function of them is to find your missing stuff.

Right.

And so for the cost of a battery, you can, instead of having it for a year, you can have it for 2 years.

Right.

I forget what the— I don't remember what the Pros cost.

Um, they're like $35.

Yeah, they're not that bad.

Yeah, they're not very expensive.

And I think the only downside to this upgrade is I, I think it changed the water resistance ability of it, right, to a certain degree. It's still like graded to be so much water resistant. It's just not as water resistant as it was before when they were calling it the Sport.

Yeah, don't submerge it.

Don't take a bath with your Tile.

It's just probably a bad idea.

Yeah.

Yeah, so those are, those are a lot of the functionality of what this thing actually is, what it does.

Well, I don't want to say— the other ones were actually, they weren't quiet, but these new ones are boasting dBs of over 100.

Yeah, which is high.

These are really high.

Yeah.

I mean, if you think of like, trying to think of like when you go to like a public speaking event, that's usually hanging out somewhere between like 85 and 90 decibels when you're— when you have someone talking through a PA system.

Right.

That's comfortable, right, for like a large crowd. So you're talking about something that can overwhelm that, right, in a small area.

Sure.

So like they're loud. Yeah, which is impressive for the size that they are.

Yeah, and, and whenever you start thinking about the functionality of, of I need to find something, yeah, the louder the better. Now one of the cool things is, um, these things become increasingly more powerful with the app. So once you pair it with the app, obviously you can't use this thing without pairing it with the app, but there are settings that you can change and modify inside the app if you want to, you know, kind of get deep into it, including how loud it is, right?

Yeah, you can change the volume of it.

You can change the volume if you go, my goodness, that is just way too loud, turn it down.

Yeah.

Or, you know, maybe you're trying to find something at night and you got kids who are asleep and you don't want to wake them up, just turn the sound down. And yeah, uh, you know, there's just options and it makes it a little more functional with that.

Yeah, like I mentioned before, you can put it on silent as well and sort of play a game of hot and cold with your smart device.

Yeah, I mean, it knows based on, you know, like, like GPS function where it is, right? Or yeah, proximity.

So, um, but I think that's about all. Is, is that about all there is with like the, the actual functionality of the device and what it can do?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, basically what you're looking at here is a device that helps you find something you've misplaced, right? So if it's something that you misplace often, whether it's a favorite toy of your child, your keys, you can slip these things in your wallet. I mean, they're small enough that, you know, if you feel like you're gonna lose your wallet, maybe you do misplace it every once in a while, whatever it is that you misplace, this thing allows you to track it. And right, that's the primary thing that allows you to do. Yeah.

And like, the Slim is, is really intended to be sort of an inconspicuous piece. And I think for, I mean, like my wife is really the one that primarily uses these things, and she typically uses them to find her keys. However, the Slim that she has, she always puts it in her laptop satchel. And it's— I mean, it is bigger, like, like, you know, postage stamp-wise. It sure takes up a bigger area flat-wise.

Sure.

But it's very, very thin, thin. And so it can go into a bag, it can go into these things and be sort of inconspicuous. And that's really what it's for. And so she uses it to locate her laptop because it's always with that bag that that laptop goes in.

Right.

So you, and then you know, you put it in like whatever, and it's just not gonna take up any space for what it's doing.

Yeah.

And you kind of hide it in a pocket or something like that.

Right.

So I actually really, really like those. I like all of them, but that one to me is really, really cool for just because of the inconspicuous nature of it. I I mean, I don't like— I don't like having extra things on my keys per se, but like that going in a bag, you know, like, you know, different things that I might misplace that way.

Especially if it's something that's valuable.

Right. Or if it, you know, something like that I usually have to grab when I'm in a hurry to get out the door or something like that. And I was like, I don't have time to look for this. So, which is probably a good segue to kind of take us into the premium package that you can buy. And this is like a subscription service through Tile that you can do, which they, they've sort of upgraded a bit because of the new design with the batteries. So if you sign up for the premium service, one of the big things is they'll automatically ship you replacement batteries for all your Tile devices.

Yeah.

If you're on the premium service, which is kind of cool because I mean, like, even though they're little batteries, I mean, like, you know, you could probably cover the cost of the batteries in you know, depending on how many Tile devices that you have in a month. Yeah, I mean, so like, because I think those batteries cost like $2 or $3.

Yeah, I mean, they're not super cheap, but they're not super expensive either. But depending on how many you have, like you said, if you've— especially if you've got, you know, 5 or 10, it's not a bad deal to be on the subscription for sure.

Yeah, I mean, for that alone, I mean, like, and so what they're gonna do is like, when did you buy them? And so they just send them to you like a year later, right? So, and so you don't really have to think about it, right?

So yeah, so let's just kind of go through and talk about what those features are that you get with the premium service. So this is a subscription, this is something that—

So I think it's $3 a month, or you can pay $30 for the whole year right now.

That's exactly right. So $3 a month, $30 for the year, it's Um, save a couple of months there if you pay by year, but that you're getting extended features here that you don't get. Now, um, let us say that you aren't— you don't have to have this premium service to really feel like you got your money's worth out of the Tile.

Right.

However, there are things that the premium service offers, the subscription offers, that can be really valuable if, um, if you're losing your things often. So let's just kind of go through what some of those things are.

Well, yeah, so we already talked about free battery replacement, and so that's going to be for like all your Tile devices that have the ability to have a replaceable battery. If you have one of the older versions, it's not going to be able to replace the battery for those. So that one just You know, go ahead, that's an easy one, battery replacement. So that's actually a physical item, which I think is pretty cool because a lot of subscription services don't come with physical items, they usually just come with services.

Sure.

So this is actually pretty neat.

Yeah.

The next one that jumped out to me was unlimited sharing, and this is something that we didn't mention before when we were talking about the function of the tile, but in the app, one of the things that you're allowed to do is to share that device with another person.

One more person.

One more person. So with the subscription service, you can share that item with unlimited number of people.

Sure.

Now that may not sound like a big deal, but like for someone like me who's eventually gonna have multiple children driving, and I'm not buying each of them a car, but yes, I will probably, but, but You know, as you have children that, you know, get to an age where they're going to be borrowing your car, using different cars, and you have a family that has a multiple car situation. Every person's different.

Yeah.

And not everyone puts things away where they belong.

No.

No matter how much it destroys the soul of your father. So the ability to share this with an unlimited number of people means that within your family, you could give access to like a set of keys.

Right.

And say like, all right, so if this set of keys is missing, clearly Timmy didn't put them away last time, but Johnny can find them because he has access to the app.

Right.

And can click find, you know, the keys to the Chevy, and here we go. We're gonna go find the keys to the Chevy, and it starts blinking, and then Johnny can find Timmy's shame.

Yeah, that's a long story, but I will say this. Think of it this way. If, if it's just you and your spouse, this doesn't really matter, right? Most likely. If you need one other person, right, then you can't do that unless you have the premium service. So just 2 other people that you want to share the location with, you have to have the premium service.

Yeah. So I don't know why they make it unlimited. It seems like they really just say like 5.

Yeah, I guess if they said you're gonna do it, we're going all in, which I appreciate.

You know, I guess one of the things I can think of, like, I guess if you're an Airbnb kind of person and you have something on the property that, you know, has keys or is a remote or something like that, you have the ability to share that with whoever's staying in your property. Yeah, that could be kind of a cool feature if you're, if you're an Airbnb or a HomeAway person and you have stuff in that house that you're renting out that you want people to be able to locate. You can share that with them and say, hey, look, here's Tile app, here's the item, click here, it'll tell you where it's at.

Yeah, not a bad idea.

So there you go, real estate people, great idea for you, no charge.

And obviously they're gonna do it now that it was your idea. Alright, well, so the next feature that you get with this premium service is an extended warranty.

Yeah.

So these devices, they come with a 1-year warranty, which is good. I mean, especially whenever you consider that the original devices, they really only lasted a year. So to get a 1-year warranty out of that, that's a pretty good deal.

Yeah, I'm curious, do you have to keep the premium program for 3 years in order for it to be the extended 3 years, or can you have like the premium service for like a year and then you still get the 3 years?

I don't know. I, I would assume that you have to keep the service. Yeah, I do not know the answer to that question. You're gonna have to find that on your own, people.

Sorry. Oh, Tyler's gonna get some finger wagging, Ursula.

But, uh, so instead of a 1-year warranty, um, as, as you said, with the premium you get 3. So it extends it another 2 years by paying for the warranty.

Now again, this is not applicable to previous models, only new models that have a replaceable battery.

Exactly.

Because otherwise that would be stupid because they're only designed to last a year.

We're not replacing something that was built to only last a certain amount of time.

Yeah, so one of the other features is location history. And so, like, and I think the purpose of this one is, you know, say you have an item that you don't use on a day-to-day basis. Like, say maybe you only pick it up every 2 weeks or so. It's just not a regularly used item.

Right.

And you can't find it. It's not within range. What the premium service does is make a history of the last known location when you were close to it. sort of geopegs that on a map and says like, look, between this time and this time on this date, this is the last time that we saw this device and where it was at. And so that gives you a good starting point as to like, okay, this item is missing, where do I start the search?

Yeah, and, and that, that goes back— that history goes back for a total of 30 days, right? So, uh, presumably, um, you know, every, every place it's been within the last 30 days, it's gonna mark that on the map and give you that data.

Right. And more than likely, if it's in your home, you've been in your home in the last 30 days.

Right.

And so it's probably pinged it.

Sure.

At some point.

Sure.

Yeah, so pretty cool, pretty cool feature that you get there with that. Smart Alerts. This one I actually think is, is one of the cooler features that you get with premium.

Yeah.

Are you familiar with this?

Yeah, it's a, it's a pretty neat deal. In full disclosure, it is in beta form right now, which means it is not at 100% capacity as far as functionality goes, but they are working on it and it will be a feature that they will have locked down before you know it, and it'll become a feature for everybody who has a premium service once it's available. Uh, but it's in beta right now. So basically, um, it, it— if you set a smart alert up, let's say you, you have a Tile in your wallet, for example.

Mm-hmm.

And you set up a smart alert. If you leave your home and you get with it, you know, you get out of range of the Tile. So let's say it's a, it's a slim model, it's in my wallet, I get 100 feet. If I leave my home, get out of that geofenced area of 100 feet, it's gonna send me an alert that says, hey Kevin, you forgot your wallet, go back and get it.

Right.

So, and that, that can be set up on any of your Tile devices, but it's just gonna send you an alert saying you might want to go back and pick this up.

Yeah, and this, this reminds me a lot of— we spent a good deal of time talking about geofencing with the, with the Ecobee, right? And this reminds me a lot of that. I mean, like, you can basically set up you know, priority list of items that you don't want to leave the home without, and it'll just let you know, hey, I don't think this is with you.

Yeah, you might want it.

Moron.

Yeah, thankfully it doesn't say moron.

Maybe we could program that in.

That would be bad.

Hey, Tile people, got a little idea for you.

Yeah, so Smart Alerts is a It's just a neat little added opportunity that you have with this device. And so the last thing is, um, you know, the Tile has pretty good customer service as it is.

Mm-hmm.

However, with the premium service, you get your own set of customer service reps that will get you through quicker and get you the information that you need. If you've got a question, uh, customer service has a premium customer care line that with the premium service you get access to.

Yeah, this— I gotta be honest, this one kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I liked all the other features, but this one was just like, really? So what you're telling me is the regular customer service sucks?

Well, I don't know that it sucks because I never had to use it.

Let me just say, I've never had to use it, but like, that's just how this— this is— that's just how this presents itself to me is like, sure, premium customer care by paying.

I— yeah, I don't know. I— what I do like about it is—

I can do it for free where they're just gonna be rude to me.

Well, yeah, and I, I, I see that point of it, but the way I see it is they're saying, hey, you're, you're paying for something extra, we're gonna give you something extra, we're gonna make you a priority.

Sure.

because you're paying for something that other people aren't.

I will say this. I mean, like, one of the things that it says about the premium customer care is that it's a text line that it adds. Now, it also says that you can, you know, you kind of, you have a different number, a different access point to get in touch with customer care, but that you can actually text them. And so, like, if it's something simple, you can be like, hey, the tile's doing this. What do I do here? And they can, you know, shoot you back a link I'm sure, or, you know, refer you to an FAQ, um, really quickly.

Sure.

And, you know, probably things that they deal with 60 times a day.

Yeah. Uh, the only other thing that I would add about the premium service is, uh, you can start with a free trial for a month. So they're going to give you an opportunity to test out these. Yeah.

That's cool.

Give it a test run. And, you know, at that point, if it works for you, great. You can either pay for it monthly or by the year or just cancel. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm gonna try that. I'm gonna get the, the free trial and just start up a text conversation with Julie over there.

Just see how it goes.

See how long I can keep her on the line.

Yeah, she's gonna realize you're on free trial.

I'm gonna test the limits of their premium.

Good luck with that. You're that guy.

And if not, I will post a picture of a finger-wagging Ursula on their Facebook page.

Do you have that GIF loaded and ready to go?

I should. Yeah, I need to get that. Okay. I really wanted to, like, I wanted Disney to pick up the ball and run with it.

Yeah, maybe they will one day. Your dreams will come true.

They will. It's a song they keep singing there.

Yeah, I don't think that's what they meant.

I don't ask for much.

Well, yes you do.

Just a GIF.

You ask for more than you realize. Well, so I think that pretty much covers it. Anything else that you can think of that we missed?

I don't know. I feel like with these product segments that we need to have like a buy or deny section or something.

Yeah.

You gonna go get yourself some tiles here?

Well, we actually have one at home in a box. never opened.

Uh, so now you need a tile to find the tile? Exactly.

Yeah, uh, maybe my wife knows where it is, but, uh, we, we have one, but after, after doing some research on it, um, I don't think she really understood what it is. And so if she's not gonna use it, I think I probably go over there and I'll snatch it. She won't ever know.

Yeah. Yeah.

Or I'll just put it in her purse and make it ring every once in a while and freak her out.

That could be fun too.

Yeah, it could.

We need to do that in church sometime.

Yeah, I don't know where my wife is. Oh, there she is.

Aisle 4.

Aisle 4 on the left. Yeah, so, um, so yeah, um, you know, if, if this is something that you already own, uh, we'd love to hear some of your, um, experiences with it, you know, both positive, negative. Um, you know, post that, uh, somewhere, maybe on our Facebook page. Go write us a note. Send us an email at info@homeownersshow.com and let us know. And maybe if it's something that you're interested in, want more information about, you know, we'll try to help you out as much as possible. Send us an email or get ahold of us and we'll, we'll see what we can do. Yep.

And as always, send us reviews, comments, questions, or you can review us on iTunes. You can send us messages on Facebook and Instagram. And by us, I mean Kevin, I won't respond. You can try and find me.

Good luck.

I'm hanging out there in the ether somewhere.

I'm gonna attach a tile to you. We'll find you.

A virtual tile.

As long as we're within 300 feet.

If you're within 300 feet, you can probably find me.

Yeah, probably.

I'm crafty, but I'm, you know.

Yeah, you're there.

I'm getting older. Anything else, Kev?

No, I think that's about it. We appreciate everyone listening to us. You know, tell your friends about us. Um, and, uh, we, uh, will come out with a new show every Tuesday, so be prepared for that. And we will talk to you next time. See ya!