Lost And Found

James O’Malley extols the benefits of Apple’s revolutionary new tracking gadget

- James O'Malley

ABOUT A YEAR AGO, my partner and I got a little black and white cat. We called her Hashtag and despite my initial scepticism, a latent parental instinct in my body kicked in. If I don’t see Hashtag for a while, I worry that something terrible has happened to her, even if every time it turns out she was just sleeping under the bed.

So to help put my mind at rest, I bought a tiny tracker made by a company called Tile, which attaches to her collar. It meant that, even if I can’t see her, I can pull out my phone and connect to Tile using Bluetooth, the same technology we use to connect our phones to wireless headphones. If the connection is made successfully, it means that she must be nearby.

But there was still a problem: what if Hashtag were to get out of the house and run further away? Bluetooth range only extends to around ten meters, so any further and her whereabouts would be a mystery. This is why I was delighted when earlier this year Apple released the AirTag, its own Bluetooth tracker. And the results are, I think, pretty revolutionary, with big implications for our physical world.