# Latest electronic tracking devices

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-electronic-tracking-devices/962205>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 3, 2022, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-electronic-tracking-devices/962205 "2022-04-03T21:57:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Roger\_That](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roger_that/32/8505_2.png) [@Roger\_That](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_That)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2022, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-electronic-tracking-devices/962205/1 "2022-04-03T21:57:28Z")

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To cope with my pending decline in mental acuity, I’ve bought a bunch of electronic tracking devices, and promptly tucked them away where I could consider which ones to use and which devices to hook them with. So after a year, I was able to connect my TILE tracker to my phone, and my chipolo tracker to my keys and phone. I’d also bought a FINDELFI device but I hope I didn’t spend too much money on it, because when I tried to set it up, I found the instructions written in fluent gibberish, like a Chinese speaker who’d maybe taken a high school course of study in English had written it, so I decided against activating it. No place to write a thumbs-down review that I can find easily, either.

A couple of questions on the others that I can’t find a ready answer for: the TILE device seems not to have a way to replace the battery–so is the way I find out that the battery is dead that it doesn’t work when I try to use it? Seems kinda counterproductive to me, unless I want to keep testing it all the time. Am I supposed to buy a new TILE every year or so just to be sure?

Have they come out with a new generation of these devices since I bought them (maybe 2019 or 2020 at the latest)? I thought I’d waited long enough to let them work out all the kinks, but apparently I didn’t wait long enough. Do you suppose the batteries ran down at all while sitting in the package until I activated them, or should I expect their lifespans to begin when I first activated them today?

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2022, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-electronic-tracking-devices/962205/2 "2022-04-03T22:10:04Z")

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What was your activation procedure? If you look at, e.g. a new Airtag with a battery already in it, you will notice a tab blocking it from making contact, which you have to pull out. I’ve also seen other models of those kind of tags which do not come with a battery pre-installed. Either way, I agree it would be pointless to package one with the battery hooked up and running down.

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**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2022, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-electronic-tracking-devices/962205/3 "2022-04-04T17:25:08Z")

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> [@Roger\_That](#):
>
> the TILE device seems not to have a way to replace the battery–so is the way I find out that the battery is dead that it doesn’t work when I try to use it? Seems kinda counterproductive to me, unless I want to keep testing it all the time. Am I supposed to buy a new TILE every year or so just to be sure?

Some tiles do have replacable batteries. I believe the app will notify you when the battery should be replaced. You don’t have to keep pinging the tile, just open the app once in a while.