Follow-Up: It’s going great! I’ve stopped using my Tile tracker, I haven’t lost my keys (yet), and I feel like I’m a LOT less trapped by my circumstances regarding them. Many thanks everyone! Many thanks indeed!
(See bottom for tl;dr.)
I’m the kind of person who loses their keys easily, so I love the idea of trackers: little devices that you can attach to your wallet, phone, or keyring that connect via bluetooth to an app on your phone to help you find it.
Problem is pretty much all the options I can find are run by companies with shitty privacy policies: Tile, Apple AirTag, Chipolo, and so forth.
- Tile collects shitloads of data and is partnered with Amazon to boot;
- Apple Airtags AFAIK only work with Apple devices, and besides it’s Apple so no thank you; and
- Chipolo also collects shitloads of data and shares information with data brokers and data collection companies of all stripes. No thank you.
In any case, I really don’t need a location network larger than maybe 200 meters (about 650 feet). If I lose my keys, odds are it’s either in my car or in my house, and my house is like 100 square meters (about 1000 square feet). So Bluetooth is really all I need. I don’t even need to see it on a map; I just need for it to ding or something.
I’m currently using Tile but I really want to get away from it. Worst case scenario, I’ll stop using the Tile, but I really am a forgetful little shit. Lol.
tl;dr – Looking for recommendations for ideally short-range Bluetooth trackers for keys, with decent privacy. Max required range = 200 m (650 ft). Also, pie tastes great. Cheers.
Edit: Added a single comma (because fuck syntactic ambiguity) and added follow-up. :)
What about a whistle key finder? I have no idea if it works though, might be really annoying and continuously going off.
Definitely something I looked into. Sadly, all of the ones I found were only purchaseable on Amazon or from Walmart.
This reminded me that ages before the era of connectivity, there existed these: https://autobarn.com.au/ab/Autobarn-Category/Shop-our-Full-Range-by-Brand-at-Autobarn/Mdi/MDI-Whistle-Key-Finder---FZ-WKF/p/AC40602?srsltid=AfmBOoqqJ-QOeARB80pErKGSuJRtyjsPiMNpZdeKClSKn8s7IIHhfBfr
I never got one, but I wonder how effective they might be. I also can’t whistle for shit, so…
Bastards really don’t like me using a VPN. Tried 3 different servers and still hitting the block page.
What’s that page of?
Weird I’m in nordvpn in Australia and no issue.
Whistle and it beeps… Apparently.
Okay, so I switched my VPN to an Australian server and it worked.
That being said, I’m in the US and they do not ship anywhere outside of the Australian proximity.
From their delivery FAQ page:
Where do you deliver to?
We currently deliver to all of the Australian mainland, Tasmania and Australian Island and Territories *.
* Exclusions include:
- Australian Antarctic Territories
- Norfolk Island
- Christmas Island
- Cocos Island
Oh I’m sure you’ll find similar products elsewhere. It was just the first listing that came up for me for whistle key finder.
Sadly, none that were not purchasable through only Amazon or Walmart.
Motherfuckers aren’t getting my money. (Amazon and Walmart, I mean, though technically also the product companies too I guess.)
Not sure how much it will bother you but I’m certain they’ll be found on AliExpress and eBay.
Maybe even a dollar store, it seems the sort of thing they’d carry.
The original link I sent is an automotive store, the kind that sells oil and wipers and towball accessories. Maybe you have something like that near you?
Not familiar with AliExpress, but yeah eBay might be an option. Thanks!
