Samsung has something worth your time if you like to keep tabs on kids, pets or other cherished items. The Korea electronics giant just announced Connect Tag, a small internet-enabled device that tracks location and lasts a week between charges.
In other words, this is a similar offering to existing electronic tagging devices from the likes of Tile, the U.S. startup that pulled in $25 million earlier this year and has picked up nearly $60 million from investors to date.
Tile offers more flexibility on form factor but Samsung has gone for the clean white look with the Connect Tag, which measures 4.21 cm x 1.19 cm. The company puts that one-week battery life down to its use of narrowband network technology — a standard that optimizes power usage through more conservative use of data — and it claims its tags are the first of their kind to utilize it.
On the tech side, Samsung is using a combination GPS, Wi-Fi-based positioning and Cell ID to triangulate a device’s location with accuracy. It also works with Samsung’s SmartThings ecosystem, which means you could set up a geofence around your house, for example, to trigger lights or switch on the TV automatically when you (and your tag) return home.
More standard notification options include a location finder Android app, which pulls up the location at the push of a button, and periodic notifications that keep you regularly informed on the location of a child or, say, a pet when you are at the office or elsewhere.
We don’t have a price yet, but the Samsung Connect Tag will go on sale in Korea first before expanding to other countries “in the coming months.”