I’m over 70, and I’m a geek. Always have been (A geek. Over 70 only the last couple of years). I admit it. When I was younger, Motorola made some of the coolest electronics out there. Most of my pagers when I was in training were Motorolas. My phone used to be a Motorola (until I realized how short the end of update period was compared to some other manufacturers.) Some of “new old stock” chips I use for fiddling with electronics are Motorolas, with the stylized M assuring quality and great function even if they are 30 or 40 years old. For real.
Not sure how the Moto Tag fits into that paradigm. Bought four of them. One for my keys, one for my swipe badge, one for my backpack, and one for my luggage or computer case, depending on what I was doing. And yeah, I’m an Android guy, so Apple Tags weren’t a consideration. Comes with an app, and apparently if I clicked on my Tag it would find my phone. And the battery was supposed to last a year. Not as much of an interest to me, but theoretically I could activate my phone’s camera. Okay…sounds pretty good. Even designed and 3D printed really good cases.
Installed the app. Set up the Tags. Off we go. Went to the Common Ground Fair (which has really gone downhill, maybe the subject of another post) and left one Tag on my dashboard in the sea of cars. I knew where the car was, but I wanted to see if the damn Tag would help. Wandered through the Fair, saw the animals, Eileen bought some earrings. Tried to find the Tag on my phone– phone had no idea where it was. In fairness, a few weeks later we went to Egypt via Frankfurt and I was able to say, with great relief, that my luggage was in the Frankfurt airport as it should be.
OK, I was willing to be forgiving. Big parking lot, no one around, can’t exactly connect to the find my device network if there are no phones around. A couple of days later, I genuinely need to find my badge and swipe card for work. This is not a test. No idea where I put it down. I know it’s in the house, but where? Open the Find My Device app on my and press the make sound button. Faintly, faintly, faintly I hear something. The damn thing was nearly inaudible with me upstairs in my bedroom and my badge downstairs in the family room. My hearing, despite my age, is very good. I guess we won’t be in this situation that often… we’ll give it a pass.
Sigh. Sometimes a purchase doesn’t quite live up to expectation, but let’s move on. Does pressing the button on the Moto Tag cause the phone to beep? No, despite making sure all setting on the phone were correct to receive a Bluetooth notification. Okay, so that wasn’t the most important reason I bought the things.
Final straw. After using these things for a couple of months, the app tells me that (a) there’s a firmware update and (b) the batteries are low in three out of the four devices. I prepare to download the firmware updates, and I see that one of the problems being addressed is “battery management.” Great. Problem identified, problem addressed. New batteries all around and firmware downloads.
It’s now three weeks later. The button doesn’t activate my phone, and three of four batteries need replacement (they were new, brand-name Sonys well within the expiration date.)
My Chipolos came today. We’ll see how we do.