Tag or AirTag, Treasure Tag was there before

Apple again revolutionized the industry by launching the AirTag, which is, no doubt, sell like hotcakes. It is a cute little BT tag that comes with a speaker, accelerometer, BT LE, NFC, a user-replaceable battery, all for 29$. Or you can go for four of those, which will set you back $100.

The main force behind this tag is the U1 chip that features Ultra-Wideband technology that will be helpful in communication of the tag with surrounding Apple products with BT connection in the Find My network. The idea is nice and potentially useful, but the fact that your devices are communicating with other products can be a bit scary. 

Anyways, Apple wasn’t the only one who reinvented tags. The tag BT technology and services were mature enough that Samsung announced it in January 2021. It has a speaker, NFC, BT LE connection, battery, and the network of all Samsung devices is called SmartThings Find.

But, some of you might know that Nokia did it way before the UWB standard, or way back before the tag business was a thing. It was in February 2012, and Nokia announced its Nokia Treasure Tag (WS-2) that was featuring BT 4.0, NFC and was coming with two silicone straps on top of user-replaceable battery CR2032 inside the box. The main goal of the tag was to pair it with your Lumia device, slip it inside the bag or put it on keys, and check the last known location over HERE maps. From the last known location, you would start searching for the lost item. The price for the Treasure tag was 29.90€, which is something that today’s products have in common with its ancestor.

Well, the modern versions offered by Samsung and Apple can locate your item in real-time, but back then the Nokia Treasure Tag was something that a lot of people wanted. There was the mini version also WS-10, and later Microsoft was developing its Treasure Tag WS-20 with a code name Valora (found this on Croatian Nokiamob, hehe). 

History does repeat itself, and it would be nice if Nokia Mobile could do the same as Apple and Samsung did. maybe the UWB network might not be something that Nokia Mobile can use, since Apple and Samsung products are all around us, at every corner of the world, but it would be nice to have something Nokia did 7 years ago. Maybe Nokia Mobile could do that 80’s tag that you would whistle to, and it would whistle to you back so the lost keys of my dad could be located behind the couch or in my favorite toy.