Comcast Xfinity Home Partners With Tile on Location Tracking Via TV

Comcast's Xfinity Home customers can use their Xfinity X1 voice remote to locate Tile devices and see the result of their search on TV, the MVPD blogged Thursday. It’s the first video and voice control partnership for Tile and is another way Comcast wants to improve customer’s lives through home automation, it said. The post cites an Esure Home Insurance survey saying the average person spends more than 60 hours a year looking for misplaced items. Tile trackers can be attached to cars, backpacks, suitcases, keys and wallets to help users locate them, Comcast said. Sri Solur, senior vice president at Comcast, said the partnership solves “real-life problems,” giving the example of a child coming home from school without his backpack and a parent being able to see the pack is at school by asking the X1 remote. When a user asks for the location of an item, the TV displays the last known location and address of the missing Tile attached to it, it said. At launch, the Tile feature is available just to Xfinity Home customers with the X1 remote, who can access the feature by following prompts on the Xfinity Home app. Later this year, the companies plan to expand eligibility to all Xfinity internet customers, they said.