Photos of Microsoft's new Treasure Tag code-named 'Valora' revealed via FCC

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Microsoft has a big day next week on October 6. Many new devices are expected to be announced, and while the Lumias and new Surface will be on the stage, we are also expecting numerous accessories to come around too to enhance the ecosystem.

One of those accessories is codenamed Valora (WS-20) as leaked by MicrosoftInsider.es back in July. Valora is a follow-up to the current Nokia Treasure Tag that helps users either find their phone or find their keys (or whatever object they attach it to).

Now, the first photos of the half-dollar sized device are exposed by the FCC no less in some authorization letters and test reports from the government agency.

There is not too much else to the documents although it looks like there will be support for iOS and Android as well implying a Device Hub app for those phones. Needless to say this finder accessory, however, is geared mostly towards the Lumia line and will evidently work on current Windows Phone 8.1 devices with Bluetooth LE enabled.

There are likely other enhancements and improvements to the device that Microsoft will detail next week. One noticeable change is the design, which drops the plastic toy-like appearance of the previous version for a more professional metal and black look.

Source: FCC (PYWAS-20); Thanks, Javid M., for the tip!

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Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

87 Comments
  • What would you use this for besides finding your keys? Although it's a little too big for that.
  • Luggage. Animals. Your phone. It's small enough for keys.
  • Children too
  • Yes absolutely. Malls, big sporting events etc. Just make them a simple necklace with the treasure tag attached and your good to go.
  • Yep.  No need to pay attention to those pesky kids anymore.  Just slap a treasure tag on them and you'll get an alert when they get out of range.  Like to the other side of the freeway for example.  :D I'm just messing with you.  It's actually a good idea.
  • You really lost your dog? How are you going to find it outside of BT range? It doesn't have any other connectivity built in, neither do GPS.
  • Apparently BT can reach 100m, which is more than enough range if you're out walking or driving. This would've helped me when my cat was accidentally locked in my shed for 2 days (she was fine) as I could've just walked around the backyard and homed in on her.
  • BT can do ~10m, not 100m. And being 2.4GHz that range is heavily influenced by interference. You are looking at a range of 20-33 feet of usable space line of sight, and much shorter than that if your keys are in a couch or around a corner.
  • It depends on the class of device. I googled too quickly before and apparently the 100m limit only applies to Class 1 (mainly industrial) devices. So yeah, for consumer use it'll be 1-10m (Class 2 & 3) as you said. Source: http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/Basics.aspx
  • I don't see anything that proves this won't have GPS, and there's more than just a dog you might have to look for. My cat likes to hide in the house. Wouldn't be bad to key up something like that to make sure she's still somewhere in the house and hasn't gotten out.
  • Sadly this isnt autonomous like say onstar
  • I assume it will work just like Tile (which does not have a WP app, grrr), it will show the last known location on a map if it is not in BT range. Tile as way ahead of the game, and has a social aspect which is nice. this might gain traction if it is truly cross platform, but may be too late.
  • Is not too late. Even Tile is a niche product at this point. Kinda like smartwatches, though I have started to see Apple Watch here and there(3 sightings so far). Oddly all in the last 2 weeks.
  • the very first treasure tag from Nokia(2013) is way before Tile(2014) exist. so Tile is later than treassure tag.
  • Hrm, I see the battery insert. That helps provide some context for scale, but I really wish a few quarters were stacked up in that image next to it.  You say it's small enough for keys, but I really wonder what that means in practical terms (to me).  I'm so picky about what goes on my keychains since I started placing my wallet and phone in my front pockets (at the advice of friends and doctor - back issue stuff).
  • I'm born and raised in Humboldt County, California where people are known for burying pickle barrels full of $, you see old small face 20's here often. I know a few uses for these besides the ones named above
  • I have 1 attached to my DSLR... was planning on another for the other camera, but will now wait for this :)
  • We have one attached to the baby stroller, car seat and change bag, comes in hand if we leave somewhere without one.
  • like you use it to trigger you to go back and get your forgotten thing?  Or you've completely forgotten where it could possibly be?
  • I *think* the previous treasure tag could be setup so your phone would vibrate when it goes out of range didn't it? I could buy one of these for about £10 but I think much more than that is a bit steep
  • I need one for my wallet cause I always leave home without it!! Also my kids, just in case I forget them somewhere hahaha, they need to make it connect to multiple phones... like to my wife's and mine!
  • I have one in my car, permanently. Great when I park somewhere and need to find it later on.
  • I have one on my work badge.. If I happen to leave without it I'll know..  
  • Only thing not being leaked is the SP4. That team is a vault it seems.
  • Thank goodness for that. The more surprises the better
  • Didn't you read WinBeta's news about SP4 having ultra thin bezel in desktop mode and increased bezel while in Tablet Mode
  • Eventually it would as the event draws nearer
  • I like how everything related to Surface is kept sealed up.
  • Not sure if it is secret... or just not that exciting. We already know what chips it is going to run, nothing ground-breaking there. We already know it is compatible with the same dock and keyboard accessories, so it will be similar in size. Probably a slightly larger display in the same shell size. Probably trade some airflow and heat sink space for a larger battery. Probably less expensive to manufacture while maintaining the same general price. Sure it will be better... just not excitingly better like the SP2 and SP3 were when they came out.
  • Reminds me of the original Surface launch. Nobody had any idea even when they were seated an the event!
  • Don't you guys miss the old days when NO info came out about a product until it was released on stage? Now, no matter the tech company, we have as much info as the person on stage making the product/device "reveal" announcement.
  • I do miss it. I avoid articles that appear to give away too much, buy like the trickle of info to get me through the weeks. Unfortunately its to late for the Lumia's LOL. It's nice to see them in carefully planned settings and get the full guided tour on stage though.
  • Looks cool and good thing it is back but what's with the circles. I miss the squares for some reason. :/
  • They won't have corners that can dig into your leg if they're in your pocket when you sit down
  • Yeah that's true tho as I had difficulty on mine digging into my butt cheeks lol
  • Is that why you miss them?! :P .
    I think they are embracing the less boxy looks this time around to go along with the Windows redesign also. Tile also took that look and name so they should differentiate.
  • I hope the technology is better than the Nokia Treasure Tag. It always disconnected from my Lumia 822 and eventually an upgrade for the app didn't support the Lumia 822.
    Great idea and for a short time, it did work to locate my keys.
  • Top tip: Keep your keys in your pants pocket.
  • What if pants are lost?
  • That's a good night.
  • Even worse, it would switch of by an 'in pocket' press on the multi function switch, which made it useless, pity, and I threw it out. the concept was great, will definitely try this one
  • I found the nokia treasure tag didn't work so well when I last used it. With win 10 mobile I don't think it worked at all correctly. It was nice when they added the wifi option to disable it as it would go off at home when I got too far from my keys.
  • It would be nice if they would get the old ones to work on my L1520!!
  • What's a half-dollar size?  Like 2 quarters on top of one another?  That'd be like 2 10p pieces.
  • Half dollar has jfk on it. It's a large coin not in production anymore. It's like 1.5 quarters diameter.
  • I initially thought they meant half of a dollar note :P Isn't it a bit weird calling it a 'half dollar' instead of 50 cents? Then again, they do have the weird 25 cent 'quarter' coin instead of a more standard 20 cents. Anyway, a US 50 cent coin is 3cm in diameter... about the same as the Nokia tag (except that was square).
  • whats weird about calling it half dollar when it's value is 50cents and a dollar is one hundred cents? same question for the quarter- it's literally a quarter the value.
  • It's weird because it doesn't happen in any other country, and it's an odd way to say things. Would you say '20 cents' or 'one-fifth dollar', '10 cents' or 'one-tenth dollar'? 25 cents is especially strange as the norm is to use 20 cents, not 25 i.e. 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 cent coins (although 1 & 2 cent coins are phased out in a lot of countries). I've only ever referred to 50 cents as '50 cents' and people would think you're cracked in the head if you started speaking in fractions of a dollar.
  • It's base denomination is the dollar, not cents.  Calling a silver dollar (Susan B. Anthony) '100 cents'?  No.  It's a dollar, or half-dollar for JFKs.
  • I don't know what to call a 20 cent piece, other than a 20 cent piece. Here a 5 cent piece is a nickle, a 10 cent is a dime and a 25 cent is a quarter. One cent is a penny. Half dollars aren't that common any more. It's just what we are used to.
  • http://mypages.iit.edu/~smart/cesashi/usmoney.jpg Kennedy is on the coin in question
  • I wonder if this is for only short distances from a phone or a computer, or this has a gps thing completely independent.  Because I would like to put it in my kid's bag for example.
  • Bluetooth only....
  • Where does it say that? I see that it has bluetooth connectivity, and an app. I don't see anything that says it will ONLY work with bluetooth.
  • this looks like a copy of Tile, which is only Bluetooth. Maybe GPS would be a nice upgrade but not necessary. And BT provides a bit more security (I think). I got some for my wife, only issue it they don't have a WP app. think of it as a location "finder" not a location tracker.
  • Anyone have a smartwatch with GPS in it? How's the battery life? BT can last a long time on a watch battery. With GPS it would last a day or two. Besides, if the tag knows where it is because it has GPS, how would it tell the phone? It would need point-to-point WiFi at least, or cell connectivity.
  • It's not a "copy" of anything, it's a continuation of their treasure tags. That's like calling the Surface Pro a copy of an iPad Pro smh
  • It reminds me of those old keychain lights you would press the middle button to turn it on. 
  • "More professional look" with metal and black....yet the new flagship phone doesn't want to look "professional".
  • You shouldn't have said that... LOL.
  • Need a windows 10 mobile treasure tag app
  • Enough with the leaks and pics of unannounced stuff.
  • Why? Don't read the article, move on. Let the grown-ups look at the article if they want
  • Are you new to this tech blog stuff?  This is what readers live for, haha.
  • Exclusively sold at retail stores by Verizon again, I presume....
  • Haha, that would be epic given that Verizon is very unlikely to carry the 950/XL! :D
  • Also available from Cricket Wireless (succinctly re-titled as the "Cell Phone Proximity Sensor & Valuables Finder")
  • Hmm, why couldn't they drop the plastic look of their phones for a, "more professional look instead of the plastic toy-like appearance"? They could have made the lower end 550 they revealed plastic and the 950 series aluminum.
  • Yep, you shouldn't have said that either...gonna create a shit storm...
  • We can only hope for a GPS enabled treasure tag... I would love to attach it to my kids somehow...
  • GPS is too much power consuming for a button battery, I think....
  • I think for something like that to work it would need regular charging each night, and it would need to "check in" every now and again rather than continuously sending it's location to conserve power. I guess it could use your phones 4G to report the last location each time the GPS is activated, otherwise it would need a dedicated SIM of it own
  • We should be able to use it to call Cortana in our pc/tablet/laptops
  • Looks great !!
  • Proximity?
  • Here's hoping they forgo the plastic retainer clip that was on the WS-2 - quickly lost its stiffness and, after trimming a collar stay to support it, chipped the tooth holding the battery down thereby making it useless. That being said, it worked quite well for me during its months in use and my Mini is still holding strong. Also, according to AAWP, Nokia had a third party developer make a Treasure Tag app for iOS and Android.
  • Maybe this will actually be widely available for sale. I've previously asked MS store employees about the Nokia Treasure Tag and none had any idea what I was talking about.
  • Amazon is your friend.
  • Nice.  I would consider getting a few to put on my quadcopter drones.  Sometimes I lose them due to strong winds and can only identify the general area they may have landed.  By searching that area I can track them to the specific crash site.
  • Seriously? Maybe if it's that windy you shouldn't fly them. Imagine if they crashed on someone's head.
  • He's probably not flying them amongst crowds...
  • Do they have an app for WP10 yet? I can't use my treasure tag since I installed the TP
  • If this supports using the button as a remote shutter in camera apps or at the very least in Microsoft Camera, then I will get one. This function was added for the current treasure tags, but only in the Lumia Selfie app...
  • Glad they're releasing an updated version of it, I have a treasure tag and I wish there was an option to set a desired range within reason since the default is not really useful especially when at home, or at work.  The concept of quiet mode misses the point since I often need help finding my keys when at home!  The device also needed to be reconnected basically every day which defeats the purpose.  Either way I'll probably give this one a try with a brand new 950..  
  • I'll be there on the 6th. Can't wait to put my hands on the new gadgets!
  • Square designs are better... even so... this device is very useful...
  • I couldn't find a singel tracker for Windows Phones. I have the a Treasure Tags but the rubber band is not very durable and a bad design in my opinion. Is Microsoft going to come out with a new design in 2016 or ever?