Tile

A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass, generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops. Alternatively, tile can sometimes refer to similar units made from lightweight materials such as perlite, wood, and mineral wool, typically used for wall and ceiling applications. In another sense, a tile is a construction tile or similar object, such as rectangular counters used in playing games (see tile-based game). The word is derived from the French word tuile, which is, in turn, from the Latin word tegula, meaning a roof tile composed of fired clay.

Tiles are often used to form wall and floor coverings, and can range from simple square tiles to complex mosaics. Tiles are most often made of ceramic, typically glazed for internal uses and unglazed for roofing, but other materials are also commonly used, such as glass, cork, concrete and other composite materials, and stone. Tiling stone is typically marble, onyx, granite or slate. Thinner tiles can be used on walls than on floors, which require more durable surfaces that will resist impacts.

Tile (software)

Tile is an application and hardware device available for the iOS and (as of December 17, 2014) Android platforms. The application allows users help locate lost items by using Bluetooth 4.0 technology to find "Tile" devices attached to the lost or misplaced items. Recently (Sept 2015) Tile launched Gen 2 hardware that includes find your phone functionality.

Operation

By attaching a "Tile" device to keychains or other small items, users can later use the app to locate the Tile if the object is lost. The Tile application uses Bluetooth Low Energy 4.0 technology to locate Tiles within a 150-foot range, and each Tile comes with a built-in speaker so the user can hear it in close range. The volume of the new Gen 2 Tile is 90 decibels.

The application can also locate Tiles beyond the 100-foot Bluetooth range. If an item with a Tile device reported lost comes within range of another user's Tile application, their application will send the owner an anonymous update of that item's location.

Tile-based game

A tile-based game is a game that uses tiles as one of the fundamental elements of play. Traditional tile-based games use small tiles as playing pieces for gambling or entertainment games. Some board games use tiles to create their board, giving multiple possibilities for board layout, or allowing changes in the board geometry during play.

Each tile has a back (undifferentiated) side and a face side. Domino tiles are usually rectangular, twice as long as they are wide and at least twice as wide as they are thick, though games exist with square tiles, triangular tiles and even hexagonal tiles.

Traditional games

Games using non-rectangular tiles

Board games