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Apple Introduces AirTag

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Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#151

Post by banana_giraffe »

ehsankia wrote: post #83
habibur wrote: post #16

> AirTag is designed for over a year’s worth of battery life with everyday use. The CR2032 battery is user-replaceable and widely available. Replacement batteries are sold separately. That's the piece of information I wanted to know first. Devices like this can be built, but those can't run on batteries for a reasonable time frame. Apple made it practical.

As pointed out above, this is already the status quo (replacable battery, 1 year life, etc). Tile has had it for years. I'm curious if it would've been technically feasible to have wireless charging on these instead of replaceable battery. Or would that greatly increase the price?

Tile has user replaceable batteries on some of their products. Granted, it seems to be on their best sellers, but I somehow ended up with the thin ones, and I found out those don't have replaceable batteries after they died.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#152

Post by setr »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #136

> If AirTag is separated from its owner and out of Bluetooth range, the Find My network can help track it down. The Find My network is approaching a billion Apple devices and can detect Bluetooth signals from a lost AirTag and relay the location back to its owner, all in the background, anonymously and privately. I had no idea that's how "Find My Phone" worked. I guess I hadn't thought about it. I wonder what the pri…

From the sounds of it, the “network” is just picking up ambient Bluetooth noise (which is constantly pinging around to find new connections, communicate, maintain existing connections, etc); the only way to stop tracking is to shut down Bluetooth

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#153

Post by X-Istence »

bob1029 wrote: post #124

> Bluetooth signal identifiers transmitted by AirTag rotate frequently to prevent unwanted location tracking. I feel like this is going to be quickly reverse-engineered by those with SDRs sitting on their desks right now...

Someone already has.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/03/04/researchers-rever...

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#154

Post by gruez »

inasio wrote: post #120
gruez wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Does this render it useless for anti-theft, then? It's hard to make tracking devices hidden. They need to phone home, so that means they emit a signal. Someone can sniff that out using a RF detector. that's why tracking devices tend to be integrated into the product itself (eg. into the ECU for cars, or part of the CPU/motherboard for computers).

It's much easier to have a phone that will easily tell you if there is AirTag around you than having an RF detector.

A RF detector costs $15-$25 shipped from china. If RF anti-theft devices become common (either the GSM or the bluetooth variety), I'm sure it'll be part of a thief's toolkit.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#155

Post by duskwuff »

puttycat wrote: post #75

This is truly revolutionary for pet owners. All existing solutions I know of have at least one fault-intolerant property that makes them useless for the lost-pet use case (battery / size / unreliable connection coverage / etc.) If I understand correctly Apple tags solve all of these at once.

This isn't suitable for pets. The crowdsourced Bluetooth tracking will only really work for objects which will stay in one place when lost -- which pets are notorious for not doing.

For finding a lost pet, you really want something with cell reception and a GPS for real-time location. There's a number of products which specifically provide this, like the Whistle dog tag. Unfortunately, they're bulkier and require relatively frequent charging, but that's the price you pay for that functionality.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#156

Post by yomansat »

prionassembly wrote: post #22

I've been thinking about a solution that would let me find a 4-10 year old child that gets lost in a big city crowd. Like a bracelet or something. Is the AirTag truly first or best in class?

Stick an old phone into their pocket/bagpack, sim ideal but not required.

Connect that phone to your phone hotspot, so you can turn on your hotspot and, if the phone connects, it's nearby plus you can use Find My to track it from there, play sound... etc.

Bonus if you have access to e.g. XFinity or whichever is the most prevalent free wifi around, so your phone can come online occasionally.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#157

Post by Hitton »

crazygringo wrote: post #95
ehsankia wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anti-stalking only work for Apple users? I assume it won't notify someone who doesn't have an Apple phone, making it kinda useless for half the population.

The article isn't entirely clear, but suggests that it will use the network of iOS devices around it and that the AirTag will start beeping as well. Seems like it should be able to detect that it's always traveling together with a single Android phone's WiFi signal, for example.

I wonder how hard would it be to disable beeping. There is probably a speaker that can be drilled through.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#158

Post by crazysim »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #146
ambivalents wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was my first thought. Is there any downside to putting one on my dog?

> And even if users don’t have an iOS device, an AirTag separated from its owner for an extended period of time will play a sound when moved to draw attention to it. I think there is no way to disable that feature, and that's by design. Depends on how much distance is "separation" I guess, and how close you stick to your dog at all times, heh.

The anti anti stalking crowd will probably just jam a pin or pen into the speaker and permanently disable it,

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#159

Post by [deleted] »

_blz2 wrote: post #64
t0mas88 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being down voted because this is described on the page. If a tag not linked to your phone travels with you frequently while being away from its owner you'll get a notification.

What if the person you're tracking doesn't have an apple device?

[deleted]

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#160

Post by duskwuff »

prionassembly wrote: post #22

I've been thinking about a solution that would let me find a 4-10 year old child that gets lost in a big city crowd. Like a bracelet or something. Is the AirTag truly first or best in class?

Not suitable for purpose. AirTags are for objects which will stay in one place when lost. They aren't appropriate for tracking "objects" which will move on their own, like pets or people, nor are they likely to work on the time scale that you'd need to find a lost child.
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