Live data from Hacker News

Apple Introduces AirTag

apple.com

221–230 of 966 posts

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#221

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.

[deleted]

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#222

I thought one of the big use cases for this was to track stolen items, like a backpack or maybe even a bicycle. But the "anti-stalking" feature will notify someone if an AirTag they don't own appears to be traveling with them. Does this render it useless for anti-theft, then? Since it will just notify a thief that the bike they just stole is being tracked, and they can look for the AirTag and throw it in the nearest…

I thought it was intended for lost items rather than stolen items. I've had my phone stolen multiple times and thieves know exactly what to do to prevent 'find my' activating. I'm sure it wouldn't take them long to find/disable AirTags either.

Yes but you know a phone can be tracked.

If it's someone's backpack or leather jacket, it won't be obvious in any way if there's an AirTag slid deep into some pocket.

Sure a professional thief might check, but plenty of things are stolen casually by people who simply see something lying around.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#223
post #211

I thought one of the big use cases for this was to track stolen items, like a backpack or maybe even a bicycle. But the "anti-stalking" feature will notify someone if an AirTag they don't own appears to be traveling with them. Does this render it useless for anti-theft, then? Since it will just notify a thief that the bike they just stole is being tracked, and they can look for the AirTag and throw it in the nearest…

I too, found the anti-stalking features might hinder the use of AirTags for locating intentionally stolen items: (1) it has a removable battery, and also (2) "someone can tap [the tag] with their iPhone or NFC-capable device and instructions will guide them to disable the unknown AirTag". The anti-stalking feature also seems to contradict its privacy features: > Bluetooth signal identifiers transmitted by AirTag rota…

tags rotate identifiers, but only every hour or so.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#224
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't, but in this specific case they didn't. Did apple bring any actual innovation that I missed? That's why I was proposing wireless charging, that would've actually been a nice step forward.

> Did apple bring any actual innovation that I missed? I guess it depends on what you think of as innovation. Their marketing pointed to "scalloped" batteries instead of square so they can take up more empty space (plus the space that would have been used by covering the battery and a fatter connector). In my experience, their batteries went from 200 charge cycles, about ~4 of battery life, and often failing before r…

> Their marketing pointed to "scalloped" batteries instead of square so they can take up more empty space

I'm confused, are these standard CR2032 batteries or not? Do I have to buy some special Apple battery?

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#225
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.

I'm super surprised and pleased by this. I would have expected these to have recharge lithium ion batteries that weren't replaceable.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#226
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.

I'm actually rather disappointed that it isn't using a passive RFID chip and multiple base stations to triangulate item location - that would probably bring the price for the actual tags down to something stupidly cheap.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#228
post #102

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.

>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.

Just desolder the speaker.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#229

If I was evil and stuck these to ex-girlfriend/boyfriend car or something, illegal? Edit: Downvoters. I am not doing this obviously. Am asking as this is the clear abuse I see. Tracking people without permission. I see this as being a weird legal thing we hear about down the road.

>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. So even non-Apple users will get alerted if they're being tracked with it.

Non apple users who aren't hard of hearing, that is.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not yet. If a significant portion of otherwise theft-friendly bikes have trackers, I don't see why they wouldn't learn to, someone would probably even commoditize the sniffing tech to sell to other thiefs.

> not yet. If a significant portion of otherwise theft-friendly bikes have trackers, I don't see why they wouldn't learn to, someone would probably even commoditize the sniffing tech to sell to other thiefs. They wouldn't because we already have TONS of historical data that thieves don't do that. I am a motorcycle lover and like every owner of a nice bike I know that apart from properly chaining your bike down the si…

What they do makes sense from a risk point of view. Trackers are various shapes, sizes and can be mounted different ways, if they miss one they blow their operation. Easier to delay payoff by 2 weeks.

The difference between the GPS and these tags is they actively respond to bluetooth. If you can sniff the bluetooth traffic then you would be able to detect them easily?

Post reply on HN