Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple Introduces AirTag

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 966 posts

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#301

Post by jfengel »

amelius wrote: post #180
crazygringo wrote: post #71

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…

> But the "anti-stalking" feature will notify someone if an AirTag they don't own appears to be traveling with them. Another case of your device working against your interests. I don't care if you have something to hide or not. This just sucks at a fundamental level.

I'm not sure it's really Apple's fault. You could do the same thing with a Tile or other beacon. That's the entire purpose of the device.

Apple's trying to prevent misuse of their device. They want you to use it to find your keys, not your ex. If you consider that an invalid limitation of your device (by notifying your ex that they seem to be carrying an unknown tracker)... well, let's just say I disagree.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#302

Post by filoleg »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #208
dustinmoris wrote: post #164

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. 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…

I guess bicycles thieves are either savvier or have an easier job. Their modus operandi is to throw a bicycle into a truck or van, move them in lots of fifty across state lines, and tear them down to components. Any trackers will be quickly rendered useless once they're in the van, and immediately found and discarded. I'm definitely planning on getting Airtags for my bikes, but mostly for amusement and occasionally f…

>I guess bicycles thieves are either savvier or have an easier job.

They do have an easier job, I think, given that bicycles don't usually weigh between 400lb (sports motorcycles) and 900lb (cruisers).

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#303

Post by toddh »

duskwuff wrote: post #155
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 rel…

Unfortunately Whistle doesn't work in areas with poor coverage. And then there's the battery issues. A tag would at least be a good redundancy solution.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#305

Post by jfengel »

andrewla wrote: post #207

What I need is the inverse of this -- my wife is forever losing her phone around the house, and I need a button on the wall that you can press to activate "find my phone" mode and play a beep on it. EDIT: Thank you for all the suggestions! I'm aware that this is possible from another iPhone or iWatch or iPad -- this is the current workflow. Use my phone or take the ipad away from the kids to play the beep. Is a butto…

A Tile in fact does that. The Tile has a button. Press and hold it, and the device that's tied to the tile will beep. You could mount it on the wall, if you wanted to.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#306

Post by paxys »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #235
tchanglington wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s going to be real funny if non Apple users are basically fair game for AirTags tracking and you have to get an iPhone to protect yourself from AirStalking

You can already purchase a huge range of items that do exactly what an airtag does. Everyone is already fair game for this type of stalking, it is silly to try and paint apple in a bad light here.

How many of these third party devices can use every iPhone, iPad and more in the world as a beacon?

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#308

Post by jpalomaki »

jypepin wrote: post #18

This is directly competing with Tile[0] which you can buy 2 for 39.99. I guess the integration with Find My app would be pretty convenient but probably not worth the price difference? [0] https://www.thetileapp.com/en-us/store/tiles/sticker

Difference is also that majority of iOS devices people are carrying will be part of the tracking network.

Not sure how widely Tile is used. One issue on iOS with them is that you get these regular prompts ”Tile has been using your location - do you want to disable it”.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#309

Post by zikduruqe »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #280
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess bicycles thieves are either savvier or have an easier job. Their modus operandi is to throw a bicycle into a truck or van, move them in lots of fifty across state lines, and tear them down to components. Any trackers will be quickly rendered useless once they're in the van, and immediately found and discarded. I'm definitely planning on getting Airtags for my bikes, but mostly for amusement and occasionally f…

Hint: tight up under the Brooks saddle with hot glue.

Heck, my B17 is worth more than one of my bikes.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#310

Post by psychometry »

limaoscarjuliet wrote: post #278
duskwuff wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 rel…

I used tractive. It is bulky and requires daily charging making it not so good for cats. I will likely play with Air Tag, as my cats usually travel in highly populated areas, so they should be seen by many people.

Would you like to hear the lecture about why cats should be kept indoors now? Or have you already heard and ignored it many times?
Post reply on HN