I’m curious what others are planning to use these for (or what they use Tiles, etc. for). I could see putting one on my keys, maybe a backpack. What else?
Apple Introduces AirTag
421–430 of 966 posts
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#422I 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 wonder how this works in practice? My main use for an AirTag would be to put on my cat’s collar. But if it starts beeping randomly that’s going to be a problem.
desolder the speaker or piezo.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#423Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 didn't start with replaceable batteries--they still don't use them in all their products. I don't know how AirTags will be in practice, but user-replaceable batteries haven't been great. I don't know if it's a technical restriction or not, but "low-battery" seems to be a time based warning and not based on battery charge. So I either get an alert when 1 year has passed on all of my devices at the same time, or t…
Lithium batteries are high output until they're not. Like the CR2032 battery in my car keyfob it's working until it's not. The drop from 3V to 1V is precipitously fast. Also, 1 year is extremely conservative. I normally get 3 years out of these batteries. An Airtag that's constantly being interrogated may run out faster than say a keyfob used 5x a day
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#424Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Here’s a detailed protocol reverse engineering paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2103.02282.pdf My guess would be that you, as the tag owner, locally store the master beacon key and can use it to derive key required to decrypt received beacon payloads for your own tags. You can then filter out your own and approximate how many others (which you cannot link over time) you permanently see. If it is more than one most of the…
This seems like a problematic situation. In a vacuum I can see how they want to mitigate the stalking risks, but as of right now, unless you have a recently updated Apple device then, then you're completely ignored by the stalking mitigations. There's nothing official from Apple on the Google Play store that would mitigate that situation as well. This just seems like a low barrier to entry stalking tool on the extreme side of use cases for people Apple doesn't have business interests with.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#425> Apple-designed AirTag accessories include the Leather Key Ring in Saddle Brown, (PRODUCT)RED, and Baltic Blue for $35 (US); the Leather Loop in Saddle Brown and (PRODUCT)RED for $39 (US); and the Polyurethane Loop in White, Deep Navy, Sunflower, and Electric Orange for $29 (US). Interesting to see what looks like a typo "(PRODUCT)RED" in an Apple press release.
(PRODUCT)RED is a charity that Apple has supported since the iPod days: you get a red device and some money goes to charity.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#426> Apple-designed AirTag accessories include the Leather Key Ring in Saddle Brown, (PRODUCT)RED, and Baltic Blue for $35 (US); the Leather Loop in Saddle Brown and (PRODUCT)RED for $39 (US); and the Polyurethane Loop in White, Deep Navy, Sunflower, and Electric Orange for $29 (US). Interesting to see what looks like a typo "(PRODUCT)RED" in an Apple press release.
(Product)Red is not a typo. It's a weird marketing trick that Apple uses to make red coloured things seem more special.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#427> Apple-designed AirTag accessories include the Leather Key Ring in Saddle Brown, (PRODUCT)RED, and Baltic Blue for $35 (US); the Leather Loop in Saddle Brown and (PRODUCT)RED for $39 (US); and the Polyurethane Loop in White, Deep Navy, Sunflower, and Electric Orange for $29 (US). Interesting to see what looks like a typo "(PRODUCT)RED" in an Apple press release.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#428Is it cross platform? Can't find the info.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#429Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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, this prevents some legitimate use cases, for example putting a tag in a suitcase for the flight, because it'll start beeping at some point? A shame. It would've been cool standing at that conveyor belt at the airport and rather than staring at the luggage as it comes, being able to sense one's own stuff. Also, seems that it's not suitable for putting on a cat or dog's collar for the same reason.
IDK if they've addressed this feature sufficiently well, but I assume phones could ignore airtags when set to airplane mode.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#430Will this support notifying me when a tag goes out of range from my phone? That’s when I lose things, but no tag seems to do that, which to me is by far the only useful feature for these things.