I don't know what to say, the comment section is kind of disgusting. If you like it buy it, if you hate apple then don't. These kinds of discussions got very boring ages ago.
hackernews is usually pretty negative and runs with their narrative is
Apple Introduces AirTag
881–890 of 966 posts
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#882I wonder if they can be stolen off of cats walking around streets of I don't know say Palo Alto... and re-paired to a new iPhone. Can this pose a theft hazard to the cats?
If your cat is walking freely around the streets of Palo Alto, there already is a hazard you're accepting. Adding a $30 device to your cat doesn't make the cat markedly more at risk.
Yes, but at the same time you have pointedly increased the marginal risk of the cat being stolen.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#883Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why can't they just have it recharge with a tiny solar cell or kinetic charging? Any object moved around by normal use would generate more than enough energy to charge a CR2032's worth in an entire year. That would make it truly practical by never needing a battery change. Apple didn't make anything significantly better than the Tile IMO, which also needs batteries to be replaced every year.
The Apple one wins in one simple way - they already have a billion iPhones to find lost tags. The Tile network is nowhere near as big.
Maybe a good opportunity for Google to let the entire Android ecosystem help Tile and beat Apple.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#884Earlier quoted context omitted.
Phone batteries stopped being user replaceable once smart phones started improving at such a rapid pace that even if you could replace the battery in your 2 year old device you won’t want to because the UI would be dog slow and the camera a blurry mess compared to current model. Funnily, the time for replaceable batteries in phones seems to have arrived, but users are now trained not to expect it. Sending your phone…
On the cusp of the transition, I attended a music festival with a couple of friends. They both had modern smartphones, I had something closer to an old-school feature phone. At some point on what was probably the first day, we all went to the phone charging tent. They stayed there for an hour or two with their phones plugged in. I walked in and walked back out again immediately, with a fresh battery for my phone hand…
Hopefully MobileQubes [0] or similar competitors become more prevalent, there's a convention I go to where the hotel has had these kiosks since 2015. You pay ~$5 to rent a fully-charge external battery for 24 hours, with whatever connector your phone uses, after which you return it to the kiosk. If you fail to return it you're automatically charged the "buy" cost.
Yeah it's not free, but it's really nice if you underestimated your battery life since you're not tied to a single spot while charging it.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#885Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
:-) I think the cats need the lecture more than I do. Seriously though, the scientific community seems to be split on the subject. Cats clearly prefer outside for approx. half of the time, the other half eating and sleeping at home. I own a house with huge garden, doors are open, cats are where they want to be.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#886Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just imagine the sheer amount of non recyclable plastic this "design choice" by Apple to offer an un-holed product will generate. This world has a major problem.
You can create the holder from any biodegradable materials, leather or cardboard etc. No need to use "non-recyclable plastic".
But that’s precisely what all these Chinese marketplaces won’t offer.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#887Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your cat is walking freely around the streets of Palo Alto, there already is a hazard you're accepting. Adding a $30 device to your cat doesn't make the cat markedly more at risk.
Yes, but at the same time you have pointedly increased the marginal risk of the cat being stolen.
Steps of preventing cat theft:
1) keep cat indoors
There is no step 2.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#888Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is that the requirement? The extra layers of plastic to enable removable batteries cost close to zero dollars and don't have to cost more than a millimeter.
“ The extra layers of plastic to enable removable batteries cost close to zero dollars and don't have to cost more than a millimeter.” “It’s two lines of code, how hard can it be?” More seriously, the cost of designing a battery pack goes way beyond that, just like in software there’s a world of difference between an internal and an external interface. Adding ESD protection for instance can be a headache.
There's an enormous amount of design cost in a phone no matter what. Doing it differently from the start does not substantially increase the cost, and I'm not asking for a retrofit.
It's absolutely bonkers to suggest a 20-30% increase in total cost that would be driven by design costs; that's more than doubling the entire design budget!
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#889Earlier quoted context omitted.
So if a thief steals my jacket with an AirTag inside, some time later it’ll start beeping? At which point he’ll discard the AirTag and I won’t be able to track down my jacket. Kinda lame.
Not if the alert is delayed
Turns out that it is delayed by 3 days.
Re: Apple Introduces AirTag
#890Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is that the requirement? The extra layers of plastic to enable removable batteries cost close to zero dollars and don't have to cost more than a millimeter.
There’s also connectors that wouldn’t be there normally, those connectors also have to be large enough to support the current. Then there’s the plastic lined battery well, as well as the plastic battery case. It’s not as simple as throwing plastic around a battery and calling it a day.
> There’s also connectors that wouldn’t be there normally, those connectors also have to be large enough to support the current.
Supporting 5-10 amps requires very small pins. It's a tiny percentage of the battery size.
> Then there’s the plastic lined battery well, as well as the plastic battery case. It’s not as simple as throwing plastic around a battery and calling it a day.
Yes, those are the layers of plastic I was talking about.
I didn't say you could slap something together in half an hour, I said it would cost close to zero dollars when talking about the per-phone price.