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Apple Introduces AirTag

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Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#931

Post by BoorishBears »

angry_octet wrote: post #911
BoorishBears wrote: post #907

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Were you asleep when the Edward Snowden leak happened" ... yeah I'm not going to play this game. Nation states are certainly doing better than AirTags if that's what you're worried about Secret Agent . Passive trackers will let you pinpoint someone indefinitely. And someone motivated is going to catch your spurious 3G emissions but miss an AirTag literally designed to be noticable? Puhlease. If a nation state is cha…

You claimed that no one would go to the effort. It is clear that they will. Nation states don't have a global network of iPhones. > Passive trackers will let you pinpoint someone indefinitely. How? > Puhlease. If a nation state is chasing you and this is what turns the tides I strongly suggest turning yourself into their embassy now, save yourself the trouble. "Puhlease" enjoy pretending that nation states are all ID…

>How?

If an actual nation state is out to get you what's so difficult about tracking you from half a mile away? Surely they're not chasing someone who's actively evading them since you think this person won't find an... AirTag. Something that's actively transmitting at regular intervals and has NFC capabilities.

https://marshallradio.com/ww/product/field-marshall-digital-...

> Adding a Field Marshall UHF to your GPS system allows you to precisely locate the transmitter inside GPS denied environments (inside a building, or locate the signals when GPS satellites are blocked), or when the transmitter is in thick cover.

Or attaching a GPS tracker that logs to it's internal storage that they then recover?

> enjoy pretending that nation states are all IDF 8200 elite cyber hackers

You can't even stay internally consistent to your own fantasy. First you're saying these people will crack Apple's state-of-the-art firmware systems on a brand new platform and signing arrangements to boot, now suddenly they're script kiddies?

And honestly it's disgusting how shameless you are about shoving words in my mouth "telling them to give up" where the fuck did I say that?

Go find something useful to do kid.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#932

Post by novok »

sjwright wrote: post #773
novok wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The implied criticism is they should also keep it private it from themselves

Wherever possible, they've done exactly that—so how is that a criticism? Case in point is the end-to-end encryption of iMessage. Or the at-rest encryption of iOS devices. In other instances where Apple does have access to your data, there is a plausible justification for that access and no evidence shown where Apple has ever abused that access for commercial gain.

iCloud backup is on by default, which includes the contents of your iMessage conversations, even if you do turn off this default, your conversations with most other normal people are uploaded in a form where apple has the keys. Apple had plans to make all of iCloud backups E2E encrypted but backed out after pressure from the FBI. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2020/01/21/appl...

That is one example of many where apple could do it, but doesn't. To do many things on your apple device requires an apple id, which requires a phone number which is linked to identity. Location services uploads your location to apple constantly via close by wifi APs + GPS location, there is no option to do GPS only location w/ no network activity. All of this info is one secret supoena away to be uploaded to violent people with guns. YOU may trust your nice government, but many do not have the luxury of living in such a nice place.

Over and over again, you see the pattern of apple doing of 'private from everyone, except us'. And not mentioning the 'but us' part.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#933

Post by Dylan16807 »

xondono wrote: post #924
Dylan16807 wrote: post #888

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

I'm not talking about NRE costs, I'm talking about very real manufacturing costs that you are ignoring. Modern battery packs are one of these things that if you haven't designed one you tend to think they're simple, but have a lot of hidden complexity. Just as an example, modern batteries require keeping track of a lot of parameters and metrics, and require keeping control of things like cell balancing. Making a batt…

Okay, that's an actual cost. But:

1. That just moves from phone to battery, doesn't it? That's not a cost increase for the bundle.

2. You don't need fancy things like cell balancing for a phone battery.

3. Even with this chip it's $4 BoM for small batches and significantly less in bulk. So that could be a 1% cost increase. So we have that, a thin plastic shell, and a tiny connector. How are we hitting 20-30% increases, hundreds of dollars?

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#934

Post by spectre3d »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #737
aylmao wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Throwback to that AA battery charger Apple released in 2010 [1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Battery_Charger

Yeah their older keyboards / mice had replaceable AA batteries. I'm saying older but it's only been a few years? Getting to the batteries on the keyboard was a bit of a pain, weird screw cap you needed an insert for to open.

> weird screw cap you needed an insert for to open.

Almost any coin.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#935

Post by wizzwizz4 »

tekknik wrote: post #909
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #877

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see you do not have a child. I hate the trite “oh, you'll know when you're a parent!” stuff as much as the next person, but… have you met a one-year-old? So curious, and so quick to eat new things: a bad combo if I've ever seen one.

Hmm, so I have no child and no experience huh? What happened to baby proofing houses? Keeping items they shouldn’t eat out of reach? As a parent it is your job to keep that child safe until they can do the same, and leaving dangerous items around is failing that one task. You don’t leave things around that hurts your child, be it guns or batteries.

When the item they shouldn't eat is in the “safe for children” toy you got sold, how're you meant to keep it out of reach? As soon as a child notices that you can pull the velcro and expose the battery compartment, nothing short of screws is going to stop them putting the batteries in their mouth, and it will only leave their mouth (heavily chewn) if it's too hard to swallow.

Source: me, aged nine. (I didn't have the “eat everything” instincts, but I still wanted to know what batteries taste like. Given how much time I spent with my tongue on a battery, I would probably have swallowed a button cell had I had access to one – and that's with warnings about “batteries will burn a hole through your insides” from my parents. Your average one-year-old doesn't stand a chance.)

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#936

Post by natch »

quangv wrote: post #645
natch wrote: post #610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes now they do. For years they had only non-user-replaceable ones but they were happy to charge a large fee for a swap.

Tile sends me free replaceable batteries. Hopefully AirTag opens up their API so Tile can integrate. I’m just assuming AirTag would be slightly more integrated than Tile.

Free? How did you swing that without the subscription payment?

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#937

Post by qecez »

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…

Might be possible to destroy the beeper.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#938

Post by jsmith45 »

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.

As repeatedly reported elsewhere in this thread, the current time for this back-up anti-stalking beeps is 3 days. (Updatable remotely by apple, but I doubt they will go below 24 hours). So as long as you come within Bluetooth range of your dog once every 3 days (or whatever apple changes it to), you will be fine.

This makes me wonder how long it takes for the iPhone based anti-stalking alerts to kick in. I'm sure this would be shorter, since it can be without too much annoyance. But how much shorter?

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#939

Post by qecez »

hvidgaard wrote: post #800
kenneth wrote: post #748

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but this is good enough to be useful in many situations, whereas a GPS collar is impractical enough that it's unlikely to be regularly used. I just wanna throw a chip on the 3 dogs collars and forget about it except to swap batteries once a year. I don't want to be bothered charging active GPS collars every few days and putting a heavy device for the dogs to carry.

I'm sure it's possible to get the best of both worlds, it's just that no one have made it yet. An active GPS tracker does not have to be larger than a keyfob to your car nor does it need to be online all the time. A combination where the GPS is only activated once the tag has not seen a known device for 1 hour. That should give you a battery life measured in years with meter precision when it matters.

Great idea.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#940

Post by diebeforei485 »

dariusj18 wrote: post #391
diebeforei485 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They mentioned this exact scenario on their website[1] > Of course, if you happen to be with a friend who has an AirTag, or on a train with a whole bunch of people with AirTag, don’t worry. These alerts are triggered only when an AirTag is separated from its owner. 1. https://www.apple.com/airtag/

So if my family has a single car and we share keys it's going to annoy each of us that isn't the owner of the tag.

People other than the owner can stop alerts from any specific AirTag. This works well for the shared car keys scenario.
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