Do you think they modeled the design after the round Apple campus?
Probably some old Apple product that nobody remembers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_USB_Mouse
My transverse carpal ligament remembers.
AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks
21–30 of 207 posts
Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that their guiding principle with this was as it is with every other portable device they have now - make it as small as practically possible and let people extend it if and how they want[1] to. Saves a little bit of material, makes manufacturing a little less complicated, and makes the accessory ecosystem a whole lot more appealing. 1. I don’t carry a keychain, for example, but I…
> I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that their guiding principle with this was as it is with every other portable device they have now - make it as small as possible and let people extend it if they want Here I am, desperately clutching my nearly-obsolete iPhone in my small hands, waiting for Apple to return to this principle and make an iPhone that I can comfortably use one-handed again.
> Here I am, desperately clutching my nearly-obsolete iPhone in my small hands, waiting for Apple to return to this principle and make an iPhone that I can comfortably use one-handed again.
I've been using the iPhone12 Mini for months. It works great, one-handed.
I have heard that it has not sold well, and may be discontinued. That would make me sad.
Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that their guiding principle with this was as it is with every other portable device they have now - make it as small as practically possible and let people extend it if and how they want[1] to. Saves a little bit of material, makes manufacturing a little less complicated, and makes the accessory ecosystem a whole lot more appealing. 1. I don’t carry a keychain, for example, but I…
> I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that their guiding principle with this was as it is with every other portable device they have now - make it as small as possible and let people extend it if they want Here I am, desperately clutching my nearly-obsolete iPhone in my small hands, waiting for Apple to return to this principle and make an iPhone that I can comfortably use one-handed again.
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Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks
#24I wonder what the internal discussion at Apple was about whether or not to include a loophole in the product. The fact that fixit has gone out and shown how you can add a loophole rather than wasting $13 on an accessory is a bit of a facepalm moment.
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Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks
#25What are the practical ramifications of Apple harnessing every existing iPhone as an AirTag discovery device in the Find My network? (I think it's awful from a privacy and device-ownership standpoint, but let's leave that aside.)
For instance, because physics is real, it must take some amount of battery power & data transfer to collect information about nearby AirTags. Suppose I walk into Disneyland on a summer weekend with an iPhone. The place is going to be full of AirTags. Assumedly my iPhone will be very busy reporting on their location. Hour by hour, how does that workload compare to the stuff I ask my phone to do for me (e.g., receive text messages, download mail)? Will it run down the battery / chew up bandwidth caps in any significant way?
Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that their guiding principle with this was as it is with every other portable device they have now - make it as small as practically possible and let people extend it if and how they want[1] to. Saves a little bit of material, makes manufacturing a little less complicated, and makes the accessory ecosystem a whole lot more appealing. 1. I don’t carry a keychain, for example, but I…
> I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that their guiding principle with this was as it is with every other portable device they have now - make it as small as possible and let people extend it if they want Here I am, desperately clutching my nearly-obsolete iPhone in my small hands, waiting for Apple to return to this principle and make an iPhone that I can comfortably use one-handed again.
The iPhone 12 Mini is great. I will never go back to a bigger phone again. The lack of all day battery life is a feature in my opinion. I use it more like a fancy tool.
Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks
#27The lack of loophole was disorienting, but then I went and looked up how they want you to attach it, and the hangtag accessories look so pretty https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/04/apple-introduces-airt... -- things like the appearance and the sound quality really show a commitment to making polished products rather than practical ones. I've been fairly negative on Apple for a few years and they still need to pull…
> It's hilarious to a certain extent that they built the thing smaller than all the competition and bulk it up with a wad of leather anyhow.
That's essentially how I feel when I see the "Our thinnest iPhone ever" slide knowing that 95% of iPhone owners put it in a bulky case. That said, that's not unique to Apple and the phone is at least usable without a case.
Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks
#28> But why bother putting a real driver in here at all? Magnets not only add weight, they take up a lot of space. Looks like one corner Apple refused to cut on this tiny disk is sound quality. I find it fascinating what tradeoffs are decided upon. Apple is arguably the best luxury brand in the world - and this is why.
Is the magnet strong enough to stick the tag to ferromagnetic metals?
Weakly, yes. Enough to hold its own mass at rest, but I don't think it would work with any type of acceleration. It will stick nicely to a neodymium magnet.
Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks
#29What are the practical ramifications of Apple harnessing every existing iPhone as an AirTag discovery device in the Find My network? (I think it's awful from a privacy and device-ownership standpoint, but let's leave that aside.) For instance, because physics is real, it must take some amount of battery power & data transfer to collect information about nearby AirTags. Suppose I walk into Disneyland on a summer weeke…
At first glance, I'd say the resource consumption is actually going to be basically negligible. The Bluetooth and GPS radios would probably be on anyway, and the packets flow through the air anyway, so just making a note of the IDs you see, batching them, and sending that every hour or so, is not going to be very heavy.
Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks
#30I assume drilling a hole in an air tag would pretty much completely compromise its water resistance?
That would be a pretty big drawback to using it on a key ring. I don’t have to pull my keys out much any more, but I think they still end up exposed to water once in a while.