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AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

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Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#31

Post by caturopath »

Exmoor wrote: post #27
caturopath wrote: post #18

The 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.

It's not like the choice is "thick and doesn't need a case or thin and needs a case". Even if the phone was thicker, people would be using cases if they bought it, right?

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#32

Post by [deleted] »

mirthflat83 wrote: post #11
fblp wrote: post #3

I 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.

IP67, size, and design. Your comment is more of a facepalm moment.

[deleted]

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#33

Post by vlovich123 »

threepio wrote: post #25

What 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…

Are the iPhones always tracking and reporting? Or are they just watching passively for the devices reported lost and only reporting the location to Apple of your own AirTags. The latter seems far more sensible. The battery cost of this is fairly trivial. Your phone is already capturing its location and reporting for FindMy. The incremental cost of attaching the AirTag’s location is minimal. To monitor BLE for a bunch of addresses is also minimal cost that’s typically predominantly done within the BT chip to avoid waking the SoC. At first glance there are some details that are unclear here in terms of how they scale this. For example, at Apple scale, the total size of lost AirTags is quite large, larger than what you can typically offload to a BLE chip. Similarly, the privacy protection features mean that BLE addresses rotate so just passively scanning wouldn’t be sufficient. My bet though is that that’s the work that was done - offloading all of this to the BLE chip in ways that are friendly to the HW capabilities. It’s also entirely possible they worked with their BT supplier to add the necessary low-level hooks to make that perform well and preserve privacy.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#34

Post by shp0ngle »

elliekelly wrote: post #19
culturestate wrote: post #10

Earlier 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.

iPhone mini exists. It has lackluster sales though so I think Apple will kill it in the next iteration.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#35

Post by knolan »

threepio wrote: post #25

What 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…

I would say those AirTags will be with the iPhones of their respective owners. Mine report as “With you” so perhaps they don’t advertise themselves in this state. The phone will be frequently updating its own location to Find My anyway so no extra power draw.

However if you’re walking by a set of left luggage lockers or through some similar environment where lots of AirTags not with their owner then there would indeed be some overhead. If you work in baggage handling in an airport would probably be telling. This all depends on the frequency which the AirTag reports itself and the frequency where your iPhone listens out. I suspect the impact would be negligible considering the power draw of the U1 in the AirTag is of order the power draw that the phone must commit.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#36

Post by spoonjim »

caturopath wrote: post #18

The 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…

The Tile is much more compact than the kitted out AirTag. Shame that Apple had to pander to the twin gods of accessories margin and fashion.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#37

Post by selykg »

caturopath wrote: post #31
Exmoor wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It's not like the choice is "thick and doesn't need a case or thin and needs a case". Even if the phone was thicker, people would be using cases if they bought it, right?

Probably not everyone. But for me, after spending $1400 I’m putting it in a case. My Xs Max is nearly two and a half years old now and I took it out of the case for it’s scheduled cleaning and after wiping it down and getting the built up pocket crud out of the crevices where the case and phone meet, its like brand new.

I’m hoping I can get at least another year out of this thing. Battery is excellent. iOS doesn’t seem slow at all.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#38

Post by caturopath »

spoonjim wrote: post #36
caturopath wrote: post #18

The 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…

The Tile is much more compact than the kitted out AirTag. Shame that Apple had to pander to the twin gods of accessories margin and fashion.

> Shame that Apple had to pander to the twin gods of accessories margin and fashion

I feel like that's...what Apple is?

If you don't like it, that's fine, and they have lots of more-utilitarian competitors in every space they operate. I personally don't currently use any Apple products; I'm not really the target market either.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#40

Post by mirths »

threepio wrote: post #25

What 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…

The AirTag transmits every 2 seconds. The iPhone should scan every 2 minutes for 2 seconds in order to capture the AirTag. BLE scanning costs about ~20mW. So the average power consumption is 20mW * (2sec / 120sec) = 0.3mW.

Over an entire day, it's 7mWh. The iPhone 12 battery is 10000mWh.

Conclusion: it's neglibile.

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