Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

ifixit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 207 posts

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#111

Post by adrr »

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?

If the back wasn’t slick glass you’ll get more people without cases.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#112

Post by mnouquet »

selykg wrote: post #37
caturopath wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 se…

> after spending $1400

Damn, I feel silly, I have bought 9 phones over the past 3 years and still haven't spent that kind of money...

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#113

Post by owlboy »

ben-schaaf wrote: post #104
rand_r wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple’s unique ethos is technology as a means for creative expression. That’s why they’ve excelled in font rendering, colour accuracy, sound fidelity, and input-lag. I think this value came from Steve Jobs, and I hope they never lose it because it imbues Apple with real human spirit. They’re more than just another profit-seeking company.

> That’s why they’ve excelled in font rendering Not sure about the past, but without subpixel antialiasing they pretty much have the worst font rendering now.

Can you elaborate?

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#114

Post by thatguy0900 »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #110
thatguy0900 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also a line of phones made by CAT, the construction company, that looks pretty durable. I've been thinking about getting one just to have fun with the thermal camera.

I like those phones and never had one (either CAT or third party) fail... the issue is that the processor / RAM setup is always a little on the weak side and OS updates are a problem. I'd probably buy my first ever iPhone if Apple came out with a ruggedized version of the current iPhone SE.

Yeah, the os updates is why I've been holding off. Basically just have to accept you won't get any

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#115

Post by adamlett »

myself248 wrote: post #101
caturopath wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Back when phones were built to survive the outside world without a case, I never put cases on my phones. The whole Nextel and Nokia and Blackberry era, not a one. They looked a bit worn from a few years each in my pocket with my keys, but they all worked fine, and they'd all survive a drop to the floor. Today the only phone I'd trust to survive a naked drop would be a Unihertz Titan, but until there's an AOSP ROM for…

Back when phones were built to survive the outside world without a case

You mean: Back when phones had screens made of plastic instead of glass. And yes, sure, that does make them more likely to survive a drop, but also means the screen becomes a scratch magnet. That of course is the right compromise when the screen is tiny and the pixels are enormous, but not so much when it’s the other way around.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#116

Post by spicybright »

owlboy wrote: post #113
ben-schaaf wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That’s why they’ve excelled in font rendering Not sure about the past, but without subpixel antialiasing they pretty much have the worst font rendering now.

Can you elaborate?

Right? All it's missing is a Posted from my iPhone footer

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#117

Post by ylk »

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…

> Communication with the Find My network is end-to-end encrypted so that only the owner of a device has access to its location data, and no one, including Apple, knows the identity or location of any device that helped find it.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/04/apple-introduces-airt...

In case you care about details: https://support.apple.com/en-nz/guide/security/sec60fd770ba/... https://support.apple.com/en-nz/guide/security/secd4ab33e5c/...

I'm not sure how the e2ee works out when using Find My in the browser, but that's a different topic, I guess.

edit:

> This entire interaction is end-to-end encrypted, anonymous, and designed to be battery and data efficient, so there is minimal impact on battery life mobile data plan usage and user privacy is protected.

https://support.apple.com/en-nz/guide/security/sec6cbc80fd0/...

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#118

Post by matwood »

ben-schaaf wrote: post #104
rand_r wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple’s unique ethos is technology as a means for creative expression. That’s why they’ve excelled in font rendering, colour accuracy, sound fidelity, and input-lag. I think this value came from Steve Jobs, and I hope they never lose it because it imbues Apple with real human spirit. They’re more than just another profit-seeking company.

> That’s why they’ve excelled in font rendering Not sure about the past, but without subpixel antialiasing they pretty much have the worst font rendering now.

Doesn’t this only cause issues on non-HiDPI screens.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#119

Post by solarkraft »

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…

> and the hangtag accessories look so pretty

I'm going to buy AirTags and 100% disagree. I will likely print a complete enclosure because the accessories they sell are expensive, look stupid and will still scratch the tags up like mad (will I resell them? probably not, but still).

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#120

Post by rand_r »

owlboy wrote: post #113
ben-schaaf wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That’s why they’ve excelled in font rendering Not sure about the past, but without subpixel antialiasing they pretty much have the worst font rendering now.

Can you elaborate?

Basically, they assume you’re using a retina quality (aka HiDPI) display where each virtual or abstract pixel maps to four physical pixels in the display.

For example, you have a 27” 4K display, but set the resolution to 1920x1080 in System Preferences.

Mapping each virtual pixel to four physical pixels lets you render curves really crisply. However, on non-HiDPI where you don’t have pixel doubling, you have to use sub-pixel rendering to approximate curves.

One technique is playing with slightly shading adjacent pixels so that at a distance curves appear to be smoothed out. But for some technical reasons, Apple dropped support for sub-pixel rendering. It was too hard to do and the future is HiDPI anyway.

Post reply on HN