AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks • Hacker News Board

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#191

Post by saagarjha » Mon, May 03, 2021, 10:34 AM UTC

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #132

mirths wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Reporting this data home also costs power. It's rather pathetic how Apple restricts user's right to use full capabilities of their devices (like restricting running apps in the background) to 'increase their battery life' while simultaneously be perfectly fine to use that power for their own benefit. I wonder can a user disable this airtag reporting feature if he doesn't own a single airtag and doesn't want to partic…

Limiting background execution is annoying, but I'm not sure if you understand how much battery an app running in the background can consume when compared to something like this.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#192

Post by brailsafe » Mon, May 03, 2021, 10:37 AM UTC

bullfightonmars wrote: post #182

brailsafe wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sheesh, those are costly. $35 usd is more than two weeks worth of groceries, two months of a world of Warcraft subscription, and about the same price as any of Affinity's products. For the AirTag, I'd admit that it seems sophisticated enough to warrant it. But the loop to affix it!?

Keeping your food budget at $2.50 a day is impressive. Do you do a lot of bulk food prep? I used to get by on $3-3.50 a day, but that was back in my lean years.

It's a rough average, but mostly oats, coffee, nuts for the oats, pasta, deli meat 1-3 times a week. Maybe if I dug into it a little more it would come out a bit higher, but for things I actually buy as groceries the number is relatively low, and I suppose that's how I've managed so far without work for over a year.

Edit: Worth noting that USD is not my home currency, which would convert to a bit over $40. I imagine $35 USD would go very very far for many other people outside the U.S

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#193

Post by brailsafe » Mon, May 03, 2021, 10:41 AM UTC

fastball wrote: post #187

brailsafe wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sheesh, those are costly. $35 usd is more than two weeks worth of groceries, two months of a world of Warcraft subscription, and about the same price as any of Affinity's products. For the AirTag, I'd admit that it seems sophisticated enough to warrant it. But the loop to affix it!?

I mean, you can also buy a holder from Hermes for $350. The belkin one is only $13, and I'm sure there will be some from China on Amazon for $2-5 before long.

Fair enough I suppose, but it still seems a bit excessive. For a first-party example, you could maybe get approx. 30 keychains or a Macbook Air.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#194

Post by SebastianKra » Mon, May 03, 2021, 11:47 AM UTC

Guest19023892 wrote: post #69

ryandrake wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A little off-topic, but can an artistic person or graphic designer help me to understand why every airtag in Apple's literature with the Apple logo has that two-color (light gray, dark gray) scheme with a not-exactly-straight line dividing the colors [1]? It seems like an odd design choice. EDIT: Ha! Thanks for the push. I would have never seen it. My eyes are broken I guess. It truly looks to me like they are two-to…

The tags with the icons are white. https://i.imgur.com/ZlvXsaR.jpg The tags with the Apple logo are a mirror finish. https://i.imgur.com/QaVobYc.jpg The sharp line isn't part of the design, it's just a minimalist way of showing a highly reflective material. The sharper the line, the sharper the reflections in the surface. The line is curved because the surface of the tag is curved (e.g. you can see how the straight w…

They have two sides. One silver, one white.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#195

Post by fastball » Mon, May 03, 2021, 12:18 PM UTC

brailsafe wrote: post #193

fastball wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you can also buy a holder from Hermes for $350. The belkin one is only $13, and I'm sure there will be some from China on Amazon for $2-5 before long.

Fair enough I suppose, but it still seems a bit excessive. For a first-party example, you could maybe get approx. 30 keychains or a Macbook Air.

Are 1st-party accessories ever the cheapest option, for any brand?

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#196

Post by treesknees » Mon, May 03, 2021, 2:42 PM UTC

dzhiurgis wrote: post #174

GeorgeTirebiter wrote: post #128

Do people actually need to use these things? Maybe I'm weird, but when young, I had drilled into me Benjamin Franklin's "A place for Everything, and Everything in its Place". If I can't remember where I put something, then I suspect Bigger (medical) Problems are on the horizon... (!)

I’d love to track my wallet, but tags are too thick for that.

I was a bit disappointed by this too. Apple even mentions tracking your wallet on their website. Maybe someone will release one of those Costanza wallets with a dedicated cut out for the AirTag, but the smaller billfold style wallets simply won't do.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#197

Post by Andrew_nenakhov » Mon, May 03, 2021, 3:14 PM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #191

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reporting this data home also costs power. It's rather pathetic how Apple restricts user's right to use full capabilities of their devices (like restricting running apps in the background) to 'increase their battery life' while simultaneously be perfectly fine to use that power for their own benefit. I wonder can a user disable this airtag reporting feature if he doesn't own a single airtag and doesn't want to partic…

Limiting background execution is annoying, but I'm not sure if you understand how much battery an app running in the background can consume when compared to something like this.

I am not so sure you understand how well I am aware.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#198

Post by selykg » Mon, May 03, 2021, 4:10 PM UTC

davidmurdoch wrote: post #145

perryizgr8 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it as common as putting a case on your phone? I doubt it. My point is that Apple and others can easily make far more durable phones for the price they ask, and not need literally everyone to use a case.

I'm not sure how common it is in general, but for people who care about their car's paint it is common, and I imagine people who buy $100k+ cars are probably the type that have their cars detailed regularly by a professional. Doesn't matter though. It's not in phone manufacturers' best interests to make durable phones. They need to make trendy phones, as that's what the majority have voted for (with their wallets). A…

> Even with protective cases many flagship phones won't be very useable after 2 years anyway, as the battery life decreases, the OS and apps do more and more things, and flash storage starts to fail/slow.

My iPhone disagrees with this. I've used it pretty heavily for over two years now and it's still going strong. I see no reason why I can't get at least 3 out of it. I figure I make it to fall of 2022 and it'll be nearly 4 years old before I replace it.

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#199

Post by GeorgeTirebiter » Mon, May 03, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

AlphaSite wrote: post #129

GeorgeTirebiter wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the principle: other people's tags get to commandeer resources from 'my phone' without me giving permission. Unless somewhere in the iPhone fine print it say something like "by using an iPhone, you are implicitly agreeing to become part of Apple's Global BLE Network" --- well, if not that, I'm not sure how Apple gets away with this.

It also helps find your phone if you loose it. So everyone wins.

Yes, and... you are 'automatically opted in' and you have to disable this if you do not want to opt in via Settings->Apple ID->Find My->Find My iPhone->Find My network (That is pretty darn buried IMHO, but not germaine).

I'm actually quite shocked folks on here do not appreciate that the 'default' is opted-in, rather than not. When you own an Apple iPhone or iPad, you are part of Apple's network, and some of 'your' product is used to be in service of Apple's services. It's not like the requests to send 'user data' back to an app provider 'to help improve the experience' --- it's you Will send data back to Apple because that is the default -- and most people will surely not know the Settings->Apple ID->Find My->Find My iPhone->Find My network seequence.

Does this not seem somewhat fascistic? For the record, I have 2 iPads, and also for the record, I'm an Apple alum -- I have nothing but goodwill for the Company, however, this seems, to me, quite shady. (Downvoters, I'm expressing an opinion. Not polluting HN's polite discourse.)

Re: AirTag Teardown Part One: Yeah, This Tracks

#200

Post by GeorgeTirebiter » Mon, May 03, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

theonemind wrote: post #143

atorodius wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought one for my key, and am very happy.

Honestly, they look very useful to me. I'm just being sarcastic to the grandparent humblebrag. I don't lose my keys, but I'm so bad at keeping track of them I keep them on a lanyard and hang them around my neck (which is why I don't lose them.)

'Grandparent humblebrag'? Fascinating. State a fact, a datapoint. And it's 'humblebrag'? This is quite an odd way to paint a fact from a person asking an honest question. Perhaps you could further explain your comment? Thanks!