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

Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

annoying.technology

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 288 posts

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#181

Post by Lio »

least wrote: post #171
Schroedingersat wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except they're not aware of the cost to them so it's not actually consent, and I can't stop them from sending apple or google a message to help track me if i turn one of my bluetooth devices on.

What is the threshold for how informed someone must be in order to be allowed to give consent or make their own decisions here? What responsibility would you place on Apple here versus on the consumers of its devices, specifically? More than likely if you ask for more than what exists what will actually happen is that another blurb will show up in the long terms of service that most people don't read and people aren'…

It would be nice if Apple recorded some visible metric on how much this is “costing” the user.

Eg how much energy or how much bandwidth.

Then we could make an informed decision.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#182

Post by zimpenfish »

rootusrootus wrote: post #125
bleah1000 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, you've fallen into the same trap. One person says they don't have a problem, you believe them and start saying the first statement must be misinformation. It's possible that both people are correct and the circumstances that cause the battery to drain require being connected to a AirTag, not just near any old AirTag. Or there are other circumstances that cause the battery to drain.

I don't think I have. I also have an iPad, and I have AirTags, and it does not have a battery drain problem, which is one additional data point for me. Plus, this is the default, expected behavior, and the post that started this discussion is disputing that. Without adequate evidence to back it up. The onus is on them to put forth convincing evidence, or it is nothing but another conspiracy theory. Presuming the stat…

Anecdatum: There's two iPhones and an iPad in this flat along with 3 AirTags - there's been no change in battery life since the AirTags arrived a few months ago.

Maybe it's only when you're in local contact with not-your AirTags?

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#183

Post by breakfastduck »

buck4roo wrote: post #161
least wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, everyone who has the feature turned on is pooling their resources together to create a common utility that everyone with the feature benefits from. I fail to see how this is an issue. This is not like Apple exfiltrating data from your phone back to them that can incriminate you like the CSAM debacle that's still unresolved, this is a tool that has a quite easy to understand benefit for those that are using it. I…

I hear what you're saying: Apple's Monopoly on airtags is good for you. Are there other monopolies you think are good for you? For others? For the world?

How on earth is that a monopoly? It's their product. That's like saying MS have a monopoly on Windows. Or VW have a monopoly on the Golf.

There's literally nothing stopping anyone else from developing an AirTag competitor.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#184

Post by hef19898 »

Shared404 wrote: post #143
kristiandupont wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a similar feeling and I am quite pessimistic about the future in this regard. Currently, I have been able to avoid it pretty well, but appliances break and need replacing, and I suspect there will be a day where I cannot find a washing machine that isn't "smart", much less a car!

This is what I'm worried about. Sooner or later we'll need regulation to prevent devices from requiring network connection. I don't think we'll ever get it though.

More likely we will get regulation making smart, connected devices mandatory for one reason or another.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#185

Post by smcl »

mschuster91 wrote: post #178
hackernewds wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An egregious way internet providers do this now is to not only use your electricity, but also your internet bandwidth and router (!!) to create their so-called hotspot network. Obviously this is opt-out, poorly notified and hidden behind a bunch of dark patterns to disable. Looking at your Xfinity, coverage across all of SF..

> but also your internet bandwidth Usually, not. You get the full bandwidth of your DSL line when you need it, the hotspot either only gets what remains (aka is in idle) or has its own PPPoE session that lives outside of your contractual bandwidth limit (obviously that one only works when the line bandwidth is greater than the bandwidth you're paying for).

Does anyone know how much use these get? When I'm travelling I see them all over the place, but I haven't personally ever used them (or met anyone who did) and never had any idea how to get credentials for them

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#186

Post by Traster »

I'm still waiting for Apple to mail me the check for my participation in the network. /s

Seriously, in what world is it reasonable that tech companies think they can come along and be like "Oh hey, you know that THOUSAND dollar phone we sold you? Oh, well we're going to stick some of our own software on it so we can use it as infrastructure for a totally different product that we sell."

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#187

Post by birdyrooster »

Shared404 wrote: post #143
kristiandupont wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a similar feeling and I am quite pessimistic about the future in this regard. Currently, I have been able to avoid it pretty well, but appliances break and need replacing, and I suspect there will be a day where I cannot find a washing machine that isn't "smart", much less a car!

This is what I'm worried about. Sooner or later we'll need regulation to prevent devices from requiring network connection. I don't think we'll ever get it though.

Let's set aside that regulation like that will come with a bunch of other stipulations which will capture the market for the incumbents...

There are unintuitive outcomes which could arise like: smaller companies might need to develop a product with access to the web to keep costs manageable, but larger companies, using their capital, are able to establish proprietary wireless connectivity (which is not the internet) that smaller companies are unable.

Peer to peer connectivity over public networks is a great asset for smaller companies with disruptive ideas, and this could destroy that.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#188

Post by tommit »

breakfastduck wrote: post #183
buck4roo wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear what you're saying: Apple's Monopoly on airtags is good for you. Are there other monopolies you think are good for you? For others? For the world?

How on earth is that a monopoly? It's their product. That's like saying MS have a monopoly on Windows. Or VW have a monopoly on the Golf. There's literally nothing stopping anyone else from developing an AirTag competitor.

Especially since an AirTag competitor existed prior to AirTags. Turns out if you have an existing network of billions of devices, you can offer a better working product.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#189

Post by bgro »

scrollaway wrote: post #158
bgro wrote: post #95

This was a concern I had since day 0. I have been asking about things like this and been talked down to constantly as if I don't know how bluetooth works... My other concern was if these are hijacking your data plan. Maybe it's not that significant amount if you have a huge plan but like Ting for example gives you 100MB of data usage each month on their basic plan. That's MEGAbytes. I checked my system clock app for…

> If you're a cargo delivery guy and someone decides to ship 500 airtags for fun that you walk by, are you now just screwed in over charges No because AirTags have to be enabled and registered before they become part of the network. At shipping time their battery is not plugged in.

I meant shipping activated AirTags as a “prank” or to otherwise cause chaos. People are already shipping individual activated ones to see where they end up.

Or if 500 separate people saw those news stories and each did it individually for legitimate package tracking, perhaps that would be a more believable situation.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#190

Post by mojzu »

berkes wrote: post #166
sharken wrote: post #147

The title is rather inaccurate, a better and less attention seeking title would be: "Apple AirTags draining battery of your Apple devices close by". And then you can talk about Apple AirTags draining your Apple devices, e.g. in order to locate the Apple device of someone else your devices will use of a lot of battery in the process. My hunch is that users want to be able to locate their lost Apple device at all times…

If people were that reluctant to switch a feature on, it is not a feature people want.

Isn't it more likely that 90%+ of people leave their devices on factory settings and don't want/care to understand or change them? I'd guess if you asked most of those people whether they'd want to be more likely to find their lost devices they'd answer yes, but you'd still have a tough time convincing many of them to actually go into settings to change anything
Post reply on HN