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Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

annoying.technology

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Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#201

Post by habosa »

andrewia wrote: post #57

I've seen this issue in a slightly different context. A few years ago, my Android phone began dying much more quickly than before. Looking at the built-in battery stats, nothing was amiss and there were no apps causing excessive wakeups. It was only when I used Android Battery Historian that I saw there was a ton of bluetooth wakeups caused by Google Play Services. But why would it be waking up so much? Usually the w…

I used to work with the Google Play services team at Google. I believe they did eventually fix the battery attribution issue to attribute the usage to the app which used the service, not the service itself.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#202

Post by [deleted] »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #152
andrewia wrote: post #57

I've seen this issue in a slightly different context. A few years ago, my Android phone began dying much more quickly than before. Looking at the built-in battery stats, nothing was amiss and there were no apps causing excessive wakeups. It was only when I used Android Battery Historian that I saw there was a ton of bluetooth wakeups caused by Google Play Services. But why would it be waking up so much? Usually the w…

That could also just be a bug. I remember installing an energy sucking application in 2014 on my Android; I think it was Expensify. I had noticed my battery was draining pretty fast, but then I noticed it took forever to even charge the phone. Upon closer examination, the app was consuming like 65% of all the energy being used. It must have been a bug, as there's no way they would make an app drain the battery that f…

[deleted]

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#204

Post by unfocussed_mike »

drewzero1 wrote: post #137
Nextgrid wrote: post #4

An annoyance that is driving me away from the Apple ecosystem is the lack of choice when it comes to these new features - they are forced onto you with no way to disable them and sometimes radically modify the behavior of the device you purchased and may make it unsuitable for the original purpose you bought it for. I'm still using an iPhone and plan to get the new SE (and only because of Touch ID is back - Face ID w…

> sometimes radically modify the behavior of the device you purchased and may make it unsuitable for the original purpose you bought it for. This is one of the reasons (along with price) that I try to stick to Apple products that are too old for them to care about. I'd like to see them try to remove functionality from my iBook G4! (Granted, it didn't have as much functionality to begin with, but what it does it's stu…

> (Incidentally, is it possible to get security updates for Apple devices without getting feature updates? Not for the G4 of course, but my iPad mini keeps asking me to upgrade iOS and I don't want functionality to change.)

No, and then yes, and then no again:

No, if it's older than iOS 14.

And then yes, if it is:

https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/07/apple-will-let-users-stay-on-...

And then no again :-(

https://www.techspot.com/news/93052-apple-stops-issuing-ios-...

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#205

Post by [deleted] »

tommit wrote: post #198
Traster wrote: post #186

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."

you can disable it.

[deleted]

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#206

Post by gorbypark »

FireBeyond wrote: post #135
rootusrootus wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that they announce their presence, perhaps it is a net positive. Real stalkers will be using old phones, GPS trackers, or some other solution that doesn't tell the victim what's happening.

You can pretty easily buy AirTags on eBay etc., with the speaker drilled out. Apple only very recently added a notification that an "AirTag may be traveling with you that is not yours", which definitely helps... IF you have an Apple device yourself.

As far as I know that notification has been there since day one, Apple has just adjusted the amount of time until it is shown. They are also adjusting the frequency and/or volume of the beeping to make it easier to hear.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#207

Post by samhw »

hellotomyrars wrote: post #172
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?

I think this particular usage of monopoly is suspect/leading. Tile has a monopoly on Tile devices. Ford has a monopoly on F-150s. Yes a company has a monopoly on its products in many/most cases. That doesn’t mean they have a monopoly on the market though.

To be charitable, it's possible they meant "AirTags" in the way that you or I would say "Hoover" or "Marmite" or "Polaroid" - not to refer to Apple's specific product, but to internet-connected tags in general.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#208

Post by askura »

Nextgrid wrote: post #4

An annoyance that is driving me away from the Apple ecosystem is the lack of choice when it comes to these new features - they are forced onto you with no way to disable them and sometimes radically modify the behavior of the device you purchased and may make it unsuitable for the original purpose you bought it for. I'm still using an iPhone and plan to get the new SE (and only because of Touch ID is back - Face ID w…

Reminds me of the "Songs of Innocence" U2 debacle.

You get less and less control over what you can do with Apple. They run a good PR game but they really like to micro manage so much.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#209

Post by mcny »

birdyrooster wrote: post #187
Shared404 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)…

Big companies could also simply include their own networking equipment and data plan.

My understanding of the fake/non-mmWave 5G is it dramatically decreases cost for network operators. If that is true (please correct me if I am wrong), what stops tv manufacturers from including a tiny modem with its own gsm Internet connection that can do things like see if there is an update available or fetch weather information (based on included gps module)? Or the real reason, ads. They could even be simple text ads if network operators decide to charge a lot for data.

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