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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

#281

Post by sandman008 »

southerntofu wrote: post #219
oofbey wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does building closed source products fight open source? They’re not at odds with each other.

Because either you're struggling for human progress doing research and building tech that empowers people, or you're struggling for profit building harmful tech for the common people. Apple is in the latter category (to be fair, most if not all hardware/software manufacturers are) and has shown time and time again that they were strongly opposed to consumer rights: - pushing updates to slow down older iOS to "encoura…

> - pushing updates to slow down older iOS to "encourage" users to buy a new phone

Apple down older iPhones to make their batteries last longer. They were penalized by court for not communicating this decision to iPhone owners, not for slowing down battery.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#282

Post by Nextgrid »

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…

Unfortunately that doesn't really work for devices that connect to the internet and/or deal with untrusted data - those have to be kept up to date.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#283

Post by Nextgrid »

varenc wrote: post #269
Nextgrid wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh thanks, I'll definitely do that. I use profiles on iOS and am fairly familiar with them but didn't bother checking as I assumed macOS not being so locked down wouldn't have "profile-only" settings. I'll also use the opportunity to disable Apple News, TV+, widgets and similar bloat I'm not using.

Wow I’m glad to meet someone else that does this as well! Next iOS device I get I’m going to set it up as “managed” from the start so I’ll have access to the more powerful security configuration profile settings. It’s telling that these days corporate IT departments have more powerful configuration options available to them than us mere users.

> It’s telling that these days corporate IT departments have more powerful configuration options available to them than us mere users.

If it was purely up to Apple they'd rather not give anyone these options at all, however that won't fly in the enterprise so they have to compromise.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#284

Post by FireBeyond »

rootusrootus wrote: post #227
FireBeyond wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Apple only very recently From the beginning, actually. So you, as a stalker, have to decide whether to roll the dice and send an AirTag along with someone you want to stalk, hoping they don't have an iPhone, hoping they don't have someone with them who has an iPhone, and also banking on them not handing it over to the police who will just send the serial number to Apple to get your address. Or, you know, you could…

It apparently didn't work very well, because they had to release a major update to make it trigger for the most cases...

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#285

Post by knolan »

tedunangst wrote: post #53

I must spend time near hundreds of AirTags each day, yet my battery doesn't seem to be affected. Is it possible somebody is exaggerating? Or omitting relevant info?

My iPhone barely registers any battery usage by Find My but it hammers my iPad drawing the battery anywhere from 20 to 50% overnight. It’s a very real and very annoying problem.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#286

Post by least »

hackernewsdude wrote: post #273
least wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Its kinda amusing how those concerns are rarely brought up for Apple products. It's always brought up with regards to Apple products. Any justified or unjustified controversy surrounding Apple is magnified because of how divisive they are as a company. You're making this remark in a thread dedicated to discussion surrounding this controversy.

You're right, but I think the magnification of Apple news is more a result of them being the largest company in the world than them being divisive. Every decision Apple makes affects a significant portion of humanity.

I don't think that's true. While I do agree that it's a significant aspect now, Apple has almost always been controversial, at least among nerds. People were arguing about Apple products before their huge resurgence.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#287

Post by southerntofu »

oofbey wrote: post #271
southerntofu wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because either you're struggling for human progress doing research and building tech that empowers people, or you're struggling for profit building harmful tech for the common people. Apple is in the latter category (to be fair, most if not all hardware/software manufacturers are) and has shown time and time again that they were strongly opposed to consumer rights: - pushing updates to slow down older iOS to "encoura…

"You're either with us or against us" is a successful rallying cry for extremists, but it's not how most people view the world. I think if you survey FOSS developers, you'll find a LOT of them (including me) use and enjoy Apple products - not sure how this fits into your world view. It's possible, I'd say completely normal, to both want to make money, and to improve the world. I think most people see this as a balanc…

> It's possible, I'd say completely normal, to both want to make money, and to improve the world.

Yes because we're all brainwashed into "making a living". In what world is it normal to have to pay just to live?! Making money is precisely the mindset that's destroying our entire planet.

I'm not saying things are binary good/evil but capitalism is certainly the one thing creating the most suffering on this planet, and is essentially the driving force behind everything climate change.

It's hard to find a corporation that can fill any form of ethical criteria. Maybe an organic bakery sources local products and produces quality breads, but when it comes to IT there is no "ethical company" because everything we build relies on slave labor from mines/factories and extreme pollution in the global south...

BUT i would be tempted to say an IT company is on the other side of the spectrum if it attempts to respect its users by fighting hard against planned obsolescence (only sourcing quality materials, making disassembly/replacement easy) and for free computing (full schematics for every single part of the hardware, full source code for all firmware). I just don't know a single IT corporation that fits the bill, although Purism/Pine64/Oxide get closer than most.

We need 30+ years warranty on all devices. How come washing machines from the 50s are still working today, but those produced 5 years ago are breaking down as we speak? Yes, that's because of profits, as explained previously. Eliminate profit as a driving force for society and suddenly you'll see a lot of data points starting to improve.

Re: Apple AirTags draining battery of devices close by

#288

Post by southerntofu »

jen20 wrote: post #247
jounker wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > Still, the value of a network of iDevices with "default on airtag tracking" is just so huge > What kind of value is that? We've been living very well without it for decades and it sounds like that tech is a very powerful enabler of stalkers while providing little value to the average person. I got my shoulder bag, kindle, passport, notepad, medicine, and cdc vax card back after they were stolen from me thanks to…

A relative with Alzheimer’s can reliably find their possessions from their watch despite no longer having the mental faculty to remember where they are. Perhaps they provide no value to the “average” person (as if that is a thing), but they are invaluable to many.

Assistive technology is a good point! But we don't need a global user-tracking/battery-draining mesh network for that!

Just make a tag to place on the back of your phone that reflects a signal, and have a "remote" that when you press the button sends a signal and tries to catch reflection, beeping at a certain volume depending on signal strength.

It's just like those "speech to text" machine learning programs. It's fantastic value for people who can't write, but applied to everyone it has overall very dangerous and damaging consequences.

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