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NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

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Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#61

Post by circuit10 »

catiopatio wrote: post #55
evandale wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video of "Why would anyone have one?" Around 15:50: https://youtu.be/Vuw72THyXsQ?t=942 They were laughing at it. So hilarious, I'm in stitches over the ignorance.

Why would I choose an Android phone? Apple does not spy on me, and does not sell my information to advertisers. An iPhone SE is $429, or can be financed at the same price , with zero interest, at $17.87 for 24 months. Why would I want to join Google’s advertiser-driven ecosystem, and voluntarily make myself into Google’s product?

If that's your main concern you'd be better off with a "degoogled" OS on an Android phone with an unlocked bootloader. iOS is locked down and you can't really see or control what information is being sent.

Here are some other reasons why you or other people might choose Android phones:

- Generally cheaper/better value, especially on the low end

- Less locked down (e.g. you can actually choose what browser engine you want to use, or sideload apps relatively easily)

- More options to choose from

- The core OS is FOSS

If you like iPhones that's fine but it's not true that there's literally no reason for anyone to get an Android phone

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#62

Post by tehjoker »

WheatMillington wrote: post #43
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would anyone have one [an Android phone]?" Mayor Adams responded This is a New Yorker’s response to a stupid question. AirTags have a recognised brand. Messaging “buy AirTags” comes through cleanly in a way an inclusive statement would not. Given nobody is burning city funds for this, it’s literally a PSA, a reporter asking the mayor technical questions the answer to which they know is fine to be answered dismi…

Did you miss the part where the city is giving away 500 air tags? It's right at the start of the article. You did read the article, didn't you?

On apple's website, that's about $25 per an airtag and unless they got a deal, this is $12,500 in funds or free assets from Apple to do promotion. Skating close to corruption.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#63

Post by ApolloFortyNine »

platevoltage wrote: post #6

I use Airtags for this purpose with my car and my bicycle, but they're not designed for this purpose. You can pull the speaker coil out of them fairly easily, but they will still notify the thief that they're being tracked if they have an iPhone on them. Not ideal, but it beats having a huge epidemic of stalking.

I always found it a bit rediculous that Apple seemingly admits stalking is a problem they have to solve it, and they solve it by requiring you to buy an iPhone. To solve a problem they created, you have to give them money.

It's worse in my opinion than just going with 'we're not responsible for how our product is used' defense.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#64

Post by vkou »

tehjoker wrote: post #62
WheatMillington wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you miss the part where the city is giving away 500 air tags? It's right at the start of the article. You did read the article, didn't you?

On apple's website, that's about $25 per an airtag and unless they got a deal, this is $12,500 in funds or free assets from Apple to do promotion. Skating close to corruption.

The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures.

You call it corruption. Is it, or is it just a good ROI?

I think it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag.

Time will tell.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#65

Post by bell-cot »

tehjoker wrote: post #62
WheatMillington wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you miss the part where the city is giving away 500 air tags? It's right at the start of the article. You did read the article, didn't you?

On apple's website, that's about $25 per an airtag and unless they got a deal, this is $12,500 in funds or free assets from Apple to do promotion. Skating close to corruption.

By the standards of either the NYC budget, or Apple's finances, $12,500 is a rounding error.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#66

Post by catiopatio »

circuit10 wrote: post #61
catiopatio wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I choose an Android phone? Apple does not spy on me, and does not sell my information to advertisers. An iPhone SE is $429, or can be financed at the same price , with zero interest, at $17.87 for 24 months. Why would I want to join Google’s advertiser-driven ecosystem, and voluntarily make myself into Google’s product?

If that's your main concern you'd be better off with a "degoogled" OS on an Android phone with an unlocked bootloader. iOS is locked down and you can't really see or control what information is being sent. Here are some other reasons why you or other people might choose Android phones: - Generally cheaper/better value, especially on the low end - Less locked down (e.g. you can actually choose what browser engine you…

I’m sure someone running a custom Android image with an unlocked bootloader can figure out an Android-compatible alternative to AirTag.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#67

Post by Zircom »

catiopatio wrote: post #55
evandale wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video of "Why would anyone have one?" Around 15:50: https://youtu.be/Vuw72THyXsQ?t=942 They were laughing at it. So hilarious, I'm in stitches over the ignorance.

Why would I choose an Android phone? Apple does not spy on me, and does not sell my information to advertisers. An iPhone SE is $429, or can be financed at the same price , with zero interest, at $17.87 for 24 months. Why would I want to join Google’s advertiser-driven ecosystem, and voluntarily make myself into Google’s product?

At least for me a lot of automation and workflow stuff I have just doesn't exist on iPhones. I make heavy use of buzzkill, taskr and iftt, and the first two have no equivalent on iOS and probably never will. Pretty sure home screen widgets are next to non-existent as well on iOS.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#68

Post by HWR_14 »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #63
platevoltage wrote: post #6

I use Airtags for this purpose with my car and my bicycle, but they're not designed for this purpose. You can pull the speaker coil out of them fairly easily, but they will still notify the thief that they're being tracked if they have an iPhone on them. Not ideal, but it beats having a huge epidemic of stalking.

I always found it a bit rediculous that Apple seemingly admits stalking is a problem they have to solve it, and they solve it by requiring you to buy an iPhone. To solve a problem they created, you have to give them money. It's worse in my opinion than just going with 'we're not responsible for how our product is used' defense.

You don't have to buy an iPhone. Apple publishes a free app in the Google Play Store[1].

You do have to run Apple software, but it'd be a bit much to expect them to make things work with no code at all.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trac...

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#69

Post by dheera »

vkou wrote: post #64
tehjoker wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On apple's website, that's about $25 per an airtag and unless they got a deal, this is $12,500 in funds or free assets from Apple to do promotion. Skating close to corruption.

The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. You call it corruption. Is it, or is it just a good ROI? I think it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag. Time will tell.

> The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures.

That's ridiculous. At that rate it would be better to just buy the owner a new car.

But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate or VIN as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips when that license plate is detected. It would be far cheaper and not that different from reporting your credit card as stolen.

Re: NYPD urges citizens to buy AirTags to fight surge in car thefts

#70

Post by tssva »

pnw wrote: post #49
platevoltage wrote: post #6

I use Airtags for this purpose with my car and my bicycle, but they're not designed for this purpose. You can pull the speaker coil out of them fairly easily, but they will still notify the thief that they're being tracked if they have an iPhone on them. Not ideal, but it beats having a huge epidemic of stalking.

They will also notify an Android phone if they have installed the app which Apple created for this purpose. I have to imagine thieves would know about this.

A thief can use the Apple provided app to discover if there is a tag, but I don't know that I would say it notifies them since unlike on an iPhone it would require the thief to actively open the app and perform a manual scan for the tag.
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