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

Post by Aeolun » Tue, May 02, 2023, 11:52 PM UTC

acchow wrote: post #75

politelemon wrote: post #3

This article throws up many flags for me, not necessarily red, but of a worrying color. It first celebrates surveillance devices as a net positive and hand-waves away its problems. But most importantly, it is awfully shortsighted to allow a single company to entrench itself further into societal transactions. However, hearing it is inconvenient, so I am often dismissed for saying so. > They're made by Apple, which me…

> Again... this level of ignorance and short-sightedness is surprising coming from someone in such a position of authority He was making a joke, playing into the Android vs iPhone eternal war. But as someone who spent years on iPhone, then switched fully to Android for 5 devices across 4 years, and now back to iPhone..... I actually think the ignorance is the other way (Android users who have never tried iPhone as th…

Post by commoner » Tue, May 02, 2023, 11:53 PM UTC

glogla wrote: post #148

circuit10 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How are degoogled phones nowadays? Last time I tried that, it was very limited. No paying by phone, no banking apps (and most banks require app as second factor), no proper maps with navigation and routing, no streaming music, no "work" apps like Teams or Slack, no utility apps like taxis or public transport. Even messaging apps wouldn't work well due to lack of push notifications. Degoogled Android was basically tou…

Post by Aeolun » Tue, May 02, 2023, 11:58 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #208

hn_throwawa_100 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a US Android user, I don't feel very disadvantaged. I have an iPad, an M1 Mac, and a couple Airtags. If I lose something I probably won't be able to locate it until I get back home. I haven't had much trouble with getting group messages on android but maybe my use-case isn't representative. I think the Android perks still outweigh the cost. Not that any of this isn't possible on iPhone but it's a smoother Android…

By far the biggest barrier is group chats with others who are on iphone. Not only is the experience pretty broken for you, it essentially ends up breaking the experience for everyone else. This AirTags example just highlights that to a large portion of the US populace, Android is essentially a joke.

Post by martinjacobd » Wed, May 03, 2023, 12:01 AM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #208

hn_throwawa_100 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a US Android user, I don't feel very disadvantaged. I have an iPad, an M1 Mac, and a couple Airtags. If I lose something I probably won't be able to locate it until I get back home. I haven't had much trouble with getting group messages on android but maybe my use-case isn't representative. I think the Android perks still outweigh the cost. Not that any of this isn't possible on iPhone but it's a smoother Android…

By far the biggest barrier is group chats with others who are on iphone. Not only is the experience pretty broken for you, it essentially ends up breaking the experience for everyone else. This AirTags example just highlights that to a large portion of the US populace, Android is essentially a joke.

Post by 13of40 » Wed, May 03, 2023, 12:02 AM UTC

inconceivable wrote: post #122

Animats wrote: post #112

LoJack used to be the go-to company for this. No more. Classic LoJack had good privacy. It's a box hidden somewhere in the car, with a connection to vehicle power. It has a transmitter, but normally doesn't transmit. If your car is stolen, you report this to the police, which report it to LoJack. That broadcasts an ID over a subcarrier of some local FM broadcast station. The receiver in the Lojack unit listens for th…

do you know if the legacy system is still in use? my first 'nice' car had lojack installed in it. i remember it was about $200, and that's all, but this was 10+ years ago. i wonder if it's still out there...