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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

#231

Post by dheera »

vkou wrote: post #78
dheera wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen The difference is when someone's catalytic converter is stolen, we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. More often than not, we spend $0 of taxpayer money, and the angry owner spends $5000. I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with t…

> we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. If the police spends any time documenting it, looking for it, or catching and prosecuting the guy who did it, it can run up to that. Even if they do the bare minimum, it'll definitely run a lot more than $50... > I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more car…

> Do you want to pay hundreds of dollars in personal loss, or tens of dollars in taxes that fund measures and mechanisms to prevent or mitigate that loss? It all comes out of your pocket at the end of the day.

I disagree. It doesn't take 5 figures to mitigate that loss in a society that has technology. If it does it's a misuse of funds and I'd rather move to another city, state, country than pay 5 figures to mitigate that loss. If they can mitigate the loss in 3 figures, than absolutely yes that's better than paying 4 figures for a new car, and I'd stay and happy contribute toward the 3 figures.

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

#232

Post by dheera »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #107
dheera wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 diffe…

For the cost of the city, if they stopped going after car theft it would simply become more prevalent. We don't need to decriminalize and make safe cities for car thieves. Regarding your second point, many modern cars have kill switches the police can access. This might be a better solution if these can't easily bypass them. That said, I don't personally want a car with a kill switch.

I don't advocate for decriminalizing it at all. But it shouldn't take 5 figures to catch a car thief with some minimal technology.

It the very least it should be a fundamental axiom of a society that {catching a thief of an item, fixing an item} should cost less than or equal to replacing the item, and I believe that to be largely true if technology is maximally utilized.

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

#233

Post by tenpies »

kevviiinn wrote: post #160
nomel wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why politicians try not to say anything at all whenever they talk.

Because they otherwise make bad jokes in poor taste?

I was thinking because it translates poorly to text.

Delivery is too important, and every politician knows that a hostile media can turn the best of jokes into a brand new hoax / manufactured scandal.

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

#234

Post by rippercushions »

asveikau wrote: post #169
sgustard wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume the "LoJack Inside" window sticker is the main technology you really want? Suggest the thief go steal a different car?

I don't know anything about the trade of stolen vehicles and the people who do it, but i imagine advertising that will let smart thieves and chop shop types know what to look for and quickly remove. From that perspective it's probably better for people to not know you have lojack, conceal it, and make them work harder to check for it.

The function of the sticker is to make the thief look for an easier target.

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

#235

Post by shigawire »

Aeolun wrote: post #225
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But you can use any of a wide variety of actually useful messenger applications with no platform limitations… Line, Telegram, Signal, Whatsapp, Messenger. Why do these people insist on iMessage?

Because it is the default.

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

#236

Post by crhulls »

I'm the CEO of Life360, Tile's parent company. I chimed in on another comment but adding to the conversation directly here. I'm biased, but I am surprised how little pushback this is getting as AirTags explicitly are NOT meant to deter theft - to combat stalking (which is exceedingly rare) Apple notifies you if a tag you do not own is near you. That goes for thieves - they will be told an AirTag is nearby.

At Tile we just launched an Anti-Theft feature where you can turn off stalking notifications if you share your government issued ID and agree to extremely stringent penalties for misuse, including a large fine.

All Life360 users are now scanning for Tile devices, and that equates to over 10% of all phones in the country, so our network in any moderately dense area is almost as good as Apple's. And, we are cross-platform.

https://chrishulls.medium.com/tile-is-taking-a-different-app...

We've put a ton of thought into this problem so happy to answer any questions.

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

#237

Post by worthless-trash »

scarface74 wrote: post #202
kevviiinn wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You used Samsung products, that was your problem. Every Samsung I've had or used has been absolute trash

So the largest Android phone manufacturer is “trash”? Who do you recommend?

Apple response incoming.

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

#238

Post by culi »

We use an airtag to track our cat who we allow outdoors every day until an hour before sunset.

We initially used a Tile which I hated and would constantly try to get us to buy more tiles in their crappy app.

After 4 months of the air tag we're looking to switch back. The larger network is barely noticeable. Most of what the tags do is allow us to know when we're within X number of feet of our cat. The Tile had a better range and was lighter. But most importantly, we could have multiple accounts track the same Tile. Somehow Apple's airtags are missing this really critical feature that has come up again and again for us. If one of us is not home we need to be able to have another one of us be able to track her down but we simply cannot

I'm not a big fan of Tile as a company, but I'm sad to see AirTag's inevitable dominance rise. I would love to see an open-source solution to this problem. Especially if it can somehow hack into the Apple, Tile, etc networks. From what I've read the Apple AirTag network is actually quite insecure and can even be used to send arbitrary HTTP packets. Apple has a huge built-in advantage but also a ceiling that competitors don't have since Android phones can't tap into the network. A community-driven solution could be really effective, especially if it focused on a particular subcommunity like dogwalkers and outdoor cats

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

#239

Post by K7PJP »

dhc02 wrote: post #228
acchow wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Serious question: when some app sends you somewhere after a click/tap on iOS, but doesn't leave you the breadcrumb back link in the upper left corner, how do you go back? Is there no shortcut or gesture? Drives me crazy I can't figure it out every time I grab my son's or my parents' phone to help them with something.

To bring up App Switcher, swipe up from the bottom of the screen, then pause in the center of the screen. Then, to browse the open apps, swipe right, then tap the app you want to use.

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/switch-between-open-a...

You can also quickly switch between open apps on an iPhone with Face ID by swiping right or left along the bottom edge of the screen. But try App Switcher first, it'll provide clearer orientation.

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

#240

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

Aeolun wrote: post #225
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But you can use any of a wide variety of actually useful messenger applications with no platform limitations… Line, Telegram, Signal, Whatsapp, Messenger. Why do these people insist on iMessage?

Because that's what they're used to and that what works with all of their friends.

To be clear, I completely agree, and I wish they did use a cross-platform messenger. But the reality is that, in the US, the vast majority of iPhone users use iMessage primarily.

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