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Into Thin AirPods

defector.com

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Re: Into Thin AirPods

#161

Post by Fnoord »

Scoundreller wrote: post #155
crazygringo wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use an alcohol wipe and you're good to go. Cleaned and disinfected, don't know what else would bother you?

Alcohol isn’t sterilizing. E.g. Not very effective against non-enveloped viruses, for example. I’d leave ‘em in the sun personally. But putting it random stuff at the edge of your ear is probably low risk when it comes to activities people do on the regular.

Not sure I like that given there's a battery in them.

There's also a device which bombards small device like earphones with UV for a couple of minutes. Got it at work. My over ear headphones don't fit, but my Sony in-ear with noise cancelling do. Oh, and they still work afterwards, of course.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#162

Post by TexanFeller »

edude03 wrote: post #80

As someone who has lost three pairs of AirPods (including the newer pros) I’ve never understood why Apple allows another device to pair with headphones that are already paired to an iCloud account. Once my girlfriend saw my AirPod maxs lying around and wanted to try them. She put them on her head, tapped “continue” or whatever it said under “not your AirPods” and was listening to music in 15 seconds. Obviously they w…

> I’ve never understood why Apple allows another device to pair with headphones that are already paired to an iCloud account

I want the ability to work cross account smoothly because I keep my work MBP signed into a work-only account but during the day I want to quickly switch to using them on my iPhone signed into my personal account.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#163

Post by fencepost »

skizm wrote: post #104

I lost a pair of airpods (swiped out of my office at midnight! wtf!?) and to this day I casually open the find my app to check on them, and they bounced around locally for a few days before making their way to somewhere in Turkey. They still seem active, despite being in lost mode (they shouldn't work in lost mode unless there's a known exploit?). Also, I've tried dozens of times to get my own airpods to play a sound…

When they're in lost mode can you trigger them to occasionally play a loud "find me!" sound? Could do it at random times - during the middle of the workday where they are, in the middle of the night where they are, plenty of fun options.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#164

Post by jquery »

CoffeeOnWrite wrote: post #142
edude03 wrote: post #80

As someone who has lost three pairs of AirPods (including the newer pros) I’ve never understood why Apple allows another device to pair with headphones that are already paired to an iCloud account. Once my girlfriend saw my AirPod maxs lying around and wanted to try them. She put them on her head, tapped “continue” or whatever it said under “not your AirPods” and was listening to music in 15 seconds. Obviously they w…

One thing that strikes me about the story- I guess not everyone is queasy about putting things in their ears that have spent a lot of time in another person’s ears? (I wouldn’t think they would be attractive theft targets, because of hygiene/stigma)

Airpod Max headphones go over the ear, not in the ear.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#165

Post by mijoharas »

mig39 wrote: post #134
mijoharas wrote: post #128

For a similar story, in London I had my phone snatched by a kid on a bike. In my case find my phone was useful, as they'd thrown it into a nearby park when they realized it was an android and not an iPhone. (This is actually not uncommon in London, the police told me that was why, and I heard from another friend that had something similar happen)

That's kind of funny the iOS / Android thing for thieves. On one hand, it's practically impossible to use an iOS device that has been remotely locked / disabled. So they shouldn't be worth much. This doesn't seem to be the case with some (most?) Android devices? On the other hand, kids who like to steal things don't want to use Androids :-(

I was told by the police that there were some gangs in the area that sold them or something?

Not really sure to be honest, but i seem to remember they said it was easier (or more profitable?) to sell.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#166

Post by TechBro8615 »

callesgg wrote: post #135
dmm wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Possibly also why the map showed the boys location. If it means even a slight chance of attracting unfounded vigilantism, mandatory participation in a poorly understood surveillance network seems like a pretty big downside associated with using an iphone.

It’s not mandatory. You have to explicitly enable participation. But most people probably do, as you yourself can’t use the location tracking, unless you opt in yourself.

But you don't need to opt into the network to be a potential victim of a false geolocation. Just the fact it exists and lots of people use it is sufficient to create risk of someone accusing you of stealing their iProduct, even if you've never purchased anything from Apple.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#167

Post by fwlr »

MarkSweep wrote: post #124
fwlr wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! Some may feel the author was excessively cautious but in this case it actually compensated for the author also not understanding exactly how Find My Device works, and the two cancelled out and resulted in the correct decisions being made! In trying to troubleshoot annoying “lost AirPods” notifications without turning off Find My Device, I ended up learning a bit about how the system seems to work. The way Find M…

> I leave my old MacBook Air on, at my house, connected to wifi, to act as a “stay at home parent” device that can report on child devices, no issues since then. A solution that does not involve leaving a computer on all the time is to configure Find My to not report devices at certain locations. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212765

I did try this method first and it achieved about an 80% reduction, still had a few issues. I don’t know what the Bluetooth range of AirPods is but my phone was apparently able to hear them from the end of the street and report that I’d left my AirPods about 100m from my house. Presumably Bluetooth doesn’t actually go that far and it’s just reporting “current location at the time it realizes it can’t hear the AirPods anymore”.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#168

Post by bebrws »

gpickett00 wrote: post #154

The author initially resisted getting AirPods due to a fear of losing them. However, they eventually bought a pair and ended up losing them. Using the "Find My" app, they tracked the AirPods to a house in a nearby town but didn't confront the thief. They then visited a museum where the AirPods were located again, but couldn't definitively identify the thief. The author continued to track the AirPods as they moved to…

I had my phone stolen and basically did the same thing. I didn't want to approach anyone for fear of starting some altercation. Wish there was a better way to go about this.

With my phone, if I had another device maybe I could have made it make a sound and then started a conversation with the person that way? I didn't know who exactly had it, although I am pretty sure I saw the person just walk away with it. Wasn't sure enough to make an accusation though.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#169

Post by UncleEntity »

CoffeeOnWrite wrote: post #158
crazygringo wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use an alcohol wipe and you're good to go. Cleaned and disinfected, don't know what else would bother you?

> don't know what else would bother you? Like I said, it’s queasiness/stigma about hygiene, not a reasoned thought. This is a common sentiment in the US- we like to buy our sex toys new, for another example, even though they’re usually made of materials that lend themselves to cleaning/sterilization.

Either you do some interesting things with your EarPods or there’s a second-hand market for sex toys I’ve never heard about.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#170

Post by petercooper »

klohto wrote: post #52

I appreciate the story, although bit overstretched. I do have a question whether it’s just my ADHD, but was the writing horribly hard to follow for anyone else? I could not keep my focus while reading each of the paragraphs.

You did better than me. I get half the page covered in a registration wall and I haven't got the patience to get rid of it.

Considering all the replies here, I'm guessing not everyone is getting this demand to register or everyone is being particularly generous with their email address.

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