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Into Thin AirPods

defector.com

191–199 of 199 posts

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#191
post #130
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I skipped most of the article because it was boring. I was vindicated by the ending where nothing happens.

The point of reading a story like this is to enjoy the act of reading it, not to claim a reward for reaching the conclusion. It's genuinely saddening how angry people in this thread are getting over the idea of reading for reading's sake.

I guess the beauty of not finding your lost airpods is lost on me. The shame.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I have several old iOS devices that are basically bricked because there's no way to factory reset them without first unlocking the device.

You can DFU any old iPhone and erase install any appropriately signed version of iOS on it. What you can’t do is finish activation without a network connection and the last signed in AppleID account password. Are you saying you don’t have the password for the last signed in AppleID?

Correct.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#193
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…

It's a bit more interesting than that, as it's E2E encrypted, to avoid leaking the location of any device on the network. Find My enabled devices are actually sending "my current public key is …" messages. The finder ("adult", in your terminology) device encrypts their location with that public key, and sends that, and only that, to Apple's servers. The finder device isn't identified in that message, so you can't tra…

I’ll admit I simply assumed there was adequate encryption to avoid leaking location data in undesirable ways and didn’t think to investigate how they were doing it (generally an unsafe assumption - although, credit is due to Apple, slightly less unsafe in their case!).

The system being “my iPhone encrypts its location with the lost device’s public key, so only the holder of the corresponding private key (i.e. the owner of the lost device) can see that location” is actually sublime, though. That’s the minimal amount of information and yet it still achieves the highest level of privacy, right? Only the location data from the adult, only the public key from the lost child, combined in such a way that cryptographically guarantees only the parent can read the location data. No Apple IDs or serial numbers or any other identifying information even included, so it’s robust even against broken encryption. Very cool.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true and also speaks to confusion around AirPods: second generation AirPod Pros are "adult devices" (or at least their case is) while all other generations are child devices.

Indeed, the case is "adult device" ! > A new U1 chip enables Find My with Precision Finding for your case, so you can exactly locate it. You can also use Find My with proximity view if you lose track of your AirPods Pro https://www.apple.com/uk/airpods-pro/

Between AirTags’ ultra-wideband and a dedicated U1 chip that can perform the role of ‘responsible adult’ in finding lost devices, I wonder if (or when) it makes sense for Apple to start offering a business-facing product that can automate “lost and found”. I know for sure that gyms and hotels would love to have a product they could put next to their lost and found cabinet that would give precise and unambiguous data to the owners of lost devices. I can imagine it would also be popular with taxis/Ubers and planes, too!

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#195
post #130
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I skipped most of the article because it was boring. I was vindicated by the ending where nothing happens.

The point of reading a story like this is to enjoy the act of reading it, not to claim a reward for reaching the conclusion. It's genuinely saddening how angry people in this thread are getting over the idea of reading for reading's sake.

You must be the type who enjoys reading the short story before each recipe on the internet too and doesn't skip straight to the actual part where they tell you how to cook the dish they've been writing about for 10 chapters already.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#196
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'm an edge case here. I live full-time on an RV, and whenever I move the RV I get the fun task of adding that new spot to the "trusted locations" for Find My. I expect to find out there's a limit to trusted locations at some point.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#197
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…

There are lots of good product reasons why you don't want to do this, but there's also a good chance that they're just not allowed to.

Airpods are Bluetooth. Their is a load of IP behind Bluetooth, and they will happily licence that IP for free to qualified Bluetooth devices. So you can't just pick and choose which bits of Bluetooth you like, you have to implement enough of it to meet the standards (you can do stuff on top though if you want).

It is possible that a device that refuses to pair/connect under some circumstances to a certified Bluetooth device (e.g. my Android phone, or an iPhone) would fail to meet the specification. There may be a spec lawyer way around it, or there might not be. If there isn't then they just can't do that.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#198
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have retrieved my wife's phone two times and my own once using Lost Mode. We are in NYC. Maybe I just got lucky or the universe is just smiling on me. I did give each of the do gooders some money and each of them initially tried to refuse it. There are kind, helpful people in the world.

I returned a pair of Air Pods a month ago using “reverse Lost Mode” where you use your phone to request the contact info from the Air Pods. I got my iPhone back at a giant music festival the old fashioned way- calling it and the do gooder answered.

When working at the Edinburgh Fringe, I once left my phone in a taxi, then went home and went to sleep pretty early. I was woken the next morning by flatmate banging loudly on the front door and holding my phone.

It turns out he didn't have his key, so had banged on the door for a while the previous night but I was too asleep to hear him and he had to sleep elsewhere. He'd also tried ringing me loads of times, and eventually someone in the back of the taxi found it and picked it up and my friend arranged with them to retrieve it.

Re: Into Thin AirPods

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the 2nd Gen pros are not very good at reporting correct location. I have a third-party sleeve for mine with a pocket for an AirTag. The sleeve is glued to the charger and the AirTag with RTV. The AirTag reports its position within a foot or two. A determined thief could remove all that but it's no longer possible for me to lose the charger, or to be in the author's situation where it took me a day to get the sea…

The 2nd gen pros also have the U1 chip, the same as the AirTag. What's the point in bundling it with an AirTag?

I have a set of 2nd Gen Pros right here with me.

Under Find My for the device I am offered "Play Sound" and "Directions". "Directions" offers route me to my home on Apple Maps.

Under Find My for the Airtag I am given a big green arrow that points directly at the tag and says it's two feet away.

The app doesn't treat the U1 chip in the Airpod Pros the same way it treats a tag.

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