81–90 of 332 posts
Ironically, yesterday my wife couldn't find her phone while we were at a restaurant. Is it at home? Well, let's try this. Google it, go to http://android.com/find Ah, but it only shows devices logged into my account. Well, let's log into hers. Which required 2FA from... her device. Sooo useful.
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So you're saying that it's not possible to do what I asked, currently. And judging by the other comments in this thread ATM (with one possible exception), nobody seems to care...
How you read "X is an option to try and stop this" as "it's not possible" is about as ridiculous as wanting other people to spoon-feed you a solution. Stop using Google services if you don't want to be tracked by Google tracking services.
Second, it's not mine or EFF's responsibility to police what Google does. Let's make it very clear that the current situation is Google's responsibility and nobody else's.
Third, it doesn't matter whether I stop using Google services because other people using those services will track me anyway.
And fourth, what does it say about a company that you can only use its services if you agree to be tracked and agree to track everyone on the planet without their explicit consent?
I mean, let's be clear here. This is not "I'm tracking a pseudonymous ID across websites". This is literally tracking the physical location of someone whose real ID Google can easily find out, through a wide variety of means.
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Agreed. I bought a couple Tiles before AirTags were available. They worked fine, but AirTags are just better in every way.
AirTags only come in a single size and shape that only makes sense for larger container objects. Tile makes a flat credit-card sized variant that you can slide in your wallet, and the adapters required to put an AirTag on a keychain is pretty ridiculous in comparison to the tiny variants you can get from Tile with a built-in hole for this purpose. (Also: AFAIK the "large"--not really, in comparison to the AirTag + ad…
Hang onto your old RF-transparent wallet, because RFID blocking has become a standard bullet-point feature they all have to have now.
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Agreed. I bought a couple Tiles before AirTags were available. They worked fine, but AirTags are just better in every way.
AirTags only come in a single size and shape that only makes sense for larger container objects. Tile makes a flat credit-card sized variant that you can slide in your wallet, and the adapters required to put an AirTag on a keychain is pretty ridiculous in comparison to the tiny variants you can get from Tile with a built-in hole for this purpose. (Also: AFAIK the "large"--not really, in comparison to the AirTag + ad…
> thanks to specialized Pixel hardware, Pixel 8 and 8 Pro owners will also be able to find their devices if they’re powered off or the battery is dead. This suggests there is separate hardware with its own power and network capabilities, designed for location tracking, designed to be always on. Is there a way to disable it?
Putting my tinfoil hat on, this explains why Google was okay adding a toggle to location access for apps on Android. They don't need your device to send them their location anymore, they'd only need you to be in range of an UWB or BLE device.
Ironically, yesterday my wife couldn't find her phone while we were at a restaurant. Is it at home? Well, let's try this. Google it, go to http://android.com/find Ah, but it only shows devices logged into my account. Well, let's log into hers. Which required 2FA from... her device. Sooo useful.
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I don't see why UWB should have anything to do with the Find My network. It's something the tag manufacturer would add separately. Since UWB range is lower than BLE range, the Find My network would get you close enough and then the manufacturer's app would enable you to use UWB. So the answer is, whenever a manufacturer thinks it's worth including in the tag.
samsung have this.
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But manufacturers have? Samsung tags have UWB and they work well. There are also Chinese UWB enabled trackers you can buy. Other manufacturers like Pebblebee, Chipolo and Tile decided not to include it - neither on Android nor iOS. They could have added it for years now, they just decided not to. Chipolo says they think it's just not worth the tradeoff. I don't necessarily disagree - I rarely use it with my samsung t…
> There are also Chinese UWB enabled trackers you can buy. Where can I buy a UWB tracker that supports direction finding on Pixel phones? I have looked and didn't find a single one. Or literally any other product of any kind with UWB that works on Pixel at all for any purpose, for that matter.
The third party UWB API is available (though it's in alpha) and it supports AoA and direction finding : https://developer.android.com/develop/connectivity/uwb
I'm guessing the reason you can't find anything compatible is because there was no way to make anything worthwhile before the Find My network economically. It made no sense for Tile to add UWB only for Pixels (since the Smarttags are better), and no one else could make their own network.
Once this rolls out, there will probably be trackers with UWB trackers. Otherwise, you can make your own - the chips are pretty cheap and it's a relatively accessible DIY project that has been done before.
After a car break-in, I got myself airtags and an old iPhone. I was really hoping that the rumors of airtag support coming to Android were true.