I love my Tile(s), but since the AirTag and now Android networks now feature the same capability, I feel their model is dead in the water since they don't own the platform and can't compete on the installed base. They should have sold out (edit: to a mobile platform company, either Google or Apple) while they had the chance.
I had a number of Tiles over the years and really wanted to like them, but really didn't. I lose stuff infrequently enough that the battery in the tiles would die 2-10 times before I was likely to lose my keys/wallet. The TV remote, the tile was something my son (the primary loser) would fiddle with constantly and destroy. I carried a dead Tile Pro on my keys probably 95% of the time I carried it. The one place I'd r…
Find My Device on Android
231–240 of 332 posts
Re: Find My Device on Android
#232Google posted another blog on how they built the new Find My Device network: https://security.googleblog.com/2024/04/find-my-device-netwo...
As a chronic loser of keys and wallets, I recognize the user need here. However, this is a prime example of a piece of software that can only be trusted when an open-source implementation is provided. Google and their customers don't have much to gain through a proprietary implementation. If anything, open-sourcing Find My Device Network would allow third party devices to join the network, enhancing its value to Goog…
Re: Find My Device on Android
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a chronic loser of keys and wallets, I recognize the user need here. However, this is a prime example of a piece of software that can only be trusted when an open-source implementation is provided. Google and their customers don't have much to gain through a proprietary implementation. If anything, open-sourcing Find My Device Network would allow third party devices to join the network, enhancing its value to Goog…
Would an open source version allow anyone to track anyone? The ultimate stalker app...
An open source version would make absolute no difference on what is trackable.
That's the point: transparency is necessary with critical data like this.
Re: Find My Device on Android
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
You may want to watch some videos on the longevity of foldable screens, consensus is that they still don't hold up over time and become especially brittle after being exposed to cooler temperatures.
I can’t imagine anyone, even Apple, solving the issues of the screen being perfectly flat at the hinge. I don’t think it can be made to feel the same as the rest of the screen or have no visual difference either. And I like my iPhone. If it was twice as thick and half as tall when folded, I just don’t see that as “better”. If it was the same thickness as today when folded and half as thick when unfolded I’m not sure…
I like my iPhone Mini but apparently most people didn't.
Re: Find My Device on Android
#235Google posted another blog on how they built the new Find My Device network: https://security.googleblog.com/2024/04/find-my-device-netwo...
As a chronic loser of keys and wallets, I recognize the user need here. However, this is a prime example of a piece of software that can only be trusted when an open-source implementation is provided. Google and their customers don't have much to gain through a proprietary implementation. If anything, open-sourcing Find My Device Network would allow third party devices to join the network, enhancing its value to Goog…
Try FMD. https://f-droid.org/packages/de.nulide.findmydevice/
Re: Find My Device on Android
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would an open source version allow anyone to track anyone? The ultimate stalker app...
> Would an open source version allow anyone to track anyone? The ultimate stalker app... An open source version would make absolute no difference on what is trackable. That's the point: transparency is necessary with critical data like this.
Unless, of course: That centralized data store were also open -- perhaps even by using something like DNS -- but then, anyone of sufficient skill would be able to craft an application to see where others' things are.
(Unless... E2E encryption for location data, so it can only be understood by those who generate it? Hmm.)
Re: Find My Device on Android
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Unfortunately the wallet trackers are compromised by the fact that most nice wallets come with RFID (and BLE) blocking linings nowadays... Hang onto your old RF-transparent wallet, because RFID blocking has become a standard bullet-point feature they all have to have now.
It was nice-enough case for my phone and it primarily kept the phone from getting beat up by other pocket-stuff that would happen in a workday. But it also had two compartments: One was shielded all around by conductive fabric and this made a fairly good Faraday cage, and for the other one layer of that conductive fabric would be pushed aside so that the Faraday cage was incomplete (and thus largely non-functional).
It gave me a choice, and that choice worked well.
I think I paid $3 for it back in the day from DealExtreme (which was a lot like Temu is today, except shipping normally took months instead of days or weeks).
Is choice not a thing in modern RFID-blocking wallets?
[0: There was a time when my company felt it was useful to track people with their company-provided cell phones. I didn't mind that during the workday, so much, but we were also encouraged to use these as our personal phones if we chose to, and strongly encouraged to keep them with us 24/7 so we would be reachable.
And I didn't mind being reachable most or all of the time and I certainly enjoyed not having my own cell phone bill back then, but I did not like being tracked 24/7: Sometimes, I wanted to do my own private shit on my own time without being snooped on.
I could tell the tracking app to exit, and that did work, but doing so sent a notification to my completely stupid, abusive manager -- who would variously either call to ask why I did that, or just silently turn it back on remotely (which the system permitted).
And I did not (and do not) think that, as a professional, I needed to excuse my choice to have privacy at any given time. (Given my own role in the company I had access to this tracking data as well, but I'm not the abusive type.)
So, the solution was simple: Normally, the phone was in the non-shielded part of the case. And when I dropped it into the completely-surrounded Faraday portion instead, the phone just simply dropped off and silently stopped providing updates.
This worked 100%, and while I refer to them as separate compartments to aid in functional clarity, the design of this case didn't really take up any more space than any other phone-case would have.]
Re: Find My Device on Android
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a number of Tiles over the years and really wanted to like them, but really didn't. I lose stuff infrequently enough that the battery in the tiles would die 2-10 times before I was likely to lose my keys/wallet. The TV remote, the tile was something my son (the primary loser) would fiddle with constantly and destroy. I carried a dead Tile Pro on my keys probably 95% of the time I carried it. The one place I'd r…
Do the Pixel Buds not have a Find feature? I have the same experience as you with Tile, but I use the "Find" feature on my iPhone to locate my AirPods all the time.
Re: Find My Device on Android
#239Does anyone have a comparison of Airtag vs "Bluetooth tracker tags from Chipolo and Pebblebee"? I imagine Airtag is superior due to non-reliance on Bluetooth? Can Chipolo/Pebblebee tap into the Android network without Bluetooth? And is their tech comparable to Apple's work?
This difference is even stronger when you leave EU + US and go to Asia, Central / South America, Africa where iPhone users are not less, but very rare.
My use case is clearly to track my hand luggage, wallet, backpack etc. when I travel and I'm a nomad. Gonna wait on reviews but I'm very excited!
Re: Find My Device on Android
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
And if you misplace your Apple Watch®, grab your Apple Vision Pro® to look for the Apple Watch® in Augmented Reality!
You make fun of it, yet the ecosystem is so popular and well integrated that the US Department of Justice is suing them over it.