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Did you lose your AirPods?

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Re: Did you lose your AirPods?

#181

Post by seabass-labrax »

38 wrote: post #20

and this folks is why I will never buy airpods. for $249, I can get 8 pairs of these: https://electronics.sony.com/audio/headphones/in-ear/p/mdrex... have purchased 4 already, happy with my decision

Ha, I can one-up you again! For $249, I can get over fifty pairs of the Xiaomi J18 bluetooth earphones. Quite apart from the mind-boggling economies of scale with modern electronics, I can genuinely recommend these. They haven't particularly good audio quality compared to over-ear headphones, but they are still remarkably good for in-ear headphones.

Re: Did you lose your AirPods?

#182

Post by kennyloginz »

Random late night story, my iPhone was lifted while being unattended. Using findmy, I was able to circle in on an apartment complex.

After bugging the police for weeks, they finally met with me to look at my evidence. We met directly outside of the apartment. They didn’t leave their SUV.

A week later I got the phone back , because you can place a message on the lock screen remotely. The janitor of the apartment called me because I offered ( and paid ) a 100 dollar reward and a number they could reach me at.

Not sure if there is a lesson here, except the feature of remotely changing a Lock Screen message is a great feature.

Re: Did you lose your AirPods?

#183

Post by glitchcrab »

ancientorange wrote: post #159
AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #145

I lost a pair of AirTags on an international flight (in cargo), fortunately I only lost the AirTags, and not the actual bags they were attached to! One of the AirTags actually flew around internationally for a week or so (London, Amsterdam, back to the US a few times!) but sadly after about a week there were no more updates. Someone must have found the AirTag in whatever baggage container it was stuck in and removed…

Why not put the airtag inside the bag? My lost tag is (presumably) attached to my keys at the bottom of a lake. I refuse to delete it from findmy.

Yes this was my reaction too, I can't see any reason to have the airtag on the outside at all.

Re: Did you lose your AirPods?

#184

Post by lostlogin »

SllX wrote: post #169
asveikau wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the battery is failing?

Could be either/or. I long ago lost the brassiere that came with my AirPods Max (not really lost, I just can’t be arsed to dig it out of where I think it is) and they’ll drain themselves fairly quickly just trying to throw out stray connections to any of the five or so devices they can connect to unless I make a point of disconnecting them. AirPods Pro exhibit the same exact symptoms when the contact inside the case…

I can’t work this out. Is this an autocorrect?

Re: Did you lose your AirPods?

#185

Post by max_ »

waschl wrote: post #179
max_ wrote: post #177

What technology does Airpods & AirTags use to allow them to be located when lost? They have no cellular reception hardware. How to they transmit their location to Apple?

I guess broadcasting beacons via Bluetooth to nearby iPhones, same principle like AirTags work

Is it some kind of proprietary P2P mesh network?

Re: Did you lose your AirPods?

#186

Post by slim »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #156
firefoxd wrote: post #153

Alright, so I have a project that is mostly abandoned right now due to various other obligations. The main goal was to contact car owners without having to have their phone numbers and such. But i quickly saw the advantage of tagging all sort of things. So I have it on my keychain, wallet, or several other things I own. If I lose these items, any stranger can contact me without having any of my personal contacts. Wha…

BitRip does this exactly: https://www.bitrip.com/shop

you need a special app to scan these

Re: Did you lose your AirPods?

#187

Post by whstl »

tredre3 wrote: post #149
golergka wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> specifically, and only, iMessage and FaceTime; all other services like iCloud and the app store were working as usual Google should take note.

> Apple support was able to reset it on a phone call. That too.

Apple's phone support is insane, at least where I used it.

High audio quality, no rush and no signs of them being an underpaid call center operator, always going the extra mile to help me.

Re: Did you lose your AirPods?

#188

Post by denysvitali »

max_ wrote: post #185
waschl wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess broadcasting beacons via Bluetooth to nearby iPhones, same principle like AirTags work

Is it some kind of proprietary P2P mesh network?

Yes, with a strong emphasis on the proprietary part. Apple and Google both have their own networks.

All the Apple devices (and now, rolling out, all the Google Play Services enabled devices) scan for nearby Bluetooth LE beacons (that use their protocol) and upload (with some cryptographic operation) the location of the device who found the beacon, together with the accuracy (signal strength) to a proprietary server (Google or Apple).

Then, with the respective apps, the key holder can retrieve the reports for a given key hash and decrypt them to get the previous location. Technically speaking, anyone with the key hash can fetch the encrypted location reports from Apple / Google servers, but they can't decrypt them. On top of that, the key is rotating every 15 minutes (AirTag in paired mode) and there is no way to know that two keys are connected... unless you own the main key that is used to derive the rolling keys (see "update" and "diversify" in the linked paper).

Now, all of this is fantastic, until you think of this as a monopoly. Apple and Google get an interesting tax on every device that gets built and joins this network (IIRC it's 4$ for partner devices in the Apple network).

My problem with this is that no-one else other than Google and Apple can build an "open" network - you'd have to find a way to push your code to everyone's devices.

I'm surprised no-one is investigating this unfair practice.

See: https://doi.org/10.2478/popets-2021-0045 and https://github.com/seemoo-lab/openhaystack

Re: Did you lose your AirPods?

#189

Post by bartvk »

someonehere wrote: post #174

There was a story of a hit and run in Florida recently where the teenager lost one earbud in the car that hit him. Using Find My they found the driver who hit them and arrested them for felony hit and run.

Found it. Quite amazing story:

NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/us/airpod-hit-and-run-flo...

Cache: https://archive.ph/sRHFV

Re: Did you lose your AirPods?

#190

Post by lukevp »

Portlanders are the best! My brother was visiting us here and he lost his wallet at a major tourist attraction. He figured it was gone for good. Nope, someone turned it in with the $200 in cash still in it.
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