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A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

elevationlab.com

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Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#191

Post by TuringNYC »

Nice solution, but the bigger problem is how AirTags can basically be turned off, which makes it poor for many use cases.

Of course, I get it from Apple's perspective, they dont want AirTags to be used to tail others. However, that precludes it from being used for theft tracking.

For example, I use an AirTag on my bicycle. If someone steals the bicycle, they are literally informed "an air tag is following you" https://support.apple.com/en-us/119874

There are a lot of things I'd love to put long-term AirTags on (luggage, snow-blower, childrens' backpacks) but if theft isnt really deterred, then the case for a bulkier AirTag is quite reduced.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#192

Post by buescher »

wyager wrote: post #160
tivert wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The third time someone calls to complain that the alkaline batteries they put in this leaked, they'll wish they used a soldered-in 3V lithium primary cell. Even though that goes against a certain ethos. Those aren't alkaline batteries. Energizer makes AA/AAA-size lithium primary batteries, which is what they are using. They wont leak and have a 25 year shelf life. https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/l91.pdf And I don't…

He means that idiot customers will use the wrong batteries and get mad, and they absolutely will. The modal customer doesn't understand anything about battery chemistry and will unconditionally buy the cheapest battery at the store.

No amount of intelligence or understanding of battery chemistry will make batteries any less dismal and disappointing to the consumer.

Ironically, the very cheapest carbon-zinc batteries probably would be kind of OK in this application.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#194

Post by kube-system »

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #143
kube-system wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not being updated any more frequently than they are already reporting their battery status, are they?

I would presume the battery status is sent as part of the beacon, firmware is updated only when the phone is locked and charging in range of the tag.

I believe that's correct. I get low battery notifications when I am out of range of mine, I think.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#195

Post by _yb2s »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #120
_yb2s wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is something wrong with your configuration/setup, it is not supposed to start chirping unless it is out of range of your phone for at least 8 days, and not in one of the predefined geofence regions you can setup where it won't chirp. I have them on tons of my devices, including my kids personal items that go to school, etc. and they never chirp, and I can and have found items that were misplaced in public locat…

>it is not supposed to start chirping unless it is out of range of your phone for at least 8 days, and not in one of the predefined geofence regions you can setup where it won't chirp. Does it even chirp then? This is news to me, I have an airtag in my car and have certainly left it for 2 weeks during vacations. I've never heard the airtag chirp unless I make it play a sound through "Find My"

Your home is usually automatically geofenced, so if you left it there it shouldn't chirp. If you parked your car elsewhere, e.g. an airport lot it was probably chirping while you were gone, but you wouldn't hear it because you weren't there.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#196

Post by Slartie »

lxgr wrote: post #179

Nice! Definitely somewhat of a niche use case, but I don't doubt that it exists. I do wonder though: Do AA batteries actually have a shelf life of 10 years even without supplying any current?

The Lithium ones that they suggest to use do have a decade or more of shelf life, and they also don't leak!

I've got an old pinball machine. Those use AA batteries to store highscores and settings in a battery-powered RAM chip. Typically the batteries must be replaced once a year or at least every two years, largely because of self-drain, and it's a common occurrence of them leaking, which can quickly destroy the 30 year old circuit board they're on. That's why most pinball collectors suggest to use Lithium AA batteries: you get 5-10 year lifetime, no danger of leakage.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#198

Post by unsupp0rted »

TuringNYC wrote: post #191

Nice solution, but the bigger problem is how AirTags can basically be turned off, which makes it poor for many use cases. Of course, I get it from Apple's perspective, they dont want AirTags to be used to tail others. However, that precludes it from being used for theft tracking. For example, I use an AirTag on my bicycle. If someone steals the bicycle, they are literally informed "an air tag is following you" https:…

Theft-tracking is sort of an "off-label" use for AirTags, from Apple's perspective.

They'd rather make AirTags less generally useful than make them both more generally useful + open to stalking occurrences and lawsuits.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#199

Post by nucleardog »

dmajor2 wrote: post #62
drdaeman wrote: post #56

Are AirTags actually useful for anti-theft purposes? I threw one in the trunk of my car (just in case - I ordered a 4-pack and I had a spare one), and every single time I drive somewhere it chirps loudly when I'm exiting my driveway, making its presence immediately obvious without any delays, and despite my phone being with me in the car.

No, they have been rendered useless for that purpose through software updates because of the almost 100% overlap of the use cases of 1) stalking someone 2) and tracking a thief.

I think you can still thread the needle. The cases are identical except for one situation--if the air tag is difficult to find or remove.

If you can't find or remove the air tag, then the option you have left to not be tracked is to separate yourself from the tracked thing. In the case of someone being stalked, that's inconvenient (that doesn't do it justice, but not really important to my point). In the case of someone who stole something, that's actually the desired outcome.

Imagine a situation where you get in a car and a few minutes later it says there's an air tag following you.

If you're being stalked... you can drive straight to a mechanic who can take all the time they need to find it, take a taxi over to the police and report it, etc.

If you just stole that car, now you know you're on the clock. Once someone's looking for you and that vehicle, there's a really good chance they're going to find it. You can take it to a mechanic, but a reputable mechanic might have some questions. You can try a less reputable mechanic, but they're gonna be pissed when the cops come knocking asking about the stolen car sitting over there and you might not be going back there any time soon. So if you can't find and remove the air tag relatively quickly, what options do you have left? Probably makes more sense to abandon the vehicle and try another one with a lower risk of winding up in jail.

I _know_ where the air tag is in my suitcase and it would take me tools and ~15 minutes to remove. How long is someone going to spend at that versus just tossing it?

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#200

Post by climb_stealth »

dylan604 wrote: post #183
unsnap_biceps wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So last week my keys AirTag was dead, and I checked my notifications and I only received one notification in October that it had a low battery, but to be fair, I don't know exactly when it died between October and last week. Maybe my batteries die completely before the second notification triggers.

Maybe they need an option for people like you called "smoke detector mode" where it starts to annoyingly beep once a minute.

Dear god please no. The kind of people who don't notice empty batteries also don't notice the annoying beeps. But I do.

Apartment living can be hell when there are neighbours who don't replace their smoke detector batteries. I can't fathom how people can sleep through this loud annoying chirp every thirty seconds. I certainly find it hard and my apartment is far enough away that it's hard to determine where exactly the chirp is coming from.

The thought of smoke-detector like beeping of airtags all over the place gives me the worst kind of creeps. Please don't give them ideas! Please!

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