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A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

elevationlab.com

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Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#221

Post by Grazester »

theshrike79 wrote: post #173
Grazester wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a backpack. You hang it on the hook on the stall door where you hang your jacket I think there is less of a likelihood someone is going to jump you for your backpack when you are at a restaurant for lunch than there is for them breaking into a car parked only a dimly lit street for said backpack.

Except that American public toilets have gaps so large between the door and the frame that a thief can pretty much just grab the backpack without opening the door =)

I live in big City America. This is what I did. Hang my backpack on the stall hook as stated or shit with it on my lap. I carried a laptop, DSLR and lens with me for all my college life. I couldn't afford to replace anything if lost during said times as an international student whose credits cost more than 3 times that of a non-international student.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#222

Post by dervjd »

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:…

Any tracker can be turned off if a thief manages to find it - but yeah a notification letting them know they need to look isn’t great.

I use an AirTag on my e-bike - there’s quite a few hidden mounts out there that look like normal rear reflectors or slot in between a water bottle cage and the bike frame. It’s also trivially easy to pop the AirTag open and remove the speaker so it can’t beep.

I bought my AirTags before there were any compatible third party options, but the non-Apple AirTags don’t have the UWB chip inside and don’t support the precision finding feature which would also make them more difficult to find.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#223

Post by jcrawfordor »

The size and cost of this unit and the AirTag to put in it get close, but not quite to, the size and cost of a cellular asset tracker. Roughly $30 more to get into a reputable brand asset tracker.

The promised ten-year life is better than the e.g. 4-year life you can get out of a GPS/LTE NB-IOT with lithium primary cell and deep sleep, and with fewer compromises around tesponsiveness to commands (primary-battery asset trackers are usually waking up like once every 6 hours). Still, standalone asset trackers have a number of features that make them more suitable for theft scenarios than airtags, not least of which is the absence of the anti-stalking feature of airtags which means they're never really a concealable option.

The major difference left is consumer-friendliness... Most asset trackers are provided by vendors with pretty hefty ongoing fees, and more oriented towards commercial customers like fleet operators and construction. Big difference in ease of purchase and use. It does make you wonder about the market for a really consumer-friendly solution, though.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#224

Post by dylan604 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #218
dylan604 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

interesting. the concept of that's not yours and is actually someone else's isn't the most compelling reason? very interesting

That concept encompasses a ton of gray area. For example, did the ancestors of the person you are stealing from enslave your ancestors? Or more simply, are you or your children going to go hungry? At the limit, the rule is always might makes right. Until then, the question is how much are you willing to give up to re-order the status quo? (A reordering that may or may not end up in your favor)

I'm not really sure what you're trying to say. You're saying a double negative makes a right? Vengeance is mine sayeth you?

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#225

Post by dmd »

kstrauser wrote: post #210
0_____0 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I lived in California I wrapped a bunch of chain around the cat on my truck. Wasn't actually that secure but thieves see a ton of chain and padlocks and go "ehhhh keep moving."

I believe that. A big part of security isn't making your property theftproof, but making it more work than your neighbor's.

You don't have to outrun the bear...

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#226

Post by to11mtm »

nucleardog wrote: post #199
dmajor2 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 some…

TBH your response makes me realize there's possibly a decent use case for bicycles with the right diameter tubing.

> 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.

Depends on the skill of the chop-shop or it's folks and where you are.

A fun thought experience would be how much suspicion a flatbed tow truck with some form of faraday cage around the car, below a cover would get from LE.

Agree with your general 'deterrent' concept, I think the main challenge a lot of folks run into is getting lazy with placement. Glove/console boxes, the 'pockets' on the back of front seats, are all stupid easy. Technically anything in the interior, probably can be 'found' with sufficient detection capability.

No, you put that thing somewhere weird and ideally a PITA to get at.

This honestly gives me the idea of finding the right spot in my WRX front headlights to make it not visible; If the spot I'm thinking of will work, they'd literally have to pull off the front bumper to even get at it...

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#227

Post by reaperducer »

jmull wrote: post #81

I know this is useful (for something), but I'm stuck on the plot holes in the motivating story... Why didn't they replace the battery when the app complained? How long would a thief really keep the AirTag anyway? If the thief did keep the AirTag and you tracked them down, then what? A confrontation has a fairly high chance to have a worse result than losing some equipment. You could try to get the police to do it, bu…

You could try to get the police to do it, but that's going to take more time, during which the thief is even more likely to ditch the AirTag.

During the most recent American election I saw at least three news stories on television about campaign sign thieves being tracked down through the use of AirTags put in one of the signs. To my surprise, in each case the police were right there, and in two of the cases, the signs were still loaded in the thieves' cars. So it does seem to work.

Anyway, you're really swimming upstream trying to think of aigtags as an antitheft device.

They aren't anti-theft devices as in padlocks. But the more often that thieves start wondering if the thing they're taking might have an AirTag in it, they might start reconsidering some of the petty thefts.

It's like a surveillance camera. A camera, itself, can't stop a crime. But the possibility that someone's watching can act as a mild deterrent.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#228

Post by to11mtm »

humanpotato wrote: post #73

What is the point of CNC machined screws? I have only seen that type of thing on specialized military applications and the like. I'm sure standard rolled screws would be just fine...

If I had to guess, they had easier access to a CNC or someone with CNC skills vs a shop that could get them rolled screws in the right size within their timeframe.

The 'nice' thing about CNC screws is that it's cheaper to do short runs. (which, on the military side, can help on some 'security by obscurity' lengths for revers engineering).

That said Rolled screws are almost always gonna be better unless the die is fucked.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#229

Post by to11mtm »

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.

cries in 'I worked at a computer shop that started selling carbon-zinc batteries around 2002-2003'

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#230

Post by citizenpaul »

elzbardico wrote: post #172
jmull wrote: post #81

I know this is useful (for something), but I'm stuck on the plot holes in the motivating story... Why didn't they replace the battery when the app complained? How long would a thief really keep the AirTag anyway? If the thief did keep the AirTag and you tracked them down, then what? A confrontation has a fairly high chance to have a worse result than losing some equipment. You could try to get the police to do it, bu…

A lot of those thiefs are not hardened criminals, because the payoff for this kind of crime is usually a small fraction of the actual value of the things stolen. Most of time it is the average wimpy addict and the reason he resort to this kind of criminal activity is preciselly because he is not ready for the violent potential of more profitable criminal activities. If you relativelly fit, and have some experience wi…

>stop glorifying cowardice

I mostly agree. I don't think its cowardice most of the time though. Its that laws now favor criminals if you attempt to do anything yourself. Its become public policy that "rich" people buying things can simply absorb the loss and the police don't even have to do anything because no one bothers to report it. The police win because crime stats go down, thiefs win because they get the goods, the victim absorbs all the cost and if they try to do anything the victim goes to jail for whatever charges that made the police have to get up and work.

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