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A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

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Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#571

Post by MikeRichardson »

hatsix wrote: post #541
mmahemoff wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re right Apple has a playbook of changing port types every few years, but there are adaptors available. The devices themselves still work, just that Apple knows they can use this one trick to encourage some customers to upgrade. With wireless devices, protocol changes would brick the device, so they’d be less likely to do it so quickly. As far as I know, Apple haven’t announced any plans to deprecate the original…

Specific to my comment, Apple removed code that supports audio over Firewire. It doesn't matter if adapters are available, cameras and microphones that used Firewire no longer work on MacOS 13+. Again, it had a long run, I'm not upset that they "only" supported it for 10 years... but let's be very clear, the devices don't work. Also, this is them removing support for a protocol that is part of the base MacOS, so it's…

FireWire hard drives still work fine though. (FireWire 800 to Thunderbolt adapter, connected to a Thunderbolt to TB3 adapter).

Why support the adapter and hard drives, but not audio devices?

(What else used FireWire besides mass storage, audio stuff, the original iSight, and Time Warner Cable boxes from 2005?)

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#572

Post by MikeRichardson »

undebuggable wrote: post #419
buescher wrote: post #86

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.

The lithium AA/AAA/CR batteries don't seem to leak. They're not widely available though. I use them for devices which mostly sit in a drawer and their lifetime can reach 5-6 years.

Primary lithium batteries absolutely do leak, given enough time. Often the victim is an old Mac motherboard, search for "mac pram battery ruined motherboard" on an image search engine of your choice.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#573

Post by Eric_WVGG »

Osyris wrote: post #94
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…

I've been wanting exactly this for so long. I want to bury an AirTag in my luggage, backpack, etc. and never think about it again. In those scenarios, it doesn't _need_ to be tiny. I'd rather trade compactness for longevity. However, an AirTag attached to my keys _should_ be small and it's easily accessible so I don't mind swapping the battery as needed.

Right, it’s all about the specific use case. Some more…

- These are going to be huge with boats and canoes

- Toolboxes owned by professional builders, carpenters, plumbers

- Important crates in self-storage centers.

- Museums

- Film sets (think big $200k cameras)

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#574

Post by undebuggable »

MikeRichardson wrote: post #572
undebuggable wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lithium AA/AAA/CR batteries don't seem to leak. They're not widely available though. I use them for devices which mostly sit in a drawer and their lifetime can reach 5-6 years.

Primary lithium batteries absolutely do leak, given enough time. Often the victim is an old Mac motherboard, search for "mac pram battery ruined motherboard" on an image search engine of your choice.

Haha, you just reminded me about replacing motherboard CR battery. Recently I was fixing over five years old computer, noticed the battery and thought "What does it do, I wonder if it works, perhaps I should replace it?".

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#575

Post by yreg »

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…

I've _lost_ several AirTags, because I couldn't be bothered to manage their battery life and I no longer have any idea where they are…

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#576

Post by throwaway48476 »

mrguyorama wrote: post #511
throwaway48476 wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they're blaming the cars for being too easy to steal and not the thieves, so it's not going well

The cars are objectively too easy to steal. Kia made several outright stupid design choices and decided not to spend $100 on BoM to use a tried and tested immobilizer that genuinely helps prevent car theft. They also put the key barrel switches in a location very easy to access, rather than deep in the guts of the steering wheel shaft like most manufacturers. Kia tried to save itself a few bucks by drastically reduci…

Some people leave their keys in the sun shade. They don't complain it's too easy to steal. At some point you have to admit it's a social problem.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#578

Post by dboreham »

mattmaroon wrote: post #277
encoderer wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There exists a small percentage of men who will go absolutely savage on somebody for stealing from them, and the existence of those people is probably a bigger crime deterrent than the police. So I say, shine on you crazy air tag tracking vigilante diamonds.

You'd think so, but America is the most armed country in the world and most of us have had something stolen. I think the overall sentiment is "I'm like 99% going to get away with this and pawn it for money" and they're right.

Single data point but I moved from the UK to the US 30 years ago and the prevalence of stuff being stolen is two orders of magnitude lower.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#579

Post by sneak »

9dev wrote: post #539
sneak wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different local politicians won’t change the legal fact that the police have no obligation whatsoever to investigate or prevent crime. It’s simply not in the job description.

Err… what is their job, then, if not investigating and preventing crime? That pet theory with the slave patrols of yours, by the way, isn’t it; that’s a hoax. The modern police in the USA and other countries stems from the British police, which did exactly what they are supposed to do, since ages.

The police are the enforcement arm of the ownership class.

They apply the law as required to enforce the the socioeconomic order. This is why when people who aren’t custodians of land or cash flows ask them to investigate or solve crimes they rarely do.

The selective application of the law is how the current prerogatives of the ownership class are implemented in society.

This is why it’s illegal to do cocaine at work if you’re a poor person flipping burgers, but not if you’re an investment banker.

Re: A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

#580

Post by itsanaccount »

pb7 wrote: post #499
itsanaccount wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'm sure this attitude has absolutely nothing to do with how poorly these interactions go. There is a certain irony in your generalizations...

im sure you can bootlick your way out on their mercy right up until the day you dont.
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