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Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

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Re: Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

#261
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not convinced AirPods are that "simple" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB_8dGKh9JI

yes, apple has a LOT of hidden complexity. Another example is their dongles - many of them have significant processing power, like video conversion chips inside the shell.

The quality would be better if those weren't needed, though.

Re: Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The perpetrator has to already find the victim, and physically be there, to put the tag on the car

On the car, not on the car at the victim's house. Or the much more, frankly common , scenario is: a $15 plushie bought through Amazon wishlist, sold by PerpOwned LLC for $500, and delivered through Amazon warehouse. That's actually happening.

I don't know why anyone with a budget would choose to use an Airtag that notifies nearby iPhones and makes noise when you move it around. If Amazon lets you ship arbitrary items to people's private address, that sounds like a vulnerability with Amazon that is far more severe than simply shipping Airtags.

Re: Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

#263

> The new AirTag is designed with the environment in mind, with 85 percent recycled plastic in the enclosure, 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets, and 100 percent recycled gold plating in all Apple-designed printed circuit boards. The paper packaging is 100 percent fiber-based and can be easily recycled. I'm no material scientist, but this seems pretty impressive to me that Apple's economy of scal…

How does that compare to previous AirTag? Whats the industry baseline for all of those, maybe gold is 100% recycled anyways in most products?

This is a great question. For example, the Pixel 10 has a similar recycling profile, although with less recycled plastic.

Re: Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

#264
post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the thought too, but there is no way anyone else could have gotten physical control over this and shouldn't I see that AirTag when I scan for things in my surrounding as an anti-tracking protection?

I've had similar issues -- consider it a bug -- and unpair and re-pair with your phone, and likely the issue will go away.

I think I unpaired it, but I cannot pair it again, as it isn't recognized by the iPhone at all.

Re: Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

#265
post #28

> The new AirTag is designed with the environment in mind, with 85 percent recycled plastic in the enclosure, 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets, and 100 percent recycled gold plating in all Apple-designed printed circuit boards. The paper packaging is 100 percent fiber-based and can be easily recycled. I'm no material scientist, but this seems pretty impressive to me that Apple's economy of scal…

This is just green washing on the level of “93.65% natural ingredients”.

What level of materials recycling would be required for you to not consider it green washing?

It’s a genuine question, since I don’t like Apple and agree that we buy tons of stuff we don’t really need. That said, our bicycles can’t be insured anymore, but having AirTags at least alleviates some of the angst over leaving them in public places.

Re: Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

#266
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do use airtags for this purpose. I also expect (and I read) that most police departments won't pay the slightest bit of attention to your reports.

> most police departments won't pay the slightest bit of attention to your reports Its sort of a combination of two reasons. First in many cities, police departments are underfunded. And so running around looking for your stolen phone or whatever minor item is low on their to-do list compared to say, stopping the local drug-gangs from shooting their brains out. Second, for minor thefts most insurance companies just n…

> compared to say, stopping the local drug-gangs from shoting their brains out

I'm guessing people have that impression from TV, but it doesn't seem to match reality.

> the data suggests that officers spend relatively little time responding to major violent crimes: 4%, 3.7% and 4.1% in the three locations, respectively.

- https://www.freethink.com/society/how-police-spend-their-tim...

Re: Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

#267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To all available information, your home has nothing to do with the alert. The alert occurs if one of the trackable items (airtag, airpods, etc) is moving with you, but the registered owner is not within bluetooth connectivity of the device. I've had it happen with my son's airpods a number of times because he let his phone battery die, triggering the alert for any other iPhone nearby if moving simultaneously with thi…

Apple's documentation indicates that notifications are in some cases triggered by the fact that a device has followed you to your home or other "significant location". [1] 1: https://support.apple.com/en-us/119874

It goes the other way around. Enabling significant locations allows your device to queue up notifications like that to basically be "you have arrived" updates, versus while you are driving or otherwise engaged having a sudden notification go off, which some people find alarming. It doesn't require significant locations, but that's when it might decide to wait to tell you.

Re: Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

#268
post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t deal with Oakland Police specifically but Oakland itself is a sanctuary city.

Right. Plus local police don't have jurisdiction over immigration issues. My comment was more a reflection on how the gov generally is, sadly (and horrifically in Minneapolis etc), much more responsive to undocumented cases than actual crimes.

Sure, but different agency under a different government (Feds, not City of Oakland).

Oakland PD has their own bad reputation to live down to, let’s not commingle them.

Re: Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The perpetrator has to already find the victim, and physically be there, to put the tag on the car

Meeting could happen in public, it doesn't mean they know their private address. For example, meet someone at a convention/fair/job, gift/sell them something which has a hidden tag, and then wait for them to drive to their hotel, or home. Gotcha. With influencer and celebs, you can also send something to their agency, and hope they are re-routed to their home. S** like that happened quite often until people learned t…

I'm sure idiots do this but it's a pretty high risk way to try to track someone. IME the tracking notifications are timely enough that you're going to have a good idea where they came from. Actual GPS trackers are cheap on Amazon, have better accuracy, and don't notify people they exist -- they just don't have the public's mindshare nearly as much.

Re: Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

#270
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Changing the battery was the first thing I did. No change. But if that is the official signal for "battery low", I can try a few more. Thanks.

Make sure the battery doesn’t have bitterant coating on the edge where it meets the AirTag contact. The first time I replaced my AirTag batteries I had to remove some of the coating or it wouldn’t power the AirTag.

Tried with a cleaned new battery. It beeps when I put the battery in, that is it. When I scan for unknown objects, I get shown an air tag, but it doesn't tell me anything about it. So probably I should just remove the battery - I must have gone through a heap of them debugging this - and just smash it.
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