Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

Post by ryandrake » Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 9:09 PM UTC

Schmerika wrote: post #266

traceroute66 wrote: post #123

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> 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...

Post by reaperducer » Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 9:15 PM UTC

teoruiz wrote: post #228

helloguillecl wrote: post #99

Airtag is the reason of why I stil have my favourite hand luggage. I had just sat down on the train from Zurich to Basel. Suddenly, someone sat down in front of me. He looked suspicious, but I didn't pay much attention. Just before the train departed, he picked up what I thought were his belongings and left. Twenty minutes later, already on the way to Basel, I looked toward where I had left my suitcase. It was gone.…

Back in 2011 (!) I went to a wedding in Denia, a medium-sized town on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. The day after the wedding we went to a restaurant by the sea to have some hangover paella, part of the wedding celebrations. Weddings in Spain are usually 2 or 3 day affairs. Anyway, since we were travelling back to Madrid later that day we left our luggage in the trunk of the car, not visible from the outside. We…

Post by chrisfinazzo » Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 9:21 PM UTC

wmeredith wrote: post #149

jsheard wrote: post #10

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Building an attachment point into the tag itself is still beyond current technology though. We just don't know how to do it.

I think the point is to make the smallest unit of functionality possible and then people can integrate that into their use case using attachments, casings, etc. in a way they see fit. It's a good approach for this product in my opinion.

Post by apparent » Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 10:01 PM UTC

llm_nerd wrote: post #267

apparent wrote: post #258

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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.

Post by ghaff » Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 10:35 PM UTC

piperswe wrote: post #118

ghaff wrote: post #109

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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.

I also know from experience that Zurich police will chase an AirTag location with vigor.