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Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

gizmodo.com

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Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#151

Post by dylan604 »

smoldesu wrote: post #83
steelbrain wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a place for a generic open protocol. Not sure if you've seen but Apple opened the Find-My network to other vendors: https://www.apple.com/ee/newsroom/2021/04/apples-find-my-net...

...but didn't open the protocol to third parties. In other words, it's as "open" as the lightning connector is: "pay us $x for every product you ship, and we won't sue you for using it" Apple's marketing must train in the Matrix for how good they are at dodging bullets...

at the same time, you are using the Apple network/infrastructure of iDevices that track that item for you. Every Apple device that passes your lost product helps find your product. Should they be doing that for free? Serious question.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#152

Post by TuringNYC »

gruez wrote: post #127
TuringNYC wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you name some alternatives with a decent network? If the item has its own mobile network, i'm expecting an extra $20/mo for a phone plan (at which point, comparing to a fixed cost of an AirTag isnt valid.) If it doesnt have a mobile network and relies on the mesh, then, is there any mesh available? Apple's mesh is global and pervasive. And if it provides neither mobile support nor mesh, it isnt useful for anythin…

>i'm expecting an extra $20/mo for a phone plan I'm sure you can get prepaid/IOT plans for less, eg. https://www.hologram.io/pricing/flexible-data

Thank you for sharing this, this looks fantastic! I wasnt aware of this and I rescind my previous comment!

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#153

Post by kube-system »

willcipriano wrote: post #43
kube-system wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love my AirTags because they actually have a functional tracking network. I've lost items outside the house with a Tile tracker attached and it proved to be entirely worthless for actually finding my stuff. They simply don't have a good network.

This is a place for a generic open protocol. To have a real internet of things we need some kind of DNS but for objects.

The hard part is convincing anyone to use your open protocol, when the people who are in the best position to implement it are also the ones who would most benefit from a closed-protocol.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#154

Post by kbos87 »

errcorrectcode wrote: post #71

Anecdotal regional issue: I had an AirTag on my AirPod Pro's case that was stolen. I immediately notified Austin's police (APD) as I could see where it was going. Unfortunately, due to understaffing of 100-200 police officers and detectives, most calls unrelated to imminent threats of injury or death aren't being handle for days or ever. So, it's open-season on packages and property because APD can't or won't do its…

The unfortunate truth is that police have better things to spend their time on. Heck, I had a nighttime home invasion/$4k+ of goods stolen in Boston 9 months ago and as far as I can tell the police couldn’t even be bothered to get their hands on the security camera footage from a neighboring convenience store after I told them there were cameras outside.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#155

Post by aidenn0 »

josephcsible wrote: post #128
alfalfasprout wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, and notice how a good chunk of the people asking to defund the police are from already very safe neighborhoods or very young and never had to live through lots of crime. I'm all for police reforms (eg; body-cam requirements, more training) but the whole defund the police movement is downright dangerous.

> I'm all for police reforms (eg; body-cam requirements A lot of rabidly anti-police people are actually against body cams.

My friend is a cop, and he loves his body cam. He has had dozens of complaints against him refuted trivially with body-cam footage (and prior to that at least one serious complaint refuted by the camera in his patrol car).

I think most of the anti-police complaints are due to selective releasing of body-cam footage. We are approaching the point where the court of public opinion swings against officers when potentially exculpatory body-cam footage is conspicuously missing; perhaps that will help assuage those concerns.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#156

Post by jjeaff »

flounder3 wrote: post #86
errcorrectcode wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which? Where?

San Francisco. Los Angeles. Seattle. San Jose (albeit theft has never received attention in San Jose)

Well, San Francisco cut their police budget by $6m... From $668 million. And they increased funding to other parts of the justice apparatus. Like and increase to juvenile programs and the district attorney's office. You'll be hard pressed to find even the most liberal cities in America have actually cut police funding in any significant way.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#157

Post by orhmeh09 »

uoaei wrote: post #138
jen20 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I met a UT campus police officer who refuses to live in or bring his family to ATX because of the risks and de facto lawlessness. I live in Downtown Austin, and this kind of picture simply does not fit with my day-to-day experience of Austin.

If you ask a lifeguard what they fear, they'll say drowning. Cops are not objective sources of reality, neither is anyone else. More than a few grains of salt need to be taken when cops say stuff because they're steeped in a very different life than the average citizen.

Not necessarily more dangerous, either —- jobs like line cook, delivery driver are more dangerous than police work.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#158

Post by rootusrootus »

duxup wrote: post #119
rootusrootus wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think AirTags are only the right choice for casual stalkers who haven't really thought their plan all the way through. Anybody who is properly motivated will easily find better options.

That and parents who only kinda want to track their kids bags ... mostly ... I guess.

Right about now I wish I had pasted one to my son's iPad. Of course, I wish the iPad just had that function built in so it wouldn't need a booger attached to the outside.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#159

Post by Dylan16807 »

spike021 wrote: post #33
k8sToGo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also need an Apple device.so it is not just $30

Your comment is akin to "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" I highly doubt there's (much of) a market looking to buy AirTags without already owning the pre-requisite Apple hardware.

Except that many uses don't need a phone at all, and android hardware could give you an acceptable experience for most of the remaining uses, on par with many iphone models.

Re: Silenced AirTags with disabled speakers are popping up for sale online

#160

Post by rolobio »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #148
rolobio wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather than ban the device, punish the behavior. Apple has made it quite easy for anyone with an Apple device to notice if they are being tracked. Why punish someone tracking their scooter as if they were tracking some "daughter"? GPS tracking of cars is legal in many place. Those devices don't report their existence to the owner. Perhaps we should start there?

That didn't seem to work well for guns in the US. Besides, this tech is opening a tracking pandora box with social and political consequences that we can't predict. I'm for banning without a licence on this one.

I think banning objects goes about as well as banning drugs did.
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