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Find My Device on Android

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Re: Find My Device on Android

#171

Post by joe5150 »

foooorsyth wrote: post #161
joe5150 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do hidden trackers "prevent" theft? If a thief steals your bike and is notified that it's being tracked, they're probably much more likely to abandon it somewhere, at which point you can recover it. This seems like a safer bet than trying to hunt them down yourself. (It should go without saying the police are not going to go get your bicycle back for you even if you do hand them the GPS coordinates.)

It’s a massive deterrence. LoJack has been in business since 1986 for a reason. Also, the attitude of “don’t go and get your stuff back yourself, it’s not safe” is just castrated cowardice and only emboldens thieves. Thieves should be afraid of both law enforcement and vigilante response. Better society when both are on the table.

LoJack stays in business mainly by selling their product to dealers who then demand auto buyers pay for it whether they want it or not.

Re: Find My Device on Android

#172

Post by MBCook »

lightbritefight wrote: post #159
MBCook wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. They never adopted or pushed USB-C (it was on laptops for years), Thunderbolt, SCSI, USB, Ethernet, HDMI, WiFi, Bluetooth, FireWire…

It's unclear if you are being sarcastic or not. Apple adopted USB C on their phones because the EU compelled them to. They tend to oppose standards they aren't already using.

Bull. That’s why I put the comment in parentheses.

They had already switched their laptops to all USB-C many years ago. And iPad Pros. I think the iPad Air and iPad (no name) switched as well.

There were also strong rumblings Apple was going to release the USB-C iPhones when the rule was passed.

> They tend to oppose standards they aren't already using.

You’re kidding right? Then explain USB. Or Thunderbolt. Of every other thing I listed above. Apple didn’t invent any of them and open them. They were all existing standards.

Re: Find My Device on Android

#173

Post by godelski »

doublepg23 wrote: post #123
godelski wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just don't log out. Let us collect your data forever and at all times. No need to restart your computer, ever. You're dumb because you didn't create hard copy two factor backup codes! User error. Some potential explanations by people who don't want to resolve this admittedly difficult problem to solve. I find these issues difficult when also considering security keys like Yubikey. Like you can't clone a yubikey and t…

The suggested solution for loosing a Yubikey is to already have n>=2 set up for your account. Apple won't even let you enable it without having two.

> The suggested solution for loosing a Yubikey is to already have n>=2 set up for your account

>> I find these issues difficult when also considering security keys like Yubikey. Like you can't clone a yubikey and that's considered a feature not a bug.

Yes, I am quite aware of this. My complaint is that I cannot expect my grandma to be able to perform this action. It would even be difficult if there was a cloning program, but without it, this is certainly an insurmountable task.

Sure, you can make the argument that my grandma is dumb and tech-illiterate, but the truth of the matter is that this is the bar for the average person. You, me, and other Hacker News users would have no issues with these tasks, but this is not representative of the general FIRST WORLD population. Not to mention those in developing countries.

The technical aspects are great! But they also need be made available for the average person. Be that by bringing the average person up to sufficient level or through careful design to bridge this gap. But what is clear is that the current state of things is insufficient. Especially consider that this is Apple's main value: design.

Re: Find My Device on Android

#174

Post by AlexanderTheGr8 »

Does anyone have a comparison of Airtag vs "Bluetooth tracker tags from Chipolo and Pebblebee"? I imagine Airtag is superior due to non-reliance on Bluetooth? Can Chipolo/Pebblebee tap into the Android network without Bluetooth? And is their tech comparable to Apple's work?

Re: Find My Device on Android

#175

Post by lxgr »

kelnos wrote: post #124
Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #11

Would anyone have details on how Pixels can be found even when out of battery?

"Out of battery" isn't really what we think it means. The phone shuts down (and refuses to start back up) when it still has quite a bit of battery left. If it truly allowed the battery to go flat, that would damage the battery, and you'd have a really hard time charging it again. The amount of juice your entire phone needs to run for, say, a half hour can probably power just the bluetooth LE chipset for occasional wa…

That's how the iPhone does it as well, btw!

As far as I remember there's a separate microcontroller that controls "Find my phone" beacons without having to boot up iOS on the main application processor.

Re: Find My Device on Android

#176

Post by lxgr »

MBCook wrote: post #141
kelnos wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anti-competitive behavior is why. Apple had no need to update their unknown tracker alert software on any particular timescale. And if Google was willing to wait until Apple made that update, Apple could certainly drag their feet and delay Google's launch for a while. Presumably Google would have, eventually, said "ok, enough is enough, we're releasing on X date whether or not you've updated yet". And maybe that's in…

Apple not updating Apple software is why Google couldn’t release a Google product for Google phones?

Yeah, that's the narrative I'm seeing in many news outlets, but it doesn't make sense to me. Did Apple wait for Google to release an anti-stalking feature detecting AirTags before releasing them?

Re: Find My Device on Android

#178

Post by lxgr »

MBCook wrote: post #106

Can the Pixel phones do the UWB finding like iPhones can where they tell you it’s 10.7 feet to your left? Or is this more like the older iPhones where it simply tells you if you’re getting closer or further away?

UWB (at least as used by Apple, i.e. without using angle-of-arrival techniques) only provides precise distance as well. The rest is done on the iPhone using ARKit and trilateration.

Since Android supports UWB [1] (depending on the device of course), I don't see why they couldn't support the same feature.

[1] https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/uwb

Re: Find My Device on Android

#179

Post by lxgr »

nikeee wrote: post #56

This is not compatible with AirTags in any way, no? Wouldn't this be a great opportunity for a common standard? Or is there one?

Of course it isn't. The time of interoperable standards in consumer devices is long past.

Bluetooth used to support file transfers from device to device on feature- and early smartphones no matter the brand; now there's AirDrop (and maybe sometimes Google Nearby, but only if the humidity and lunar phase is just right).

In home audio streaming, there was once DLNA; now there's AirPlay and Google Cast.

We have two mutually incompatible walled gardens, and while life within them is admittedly nicer than in a world of poorly-implemented standards, the walls are getting higher by the day.

Re: Find My Device on Android

#180

Post by lxgr »

MBCook wrote: post #172
lightbritefight wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unclear if you are being sarcastic or not. Apple adopted USB C on their phones because the EU compelled them to. They tend to oppose standards they aren't already using.

Bull. That’s why I put the comment in parentheses. They had already switched their laptops to all USB-C many years ago. And iPad Pros. I think the iPad Air and iPad (no name) switched as well. There were also strong rumblings Apple was going to release the USB-C iPhones when the rule was passed. > They tend to oppose standards they aren't already using. You’re kidding right? Then explain USB. Or Thunderbolt. Of every…

So you're saying that's what they wanted to do all along, it just took them almost ten years, and it just happened to neatly coincide with the EU regulation as well?

Sure, and they're now allowing game streaming apps and retro emulators on iOS because that's what they always knew was best for the world anyway. What a coincidence (with the DMA, in that case)!

> Apple didn’t invent any of them and open them. They were all existing standards.

Counterpoint: Magsafe. They had USB-C and went back to something proprietary.

Another counterpoint: Thunderbolt wasn't an open standard until very recently, and I can only imagine that Intel gave Apple some heavy discounts on the controller chips used (or even their main CPUs) to push the standard.

Apple doesn't always hate standards and interoperability, but they will absolutely try to push their proprietary protocols and interfaces whenever it's in their business interest.

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