Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 778 posts

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

#331

Post by justin66 »

ryandrake wrote: post #271
Schmerika wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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...

Which raises the obvious question: If they're not responding to either violent crimes or nonviolent crimes, what are they doing all day?

Donuts don't just eat themselves.

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

#332

Post by chasil »

lysace wrote: post #322
pnw wrote: post #318

Unfortunately the anti-stalking features have made Airtag mostly useless for theft prevention. You have less than an hour to retrieve your item before the tag alerts the thief they are being tracked. I've seen it trigger as quickly as 30 minutes.

What happens after that? It goes dark? Or it just alerts the thief (stalker victim)?

I have only seen the Google side, just a single time when one of my Chipolos threw an alert on my passenger's Samsung.

My Chipolo certainly still works.

There are [cheap] tags being sold that are compatible with both Apple Find My and Google's Find Hub. I would rather have a dual-network device than Apple's improved model.

Would it be so difficult for Apple to put a hole in the Airtag so it could be directly attached to a keychain?

Here is an example of dual-network tags:

https://www.amazon.com/Tracker-Locator-Android-Bluetooth-Fin...

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

#333

Post by lysace »

chasil wrote: post #332
lysace wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens after that? It goes dark? Or it just alerts the thief (stalker victim)?

I have only seen the Google side, just a single time when one of my Chipolos threw an alert on my passenger's Samsung. My Chipolo certainly still works. There are [cheap] tags being sold that are compatible with both Apple Find My and Google's Find Hub . I would rather have a dual-network device than Apple's improved model. Would it be so difficult for Apple to put a hole in the Airtag so it could be directly attache…

Seems like apple is licensing usage of their Bluetooth protocol/scheme via the "MFi program".

https://developer.apple.com/find-my/

> Would it be so difficult for Apple to put a hole in the Airtag so it could be directly attached to a keychain?

Yes. It is surprisingly a near impossible engineering challenge at the levels Apple hardware is being done. Have you even considered the wear and tear that a mere hole in an ABS plastic molded detail would be subjected to over the lifespan of...several years?

(Just kidding, obviously they just want to upsell their customers with extremely overpriced accessories.)

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

#334

Post by insane_dreamer »

SllX wrote: post #268
insane_dreamer wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

for sure, I was referring to the fed gov

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

#335

Post by kiwijamo »

ehsankia wrote: post #151
FigurativeVoid wrote: post #5

Probably one of the best products apple has made of late: relatively affordable, good ux, user replaceable batteries. Glad to see this iteration hasn't made it worse.

> relatively affordable You can buy 4 third-party trackers for the price of 1 official one. They do lack UWB, though there are other great form factors such as cards, and cool features such as wireless charging or usb-c charging, which imo is nicer than swapping batteries every few months.

The reliability of the other brands are quite poor though. I've tried Tile, I've tried Pebble (using Google's network) and neither has worked reliability enough. So I ended up switching to AirTags and so far I have been impressed with the reliability - it works 100% of the time which is not something I could say about Tile nor Pebble/Google.

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

#336

Post by slg »

hk1337 wrote: post #328
pnw wrote: post #318

Unfortunately the anti-stalking features have made Airtag mostly useless for theft prevention. You have less than an hour to retrieve your item before the tag alerts the thief they are being tracked. I've seen it trigger as quickly as 30 minutes.

Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Initially they didn’t have it, people complained, now they do, and people still complain.

Considering theft is a property crime and stalking is often a prelude to much worse, I think they made the right choice.

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

#337

Post by johncolanduoni »

pnw wrote: post #318

Unfortunately the anti-stalking features have made Airtag mostly useless for theft prevention. You have less than an hour to retrieve your item before the tag alerts the thief they are being tracked. I've seen it trigger as quickly as 30 minutes.

How useful is a GPS position for theft prevention? IME cops are not interested in doing more than filing a report after a theft, even if you have a live GPS location of the item for them. Do you try and go get it yourself?

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

#338

Post by khana »

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.…

[dead]

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

#339

Post by chasil »

mikepurvis wrote: post #125
ubercore wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a third party one to do just that, and it's worked fine for me: https://chipolo.net/en-us/products/chipolo-card-spot I think there are other options too

I'm interested to hear this. I had very mixed experience a few years ago with the Seinxon finder card; it wasn't reliably in contact to make it beep, even when I was standing right beside it, but worse it would semi-regularly go into anti-stalker mode and start beeping and spamming iPhones around me with scary-looking notices. This second behaviour was obviously a deal-breaker so I discontinued use of them. (Looks li…

I have white Android-only Chipolos, and they work reliably.
Post reply on HN