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Openhaystack: Build 'AirTags' – track Bluetooth devices via Apple's network

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Re: Openhaystack: Build 'AirTags' – track Bluetooth devices via Apple's network

#71

Post by izacus »

suddenexample wrote: post #65
sorenjan wrote: post #56

I wish there was a good option for non Apple users. From what I've heard Google made their version pretty bad, as expected. They rate limit how often you can search for your own tags, they won't show the location until a tag has been seen by multiple phones, there's poor coverage. One test I saw showed that Samsung's network was better, which makes no sense since Samsung phones should be a subset of all Android phone…

It's actually hilarious that whoever was in charge of Google's finder network decided to cripple the product's one and only function by prioritizing privacy. In this tradeoff, Google gained a handful of articles mentioning the "innovative" privacy improvements (before the writers had a chance to test how terribly the network actually performs). For that, they sacrificed the chance to compete with Apple in this catego…

> It's actually hilarious that whoever was in charge of Google's finder network decided to cripple the product's one and only function by prioritizing privacy.

That sounds like that "whoever" was the corporate legal team. Every time I tracked down these kind of idiocities in large corpos, it's usually legal or security team that overrode common sense and sabotaged their own product.

Re: Openhaystack: Build 'AirTags' – track Bluetooth devices via Apple's network

#72

Post by bookofjoe »

dalemhurley wrote: post #3

This is amazing. I love Apple AirTags but they are so bulky and an odd shape. I would love a AirTag the shape of a credit card to go into my wallet. I would love a smaller AirTag to go on my cats collar.

Here's my 8.5 lb calico cat with the AirTag* she's had on her collar since she was a 3-month old kitten:

https://imgur.com/a/r9EGSOc

*Photo taken a moment ago with Meta Stories glasses

Re: Openhaystack: Build 'AirTags' – track Bluetooth devices via Apple's network

#73

Post by bookofjoe »

latchkey wrote: post #22
dalemhurley wrote: post #3

This is amazing. I love Apple AirTags but they are so bulky and an odd shape. I would love a AirTag the shape of a credit card to go into my wallet. I would love a smaller AirTag to go on my cats collar.

Use this for my dog, it is super minimal... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09DCVFNFF/ Only thing is that I found that I needed to wrap the airtag itself with some clear tape to keep it from twisting itself out of the holder.

for my cat: https://imgur.com/a/r9EGSOc

Re: Openhaystack: Build 'AirTags' – track Bluetooth devices via Apple's network

#74

Post by RobotToaster »

sorenjan wrote: post #56

I wish there was a good option for non Apple users. From what I've heard Google made their version pretty bad, as expected. They rate limit how often you can search for your own tags, they won't show the location until a tag has been seen by multiple phones, there's poor coverage. One test I saw showed that Samsung's network was better, which makes no sense since Samsung phones should be a subset of all Android phone…

> From what I've heard Google made their version pretty bad

I have one on my keys. The one time I tried to use it, despite refreshing multiple times, it gave me a bubble with a quarter mile radius. It turned out to be in my bag right next to me.

Re: Openhaystack: Build 'AirTags' – track Bluetooth devices via Apple's network

#75

Post by amenghra »

miki123211 wrote: post #55
LelouBil wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw someone use this to track his mail state. They have a contact sensor inside their mailbox that rotates the broadcasted key based on the trigger count. If the key changed, aka a new different device is visible, you know mail has been dropped in, very clever !

I wish we had more / more easily accessible networks that let you do this. Something that would let you send extremely tiny ( Amazon has a network like this called Sidewalk, using Alexa devices as gateways, but I don't think it's very open to third-party experimentation, and it's definitely not an interoperable standard on the gateway side.

Too bad Fon didn’t work out, it could have been a global mesh network useful for this kind of thing.

Re: Openhaystack: Build 'AirTags' – track Bluetooth devices via Apple's network

#76

Post by stonegray »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #25
dalemhurley wrote: post #3

This is amazing. I love Apple AirTags but they are so bulky and an odd shape. I would love a AirTag the shape of a credit card to go into my wallet. I would love a smaller AirTag to go on my cats collar.

You can buy third party "Find My" compatible tags for about $5 from Temu or Aliexpress. Although they're about the same size as regular Airtags, they're: - easier to take apart (if you want discard the casing), and - cheaper I took one of the ones I have out of its casing to see what could be made thinner, and I found that most of the thickness was due to: - The batter holder (CR2032) - The speaker - The button The s…

The problem is they don’t have accurate positioning via UWB, so you only get a map pin and a beep, not an arrow and an exact distance.

The $5 tags are comparable to tile or google tags, but miss the key feature of airtags.

Re: Openhaystack: Build 'AirTags' – track Bluetooth devices via Apple's network

#77

Post by groby_b »

RobotToaster wrote: post #74
sorenjan wrote: post #56

I wish there was a good option for non Apple users. From what I've heard Google made their version pretty bad, as expected. They rate limit how often you can search for your own tags, they won't show the location until a tag has been seen by multiple phones, there's poor coverage. One test I saw showed that Samsung's network was better, which makes no sense since Samsung phones should be a subset of all Android phone…

> From what I've heard Google made their version pretty bad I have one on my keys. The one time I tried to use it, despite refreshing multiple times, it gave me a bubble with a quarter mile radius. It turned out to be in my bag right next to me.

So, you're saying it was correct? ;)

Re: Openhaystack: Build 'AirTags' – track Bluetooth devices via Apple's network

#79

Post by BiteCode_dev »

groby_b wrote: post #77
RobotToaster wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From what I've heard Google made their version pretty bad I have one on my keys. The one time I tried to use it, despite refreshing multiple times, it gave me a bubble with a quarter mile radius. It turned out to be in my bag right next to me.

So, you're saying it was correct? ;)

Red arrow pointing at Earth on solar system

Nailed it.

Re: Openhaystack: Build 'AirTags' – track Bluetooth devices via Apple's network

#80

Post by rahimnathwani »

stonegray wrote: post #76
rahimnathwani wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy third party "Find My" compatible tags for about $5 from Temu or Aliexpress. Although they're about the same size as regular Airtags, they're: - easier to take apart (if you want discard the casing), and - cheaper I took one of the ones I have out of its casing to see what could be made thinner, and I found that most of the thickness was due to: - The batter holder (CR2032) - The speaker - The button The s…

The problem is they don’t have accurate positioning via UWB, so you only get a map pin and a beep, not an arrow and an exact distance. The $5 tags are comparable to tile or google tags, but miss the key feature of airtags.

I was wondering what you were talking about, as I have never seen the arrow when trying to locate a genuine AirTag that's misplaced within our house.

But that's because neither of the devices I've used to locate things (a recent iPad and an iPhone X) have the UWB hardware.

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