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Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

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

#761

Post by stephenr »

sejje wrote: post #758
stephenr wrote: post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are infinitely better ways to protect your car from being stolen than putting a fucking AirTag in it, and as a bonus you can buy all of them without sounding self-centred and flippant about real threats to other people.

It's not to prevent my car being stolen. It's to find it after it's stolen. People have been stalking each other since long before airtags.

Well it's a good thing for you, someone just yesterday told me:

> many other devices exist

So use one of them?

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

#762

Post by moi2388 »

FireBeyond wrote: post #760
moi2388 wrote: post #754

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick is making the criminal by law responsible to pay the costs of the investigation. Now the cops and judge have an incentive to actually prosecute, since it generates their funding. Now it only costs them money.

I would agree with that, but then you have the situation of "how?" - I volunteered for an organization that had a large part of their funds embezzled by the Treasurer. When they were arrested and charged with theft, the prosecutor came to an association meeting and asked what our thoughts were. The person had sufficient income that they could reasonably pay back the money in a (relatively) quick time frame, and the p…

You could let the victims decide, or make it (depending on the type of crime) that they first pay off the debt and then go to prison (perhaps with reduced sentence) or the other way around.

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

#763

Post by sejje »

varenc wrote: post #737
sejje wrote: post #645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if my car is stolen, it's probably a bigger deal for me personally than stalking. I'm not a female, so I don't anticipate a civilian stalking me for really any reason. A non-civilian wouldn't use an airtag. Zero stalkers are stopped because of airtag policies, since many other devices exist.

Increasing the friction and difficulty to stalk someone definitely results in less actual stalking. I'm sure some would-be stalker can figure out AirTags but can't figure out or afford the alternatives. Also, wouldn't this argument apply to the use of AirTags as anti-theft devices? Since AirTag alternatives exist, just use the alternatives devices for anti-theft that also work for stalking. But some people don't do t…

> Increasing the friction and difficulty to stalk someone definitely results in less actual stalking.

No it doesn't.

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

#764

Post by sejje »

stephenr wrote: post #761
sejje wrote: post #758

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not to prevent my car being stolen. It's to find it after it's stolen. People have been stalking each other since long before airtags.

Well it's a good thing for you, someone just yesterday told me: > many other devices exist So use one of them?

I do. I don't own an airtag.

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

#765

Post by stephenr »

sejje wrote: post #764
stephenr wrote: post #761

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's a good thing for you, someone just yesterday told me: > many other devices exist So use one of them?

I do. I don't own an airtag.

So your complaint is, "This product that I don't own, and isn't designed to do what I want, doesn't do the thing it isn't designed to do.".

Do you also post complaints that GE Washing machines don't have a built-in method to cook a fucking chicken?

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

#766

Post by ghaff »

traceroute66 wrote: post #158
jsheard wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> Building an attachment point into the tag To be fair, most people I know put their AirTag inside something, e.g. inner pocket of a bag. At which point the necessity for an attachment point becomes somewhat moot.

It's useful to have an exterior one for a keyring (which credit card sized versions don't work for).

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

#767

Post by tavavex »

footydude wrote: post #723
tavavex wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this argument would work better if the AirTag in its minimal form wasn't so teardrop-shaped. It feels almost like it was designed to be difficult to integrate into other environments because it lacks any edges or openings. It ensures that anything that could hold it must be at least as big as the AirTag itself. It really confuses me why they couldn't even allow for a single small hole in its edge - it would s…

> If the AirTag in its minimal form wasn't so teardrop-shaped I'm a little confused by this, aren't AirTag basically circular discs pretty much just big enough to house a CRT2032 battery? Form factor wise they don't look teardrop shaped at all in the pictures? I don't have one so could just be missing something obvious here.

> I'm a little confused by this, aren't AirTag basically circular discs pretty much just big enough to house a CRT2032 battery?

Kind of. It's definitely the intention, but an AirTag is still considerably larger than the CR2032 within it [1], so they're not at a shortage of space in the shell.

As for "teardrop shape", I didn't mean to imply it had an elongated shape, but that it's rounded off on all sides, like a drop of liquid. The absence of any defined edges makes clip design harder and forces any AirTag enclosure to just act as a mini-pocket that contains the whole thing instead of having a simpler and less wasteful attachment method.

[1] https://www.macworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/airtag-b...

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

#768

Post by varenc »

sejje wrote: post #763
varenc wrote: post #737

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Increasing the friction and difficulty to stalk someone definitely results in less actual stalking. I'm sure some would-be stalker can figure out AirTags but can't figure out or afford the alternatives. Also, wouldn't this argument apply to the use of AirTags as anti-theft devices? Since AirTag alternatives exist, just use the alternatives devices for anti-theft that also work for stalking. But some people don't do t…

> Increasing the friction and difficulty to stalk someone definitely results in less actual stalking. No it doesn't.

If increasing friction to do something results in zero change in how many people do the thing, then why does anyone care that AirTags don't work for anti-theft purposes? Wouldn't there be no complaints if there were alternatives that were just as easy/cheap/functional?

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

#769

Post by godelski »

moi2388 wrote: post #762
FireBeyond wrote: post #760

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would agree with that, but then you have the situation of "how?" - I volunteered for an organization that had a large part of their funds embezzled by the Treasurer. When they were arrested and charged with theft, the prosecutor came to an association meeting and asked what our thoughts were. The person had sufficient income that they could reasonably pay back the money in a (relatively) quick time frame, and the p…

You could let the victims decide, or make it (depending on the type of crime) that they first pay off the debt and then go to prison (perhaps with reduced sentence) or the other way around.

I think you're oversimplifying. Those are hard questions to answer and have the impacts extend beyond the victim and perpetrator. There are social costs to each of those decisions. Part of the legal system is to ensure there is that balance. That is the social contract. Determining if this is done effectively (or even at all) is a different question, but one that can only be answered through answering a million smaller questions like this one.

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

#770

Post by danpalmer »

kakacik wrote: post #752
danpalmer wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the owner of many airtags and some Airpods who has switched to Android, this is infuriating. I get beeps and unknown tracker notifications multiple times a day. There are technical limitations in Apples design that prevents Android or anyone else from fixing it. I left iOS because of degrading UX, and the UX of these products has got even worse as a result.

Vendor/ecosystem lockin, all on purpose, to give as much friction and annoyment as possible without flatly refusing the service which is generally bad for PR and apple does care about keeping their image up. This is their typical behavior for a long time, their primary mission is to force you into their ecosystem, not selling specific hardware (with 30% margin but still at the end they don't care about that). Try run…

I agree with the lock-in, but FWIW I love using my AirPods with my Android phone. They basically work great. I can't change settings on them, but I haven't done that since I set them up. They sound nothing like $10 aliexpress ear buds, they remember and auto-pair to my phone, two laptops, and an iPad. Totally usable.
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