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Apple Introduces AirTag

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Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#781

Am I the only person thinking of the malicious use cases of tagging things that don’t belong to you?

There are built in protections for this exact situation. It seems that if an airtag is away from its owner and appears to be “following” someone else, then that person will be alerted about the tag that appears to be following them. This requires the followed person to have an iOS device, but it will beep to alert someone audibly as well.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#782
post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminded me of the Hello Tomorrow commercial by Adidas / Spike Jonze / Karen O: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbBNScrYN10

speaking of Spike Jonze, Apple, and commercials, it also kinda reminded me of the (brilliant) Spike Jonze-Anderson.Paak-FKA Twigs homepod commercial https://youtu.be/k70OczvX45k

Also a must watch is the making of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go6Hpal8fUA

Incredible that the set ran on hydraulics and actually stretched.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#783
post #695
post #538

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Over ears are pretty much a non-starter for a lot of people who travel.

How come? I've been traveling extensively with over-ears, what makes them a non-starter?

I’m an extremely light packer. Bose over the ears are a complete no go. I’d do without noise canceling before I’d carry.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#784
post #772

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I still think Tile lost out on a gigantic market by not making it easier for hardware manufacturers to integrate into their ecosystem. They should have been practically begging oems to embed it.

Yes, and they refuse (apparently) to join Apple's Find My, and instead want users to install their Tile app (and their tags are then only findable by users that have the Tile app installed). They want to own the entire relationship, but I think here they'll lose out.

They might still capture the (worldwide way larger) Android market.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#785

I thought one of the big use cases for this was to track stolen items, like a backpack or maybe even a bicycle. But the "anti-stalking" feature will notify someone if an AirTag they don't own appears to be traveling with them. Does this render it useless for anti-theft, then? Since it will just notify a thief that the bike they just stole is being tracked, and they can look for the AirTag and throw it in the nearest…

I wonder how this works in practice? My main use for an AirTag would be to put on my cat’s collar. But if it starts beeping randomly that’s going to be a problem.

It would only start beeping if the cat stays away from your iPhone's BLE range for 3 days. I've also thought of doing this, but my cats absolutely hate collars.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#786
post #204

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Tile didn't start with replaceable batteries--they still don't use them in all their products. I don't know how AirTags will be in practice, but user-replaceable batteries haven't been great. I don't know if it's a technical restriction or not, but "low-battery" seems to be a time based warning and not based on battery charge. So I either get an alert when 1 year has passed on all of my devices at the same time, or t…

> I don't know if it's a technical restriction or not More likely because CR batteries don't drop voltage significantly as it discharges. And at full discharge it suddenly drops dead. Which is why it's harder to measure "remaining charge", as that's generally calculated on battery voltage.

It's equally hard to get any useful information about Li-On or Li-Po based just on battery voltage which is why any actually useful battery indicator involves a charge counter (informally known as a 'gas gauge'). The actual coulombs of charge are counted in and out and that gives a much better estimate.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#787

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, this prevents some legitimate use cases, for example putting a tag in a suitcase for the flight, because it'll start beeping at some point? A shame. It would've been cool standing at that conveyor belt at the airport and rather than staring at the luggage as it comes, being able to sense one's own stuff. Also, seems that it's not suitable for putting on a cat or dog's collar for the same reason.

> standing at that conveyor belt at the airport you're not supposed to put batteries in your luggage

What harm could such a small battery do?

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#788
post #387

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you forgot something, low-cost, low-power, low-accuracy battery monitoring is like pretty much the most solved problem ever. low-cost & low-power & high accuracy, not so much

What do you mean? It's literally just a 2-axis lookup table with voltage on one axis and SOC on the other.

It sometimes looks like that in the lab, but in real life it doesn't work. Here are two of the MANY situations that result in incredibly misleading voltage readouts:

My battery is 80% charged, and then I go outside where it is 10 degC colder. Suddenly my battery voltage drops by 200mV and my battery looks 20% charged

My battery is 80% charged and then I start playing a video. The increased load drops the battery voltage and suddenly my battery looks 20% charged.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#789
post #495
post #16

> AirTag is designed for over a year’s worth of battery life with everyday use. The CR2032 battery is user-replaceable and widely available. Replacement batteries are sold separately. That's the piece of information I wanted to know first. Devices like this can be built, but those can't run on batteries for a reasonable time frame. Apple made it practical.

Why can't they just have it recharge with a tiny solar cell or kinetic charging? Any object moved around by normal use would generate more than enough energy to charge a CR2032's worth in an entire year. That would make it truly practical by never needing a battery change. Apple didn't make anything significantly better than the Tile IMO, which also needs batteries to be replaced every year.

The Apple one wins in one simple way - they already have a billion iPhones to find lost tags. The Tile network is nowhere near as big.

Re: Apple Introduces AirTag

#790
post #562
post #533

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And kids will continue to die from them, if you want to be that absolute about the topic.

Yes and items that are choking hazards for children are taken off the shelves. Poisonous chemicals must by law be clearly labeled and have child safety caps on them. Button batteries are not regulated, are found in more and more toys and devices that don't have necessary safety measures, have no warnings, are easily swallowed, the body gives no immediate reaction unlike chocking, is misdiagnosed because of this, and…

With mortality figures as low as they are it’s hard to see that number decreasing considerably with increased regulation. In each example there appears to be morbidity secondary to unacceptably delayed medical diagnosis. It is incredibly easy to spot a battery on a plain film and an infant/toddler presenting with the symptoms described warrants immediate suspicion.
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