Apple Announces $29 AirTag, a New Tile-like Item Tracker (theverge.com) 45
Apple has launched a Tile-like item tracker that will work with the company's software and services. From a report: Dubbed AirTag, the small circular tag will allow you to track items within Apple's "Find My" app on iOS. Much like Tile, Apple's AirTags will be useful for tracking items like keys or wallets, and you'll be provided with notifications when you're separated from your item. The AirTag itself is a small puck-like device that includes a built-in speaker, accelerometer, Bluetooth LE, and a user-replaceable battery. Apple says the tracker should last for a year of battery life, and you can use an NFC tap to activate a lost mode. AirTag will be available for $29 on April 30th, or $99 for a four-pack of the devices. Apple is also working with accessory makers to create luggage tag and keyring enclosures for the AirTag itself.
user-replaceable battery (Score:5, Funny)
An Apple device with a user-replaceable battery? How did they overlook that mistake?
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An Apple device with a user-replaceable battery? How did they overlook that mistake?
They were so excited to have created the perfectly rounded rectangle that they forgot to glue down the battery.
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Re: user-replaceable battery (Score:5, Insightful)
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I guess even Apple wouldn't dare release something with only one year battery life that can't be replaced by the user.
And if it says "up to one year" it's probably closer to six months.
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And if it says "up to one year" it's probably closer to six months.
The fine print on their product page reads: "Battery life based on an everyday use of four play sound events and one Precision Finding event per day." Followed by a generic disclaimer of "Battery life varies with usage, environment, etc."
It actually seems like they're lowballing on their estimate, as locating a device 5 times per day seems like unrealistically high usage. I wouldn't be surprised to for it to live up to the 12 month estimate, but only time will tell.
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It will also vary heavily depending on the brand of CR2032 battery installed in it. A good brand-name CR2032 costs around 3$ each, but then you go to the dollar store and you can get a pack of three no-name CR2032 for a 1$.
Apple can't control which one you'll be using when you replace the what-I'm-hoping is a good brand-name of CR2032 pre-installed in their AirTag.
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An Apple device with a user-replaceable battery? How did they overlook that mistake?
It is probably a custom battery that you can only order from Apple.
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Nope, standard CR2032.
I would look foolish for it to be useful. (Score:1)
I would need a tile attached to my glasses, my phone, my watch, my wallet, my keys, my water bottle. Or I could just listen to my wife's advice and put things back in the same place every day.
However how quickly do you think until these will be used by teenagers and hide one in their crushes backpack, or someplace else. Just so they can learn at an early age to be a creepy stoker. That age kids are learning new interactions and undoubtedly are going to be doing stupid stuff, as it is often very common fo
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These devices have been around for over a decade. All of the things you are raising, people can do already.
The only difference I can see between this Apple device and the Trackr tags I have (which by the way only cost me $4 apiece at a local dollar store) is that the have a smiley face whereas Trackr has the Trackr logo.
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And they are UWB tags, not Bluetooth.
Re: I would look foolish for it to be useful. (Score:2)
BLE vs UWB doesn't really matter at all for this application. You're listening for the "find me" sound, not trying to find your keys on a map of your house like a geocache excursion.
Re:I would look foolish for it to be useful. (Score:5, Informative)
They already thought of the potential for stalking. Your phone will notify you if it sees an AirTag traveling with you but that belongs to someone else who's not nearby. It'll even help you find it by chirping.
That's a good anti-stalking measure, but it's not ideal for other use cases. I wanted to put these on my cargo trailer, boat trailer, and my four-wheeler because those kinds of things tend to get stolen a lot. If the tag is going to let the bad guys know they're being tracked then that's kinda besides the point.
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So you can only stalk Android poorfags.
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Yeah, I wanted one of these for my bike, but this feature makes it useless to me.
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I would need a tile attached to my glasses, my phone, my watch, my wallet, my keys, my water bottle. Or I could just listen to my wife's advice and put things back in the same place every day.
I'm rather hopeful that Apple will expose AirTag location functionality into HomeKit. That way, we could script automations based on device location.
If that happens, I'd put these in my cars, both to aid finding them in large parking lots and to script activities when vehicles leave or arrive home.
Yaz
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Can't you already do that using your iPhones*?
* I'm assuming you have iPhones if you're looking into AirTags and already using HomeKit.
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Can't you already do that using your iPhones*?
I'm glad you brought that up. It's pretty easy to come up with common scenarios where using your phone presence for certain types of home automation breaks down badly. The problem with using your phone is that th automation becomes attached to your phone presence, and not necessarily the activity you want it attached to.
Let's use an easy example that many people can likely sympathize with. Let's say I have a very simple phone presence automation whereby when my phone gets within 25m of home, the garage d
I give it 2 weeks... (Score:2)
What could possibly go wrong...
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Re:I give it 2 weeks... (Score:4, Interesting)
Picturing what will happen on a flight, with a bunch of these in the hold... I currently use tiles, and I have one that I stash in a pocket on my suitcase to a) let me know it's coming out on the baggage carousel and b) often it lets me know that my bag made the connection.
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Anyway if you wanted a GPS tracker then they sell them on Aliexpress for $5-10. As it happens they also sell Bluetooth LE proximity tags almost identical in purpose to these Airtags for a buck. So Apple saw the
Re:I give it 2 weeks... (Score:5, Informative)
It's more than that. It will report its position using any internet connected Apple Device, not just your own. The security around this is actually pretty clever, in so much that the relaying device has no way of knowing who owns a device it's reporting, but never the less, it's not just when it's within Bluetooth range of your own phone.
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Re:I give it 2 weeks... (Score:5, Informative)
New in the Bluetooth 5.1 standard, from wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:
Angle of Arrival (AoA) and Angle of Departure (AoD) which are used for locating and tracking of devices
So it is a little more then just signal strength.
Airtags use UWB for precision location? (Score:2)
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Surely all those shenanigans have been possible using Tiles (or other similar tracking devices, such as cell phones) for years?
I don't see how an Apple-provided solution makes the situation any more prone to abuse than it already was.
Do all Apple devices look around for these things? (Score:3)
Do all Apple devices look for these things and then phone home with GPS/WiFi based location?
Most impactful statement here (Score:3)
Apple made something with a user replaceable battery.
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"Apple made a tracker that draws an arrow on the screen pointing out where it is!"
"Fuh fuh fuh replaceable battery fuh fuh fuh."
Ya'all are supposed to be geeks, not torches-and-pitchforks cosplayers.
How does security work on the device itself? (Score:2)
Is it locked to whatever Apple account its associated with permanently? Can it be "reset" to factory mode or is it so permanently locked to an account that its essentially a brick if that account goes away.
Re:How does security work on the device itself? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is it locked to whatever Apple account its associated with permanently? Can it be "reset" to factory mode or is it so permanently locked to an account that its essentially a brick if that account goes away.
It's $30, does it really matter. Also most of the people who would buy this are already well invested in the Apple ecosystem, so the chance of their Apple account ever going away is slim.
I accept that scrapping them rather than reuse is environmentally a bad idea. But realistically the people this is aimed at will buy it, and use it until it no longer works and then buy another.
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Too small to be a brick. It's more of a Tile.
Useful (Score:2)
I'm sure people will use this to stalk their exes, but this is a nifty solution for my classic car that could be hotwired in 2 second flat if left parked in public. May buy one to stick under the seat. Could also be nice for bikes.
Of course there is tile and other similar devices, but if these link to the iphone, then I always have the receiver end with me.
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Finally! (Score:1)
It was getting expensive to put used iPhones in peoples cars and belongings to stalk them.
This is way cheaper.
This could potentially revolutionize Ambert Alerts (Score:1)
Just put this on every kids neck or shoes please going to school. So we have no more amber alert issues. Ok the kidnapper could throw away the device, but if we hide it properly, we could at least get a warning. I don't mind the 1984 overseer if we can protect the kids. Make this universal with temperature alert also. And no more kids will die of heat.
People already put GPS in their car to lower their insurance bill. This is a low price to pay for your life's kid.
Oh and it will also help me track my stuffs