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I'm still having trouble understanding the purpose of these things. There are way too many unethical applications of this technology, and what kind of person lo

I'm still having trouble understanding the purpose of these things. There are way too many unethical applications of this technology, and what kind of person loses things so often that they need to buy trackers?

zrail 5y ago
I have ADHD-adjacent symptoms which include losing my keys quite often, which is why I bought some AirTags.
picklebutter 5y ago
I have no use for them either. My guess is for people traveling? Or for possible expensive equipment that might get stolen? Maybe someone that has a use case for these will chime in. Might be some in one of the other announcement threads I'd have to go look.
- sleepybrett 5y ago
  I misplace my keys, often. Even after placing a small dish near my front door and trying to form a habit around using it. I opted into a Tile as soon as they came to market. It works great, not only can I find my keys if I have my phone, but also visa versa (tile has a button that causes your phone to chime as long as it's in range). I have a little 'tile dot' (smaller form factor) attached to my wireless headphones charging case. It's black and hard to see via 'scanning'.. I see other headphones now have this tech integrated into the device, that seems awesome. It's also a very cheap way to do gps type things, this is going to be especially effective with air tags I suspect. The tile trackers are essentially bluetooth beacons and all tiles can be detected by any phone that has the tile app on it (i assume, I'm only familiar with the apple side of this particular equation). I expect that number is growing but fairly low. However every moderish iphone will be detecting airtags, that's going to give you a ton of coverage. This opens up some other things like 'find my car's airtag in this huge parking lot'
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- jon-wood 5y ago
  The (completely legitimate) anti-tracking measures built into AirTags means that they're not really viable for tracking things that have been stolen. Recent iOS devices will alert you fairly rapidly if you've got an AirTag that isn't registered nearby when the owner of that AirTag also isn't nearby. That means that if someone steals your wallet with an AirTag in it they're going to get alerted to the fact it's trackable within 30 minutes or so, and given instructions on how to disable the tag. Scanning the tag with any NFC capable device will also allow disabling it - I could definitely see professional pickpockets waving a phone over any wallets they take to kill tracking as soon as they can.
jolux 5y ago
> what kind of person loses things so often that they need to buy trackers? Ever hear of ADHD? When I was younger I used to lose my wallet multiple times a week. These days it still happens every month or so. Trackers give me peace of mind.
- c7DJTLrn 5y ago
  That sounds like a problem that could be solved with a lanyard.
  - jolux 5y ago
    Not looking for advice, thanks :)
DennisP 5y ago
I sometimes have trouble finding my kindle around the house but I'd be happy with a device that beeps in response to a bluetooth signal.
bikingbismuth 5y ago
My use cases: -I have children, who have been known to wander off with my keys -When I am stressed out I get forgetful, especially about where I put my AirPods -I travel a lot and like knowing I have my AirPods/Keys with me at a glance, instead of digging into my luggage
dlivingston 5y ago
I pre-ordered two as soon as pre-orders were available: one for my wallet, one for my keys. It’s some undescribed law of physics that anytime I’m running late I can’t find either.
jon-wood 5y ago
My ex-wife would lose her keys approximately every time she wanted to leave the house. I wish I was exaggerating, but it was like a ritual, she'd decide to go out, and then spend ten minutes stomping round the place looking for them. Unfortunately she'd also do the same thing with her phone, so I'm not sure AirTags are the solution.
turtlebits 5y ago
I left my backpack at my office the other day. To confirm, I opened the "Find my" app and was happy to see that it was showing as " last seen 9 minutes ago". It's also interesting how my Macbook air also was able to check in over bluetooth 45 feet away from the street (Wifi router was off).

zrail 5y ago

I have ADHD-adjacent symptoms which include losing my keys quite often, which is why I bought some AirTags.

picklebutter 5y ago

I have no use for them either. My guess is for people traveling? Or for possible expensive equipment that might get stolen? Maybe someone that has a use case for these will chime in. Might be some in one of the other announcement threads I'd have to go look.

sleepybrett 5y ago
I misplace my keys, often. Even after placing a small dish near my front door and trying to form a habit around using it. I opted into a Tile as soon as they came to market. It works great, not only can I find my keys if I have my phone, but also visa versa (tile has a button that causes your phone to chime as long as it's in range). I have a little 'tile dot' (smaller form factor) attached to my wireless headphones charging case. It's black and hard to see via 'scanning'.. I see other headphones now have this tech integrated into the device, that seems awesome. It's also a very cheap way to do gps type things, this is going to be especially effective with air tags I suspect. The tile trackers are essentially bluetooth beacons and all tiles can be detected by any phone that has the tile app on it (i assume, I'm only familiar with the apple side of this particular equation). I expect that number is growing but fairly low. However every moderish iphone will be detecting airtags, that's going to give you a ton of coverage. This opens up some other things like 'find my car's airtag in this huge parking lot'
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
jon-wood 5y ago
The (completely legitimate) anti-tracking measures built into AirTags means that they're not really viable for tracking things that have been stolen. Recent iOS devices will alert you fairly rapidly if you've got an AirTag that isn't registered nearby when the owner of that AirTag also isn't nearby. That means that if someone steals your wallet with an AirTag in it they're going to get alerted to the fact it's trackable within 30 minutes or so, and given instructions on how to disable the tag. Scanning the tag with any NFC capable device will also allow disabling it - I could definitely see professional pickpockets waving a phone over any wallets they take to kill tracking as soon as they can.

jolux 5y ago

> what kind of person loses things so often that they need to buy trackers? Ever hear of ADHD? When I was younger I used to lose my wallet multiple times a week. These days it still happens every month or so. Trackers give me peace of mind.

c7DJTLrn 5y ago
That sounds like a problem that could be solved with a lanyard.
- jolux 5y ago
  Not looking for advice, thanks :)

DennisP 5y ago

I sometimes have trouble finding my kindle around the house but I'd be happy with a device that beeps in response to a bluetooth signal.

bikingbismuth 5y ago

My use cases: -I have children, who have been known to wander off with my keys -When I am stressed out I get forgetful, especially about where I put my AirPods -I travel a lot and like knowing I have my AirPods/Keys with me at a glance, instead of digging into my luggage

dlivingston 5y ago

I pre-ordered two as soon as pre-orders were available: one for my wallet, one for my keys. It’s some undescribed law of physics that anytime I’m running late I can’t find either.

jon-wood 5y ago

My ex-wife would lose her keys approximately every time she wanted to leave the house. I wish I was exaggerating, but it was like a ritual, she'd decide to go out, and then spend ten minutes stomping round the place looking for them. Unfortunately she'd also do the same thing with her phone, so I'm not sure AirTags are the solution.

turtlebits 5y ago

I left my backpack at my office the other day. To confirm, I opened the "Find my" app and was happy to see that it was showing as " last seen 9 minutes ago". It's also interesting how my Macbook air also was able to check in over bluetooth 45 feet away from the street (Wifi router was off).