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Like sibling post mentioned, you don't seem to be the target audience. I know a lot of people, friends and family, who constantly leave stuff behind, in restaur
by oxplot 5y ago
Like sibling post mentioned, you don't seem to be the target audience. I know a lot of people, friends and family, who constantly leave stuff behind, in restaurants, other people's places, on the train, in shops, you name it. 99% of the time, no one's gonna steal it, but trying to figure out where the hell you left something, if you do leave stuff behind often, becomes increasingly difficult. With something like an Airtag, it's no longer an issue. You get altered before you get too far, and even if you do, you can figure out later where your stuff is.
I once left my umbrella in a hire car. It took me 2 weeks to realize it was missing. Turns out no one touched it and I could see it on the map, in the parking lot of the hire car company. So I showed up, and within minutes, we pinned down which car it was in. Without Airtag, I would not even remember where I could have possibly left it, after two weeks! Learnt my lesson to turn on separation alert after that.
Now I need a smaller Airtag for my sunglasses — expensive and easy to leave behind.
Needing an Airtag is like needing a case for your phone. A lot of people keep dropping their phone so they put a case on it. In 13 years of owning a smart phone, I've never dropped mine. But I don't claim that phone cases are only useful if you throw your partner's phone off the balcony after a fight.
- anormaluser 5y agoHow expensive is your umbrella? Just curious.
- oxplot 5y ago$50-ish — but that's not the point. I value my belongings because I spend great deal of time researching and finding products that I love using day in day out (unlike most people who constantly curse at stuff they have). I also modify things I buy to fine tune it to my needs. So even a $50 umbrella is more like $1000 in terms of time I've spent on it and I have no intention of doing it again. This particular umbrella was purchased 20 years ago in Spain.
- mehdix 5y agoI have a bike, with a lock more expensive than the bike itself. Since I value the time that would be necessary to replace the stolen item, not to mention the disturbance caused upon loss. Totally agree with your point.
- simondotau 5y agoThe notion of an umbrella lasting 20 years boggles my mind. I've never had one last more than 2–3 years and I don't use them much. I've looked for premium umbrellas before but every time I find one that isn't ridiculously priced, there's always a contingent of reviewers who insist that it fell apart in heavy wind or frequent use. Normally I buy $10 umbrellas from Australia's big hardware store chain. They aren't great but they're easily robust enough to last for a year or two. (Cheap umbrellas from anywhere else tend to break if you look at them funny, and they rust if you get them wet.) I'd be willing to pay $120 AUD (or $80 USD) for an umbrella that was seriously good quality, recognising that the economics imply that it would need to last for at least a decade to be cost competitive.
- oxplot 5y ago> I'd be willing to pay $120 AUD (or $80 USD) for an umbrella that was seriously good quality https://au.davekny.com/ https://au.davekny.com/ has good stuff although I haven't had one long enough (only 5 years) to attest its durability. They also have some promising guarantee terms: https://au.davekny.com/pages/lifetime-guarantee https://au.davekny.com/pages/lifetime-guarantee
- null_object 5y agoI’ve been using a small folding umbrella from MUJI that I bought 8 years ago. Not particularly expensive. My partner has probably been through about ten umbrellas in the same time-span, because she was reluctant to spend the modest extra amount for something she doubted would last so long. I recently bought her the same model of umbrella from MUJI, although it’s too early to say whether the company has maintained the build quality. I think it’s this one (but hard to tell on their awful website) https://www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?PID=14951&qclr=4550344156964 https://www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?PID=14951&qclr=45503441...
- simondotau 5y agoApproximately twice what I was hoping to pay, but damn those are some wild guarantees.
- jerryr 5y agoPlease create or point me to your product review site!
- coldtea 5y agoWell, the $50 umbrella to last decades and the "tag things with sentimental/shopping research value" thing is not exactly the big motivator for AirTags, or a representative anecdotal case.
- shard 5y agoWith how easy it is to lose an umbrella, and how difficult it is to retrieve most of the time, I prefer to think of umbrella as disposable items. Depending on where you live, your need for umbrellas might be different, but a significant amount of time, say ~20%, i need an umbrella and don't have one, so I end up buying some disposable version anyway.
- victor9000 5y agoSome things have value beyond what you pay at the till.
- tomxor 5y ago> you don't seem to be the target audience You are missing the point. They are not the target audience, but they are affected negatively by it regardless. It's for Apple users at the expense of everyone else. The criticism is not about the individual utility of airtags, it's about how it creates a privacy issue for everyone who is not an Apple user.
- oxplot 5y ago> You are missing the point. And you should read past the first line. > The criticism is not about the individual utility of airtags, it's about how it creates a privacy issue for everyone who is not an Apple user. In the same manner, it’s not about utility of individual phone cases, it’s about all the plastic waste it creates for the whole planet.
- shard 5y agoI suppose if nobody but you ever handles your phone, that might not be an issue. I rarely drop my phones but in a household with kids, that's no guarantee. I put cases on every phone I have.