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> I guess the alternative to that is for Google to build this in? Probably better, but still not sufficient. It will probably take years before Android users g
by jraph 4y ago
> I guess the alternative to that is for Google to build this in?
Probably better, but still not sufficient. It will probably take years before Android users get this builtin, and not everybody has a smartphone anyway. I don't currently use one.
If you really want to avoid tracking you may also want to avoid having a phone with you too. Both things enter in contradiction.
I guess Pandora's box is already open anyway. AirTags are not the only device with this feature if I understand correctly. There's probably no coming back to a world where there's no risk for you that someone puts such a device to track you. I don't know what is the solution, other than legal.
I guess my computer has Bluetooth/Wifi and could be used to detect such devices when they use Bluetooth since I'm using it for the most part of the day and all my stuff is within the Bluetooth range. But that's because I use a computer everyday.
I still think Apple should not have made this mainstream. If this kind of device already existed, the idea of using them was probably less in the mind of regular people and Apple's product is probably very convenient and possibly affordable enough. Obviously, I understand why this kind of thing is useful for people who keep losing their stuff, I'm one of them. Still, I'm not sure it was worth it.
- dagmx 4y agoApple didn’t really make them mainstream. In fact Apple were really late to the game themselves. Tile and Samsung have similar products, without similar measures for example. Tile was hugely available at many big retail stores.
- giaour 4y agoApple’s turning on Find My Phone by default arguably did more to normalize tracking than anything else. Tile (and other niche products) were largely seen as nerdy and an extravagance at best, but AirTags were seen by the public as a logical extension of Find My Phone.
- ghaff 4y agoYes. You can simultaneously correctly say that other trackers (and ways to track someone) existed before AirTags and that most tools can be used for both good and bad and... Also say that AirTags almost certainly made tracking more mainstream and on more people's radar.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- GekkePrutser 4y agoTile worked like crap. It was nice to find your keys indoors but way too few people had the app to find them outdoor. I connected one to an old smartphone to test, then switched off BT and marked it as lost. It took a whole month for one phone to see it. And I carried it in my bag on the subway in a city of millions (Barcelona) The ubiquity of receivers in Apple's network (and Samsung's which was introduced only 1 month before) really was a game changer.
- daveoc64 4y ago> Probably better, but still not sufficient. It will probably take years before Android users get this builtin, and not everybody has a smartphone anyway. I don't currently use one. I doubt they ever will, but Google could roll this out very quickly by making it part of Google Play Services.
- MishaalRahman 4y agoThat's exactly what they're doing: https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1518675920994848769 https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1518675920994848769
- MishaalRahman 4y ago>Probably better, but still not sufficient. It will probably take years before Android users get this builtin, and not everybody has a smartphone anyway. I don't currently use one. Not if Google integrates BLE tracker detection into Play Services, which can be updated independently of the OS and without OEM or carrier intervention. Which is exactly what they're working on: https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1512488864488775681 https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1512488864488775681 "Safety alerts" is what it might be called: https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1518675920994848769 https://twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1518675920994848769