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Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability
- slimadvies 9mo agoThat took a long time. Better late than never.
- mikestew 9mo agoLate? When did Apple originally announce that it would be released?
- candiddevmike 9mo agoI hate that this eventual e-waste wasn't standardized across vendors. It makes perfect sense for every phone to be a potential node, but the network is bifurcated (and possibly more bifurcations within Android due to Google's privacy-first approach...).
- _verandaguy 9mo agoMaybe a hot take, but I don't think this is as awful for e-waste as many other things. I've had a set of airtags for a good few years now (shortly before Covid, I think?) and they mostly just kinda work. They don't insist upon a need to upgrade, the only part that ever goes bad is the battery -- which is a standard, user-replaceable CR2032, and while batteries going into the garbage isn't fantastic, there's really only so much you can do as long as depend on them. Like -- this announcement is technically an upgrade, but I've never been less tempted to actually buy into it because the existing product does what it does plenty well enough for my needs. I do think it's a bit funny to highlight anything Google does now as privacy-first, though. I can't play back Youtube embeds in Waterfox because the browser's default privacy-preserving setting doesn't send referrer information to those embeds, which Youtube now requires for embeds to work. As much as I take issue with Apple's politics over the past year, they do tend to lean towards on-device logic where possible, and their work in the homomorphic cryptography niche has been interesting to follow.
- retired 9mo agoPlease don't put your CR2032 in the garbage. Use battery disposal points for that.
- _verandaguy 9mo agoI use the terms interchangeably when it comes to batteries; I do use battery disposal bins, but I don't have any faith that the actual process behind the scenes is much less impactful for the environment. It's like when I learned that many paper recycling programs end up combining paper with regular garbage, or finding out that plastic recycling is comically ineffective in its outcomes.
- retired 9mo agoBatteries in the trash are also a fire hazard. It's not just for the environment.
- verdverm 9mo agoAre they less prone to stalking? All I see is generic corpo "industry security" verbiage
- ndr 9mo agoThe most stalkable users are android users, but even that it's going away with newer androids. And it already beeps when you move it if it's been away from the owner for too long. I know because I have an android phone and a not-so-used ipad and mine beep all the time. What stalking scenario are you worried with?
- verdverm 9mo agoHave you not seen the stories? Put one of these on the underside of an ex's car
- simonw 9mo agoHow does that avoid the Android/iPhone unknown AirTag warning features?
- buzzerbetrayed 9mo agoAnd it would notify your ex that you did so, no? Apple has already done more than enough to discourage stalking. We shouldn’t nerf all our technology to the ground because assholes exist.
- numpad0 9mo agoIt's too late when they are notified. The last known address is where the victim is at.
- kube-system 9mo agoThe perpetrator has to already find the victim, and physically be there, to put the tag on the car
- FigurativeVoid 9mo agoProbably one of the best products apple has made of late: relatively affordable, good ux, user replaceable batteries. Glad to see this iteration hasn't made it worse.
- prodigycorp 9mo agoApple of late is a mystery. Their software and hardware product quality is wildly inconsistent and, yet, with the most simplest of hardware like AirTags and AirPods, they're like magic. iPhones, I could hardly care less about. These new airtags? Insta buy!
- throwfaraway4 9mo agoI'm not convinced AirPods are that "simple" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB_8dGKh9JI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB_8dGKh9JI
- prodigycorp 9mo agoOr their chargers! https://www.chargerlab.com/apple-18w-usb-c-power-adapter-a1695-teardown-review-beautiful-inside-and-out/ https://www.chargerlab.com/apple-18w-usb-c-power-adapter-a16...
- fragmede 9mo agoAirpods are a great example of good UX making things seem simple. There's a ridiculous amount of engineering that goes into making them work as well as they do.
- m463 9mo agoyes, apple has a LOT of hidden complexity. Another example is their dongles - many of them have significant processing power, like video conversion chips inside the shell.
- emchammer 9mo agoApple’s headphones adapter contains very high quality output and driver hardware. Their basic software usability quality problems simply shortchange everyone involved.
- logicalfails 9mo ago> The new AirTag is designed with the environment in mind, with 85 percent recycled plastic in the enclosure, 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets, and 100 percent recycled gold plating in all Apple-designed printed circuit boards. The paper packaging is 100 percent fiber-based and can be easily recycled. I'm no material scientist, but this seems pretty impressive to me that Apple's economy of scale can pull this off, and upgrade the device capabilities, for less than $30 USD.
- insane_dreamer 9mo agobut then the fob also costs $30 :/
- vostrocity 9mo agoJust buy a generic Find My tracker on Amazon for about $5.
- ahoka 9mo agoThis is just green washing on the level of “93.65% natural ingredients”.
- reaperducer 9mo agoThis is just green washing on the level of “93.65% natural ingredients”. I keep seeing products in the supermarket with big "Made with REAL ingredients!" labels on them. As opposed to what? Imaginary ingredients? Classico pasta sauce is the most recent offender.
- ExoticPearTree 9mo agoChemicals. That’s what they mean by real ingredients: no chemicals. Like orange juice: can be from a chemical powder or real oranges.
- 9mo ago
- opengrass 9mo agoBut the real question is... is the speaker still glued on?
- crims0n 9mo agoIs this demonstrably better that just... the devices already in your bag? My backpack would be a primary use case... and in it are my AirPods, iPad, and MacBook Air. I think any of these can use Find My already?
- wrigby 9mo agoMaybe not if one of those items is always in your backpack. A few other use cases that I think they're great for: - Throw one in your checked bag when traveling - Mount one in a relatively concealed location on your bike - Keychain (depending on if you're prone to misplacing your keys)
- retired 9mo agoIn addition to your first use case, multiple airlines are now supporting AirTag for bag tracking.
- theshrike79 9mo agoAs is noted on the linked article. Some airlines have specific software that can do it if you share the tag with them - and the sharing will automatically stop when you receive the bags.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- simonw 9mo agoI use AirTags on car keys and wallets.
- mlajtos 9mo agoI was hoping for 6DoF sub-mm realtime tracking. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
- Someone 9mo agoWould be great, but that, world-wide, for millions of objects, probably is a case of putting your expectations too high. Has that ever been demonstrated for a single object, even if allowing the object to be a thousand times as large as this?
- theshrike79 9mo agoJust have an unique ipv6 address on every object. Easy.
- asadm 9mo agowhy do you need that?
- mlajtos 9mo agoPure visual object tracking in visionOS is considerable laggy (even with increased detection rate). Natively tracked peripherals (Logitech Muse, PSVR2 controllers) are super responsive, but are designed for hands and are too specialized. There is a place for generic 6DoF tracking device that can be attached to any object you want to track. This could be tiny IR LED array if you want to track it inside the field of view, but when you need precise position outside of your FoV, your options are limited.
- ollybee 9mo agoIs this just to lock out the cheap clones?
- jen729w 9mo agoAnd they didn't put a small loop in it so you can attach one of those skinny little lanyard hoops?! Attaching these things to anything is their major flaw. /picard facepalm
- Hamuko 9mo agoHow else can they make you buy a keychain holder that costs more than the AirTag itself?
- theshrike79 9mo agoI've bought all of mine on Aliexpress. So ... not much of a dastardly plan from Apple?
- sgt 9mo agoI read this literally just after I ordered 4 AirTags. Great.
- stalfosknight 9mo agoYou have 14 days to return them.
- throwaway290 9mo agonot in all countries
- apparent 9mo agoNot all retailers take returns. But the old ones were likely on sale, have been for a while.
- stalfosknight 9mo agoHe should have bought them directly from Apple then.
- apparent 9mo agoThird party sellers offer bigger discounts, but lesser return policies are generally part of the tradeoff.
- sgt 9mo agoI could return them. But I wonder how long it will take before the new AirTags are available in stores?
- stalfosknight 9mo agostore.apple.com will tell you.
- rationalist 9mo ago
- apples_oranges 9mo agoI read they are popular with drug distributors. They ship their merch world wide using various hidden channels and couriers and this helps keep track of the merch.
- llm_nerd 9mo agoSounds like one of those "what if..." things someone made up. AirTags are terrible for surreptitious tracking, alerting every iOS user nearby of a tracked product following them around. I mean, years ago people, such as stalkers, would use it for this purpose, but Apple rightly gimped that. There are a lot of specialized, self-connected trackers that creeps and criminals use.
- Krasnol 9mo agoWell, to be historically accurate: Apple has pretty much been forced by the backlash to notify people that they're being tracked and even then it only worked if you had an iPhone. They knew what they were doing and I'm sure the stalking aspect helped their sales significantly as it seems to be a very popular behaviour in the US.
- llm_nerd 9mo agoSure, that's accurate. I actually never said otherwise, nor did I saint Apple. They were basically forced to do it. Virtually any tracking or surveillance has a knock-on effect that we often overlook in our enthusiasm, but Apple absolutely should have foreseen the abuse that would happen, and certainly profited off of it.
- dylan604 9mo ago> the stalking aspect helped their sales significantly while not denying people have done this, I do have problems thinking that it was a significant portion of the sales numbers. exaggerating problems is not necessary and actually reduces the credibility of the people doing the exaggerating
- myself248 9mo ago
- port3000 9mo agoGreat to hear but it's still the same shape. I really want a 'credit card' shaped version I can slide into my wallet.
- 4fterd4rk 9mo agoYou can buy a third party wallet card that works with the Find My network just like an AirTag.
- amenghra 9mo agoI could be wrong but third party tags bet a subset of the tracking capabilities? Ie less accurate/less likely to be found.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- dewey 9mo agoI'm always tempted to buy one of these but most of them seem to be one time usage, and don't have a way to recharge. That always seems very wasteful to me. Any recommendations for a rechargable but thin one, AirTag itself is too thick for regular wallets.
- tky 9mo agoThe Eufy SmartTrack card is great! Mine is non-rechargeable and going on year 3. They have released a rechargeable version called the “E30”.
- object_Object 9mo agohttps://www.eufy.com/uk/products/t87b1011?variant=48758308602049 https://www.eufy.com/uk/products/t87b1011?variant=4875830860... I've been using one of these with Find My for over a year. I've not done anything with the Eufy app, just the Find My app itself. It lacks the precision find, but you can play a sound through the Find My app / get directions / share the item / flag the item as lost / do left behind and it works well.
- prodigycorp 9mo agoI have ADHD – which is hardly uncommon in this economy – and the improvements to finding AirPods Pro with Find My have been a godsend. I use it almost every day. I've lost so many airpods in the past. I hope we see the same improvements to air tags. ps, Apple is driving me nuts with their branding. With is AirPods one word and Find My two words?
- oliyoung 9mo agoSame. If I had a dollar for everytime I've said "hey siri where are my keys/airpods/phone" they'd have paid for themselves several times over.
- swe_dima 9mo agomy parents live in Russia and my grandma has alzheimer's, so as a present "for her" I bought an airtag - so in case my mom loses grandma in a crowd she can be found. Little did I know, GPS jammers around the city make my grandma appear 50km away. Not Apple's fault of course.
- etchalon 9mo agoWait what
- gusgus01 9mo agoRussia does pretty widespread GPS jamming and spoofing both in their country as well as across the Baltics and Nordics (and others). If a phone is receiving bad GPS data when it reports sensing the tag, the tag location will reflect that bad GPS data and not reality.
- etchalon 9mo agoThanks for explanation. I had absolutely no awareness GPS jamming was a thing, let alone at scale.
- dmix 9mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasukha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasukha
- swe_dima 9mo agomy runner friends hate it, suddenly your Garmin can't show your pace and distance properly. (I am very much aware it's a 1st world problem to have in times of war)
- jerlam 9mo agoThe United States (who created and operates GPS) also has the ability to make civilian GPS receivers in a specific area or region area less accurate, in case of war. I would assume that other countries' systems (Russia, China, maybe not EU) also have this ability. GPS was primarily developed as a military technology. It was intentionally inaccurate for all civilians up until the year 2000.
- jedisct1 9mo agoThe AirTag is a fantastic device. If only it were usable with an Android phone :(
- chasil 9mo agoDual-network tags certainly exist, posted above. https://www.amazon.com/Tracker-Locator-Android-Bluetooth-Finders/dp/B0FWCP8555/ https://www.amazon.com/Tracker-Locator-Android-Bluetooth-Fin...
- Brajeshwar 9mo agoApple AirTag is one of those interesting products that you don’t think you need until you use it. An Apple thing that just works as advertised and is cheap enough that you can keep picking them up at Airports, without the guilty feeling that usually comes with buying high-priced Apple products, such as the Polishing Cloth. And when you order it online, the nice engravings are fun for my daughters. They like it when it is pinged, finding their toys and bags, and it is worth the price tag. I had to put in a few of my daughter’s pencil pouches and some toys; they are cheaper than the AirTags and, financially, make no sense to lose an AirTag that costs more than the items being tracked. But hey, daughter is happy, and that covers up for the cost.
- WorldMaker 9mo agoThere's a value in sentimentality that doesn't always reflect in the financial value of a thing.
- MisterBiggs 9mo agoI was really hoping for a new form factor or new killer features. Its too bad that the general public can't behave themselves with simple tech like this
- anton-107 9mo agodoes this update also enable precision finding from the watch? would this start working with the previous generation of airtags as well (currently you can use precision finding from your iphone, but not from the watch)
- smith7018 9mo agoAccording the MacRumors, yes but they cant confirm if its only for the new AirTags yet: "watchOS 26.2.1 is also coming, and it expands Precision Finding to the Apple Watch Series 9 and later, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 and later. We have not yet confirmed if this is for the new AirTag only or also works with the original model."
- philsnow 9mo agoFrom the linked article: > For the first time, users can use Precision Finding on Apple Watch Series 9 or later, or Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later, to find their AirTag, bringing a powerful experience to the wrist.
- wslh 9mo agoGreat that they are improving a relatively low profile product. I imagine that the warning of using AirTag on pets is just for regulatory purposes?
- kstrauser 9mo agoYep. They continue to be excellent pet trackers. “They’re not for use with pets, wink wink”, when if you set out to build a pet tracker from scratch, that’s what you’d hope to end up with.
- ianschmitz 9mo agoPet trackers in which situation though? The times I’ve wanted a tracker on my dog is when we’re out in the woods for a hike and I worry he bolts after an animal or similar. I can’t see how an AirTag would help in that scenario.
- dylan604 9mo agoThat's the part of the "hope" people have with the AirTag is that their pet will happen to wander close to another compatible Apple device to update the tracking. I assume this is also why they are not the "suggested" use
- kstrauser 9mo agoThat’s a good point. You’re right: they’d be useless there, unless you were so close to your dog that you could hear it anyway. I live in a city and a lost dog would be close to any number of people with phones at any given time, and it’d be very useful there.
- jshier 9mo agoThey're great if you're in a populated area. If you're tracking pets in the country, you'll never see them, as there aren't any relay devices out in the woods.
- prodigycorp 9mo agoThe greatest success of AirTags is its silent refutation of the clamoring concern trolling. It's been, what, six years now? The media would pay hand over fist for an airtags stalking story and how many have there actually been?
- throwaway290 9mo agoYou mean how many where perp was caught?
- chasil 9mo agoThe woman who ran over her cheating boyfriend was caught. https://www.ktvu.com/news/woman-allegedly-tracks-boyfriend-with-airtags-kills-him-over-alleged-affair https://www.ktvu.com/news/woman-allegedly-tracks-boyfriend-w...
- rationalist 9mo agoI'm guessing murder is probably easier to prove than rape.
- throwaway290 9mo agoAre you saying there is definitely no unsolved crime involving airtag?)
- superxpro12 9mo agoI mean, i remember a lot of posts about people using them for stalking. It's unclear if this has been addressed or if the concern has been deprioritized, or if apple solved the problem somehow. I mean it was enough of a concern that Android added a "detect airtags" feature to the base android OS.
- WorldMaker 9mo agoApple had its version of "stalking detection" (that equivalent of Android's "detect airtags") from early rollout. (There's a screenshot in the attached article even.) Some of the scrutiny and early complaints was that ecosystem divide that needed Android to also support at least a basic form of that same feature before people would feel safe, and everyone knew that Apple themselves weren't going to build the Android version.
- minton 9mo ago> Designed exclusively for tracking objects, and not people or pets, the new AirTag incorporates… Interesting to call out that it’s not designed for pets. I know several people with AirTags on their pet collars.
- coderatlarge 9mo agowhy not pets?
- js2 9mo agoI think mostly it's a chew risk for dogs and won't help if the dog is far from the AirTag network. I still have one on my dog anyway (he's not a chewer) and my daughter puts one on her cat occasionally. (Both pets are microchipped too, of course.)
- c-hendricks 9mo agoI bought one for my cat, never did help with finding him, just the general area. They're not great for tracking things that move on their own, or things that avoid people.
- ccvannorman 9mo agoWe use them on our cats and have found the trouble-maker cat 3 times out of 3 when needed (in an urban apartment area; most recently the cat was scared by a noise which may have kept her hidden out all night in the cold, unless we had found her/shooed her back to the house)
- groggo 9mo agowe have them for our cats, they're great. Sometimes they're hiding in bushes and we don't realize they're 10 ft away. Other times they're down by the neighbor's house. It's not perfect but it tells us which direction more or less. And definitely more peace of mind if they ever got lost. They They make breakaway collars so if they get caught on something it won't trap them.
- herpdyderp 9mo agoI tried AirTags once. It beeped non stop on my own possessions. I don’t understand how anyone uses these things.
- kstrauser 9mo agoThat’s not the expected experience, and not the one other people have.
- _ph_ 9mo agoI once bought 4 air tags, never got to work them in any useful sense. I keep getting warnings about leaving my keys behind, which are in my pocket. I don't recall any time being warned about leaving things behind when I did. Can't really locate things a few meters away.
- kstrauser 9mo agoThat’s so odd! They’ve worked exactly as promised for me. I never, ever get warnings about my own tags, or my wife’s tags that she’s shared with me. Not even once. And yesterday I used them to find my keys that the cats had relocated to across the house. I don’t have any explanation for how our experiences could be so different, but they are. Mine even did the cool thing where you can watch your luggage move through an airport until you join up with it.
- _ph_ 9mo agoJust found out that the one active remaining tag on my keychain stopped working in September without me noticing.
- rationalist 9mo agoIt seems like Apple should notify users that their AirTag disappeared and ask them if they would like instructions on replacing the battery or to remove it from their account.
- rafram 9mo agoIs this… skeuomorphism in an Apple UI? In 2026? https://www.apple.com/newsroom/images/2026/01/apple-introduces-new-airtag-with-expanded-range-and-improved-findability/article/Apple-AirTag-Share-Item-Location_inline.jpg.small_2x.jpg https://www.apple.com/newsroom/images/2026/01/apple-introduc...
- kstrauser 9mo agoNo. Skeuomorphism would have you dragging the AirTag from a picture of your pocket to a picture of someone else’s pocket, and you’d lose the ability to track it yourself then, because it would belong to the other person now. Skeuomorphism is more about making the UI work like the real world, not just look like it.
- eurotechie 9mo ago"With its updated internal design, the new AirTag is 50 percent louder than the previous generation, enabling users to hear their AirTag from up to 2x farther than before." Curious about getting 2x the distance from 1.5x the "loudness", I would have thought the inverse? Maybe there is nuance to this though.
- dylan604 9mo agoloudness is logarithmic
- helloguillecl 9mo agoAirtag is the reason of why I stil have my favourite hand luggage. I had just sat down on the train from Zurich to Basel. Suddenly, someone sat down in front of me. He looked suspicious, but I didn't pay much attention. Just before the train departed, he picked up what I thought were his belongings and left. Twenty minutes later, already on the way to Basel, I looked toward where I had left my suitcase. It was gone. That was when I realized that the person who had sat in front of me was a thief. However, he hadn't counted on the fact that I have an AirTag in every backpack and suitcase. So I was able to see where the thief was and where he was moving. I considered going to retrieve my suitcase myself, but while traveling back to Zurich, I called the Zurich Police and, as the thief kept moving, I told them where he was. Twenty minutes later I received a call from the police informing me that they had found my suitcase with my belongings, matching the description I had given. But also the thief and his accomplice.
- ghaff 9mo agoI do use airtags for this purpose. I also expect (and I read) that most police departments won't pay the slightest bit of attention to your reports.
- piperswe 9mo agoI also know from experience that Zurich police will chase an AirTag location with vigor.
- ghaff 9mo agoThat sounds... unique from everything I've heard.
- piperswe 9mo agoI had a backpack stolen from me at Zurich HB. The police sent a car out on the freeway to chase the train the thieves were on, and nabbed them at the next station. The thieves tossed the clothes I had in the bag, but I got my laptop back
- joezydeco 9mo agoThe new AirTag requires a compatible iPhone with iOS 26 or later, or iPad with iPadOS 26 or later. Oh come the fuck ON. I'm not installing your silly fuzzy UI, Apple. Get over it.
- apparent 9mo agoFor real. This just went from insta-purchase to "guess I'll have one someday, but not anytime soon". I use these to help keep track of my kids, but I'll probably get them AWs before I upgrade to 26 in all honesty.
- urbandw311er 9mo agoActually, I feel the same! The new UI is so absolutely terrible that I’ve decided to sit this version of iOS out. So I also will not buy the new AirTags for the same reason!
- _ph_ 9mo agoI have an older AirTag, which cannot be seen by my iPhone any more but gives a slight beep whenever it gets shaken. Anyone ever heard of the behavior?
- wmeredith 9mo agoThe battery needs changed.
- _ph_ 9mo agoChanging the battery was the first thing I did. No change. But if that is the official signal for "battery low", I can try a few more. Thanks.
- brigham 9mo agoMake sure the battery doesn’t have bitterant coating on the edge where it meets the AirTag contact. The first time I replaced my AirTag batteries I had to remove some of the coating or it wouldn’t power the AirTag.
- _ph_ 9mo agoThats worth a try, because if the batteries have that, trying several ones of the same brand would produce the same results. Now, do I try to test this by licking the battery or should I try to sand the surface without pre-testing? :)
- radicality 9mo agoOh yeah totally, that “feature” of a Duracell cr2032 battery screwed me over in that exact case. They just don’t work at all with an AirTag (battery bought from afaik reputable supplier, Home Depot). Switched to Energizer cr2032 and it’s been great.
- _ph_ 9mo agoTried with a cleaned new battery. It beeps when I put the battery in, that is it. When I scan for unknown objects, I get shown an air tag, but it doesn't tell me anything about it. So probably I should just remove the battery - I must have gone through a heap of them debugging this - and just smash it.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- fragmede 9mo ago> and a louder speaker That's great, but could they do something about what plays on the speaker? It's all pretty in that Apple sort of way, but the fact that its volume goes up and down makes it harder to find. Y'know, exactly the one thing you're trying to do with it?
- insane_dreamer 9mo agoAirTag (and FindMy for devices like phones, tablets, etc.) might be my favorite iOS/Apple feature and one that I use regularly.
- duxup 9mo agoI get the optics about tracking people... But man that's one of my best use cases, toss a tag in my kid's pocket when we are somewhere busy. I used one on my older in-law who tended to wander. They work great for that.
- rconti 9mo ago> Maintaining the same form factor as the original, the new AirTag is compatible with all existing AirTag accessories I'm glad this appears to have been a focal point of the design.
- 2muchcoffeeman 9mo agoGod damn it. I just got a four pack.
- tshaddox 9mo agoIt sounds like the external dimensions are going to be exactly the same or nearly so. I'm hoping the battery compartment is also identical so that third-party mounting and extended battery packs continue to work. I recently picked up a few of these extended battery packs and it would be nice to eventually upgrade the AirTag if the extended range turns out to be meaningful. They're pretty neat, you remove the battery cover completely and only insert the half of the AirTag with the electronics and radio. https://www.elevationlab.com/products/timecapsule https://www.elevationlab.com/products/timecapsule
- celeritascelery 9mo agoDidn’t know that external battery packs were a thing. That could be super useful.
- tshaddox 9mo agoYeah, I picked them up along with some AA lithium (non-rechargeable) batteries. I also didn't know those batteries existed until recently. I knew there were rechargeable lithium AAs with a charge plug and charging circuitry built into each little cylinder, but I've heard mostly bad reviews of those. These non-rechargeable ones have pretty good reviews though, and apparently last much longer than normal AAs (both in terms of capacity and storage). I'll probably start putting them in the handful of things I've got that still take AAs.
- blazarquasar 9mo agoTheir description does say “Works with AirTag generation 1 & 2.” Thanks for putting me on to these. Really clever products. I always feel stupid with my airtag dangling off of my camera.
- tshaddox 9mo agoGreat! I scanned the page when I posted that comment, so I either missed it or they were just about to update it.
- 9mo ago
- compsciphd 9mo agoapple should have an anti-theft mode. Where you can't track it, but they can give access to local law enforcement to track it, and therefore wont go into stalker mode / alerting people about it. If one is in close proximity to the device (say bluetooth), one can take it out of this mode and return it to normal usage.
- simondotau 9mo agoI don’t know where you live, but where I live, I think we have a very good police force. But I would have absolutely no expectation of them getting actively involved in the tracker sleuthing of petty theft.
- rjh29 9mo agoDepends on the country. Switzerland will. I suspect Japan will too
- mschuster91 9mo ago> But I would have absolutely no expectation of them getting actively involved in the tracker sleuthing of petty theft. That's actually what I would love to see cops doing! Petty theft is among the most annoying nuisances there is, particularly for tourists. And I'd classify petty thefts in tourist areas, public transport and similar hotspots as aggravated cases as well. Honestly, it doesn't take that much work. Have the mayor announce that police will now take stolen-property claims seriously and immediately follow up on reports, maybe run the occasional sting operation themselves... and the thieves will go away somewhere else all on their own. Yes, you might run the risk of only catching some piss poor drug addicts instead of the brokers accepting and selling on the stolen merchandise - but when the brokers can't find anyone willing to risk a mandatory year in prison for petty theft, they will have to close up shop as well.
- storus 9mo agoSo they made it impossible to remove speaker, destroying its usability as a theft tracking device. One could add an airtag with a removed speaker on a bike/scooter/car and then localize it in case of theft. With the new airtag any thief will be quickly notified they are tracked.
- varenc 9mo agoThere's an inherent conflict between use as a theft tracking device, and use as a stalking device. Both situations are pretty indistinguishable. Apple is prioritizing reducing the AirTag's utility to stalkers.
- storus 9mo agoAgain prioritizing low cardinality event (stalking) instead of high cardinality event (theft) because of "security", making the device mostly pointless, good only to quickly locate some thing at home (assuming battery still holds after the thing being forgotten for years in a closet).
- ghaff 9mo agoIt's useful to help locate things both at home and when traveling. But, yes, optimizing for potential theft recovery conflicts with disabling stalking and, however uncommon, the latter got a lot of publicity, so it's something Apple etc. wanted to focus on (especially given that, in most places, theft prevention probably wasn't very effective anyway).
- stephenr 9mo agoI think you'll find it's not so much about how likely the event is (stalking vs theft) as it is about the potential impact of the event. The things you want to "protect" with an invisible AirTag are, at their core "just stuff". The things being protected by not selling an invisible AirTag are, at their core "people".
- sejje 9mo ago
- josephg 9mo agoI wish they made airtags in different form factors. I've gotten into photography lately. I'd love to slip an airtag into more places - ideally within the housing of my camera bodies themselves. But, there's not really any room to put an airtag on or in a camera given the current airtag form factor. You can get camera cages with secret compartments for airtags. And lens caps which take an airtag. But they take up a lot of space, and end up adding a lot of bulk to the camera itself. I wish Apple opened airtags up to 3rd party manufacturers who could buy the (tiny) circuit board directly, so they could hide it in their products better.
- ShakataGaNai 9mo agoThe better solution is the route that Insta360 took with the Go Ultra. The camera has embedded "Find My" technology. No Airtag or hiding things required, the entire camera is the tag. All we need to do is get more camera companies to follow suit.
- vostrocity 9mo agoNot sure if you've found this: https://www.elevationlab.com/collections/airtag/products/tagvault-camera https://www.elevationlab.com/collections/airtag/products/tag... It still takes some space but quite clever
- adastra22 9mo agoThere are 3rd party airtags...
- brikym 9mo agoThey don't seem to get that if it costs less people will buy more of them. I'm not doing to spend $29 to track a $100 item.
- mikestew 9mo agoI'm sure Apple appreciates the advice, especially considering how few people buy their pricey phones and accessories. C'mon, this is the same company that sells a $230 sock for your phone. And they sold out of the first batch. Apple knows their market, and some people...don't.
- pnw 9mo agoUnfortunately the anti-stalking features have made Airtag mostly useless for theft prevention. You have less than an hour to retrieve your item before the tag alerts the thief they are being tracked. I've seen it trigger as quickly as 30 minutes.
- lysace 9mo agoWhat happens after that? It goes dark? Or it just alerts the thief (stalker victim)?
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- pnw 9mo agoIt sends alerts to the thief's iPhone or Android (if you have Apple's Tracker Detect Android app) that they are being tracked within 30 to 60 minutes. It also enables the beeping so the thief can find and remove the Airtag. If the Airtag can't reach the thief's phone, it starts chirping by itself within an 8-24 hour window.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- markeroon 9mo agoDo you have more info about this? Never heard it before
- chasil 9mo agoI have only seen the Google side, just a single time when one of my Chipolos threw an alert on my passenger's Samsung. My Chipolo certainly still works. There are [cheap] tags being sold that are compatible with both Apple Find My and Google's Find Hub. I would rather have a dual-network device than Apple's improved model. Would it be so difficult for Apple to put a hole in the Airtag so it could be directly attached to a keychain? Here is an example of dual-network tags: https://www.amazon.com/Tracker-Locator-Android-Bluetooth-Finders/dp/B0FWCP8555/ https://www.amazon.com/Tracker-Locator-Android-Bluetooth-Fin...
- tamimio 9mo agoI wonder what changes they made to the firmware, as the first generation you could “fix” it so it doesn’t notify people nearby.
- subscribed 9mo agoAwesome. Time for me to buy my first iPhone then. Sincerely, f** Google. I've been android user since I had to abandon Symbian, and their impotence in this one thing is staggering.
- jml7c5 9mo agoIronically, one of the reason Google's offerings are (were?) worse is because Google prioritized privacy and required pings from multiple phones to count a tracker as seen.
- subscribed 9mo agoI don't know.... Phones are not identified to the tracker owner and trackers are not identified to phone owner. But basically this means that only items in the high traffic areas can be found.
- RankingMember 9mo agoI bought my first a years ago after some awful customer service experiences with Google re: Pixel phones. While iOS is not without its faults, most of the "just works" marketing has thus far turned out to be true in my experience. Their software feature set isn't on the cutting edge for a lot of things (my iPhone 13 couldn't even display the weather on the lock screen when I first got it), but they do generally get there eventually.
- subscribed 9mo agoI remain incompatible with iOS and there's near zero chance of me using it on my handset (I had one for 2 years as company phone), but I applaud the utility of "find my". Ironically, in the light of your post, I migrated my main phone to Pixel (with GrapheneOS due to the additional functionality), but admittedly I dread my potential clash with Google service -- you can't even chargeback them if you're not ready to losing access to EVERYTHING related to Google. I'd like another way but no other Android vendor offers secure hardware :(
- laweijfmvo 9mo agoThe key ring costing more than the AirTag itself is wild
- apatheticonion 9mo agoNice, does it support Android yet?
- theshrike79 9mo agoIt supports Android, but does Android support it?
- Razengan 9mo agoApple's Find My helps thieves more than it helps the owners: When I was on a walk with my friend, my iPhone constantly nagged me about "AIRPODS ARE MOVING WITH YOU!!!1!" and it showed me the EXACT complete route on the map.. I didn't even ask for it! When I lost my AirPods (which are ridiculously easy to remove from your iCloud account and Find My: just hold down the pairing button for 30 seconds), it just showed me a vague radius and "Last seen around here 12 hours ago" not even a exact time.
- Der_Einzige 9mo ago[flagged]
- throwaway85825 9mo ago[flagged]
- rngfnby 9mo ago[flagged]
- VerifiedReports 9mo agoOnly if they're regular citizens. Somehow masked federal thugs don't get shot; somehow the 2nd Amendment gun-humpers who so opposed federal tyranny have disappeared.
- rngfnby 9mo agoWe haven't disappeared. Look at Rep. Massie. Quite the contrary. Events such as these reveal who really believe in a sovereign, free, people and who is just cosplaying. For example, Pritti and Rittenhouse were completely within their rights to be armed at a protest. Rittenhouse defended himself against a mob that started attacking him unprovoked; Pritti was executed by federal agents.
- VerifiedReports 9mo agoWhat an absolute crock. Rittenhouse traveled across state lines to shoot people, not protest; and he was not "attacked by a mob." He was attacked by a couple of people AFTER he murdered others. And gee... he's notably absent from Minneapolis. Why is he not "defending" people from tyranny now? Because he's a coward who only goes on field trips to shoot unarmed people.
- dang 9mo ago"Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46771650 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46771650.
- burnt-resistor 9mo agoAirTags don't help if the police are understaffed and totally unconcerned. ProTip: Avoid Austin. Property theft everywhere and the cops don't care at all.
- exabrial 9mo agoWhat airtags need is a theft mode, where anyone carrying the airtag is not alerted, but the location can be retrieved by an approved local authority after being voluntarily surrendered by the owner.
- JoshTko 9mo agoThe challenge is how you prevent such features being abused by like stalkers
- ajdude 9mo agoIt would be nice if this could tie in to actively altering enforcement when it's turned on, maybe even require sharing with authorities for it to be enabled: the stalker would have to collaborate with police in order to stalk the victim.
- fartfeatures 9mo agoWhitelisting law enforcement so when the owner of the air tag declares it stolen nobody other than a whitelisted law enforcement org could view its location and when they did that creates an audit log?
- kypen 9mo agoThis implies a level of trust in law enforcement. As a US citizen, hard pass.
- fartfeatures 9mo agoThey have access to guns, stingrays and flock cameras. They tap every email, message and phone call you make. You wouldn't even know if you are subject to warrantless surveillance as it might be illegal to tell you under the patriot act. I'm pretty sure being able to access an Airtag that was put into stolen mode by the owner is the least of your concern. I'm not even sure what failure mode you are worried about because you didn't elaborate. Please don't think I'm trying to be all high and mighty because I live in the UK and am surveilled even worse than you are (although at least our police are very rarely armed).
- hackandthink 9mo ago"the new AirTag is 50 percent louder than the previous generation, enabling users to hear their AirTag from up to 2x farther than before" Can that really be true?
- aborsy 9mo agoWould privatizing police help? I have requested theft a number of times, even presented video footage. I was surprised they ask you fill out bureaucratic paperwork and at the end they do nothing, after all these taxes we pay in Europe.
- Traubenfuchs 9mo agoFinally! Can‘t wait to tinker with one and figure out how to disable the new tamper peotected speaker.
- Lwrless 9mo agoI'm kind of the opposite use case: I own four AirTags, keep them in different bags and suitcases, and I've literally never needed them. I don't lose any luggage or bags, so most of the time they just sit there quietly burning those CR2032s. For me they've ended up feeling more like they are preventing me from anxiety than doing something that actually changes my life day to day...
- lotsofpulp 9mo agoI diligently put airtags in all of my luggage, but I forgot to put it in a box I checked in on my last flight. That’s the one checked luggage that didn’t show up at the baggage carousel, in my entire life. I had it delivered to me the next day, but I must have used air tags for checked luggage a 50+ times before.
- tkcranny 9mo agoI don’t lose bags either, but airlines do. The AirTag let me tell United which building in Houston in ended up in (after getting lost at SFO), and refute their gaslighting multiple times that it was heading my way. Worth its weight in gold, literally.
- pbreit 9mo agoHow long do they last?
- theshrike79 9mo agoI've had mine since release, every single one still works. Had to change batteries a few times.
- CafeRacer 9mo agoAnd you have to update to the new shitty ios.... I'd rather loose my stuff then.
- u8080 9mo agoWhy everyone is so okay with wearing a tracking device? Usually there is a crowd who will bring NSA in every possible discussion, but apparently not for this worldwide functioning meter-precise tracking service?
- aucisson_masque 9mo agoIt’s voluntary and isn’t embedded in something you need for other reason. It makes all the difference in the world.
- u8080 9mo agoSo we have some closed-source systems(iPhones, AirTags, samsung analogs, etc) which enable owner(best case it is Apple "allowed" by you) to use established global "opt-out" tracking network?
- roysting 9mo agoI call it the 2N; novelty and naïveté. People like the different new things that let them do things they’ve never done before, and they also don’t want to think about the long term effects or consequences of their actions. It comes into play in many human behaviors like objectively horrible choices in romantic partnerships, drug use and reckless behavior and actions in general, most forms of fraud where promises are made and/or imagination is spurred, as well as various forms of political decisions in democracies where people support or believe lying liars in order to win the “fell for it again” award. There seems to be something inherently and deeply prone to clearly self-harming behavior in many if not all humans. Willingly simply adopting and excusing mass surveillance tracking devices where people would have resisted being injected with a tracker otherwise, is probably a good example of that. “No no” says one rat to his buddy “it’s just a box where all the sudden little lumps of peanut butter started appearing two nights ago. I’m sure it will just be free peanut butter forever and there are no other reasons why that peanut butter could be appearing there. It would definitely never be in order to condition us to feel comfortable with entering the box and spreading the message that this is where you get the free peanut butter!”
- moduspol 9mo ago
- i5heu 9mo agoAirTags are such a killer feature. I have multiple in places like my bike, wallet and so on. They have paid themselves so many times over and over.
- gumby271 9mo agoThey're really cool, I just wish they weren't an iPhone accessory. If I could do everything from my Mac I'd consider them, but Apple likes to assume every Apple customer also has an iPhone.
- jon-wood 9mo agoI'm curious whether the improved range is actually going to make the product worse for my particular use case, which is being alerted when I've left my bag somewhere (this has happened to me at least 5 times over the years). My understanding is that the item left behind notifications are triggered when your phone loses contact with the AirTag, so increased range can potentially take me from being notified as I step off the train to being notified as I leave the station and the train has departed.
- fckgw 9mo agoIt triggers within a certain radius that you can change in the settings to be wider or narrower. It's not specifically when it loses contact with the device.
- xtiansimon 9mo agoI’m sporting a Life360, MoniMoto and AirTags on my moto. The Life360 seemed to have better range—until it just went offline. The AirTag is still working, though. So I’m stoked to hear about a new tag with greater range.
- gambiting 9mo agoI hate the stupid things. Or rather, I hate that I cannot on my android phone click "yes I know this air tag, it's owned by my wife, please stop notifying me that it's tracking me every single time I go anywhere". What an absolutely monumental annoyance in usability that doesn't seem to have any way to override it.
- sebstefan 9mo agoFor anyone outside the U.S where most likely people around you will have Android devices and not iPhones, you are better off ordering trackers that are compatible with Google Find My Device They're cheaper and allows third parties, plus the network is stronger.
- rahimnathwani 9mo agoThey're cheaper and allows third parties, plus the network is stronger. There are cheap ($5) devices for Apple's network, if you don't need the UWB support (required for precise location, e.g. when you're within metres of the device but don't know which direction you should go). I wonder which network is stronger in the UK. There are many recent-ish Android phones with presumably the latest version of Google Play Services. But I don't know if anyone has tried to test, or even to estimate the number of devices.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- dre85 9mo agoFor whatever it's worth I have a personal counter-story to airtag usefulness. Not to get into the debate of indoor vs outdoor cats, we had a cat a few years ago that liked to roam around outside and one time it got spooked and disappeared for two weeks. It came back all skinny and hurt and after that we bought an air tag collar for peace of mind. The airtag worked just fine for a few months until the cat disappeared again. That very day the airtag stopped working so when we actually need it, the signal was permanently lost. We never found out why. I could imagine perhaps a car hit it or a coyote ate it, but there's certainly edge cases where an airtag would fail immediately. Battery life is highly unlikely to be the culprit in my opinion as it was fairly new, working recently before that day and the timing was too perfect.
- tiffanyh 9mo ago> And an upgraded Bluetooth chip expands the range at which items can be located. It's interesting they don't give a stat on how much the range has increased by ... especially given they give stats for everything else.
- ghm2199 9mo agoMetromile insurance — now Lemonade — had a fantastic feature going to way back in 2015 AFAIR, that allowed you to track your car to bill you per mile. As a bonus they gave you location tracking history. This feature helped me nail down my olden beater which the thief stole not knowing what was in the ODB. The car was used to commit a crime and the location tracking history was used by the detective at the local PD to nail a professional ring with additional evidence targeting certain cars. The car was totaled but I got insurance money back. Metromile's app now only shows you your car's live location — that too only after several years of the acquisition — but no location history, which is sad. I _think_ law enforcement can actually ask them with warrants and they would have to give that data if they have it. Don't say you delete the data because of privacy, because we all know its not true: let me store the data in my phone. (Google already does this with its location history tool in maps) Pretty please? To Metromile: You are already using a location stack from apple/google's Location Provider with a permission modal in the app. Its like nothing in LoC with a local storage and an opt in/out setting.
- ghm2199 9mo agoWhat's the non-apple solution for someone who runs a homenas with their own maps server, home assistant, self hosted website? Any one had luck with a better solution that is more efficient with this closed we-will-make-you-fork-999$-per-year and wall garden your data behemoth.
- nelsonic 9mo agoJust bought 3 packs of 4 for family this past Xmas. Now a much better version for the same price. Great.
- camillomiller 9mo agoTim Cook should use one to find his moral compass
- melonpan7 9mo agoI have about 4 or 5 Airtags and haven't actually had any practical use for them, but just having them on my keys and expensive camera backpack is a nice peace of mind. My sister however, was able to track down her suitcase which the airline supposedly "forgot" to load and got compensation for it.
- softbuilder 9mo agoMy son has Down Syndrome and is non-verbal. He's clever though and has found ways to wander off from his school and caregivers. As a parent this is terrifying. Eventually we tried AirTags on his shoes. It's an imperfect technology but it works.
- antidamage 9mo agoDoes anyone know if you can disable or lower the volume of its speaker for everyone who might ping it? I use one on my cat's collar and I'm already concerned about it being harmful to her hearing should I ever put it into lost more.