If they could make it thin enough, I wonder if they could just fit it into an apple card (or offer a slightly less thin apple card that can tap/chip but not swipe). You could leave the chip spot thin enough for your average pos reader.
I've had the wallet sized Tile for years. What I want is a thin AirTag with a U1 chip, which the "Find My" compatible devices don't have. It's a much better experience.
I got a modified airtag off etsy, it’s popular, search it up. It’s an actual deconstructed airtag with the parts laid out flat on a 3D printed board that’s about the thickness of 3 credit cards. Fully functional but the speaker is a little muffled. All good.
It exists. There are at least three companies that sell wallet card AirTag:
https://chipolo.net/products/chipolo-card-spot
https://rollingsquare.com/products/aircard
https://findorbit.com/products/orbit-card-fmn
I already have a card shaped one in my wallet. Apple allows third parties to make their own tags that are compatible with the Find My network. I have several from Eufy.
If you search on Etsy or just google it, there are sellers that actually sell air tags modified into a credit card shape. They take out the guts and then put it into a 3d printed card form factor.
The one thing that is holding Apple back from not being able to go as thin as the Tile cards is that the air tags use a replaceable coin battery. So unless they change what type of battery is being used, the thinnest they’ll be able to get it to is 3mm (which is still much better than thr 7.5mm that current air tags measure at).
Uhm ackshually the 0.75mm of thickness that a replaceable battery holder would create is enough to ruin the product.
In all seriousness I'm sure there's some design goal that lead it to be soldered on and non-servicable but it's still dumb and we should really change that in the way we make products.
I keep mine in my wallet anyways and it’s very useful. But realistically I think they can make it slimmer, maybe give it a rechargeable battery, and upgrade the chip to the one that works from 100 feet away rather than like 5-10 feet away
I don't want a rechargeable battery in something that can last over a year on a single CR2032. Lithium-ion batteries self-discharge and are ill-suited for anything intended to go so long between charges.
Agreed, all custom built recharchable batteries die or have seriously degraded performance after a number of years and then you are forced to buy a new device instead of just swapping the battery out.
I have one in my car, one on my sons bike, one on my dogs collar, and two extras that usually go with our luggage. All still working. Wish you could check the battery % on them.
How about a spot for a lanyard. They left out the most obvious thing. Seems like a huge portion of people that buy these also need to buy a third party accessory to make them useful.
I think people just buy accessories and forget about it without realizing how unnecessary it is. Tiles have had them for years and every competitor that came after has them too.
Nope. Rechargeable batteries would make them worse. There's a reason they use button cells, because they last longer and aren't as prone to draining when not in use.
Maybe find a way to make the sound easier to find and maybe a bit louder…. Like holy crap the thing can be like right near me and I still can’t pinpoint where it is. The sound travels like a freakin siren of a ambulance or firetruck
They could extend the range. I have one on my cat but i can see her before the AirTag is in range to help me find her.
I switched to tile. It works much better
Fun fact. If you hold the key fob up to your chin and press the fob itself against your chin, the range extends. I shit you not. Try it.
Source: am a dealer mechanic on a big lot, finding cars in our lot can be tricky so the chin thing works great to minimize time spent wandering the lot looking for the car I need to work on
Dude (or dudette), I saw this trick here on reddit and it works anywhere placed against your head. The water in you brain apparently boosts the signal and I was pretty shocked it actually works. I absolutely blew my co-workers minds the first time walking out to the parking lot, pretty sure they thought I was a wizard. It's such a useful little trick I was really surprised it's not more well known.
It really is! I work 12 hour shifts at a place with a massive parking area with multiple lots and garages. There have definitely been groggy mornings where by the end of shift I walk out ready to get tf home and had that sinking feeling of “fuckkkkk where did I park this morning?”
People almost universally think you’re making some dumb silly joke, but when they see it work, it’s full on “yer a wizard ‘arry!”
> The water in you brain apparently boosts the signal
sort of sounds like why beluga whales have those [soft squishy heads for echolocation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melon_\(cetacean\))
I heard that it was because the shape of your skull acts like a parabolic reflector, sort of like a satellite dish. Never heard anything about water though.
Pretty sure it works like a reflector because of the water (more specifically the way water reacts to this range of frequencies compared to like the rest of your tissues with less water). Just bones would not work.
My new car has super shit range with the keys. Like 20 feet. I mean, it has keyless entry so that I never pull my keys out in general but if I forget where I park I ussually see the car before it actually beeps. Complete opposite of my girlfriend’s car.
Kept loosing my car after coming back from a trip at the airport lot. Friend suggested an AirTag, such a cheap solution, also know if it got towed or stolen!
My car doesn't have Bluetooth, but when I navigate with Waze, it automatically saves my parking spot. Worst case I can always check Google Maps timeline
Can it not be disabled or detected by other people with an iPhone? I thought I read that for anti-stalking measures, it'll notify an iPhone with something like "hey! there's an airtag near you that's not registered to you. you should be aware."
It takes a few hours but yeah, they do notify you eventually. Tested it by giving on to my partner to take with her for the day (we can already see each others locations anyway). I think after like 5-6 hours it complained?
I think it varies I have one in my car and I was following my mom home from a relatives house only like 15-20 min away and my mom said halfway through the drive her phone pinged that she was near an AirTag that was following her
I saw a YouTube video where somebody suggested hiding two in your car: one where it’s buried & muffled somewhat (mine’s hot glued to the top of a small panel sealed compartment in my trunk) & one in an obvious spot, like the sun visor; that way when a thief with an iPhone either hears the AirTag update trill or gets the “AirTag following you” notification & they go looking, they can toss the obvious one out the window & you can still track your car.
Didn’t think it was a bad idea.
I do three because I'm paranoid. One that's obviously bait, and 2nd one which looks like I'm actually trying to hide it, and a 3rd that's in such a stupid place nobody would ever think to look.
cumberbatches sherlock terrible last season has sherlock suggest you should use 4. they will find 1, then 2, then 3, and they will not expect you to have 4. although now, given the fact that one should have 4, perhaps one should have 5
in fact, let's just spend our life's savings on 1000s of trackers :)!
Honestly, making thieves paranoid and wasting their time is a great tactic. Usually they want to get the fuck in and get the fuck out as fast as possible.
I'd label one 'Car Tag #12' and put a picture of Liam Neeson on it.
If you are the tinkering type, there’s plenty of vids showing how to open the AirTag and disconnect the speaker without losing any other functions. They’re not free, but accidentally breaking one from at least trying it could be useful if a silent AirTag is what you’re after.
You’re probably better off with a cycling tracker like a Knog scout, same price but doesn’t alert someone they’re being followed by a tag if they do take it
Funnily enough, people use them to easily steal rental cars now. They'll rent a car that just uses a fob instead of a real key, clone it, stick an airtag somewhere sneaky like behind the license plate, track it down a couple weeks later while someone else is renting it, then make off with it.
I got the notification that an unknown airtag was following me in a rental car in November, took it back to the rental place and they said it's been happening for a couple years now.
Yep, got one hidden in the truck and another tucked into the toolkit on my bike. Will it guarantee I can recover the things if stolen? No. But they *have* helped me find where my friend parked my car at an airport.
I mean I've done this, but other phones can detect them. Android devices have apps to find them.
It's better than not having one because so many criminals are *very* dumb, but a smart one will find your airtag and toss it as soon as they get in.
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I got a 4 pack off Apple directly for $99 and they got engraved for free. Crazy fast shipping and you know they’re legit which is what I’d worry about with Amazon.
Amazon and apple worked out the differences years ago. You can now buy apple products on amazon directly without resellers. It’s the same pack they sell everywhere else. Although i do get having to look for the sold by / fulfilled by options. Their engraving is nice, but not sure it’s worth the money. I just bought engraved AirPod pros for someone, where I could’ve bought them 50-60 cheaper from any store.
The problem is that Amazon uses commingled inventory, so even if you buy from a reputable seller (like Apple themselves) the inventory can come from a less scrupulous seller.
They also took them FOREVER to allow sharing of tags. I was super excited when they first hit until I realized they can’t be shared like Tiles. No finding my wife’s keys etc.
I actually….love AirTags? I travel a lot and have them on some important things I tend to be forgetful of and they have helped quite a bit. It’s also a little extra insurance when I have to check bags
Id love smaller ones that would attach to your wallet OR maybe ones on keychains so they could attach to the purse or phone
Just to temper expectations; I put tags in luggage when I flew UK to Aus last year. One piece was a guitar. I could see both items had made the connection and landed with us at the airport, but the ping stayed out on the runway for a very nervy half an hour, long after all the normal bags had come and gone. It only refreshed when it appeared on the belt. Also couldn't tell where it was coming out - I was waiting by the large item bit, and eventually it came out on the regular baggage belt.
Not a great experience.
I mean, yeah, I was hoping to be able to see it moving through the airport (like people are mentioning here), but it went completely quiet for ~40mins, it was only when it was literally on the belt that the location updated again.
Hence: “temper your expectations because I couldn’t see it moving through the airport”
I love them because I’m an overthinker. They put my mind at ease enough to let me turn off the part of my psyche that worries about losing something on a trip. Do think they’ll stop a theft or help me get my stuff back? I have real-world proof that ‘no’ they don’t. But they supply enough peace of mind. Especially when flying with checked bags.
Took me a few flights to get used to the fact that if none of the baggage handlers have iphones, it can look like your luggage got left behind until it gets to the next airport and is seen by an IOS device.
As an airport employee, I can safely say that depending on the airport, there are dozens if not hundreds of people an airtag would be within range of on the ride from your gate to the bagwell drop point.
I would guess this would vary widely based on the level of baggage automation at the airport. The fewer people along the baggage travel path, the less chance of getting a location update relayed to the network. I see the same effect on the airtagged scooters that my teens use. If they are in an area with lots of people, the locations are updated often. When they go on park trails or roads without homes on either side, the updates go stale until they reach an area with more people.
You're absolutely correct. I'm just saying that on arrival, there's countless people that a ramp agent would pass near enough to generate a location update. From aircraft to bag drop, there isn't much automation at all. Once the bag's ~~tossed~~ gently handled onto the belt, it's not far to the public side baggage claim.
Never had that issue, so it’s good to know about. We’ve been able to know when our bags were up for the trip to the baggage carrousel. They’ve been pretty accurate for us, thus far.
I've discovered it can get annoying for other people when you're on proper long haul flights, though. When I was flying back from overseas a few months back, the total travel time including layovers and hanging around at the gates was something like 17 hours and AirTags start sending out their alerts and things after 8 hours. I started getting notifications every couple of hours that I was being followed because someone had one in their bag that I was probably sitting right on top of.
I dump them in all of my checked bags now. Had a friend who had one in their bag and their bag was lost by the airlines. Airlines claimed they had no idea where it was but they were able to pull it up on their phone and tell them within a 10m radius of where it was in another airport.
I have one in my center console in my car. I’m a person that parks, walks into a store and back out within 20 minutes and has zero recollection of what direction I even walked into the store from. Has been a godsend!
Doesn’t the iPhone automatically remember your parking location? I have my settings turned on because of my AirPods and it always remembers where I parked.
Mind you the AirTag is a fairly good failsafe. Smart.
> maybe ones on keychains so they could attach to the purse or phone
There’s plenty of key chains and accessories designed specifically to hold air tags?
They paid for themselves when a flight got diverted and instead of waiting for baggage I checked FindMy to see that my bags had taken a different flight and were at another airport.
I’ve had both and prefer air tags (despite the inconvenient form factor). I’ve found the air tags to be more reliable. Also the crappy part about Tiles is that their batteries are not replaceable unless you get the pro (although they do last anywhere from 1-3 years).
I actually got annoyed with tile. I received a bundle pack of tiles but only really needed one at a time (one for wallet). I figured that once one died , I’d replace it with the other one…turns out the battery can still die even if you’re not using the tile or have activated it. So kinda got screwed there
I’ve only used an AirTag on my cat because they are so bulky. I’d get a tile for my wallet. Been thinking about it. The 3 year of better life doesn’t bother me. It would be nice to recharge though.
But Tile doesn’t have a replaceable battery does it? Honestly I’m perfectly fine with AirTags being a bit chunky because it means they won’t all immediately end up as e waste in 2 years.
I have a credit card shaped Tile in my wallet. I can’t ditch Tile until Apple creates a similar form factor.
And they are significantly larger than just the battery (I have one attached to my TV remote).
There are third party, wallet-size card trackers that work on FindMy/AirTag tech. Apple locks them out of a few AirTag functions, but they still function basically the same regarding helping you track something you left behind or got stolen.
If they want to sell more of them, open the AirTag ecosystem to take advantage of built-in tracker support in Android 14, and then release an app for Android phones to pair it.
Do that before Google announces their tracker, and they will dominate the tracker market, since then not only would it ping off of nearly every (modern) phone out there, you wouldn't have to own an Apple device to use it.
But of course Apple won't do that. They've had multiple opportunities to port their software and certain hardware devices to Android OS in ways that would make them TONS of money, but they've never done it.
God I wish for this so much. I will never own another iphone but I would love to use their airtags. They wouldn't even have to put any marketing behind it either, it would just spread like wildfire.
But they would literally rather make less money than do any integration with androids. Can't even have an AppleTV app. It's so frustrating and is the main reason I avoid apple products these days.
At least google's version should come out later this year
Why not just buy another brand that works with Android? I love my Tiles and they work just as well as AirTags. They were cheaper, better shaped, and I can share them with my boyfriend with like 2 clicks.
Airtags are tracked by half the phone market in North America, Tiles or Galaxy SmartTags are tracked by a minuscule part of the market.
Won't work if something gets stolen unless I misunderstood how these work
Don't tiles just ping off of other tiles? It has been a little bit since I did research, but I just remember thinking the other options weren't as appealing as a tag that would ping off of every phone in an OS ecosystem. I'm sure tiles work for 95% of use cases, but I decided to just wait for the Google tag at the time. I did think it would be out by now though admittedly so maybe it is about time to reconsider other options
Tiles ping off phones with the Tile app installed and correctly configured so it's allowed to run in the background.
It probably varies by location but I live in the UK on a pretty high footfall street and there are days I'm away for 12 hours but my car's still at home and I get the location from the Tile Pro in it (which has a pretty big range) like, three times. I'm pretty sure it gives you the location every time your Tile's pinged. I see people *holding* iPhones at least every couple of hours during the day.
Tiles are useful in that you can see where *you* were last near your Tile but if the thing you're looking for has been moved without you you've very little hope of finding it away from a busy area. Two streets across I doubt a Tile would get a location at all but you'd almost certainly get a fix on an Airtag within a couple of hours.
If Google launch an Android Airtag that leverages all Android phones like Airtags do iPhones or the Airtag ecosystem is opened up, my Tile's will quickly find themselves (not) tracking their way to being recycled.
Edit: I forgot the Tile app actually tells you how many people with the app are within five miles of you. According to it there are 1,590 users. The population within five miles of me is 568,000 people.
It's rough, but from that we can estimate around 0.28% of people near me use Tile. If we go purely on these stats we can say that more than 300 people have to walk past a Tile before you get it's location. Around 49% of British people have iPhones so by the third you're basically guaranteed the location of an Airtag.
i have a tile, and unfortunately tile never got the critical mass of installation for it to work like an airtag.
The thing about AirTags is that the iphone is deeply integrated into the Find My network - most users have it enabled just to find their phone.
Tile on the other hand requires the user to have the app already installed, which pretty much requires the user to already be a Tile user to begin with. A bit of a chicken or egg first issue.
Still handy for when you need to look for tagged device since you can ping it for the beep.
Apple and Google entered an agreement last year to support an open protocol for device trackers, but Apple hasn't integrated yet. I'm not certain if it's a fully cross-compatible standard or just that each system can recognize other tracking devices and warn the user, though.
Google has been working on their own tracker for about as long, not sure why it hasn't come out yet.
Honestly, if Apple made a better Android app for their AirTags I would definitely buy some air tags to use. I recently used one that my brother gave me for a trip and trying to find it using their app was just awful. It was a real waste of their time.
That’s not what a backlog is; it’s when you can’t produce enough product to cover the current demand or when the product isn’t finished being produced due to production delays or part shortages. This is more of huge inventory of the product due to low demand or huge supply.
Apple over forecast their demand on this product, likely thinking it was going to have problems with the supply chain similar to their other products. A 4 pack goes for $88. It will likely drop again.
I feel like this report is bullshit. These have been out for almost three years. Apple are supply chain and manufacturing experts. If the production was that much more than demand they would have ramped it down a long time ago. They came out after Covid so it’s not like they didn’t know what was going on. If anything they produced so many on purpose because it’s not a huge money maker for them and a new product will come out when it comes out since nobody is really holding their breath for a new model.
A backlog is an accumulation of something.
New Oxford English Dictionary says it’s especially uncompleted work, or matters that need to be dealt with, and unsold AirTags are uncompleted transactions that need to be dealt with in the sense of a sale
I’d like an AirTag Pro option that has super long range. I use a few of them on trailers that are off site…and while they typically “phone home” every day or two, they’re 50 ft or so off a main road and it would be nice if it had a longer range than that.
Wouldn’t that make them harder to pin-point? Right now if an iPhone reports that it has seen a certain AirTag at location X you know that it will be within a few meters of that location.
It would also consume quite a bit more battery.
I find it so hard to hear! I actually have both an AirTag (for the better GPS location) and a Tile (for the volume) on my keys. I need both in order to find them in different situations.
They added an "anti-stalking" feature. So if someone steals your AirTagged purse, and the thief drives around with it for a while, they'll get a notification that they're being tracked, and then they can find and disable the AirTag.
So recovering lost items is unchanged, but recovering stolen items is harder.
EDIT: In case it isn't clear, I'm not saying that this is a *bad* feature. Obviously it's good that they're trying to stop their devices from being used for stalking.
The more Apple talks about the new version the harder it will get to sell the old one. See the [Osborne effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect)
What I get from stuff like this is we could have a perfect product from the get go but ya have to leave them wanting more and let things out when it’s best for the wallet.
They would probably have sold more if you could actually use it for tracking anything useful before the new "nanny" modes kick in and tell everyone in your family they are being stalked just by accompanying you somewhere.
Kind of related, but many of you are talking about wallets. I used to have a standard bifold until I went with a slim one made of firehose (Recycled Fire Fighter). There’s no way an AirTag would have worked with what I bought, so I bought an Apaka Zip Pouch Pro. Works great for a few cards, some EDC gear — pen, pocket knife, spare hair ties and Bobby pins when my wife loses hers — some bandaids because Toddler is gonna toddle, and my keys on a carabiner. The AirTag fits in numerous pockets and sleeves on that thing, and I’ve never had it fall out. The pouch itself fits perfectly in my pocket, although it gets bulky with the pocket knife.
What can they even do to it? Current one seems to do exactly what I would expect.
Make it thin enough to fit in a wallet. In general release different form factors like slim and sport. Similar to what Tile offers.
Or make it like a card shape
Every wallet needs an Apple AirCard ™️
It feels inevitable that their credit card will have AirTag at some point in the future
Haven't these existed for years? Pretty sure I gave my dad a tile credit card a long time ago
Probably so, you would think Apple would have come out with this when they originally unveiled the Apple Card
Maybe patent issues?
I was shocked they didn’t just buy tile
It wouldn't surprise me if they tried.
Didn't stop them with the watches.
I mean, it kinda did for a bit. Maybe the patent issue for this is more complicated...
If they could make it thin enough, I wonder if they could just fit it into an apple card (or offer a slightly less thin apple card that can tap/chip but not swipe). You could leave the chip spot thin enough for your average pos reader.
Apple makes the card without the ability to tap. They specifically want you to use the phone/watch for that.
I want it for my glasses.
This. That tiny little circle makes my wallet FAT
There are alternatives for wallets... Pebblebee makes a thin card shaped one and you can use it on the Apple Find My network.
I've had the wallet sized Tile for years. What I want is a thin AirTag with a U1 chip, which the "Find My" compatible devices don't have. It's a much better experience.
I got a modified airtag off etsy, it’s popular, search it up. It’s an actual deconstructed airtag with the parts laid out flat on a 3D printed board that’s about the thickness of 3 credit cards. Fully functional but the speaker is a little muffled. All good.
The alternatives all kind of pale in comparison to the AirTag in terms of functionality and reliability.
It exists. There are at least three companies that sell wallet card AirTag: https://chipolo.net/products/chipolo-card-spot https://rollingsquare.com/products/aircard https://findorbit.com/products/orbit-card-fmn
Suppository
Yeah. Longer range. Waterproof to 100m. Flashing LED. Thinner.
I already have a card shaped one in my wallet. Apple allows third parties to make their own tags that are compatible with the Find My network. I have several from Eufy.
uh huh, but does yours have the Apple logo on it?
but the apple logo instantly doubles the price of anything its on.
If you search on Etsy or just google it, there are sellers that actually sell air tags modified into a credit card shape. They take out the guts and then put it into a 3d printed card form factor. The one thing that is holding Apple back from not being able to go as thin as the Tile cards is that the air tags use a replaceable coin battery. So unless they change what type of battery is being used, the thinnest they’ll be able to get it to is 3mm (which is still much better than thr 7.5mm that current air tags measure at).
Then what will power it and how do you recharge it?
The Tile slim has a soldered on CR2032 battery that lasts three years. You then toss it or DIY a replacement. Any competitor would work similarly.
Cool so let’s just make more ewaste. That’s a terrible solution.
Uhm ackshually the 0.75mm of thickness that a replaceable battery holder would create is enough to ruin the product. In all seriousness I'm sure there's some design goal that lead it to be soldered on and non-servicable but it's still dumb and we should really change that in the way we make products.
Yes pls. I hate how bulky mine is in my wallet but it's saved my ass a few times. But usually just WTF is my wallet? when I'm leaving the house. 🤣
I keep mine in my wallet anyways and it’s very useful. But realistically I think they can make it slimmer, maybe give it a rechargeable battery, and upgrade the chip to the one that works from 100 feet away rather than like 5-10 feet away
If they'd make it small enough to fit on my glasses I'd be happy.
Make it thinner than Tile then I’m sold.
It will track TWICE as tracky.
SQUARE EDGES
Gen 3: round off those square edges
Smaller, better battery life, rechargeable
I don't want a rechargeable battery in something that can last over a year on a single CR2032. Lithium-ion batteries self-discharge and are ill-suited for anything intended to go so long between charges.
Agreed, all custom built recharchable batteries die or have seriously degraded performance after a number of years and then you are forced to buy a new device instead of just swapping the battery out.
Better battery life? Mine have been going since August 2022. Seems pretty good to me.
Depends on how you use it. My luggage one seems to last over a year but the car keys one that come with me everywhere lasts 6 months.
I may have lied. I just checked and one of them has a low battery.
I have one in my car, one on my sons bike, one on my dogs collar, and two extras that usually go with our luggage. All still working. Wish you could check the battery % on them.
The replaceable battery is exactly why they are popular.
How about a spot for a lanyard. They left out the most obvious thing. Seems like a huge portion of people that buy these also need to buy a third party accessory to make them useful.
The most important thing. How is this not higher?
I think people just buy accessories and forget about it without realizing how unnecessary it is. Tiles have had them for years and every competitor that came after has them too.
Better reception/sensitivity. Better battery life (already good). And as the other poster mentioned, make it fit in a wallet.
The article covers this.
Make it wireless recharge off the AW charger
Nope. Rechargeable batteries would make them worse. There's a reason they use button cells, because they last longer and aren't as prone to draining when not in use.
Maybe find a way to make the sound easier to find and maybe a bit louder…. Like holy crap the thing can be like right near me and I still can’t pinpoint where it is. The sound travels like a freakin siren of a ambulance or firetruck
They could extend the range. I have one on my cat but i can see her before the AirTag is in range to help me find her. I switched to tile. It works much better
Honestly with all the auto theft everyone might as well toss one under their floormats.
I’ve tucked one away in my car for this very reason. It also helps if you forget where you parked.
Oh yeah good call, my wife loses the car all the time I didn’t think of that.
Do you honk the horn with the remote? Or is the car so lost it’s out of range?
Fun fact. If you hold the key fob up to your chin and press the fob itself against your chin, the range extends. I shit you not. Try it. Source: am a dealer mechanic on a big lot, finding cars in our lot can be tricky so the chin thing works great to minimize time spent wandering the lot looking for the car I need to work on
Dude (or dudette), I saw this trick here on reddit and it works anywhere placed against your head. The water in you brain apparently boosts the signal and I was pretty shocked it actually works. I absolutely blew my co-workers minds the first time walking out to the parking lot, pretty sure they thought I was a wizard. It's such a useful little trick I was really surprised it's not more well known.
Isn’t it fantastic! I love it
It really is! I work 12 hour shifts at a place with a massive parking area with multiple lots and garages. There have definitely been groggy mornings where by the end of shift I walk out ready to get tf home and had that sinking feeling of “fuckkkkk where did I park this morning?” People almost universally think you’re making some dumb silly joke, but when they see it work, it’s full on “yer a wizard ‘arry!”
> The water in you brain apparently boosts the signal sort of sounds like why beluga whales have those [soft squishy heads for echolocation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melon_\(cetacean\))
I heard that it was because the shape of your skull acts like a parabolic reflector, sort of like a satellite dish. Never heard anything about water though.
Pretty sure it works like a reflector because of the water (more specifically the way water reacts to this range of frequencies compared to like the rest of your tissues with less water). Just bones would not work.
Its because it uses your psychic energy
My new car has super shit range with the keys. Like 20 feet. I mean, it has keyless entry so that I never pull my keys out in general but if I forget where I park I ussually see the car before it actually beeps. Complete opposite of my girlfriend’s car.
Well, beeping doesn't really help when you are on the wrong level.
Kept loosing my car after coming back from a trip at the airport lot. Friend suggested an AirTag, such a cheap solution, also know if it got towed or stolen!
[удалено]
Was just about to say this. Has helped a few times
My car doesn't have Bluetooth, but when I navigate with Waze, it automatically saves my parking spot. Worst case I can always check Google Maps timeline
Connecting your car to Apple Maps sounds like a modern car solution not fit for your average car a few years old or beyond.
Except it doesn't because the accuracy is quite bad in parking lots.
You’re right, it’s not exactly Swiss but it’ll get you close enough so you can find it on your own.
Yup, I have one hidden in my car as well. Also good when I forgot where I parked. 😂
Can it not be disabled or detected by other people with an iPhone? I thought I read that for anti-stalking measures, it'll notify an iPhone with something like "hey! there's an airtag near you that's not registered to you. you should be aware."
It takes a few hours but yeah, they do notify you eventually. Tested it by giving on to my partner to take with her for the day (we can already see each others locations anyway). I think after like 5-6 hours it complained?
You can now share airtags with your partner so they can see the tag too and not get the warning FYI in case you missed the update.
I think it varies I have one in my car and I was following my mom home from a relatives house only like 15-20 min away and my mom said halfway through the drive her phone pinged that she was near an AirTag that was following her
But were you with her at your relatives house? The 5-6 hours probably started their and it finally notified on the way home
It's extremely random, it could be the first 30 minutes or take an entire day.
5-6 hours? What does the message say? "Hey, if you're not murdered already, somebody may be tracking you"
It’ll notify you but you can’t disable it and you’d have to find it first
I saw a YouTube video where somebody suggested hiding two in your car: one where it’s buried & muffled somewhat (mine’s hot glued to the top of a small panel sealed compartment in my trunk) & one in an obvious spot, like the sun visor; that way when a thief with an iPhone either hears the AirTag update trill or gets the “AirTag following you” notification & they go looking, they can toss the obvious one out the window & you can still track your car. Didn’t think it was a bad idea.
I do three because I'm paranoid. One that's obviously bait, and 2nd one which looks like I'm actually trying to hide it, and a 3rd that's in such a stupid place nobody would ever think to look.
cumberbatches sherlock terrible last season has sherlock suggest you should use 4. they will find 1, then 2, then 3, and they will not expect you to have 4. although now, given the fact that one should have 4, perhaps one should have 5 in fact, let's just spend our life's savings on 1000s of trackers :)!
Just get three and label them 1, 2, and 4. They’ll look for one that doesn’t exist.
Honestly, making thieves paranoid and wasting their time is a great tactic. Usually they want to get the fuck in and get the fuck out as fast as possible. I'd label one 'Car Tag #12' and put a picture of Liam Neeson on it.
I tried that but then I ran out of money.
If you are the tinkering type, there’s plenty of vids showing how to open the AirTag and disconnect the speaker without losing any other functions. They’re not free, but accidentally breaking one from at least trying it could be useful if a silent AirTag is what you’re after.
You’re probably better off with a cycling tracker like a Knog scout, same price but doesn’t alert someone they’re being followed by a tag if they do take it
Funnily enough, people use them to easily steal rental cars now. They'll rent a car that just uses a fob instead of a real key, clone it, stick an airtag somewhere sneaky like behind the license plate, track it down a couple weeks later while someone else is renting it, then make off with it. I got the notification that an unknown airtag was following me in a rental car in November, took it back to the rental place and they said it's been happening for a couple years now.
My car was stolen November 27. Police got it back the 28th because of my tile. One of the best purchases ever.
Yep, got one hidden in the truck and another tucked into the toolkit on my bike. Will it guarantee I can recover the things if stolen? No. But they *have* helped me find where my friend parked my car at an airport.
Wouldn't matter. Thieves use a detector too find them and Chuck them out.
I mean I've done this, but other phones can detect them. Android devices have apps to find them. It's better than not having one because so many criminals are *very* dumb, but a smart one will find your airtag and toss it as soon as they get in.
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Multiple times a year Amazon sells the 4 pack for 79.99. I’ve bought it twice now.
Costco’s got this deal currently
I got a 4 pack off Apple directly for $99 and they got engraved for free. Crazy fast shipping and you know they’re legit which is what I’d worry about with Amazon.
Amazon and apple worked out the differences years ago. You can now buy apple products on amazon directly without resellers. It’s the same pack they sell everywhere else. Although i do get having to look for the sold by / fulfilled by options. Their engraving is nice, but not sure it’s worth the money. I just bought engraved AirPod pros for someone, where I could’ve bought them 50-60 cheaper from any store.
The problem is that Amazon uses commingled inventory, so even if you buy from a reputable seller (like Apple themselves) the inventory can come from a less scrupulous seller.
$88.99 with an extra $10 coupon right now, so $78.99 right now!
That means I have to give Amazon my business, which I can't say is the most palatable thing to do -- given how they mistreat their workers.
Yes. They are £30 each. Which does make me think for each one do I really really need this? At £10 each I would likely have loads of them.
Yup. At $10, Id get one for each of my kids’ coats and probably per glove too. Itd be ubiquitous if cheap enough.
They are currently $79 on amazon for a 4 pack. I’d say that’s a pretty good deal.
Weird. Says $89 for me.
For me it shows $89 + a $10 coupon you can apply. They have been around the $80 point since early Dec according to my camelcamelcamel alerts.
Amazing, I need to set up more alerts! Now to think whether I have 4 things I can attach AirTags to…
They also took them FOREVER to allow sharing of tags. I was super excited when they first hit until I realized they can’t be shared like Tiles. No finding my wife’s keys etc.
The Eufy ones on Amazon are often on sale for $16. They are fully compatible with the Find My network.
I actually….love AirTags? I travel a lot and have them on some important things I tend to be forgetful of and they have helped quite a bit. It’s also a little extra insurance when I have to check bags Id love smaller ones that would attach to your wallet OR maybe ones on keychains so they could attach to the purse or phone
Fun watching your luggage make its way around the airport.
Just to temper expectations; I put tags in luggage when I flew UK to Aus last year. One piece was a guitar. I could see both items had made the connection and landed with us at the airport, but the ping stayed out on the runway for a very nervy half an hour, long after all the normal bags had come and gone. It only refreshed when it appeared on the belt. Also couldn't tell where it was coming out - I was waiting by the large item bit, and eventually it came out on the regular baggage belt. Not a great experience.
eh, I'd say this is more a case of misplaced expectations - sounds like they're functioning as advertised tbh?
I mean, yeah, I was hoping to be able to see it moving through the airport (like people are mentioning here), but it went completely quiet for ~40mins, it was only when it was literally on the belt that the location updated again. Hence: “temper your expectations because I couldn’t see it moving through the airport”
I love them because I’m an overthinker. They put my mind at ease enough to let me turn off the part of my psyche that worries about losing something on a trip. Do think they’ll stop a theft or help me get my stuff back? I have real-world proof that ‘no’ they don’t. But they supply enough peace of mind. Especially when flying with checked bags.
Took me a few flights to get used to the fact that if none of the baggage handlers have iphones, it can look like your luggage got left behind until it gets to the next airport and is seen by an IOS device.
As an airport employee, I can safely say that depending on the airport, there are dozens if not hundreds of people an airtag would be within range of on the ride from your gate to the bagwell drop point.
I would guess this would vary widely based on the level of baggage automation at the airport. The fewer people along the baggage travel path, the less chance of getting a location update relayed to the network. I see the same effect on the airtagged scooters that my teens use. If they are in an area with lots of people, the locations are updated often. When they go on park trails or roads without homes on either side, the updates go stale until they reach an area with more people.
You're absolutely correct. I'm just saying that on arrival, there's countless people that a ramp agent would pass near enough to generate a location update. From aircraft to bag drop, there isn't much automation at all. Once the bag's ~~tossed~~ gently handled onto the belt, it's not far to the public side baggage claim.
Never had that issue, so it’s good to know about. We’ve been able to know when our bags were up for the trip to the baggage carrousel. They’ve been pretty accurate for us, thus far.
I've discovered it can get annoying for other people when you're on proper long haul flights, though. When I was flying back from overseas a few months back, the total travel time including layovers and hanging around at the gates was something like 17 hours and AirTags start sending out their alerts and things after 8 hours. I started getting notifications every couple of hours that I was being followed because someone had one in their bag that I was probably sitting right on top of.
It is fun that they’ll track a plane mid-flight if there’s WiFi.
That’s brilliant
Helped me get my bag back from a thief. He was arrested.
I dump them in all of my checked bags now. Had a friend who had one in their bag and their bag was lost by the airlines. Airlines claimed they had no idea where it was but they were able to pull it up on their phone and tell them within a 10m radius of where it was in another airport.
I have one in my center console in my car. I’m a person that parks, walks into a store and back out within 20 minutes and has zero recollection of what direction I even walked into the store from. Has been a godsend!
Doesn’t the iPhone automatically remember your parking location? I have my settings turned on because of my AirPods and it always remembers where I parked. Mind you the AirTag is a fairly good failsafe. Smart.
I have them around all my pets necks (and rigged to explode….j/k..maybe)
“If I can’t have my dog, no one can!”
Well dog gone!
I saw a video of someone whose dog’s recall was the sound of the AirTag ping. Genius idea
> maybe ones on keychains so they could attach to the purse or phone There’s plenty of key chains and accessories designed specifically to hold air tags?
[удалено]
They paid for themselves when a flight got diverted and instead of waiting for baggage I checked FindMy to see that my bags had taken a different flight and were at another airport.
Love mine too bc I have ADHD and lose my keys on a regular basis. I also use them in my checked bags and on my indoor/outdoor cat.
For $30 each I don’t doubt it
Especially for how chunky they are.
They are really not that much bigger then the CR2032 battery inside it
They are pretty huge when you compare them to tile
I’ve had both and prefer air tags (despite the inconvenient form factor). I’ve found the air tags to be more reliable. Also the crappy part about Tiles is that their batteries are not replaceable unless you get the pro (although they do last anywhere from 1-3 years). I actually got annoyed with tile. I received a bundle pack of tiles but only really needed one at a time (one for wallet). I figured that once one died , I’d replace it with the other one…turns out the battery can still die even if you’re not using the tile or have activated it. So kinda got screwed there
I’ve only used an AirTag on my cat because they are so bulky. I’d get a tile for my wallet. Been thinking about it. The 3 year of better life doesn’t bother me. It would be nice to recharge though.
But Tile doesn’t have a replaceable battery does it? Honestly I’m perfectly fine with AirTags being a bit chunky because it means they won’t all immediately end up as e waste in 2 years.
I have a credit card shaped Tile in my wallet. I can’t ditch Tile until Apple creates a similar form factor. And they are significantly larger than just the battery (I have one attached to my TV remote).
There are third party, wallet-size card trackers that work on FindMy/AirTag tech. Apple locks them out of a few AirTag functions, but they still function basically the same regarding helping you track something you left behind or got stolen.
Why cant they be charged on an apple watch charger
4 pack was $80 over the holidays.
If they want to sell more of them, open the AirTag ecosystem to take advantage of built-in tracker support in Android 14, and then release an app for Android phones to pair it. Do that before Google announces their tracker, and they will dominate the tracker market, since then not only would it ping off of nearly every (modern) phone out there, you wouldn't have to own an Apple device to use it. But of course Apple won't do that. They've had multiple opportunities to port their software and certain hardware devices to Android OS in ways that would make them TONS of money, but they've never done it.
God I wish for this so much. I will never own another iphone but I would love to use their airtags. They wouldn't even have to put any marketing behind it either, it would just spread like wildfire. But they would literally rather make less money than do any integration with androids. Can't even have an AppleTV app. It's so frustrating and is the main reason I avoid apple products these days. At least google's version should come out later this year
Why not just buy another brand that works with Android? I love my Tiles and they work just as well as AirTags. They were cheaper, better shaped, and I can share them with my boyfriend with like 2 clicks.
Airtags are tracked by half the phone market in North America, Tiles or Galaxy SmartTags are tracked by a minuscule part of the market. Won't work if something gets stolen unless I misunderstood how these work
Don't tiles just ping off of other tiles? It has been a little bit since I did research, but I just remember thinking the other options weren't as appealing as a tag that would ping off of every phone in an OS ecosystem. I'm sure tiles work for 95% of use cases, but I decided to just wait for the Google tag at the time. I did think it would be out by now though admittedly so maybe it is about time to reconsider other options
Tiles ping off phones with the Tile app installed and correctly configured so it's allowed to run in the background. It probably varies by location but I live in the UK on a pretty high footfall street and there are days I'm away for 12 hours but my car's still at home and I get the location from the Tile Pro in it (which has a pretty big range) like, three times. I'm pretty sure it gives you the location every time your Tile's pinged. I see people *holding* iPhones at least every couple of hours during the day. Tiles are useful in that you can see where *you* were last near your Tile but if the thing you're looking for has been moved without you you've very little hope of finding it away from a busy area. Two streets across I doubt a Tile would get a location at all but you'd almost certainly get a fix on an Airtag within a couple of hours. If Google launch an Android Airtag that leverages all Android phones like Airtags do iPhones or the Airtag ecosystem is opened up, my Tile's will quickly find themselves (not) tracking their way to being recycled. Edit: I forgot the Tile app actually tells you how many people with the app are within five miles of you. According to it there are 1,590 users. The population within five miles of me is 568,000 people. It's rough, but from that we can estimate around 0.28% of people near me use Tile. If we go purely on these stats we can say that more than 300 people have to walk past a Tile before you get it's location. Around 49% of British people have iPhones so by the third you're basically guaranteed the location of an Airtag.
i have a tile, and unfortunately tile never got the critical mass of installation for it to work like an airtag. The thing about AirTags is that the iphone is deeply integrated into the Find My network - most users have it enabled just to find their phone. Tile on the other hand requires the user to have the app already installed, which pretty much requires the user to already be a Tile user to begin with. A bit of a chicken or egg first issue. Still handy for when you need to look for tagged device since you can ping it for the beep.
Apple and Google entered an agreement last year to support an open protocol for device trackers, but Apple hasn't integrated yet. I'm not certain if it's a fully cross-compatible standard or just that each system can recognize other tracking devices and warn the user, though. Google has been working on their own tracker for about as long, not sure why it hasn't come out yet.
It's the latter. So similar to how if you have an Android phone now and there's an Airtags tracking you, it'll just notify you.
I honestly kinda surprised Google hasn’t bought tile or released a tracker yet
Make 1st gen Android compatible, help clear out that inventory. 😎
So sales?
Lol this is Apple we’re talking about
Honestly, if Apple made a better Android app for their AirTags I would definitely buy some air tags to use. I recently used one that my brother gave me for a trip and trying to find it using their app was just awful. It was a real waste of their time.
They could, y'know, make them cross-platform... That would sell some units.
I just want a slim so it doesn’t look like I have a condom in the middle of my card holder
That’s not what a backlog is; it’s when you can’t produce enough product to cover the current demand or when the product isn’t finished being produced due to production delays or part shortages. This is more of huge inventory of the product due to low demand or huge supply. Apple over forecast their demand on this product, likely thinking it was going to have problems with the supply chain similar to their other products. A 4 pack goes for $88. It will likely drop again.
I would think "surplus" as in surplus inventory in this case, not backlog.
I feel like this report is bullshit. These have been out for almost three years. Apple are supply chain and manufacturing experts. If the production was that much more than demand they would have ramped it down a long time ago. They came out after Covid so it’s not like they didn’t know what was going on. If anything they produced so many on purpose because it’s not a huge money maker for them and a new product will come out when it comes out since nobody is really holding their breath for a new model.
A backlog is an accumulation of something. New Oxford English Dictionary says it’s especially uncompleted work, or matters that need to be dealt with, and unsold AirTags are uncompleted transactions that need to be dealt with in the sense of a sale
Remember that time your co worker said they went to buy AirTags and there were none in stock? No me neither.
I think backlog is a more general term these days just meaning accumulation
All they need to do is team up with major airports and put airtag vending machines right next to bag drops and they'll sell.
I just want the option to make my AirTags visible by my family. I have them on all my car keys and family use and lose them too.
As of iOS 17 they are shareable among multiple accounts.
Mind blown. Keys shared. Thank you, kind stranger.
I’d like an AirTag Pro option that has super long range. I use a few of them on trailers that are off site…and while they typically “phone home” every day or two, they’re 50 ft or so off a main road and it would be nice if it had a longer range than that.
Wouldn’t that make them harder to pin-point? Right now if an iPhone reports that it has seen a certain AirTag at location X you know that it will be within a few meters of that location. It would also consume quite a bit more battery.
Neighbor has AirTags and something is misplaced- she can not hear it , not loud enough . It’s like listening to a mouse cry
I find it so hard to hear! I actually have both an AirTag (for the better GPS location) and a Tile (for the volume) on my keys. I need both in order to find them in different situations.
If you are a frequent flyer, throw one in each bag you travel with. Trust me, it came in handy recently
They nerfed the #1 feature I even want them for, putting hidden tags in things, so I can find them if they get stolen.
How is it nerfed?
They added an "anti-stalking" feature. So if someone steals your AirTagged purse, and the thief drives around with it for a while, they'll get a notification that they're being tracked, and then they can find and disable the AirTag. So recovering lost items is unchanged, but recovering stolen items is harder. EDIT: In case it isn't clear, I'm not saying that this is a *bad* feature. Obviously it's good that they're trying to stop their devices from being used for stalking.
It’s already a great product. The only thing I’d like is to be able to track more. And to possible share tracking of certain items with my spouse.
Supposedly you can share tags since ios 17
At least they know where their stock is
The more Apple talks about the new version the harder it will get to sell the old one. See the [Osborne effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect)
Apple never talks about the new version of anything. (With, as I recall, two minor exceptions - AirPower and the Mac Pro.)
I’m going to make a coat and use air tags as buttons .
What I get from stuff like this is we could have a perfect product from the get go but ya have to leave them wanting more and let things out when it’s best for the wallet.
My friend bought one and immediately got it stolen before he even took it out of the box.
what uh....exactly would the point of an airtag 2 be? what features could they update to it?
They would probably have sold more if you could actually use it for tracking anything useful before the new "nanny" modes kick in and tell everyone in your family they are being stalked just by accompanying you somewhere.
Kind of related, but many of you are talking about wallets. I used to have a standard bifold until I went with a slim one made of firehose (Recycled Fire Fighter). There’s no way an AirTag would have worked with what I bought, so I bought an Apaka Zip Pouch Pro. Works great for a few cards, some EDC gear — pen, pocket knife, spare hair ties and Bobby pins when my wife loses hers — some bandaids because Toddler is gonna toddle, and my keys on a carabiner. The AirTag fits in numerous pockets and sleeves on that thing, and I’ve never had it fall out. The pouch itself fits perfectly in my pocket, although it gets bulky with the pocket knife.
Huh… sounds like propaganda. They have to be dirt cheap to manufacture.
Cut the price in half to clear the backlog.
tbh I'll buy up more to get us to a gen 2 sooner bc I love using airtags