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AirTag 2 Hands-On: What's New and Should You Upgrade?
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Enlightened Doggo
macrumors 6502
What a world we live in where people can't find their remote, can't find their cat, can't find their car, and are still allowed to drive!
I know, right? I'm hopeless.
usmaak
macrumors 65816
I put one in each of my checked bags when traveling. It’s been nice to land and then see my luggage getting taken off of the plane and loaded onto the baggage carousel. I have one on my keychain and one in my wallet. That’s all the ways they make sense in my life. I did consider hiding one in my car but I’d forget about it, neglect to change the battery, and it would die.
usmaak
macrumors 65816
Cats are masters at hiding. Of course they are also very good at taking collars off. 😂
Alan-in-CO
macrumors member
Alan-in-CO
macrumors member
I read some people wanted a hole so they could attach it to a keyring. Not a big deal to me, they're fine like they are.
Alan-in-CO
macrumors member
I've tested my new ones against my old ones, and can definitely see a difference. The old ones take much longer to update when they're away from me. My work involves switching vehicles frequently, and so I need quick and accurate updates in case I leave something behind.
A company called Elevation Lab makes some ingenious cases and holders, and even 5 and 10-year rechargeable cases. I've used many of their products and been pleased with them. I have nothing to do financially with them, just a happy customer. I'm glad the Airtag2 is able to use my old cases.
A company called Elevation Lab makes some ingenious cases and holders, and even 5 and 10-year rechargeable cases. I've used many of their products and been pleased with them. I have nothing to do financially with them, just a happy customer. I'm glad the Airtag2 is able to use my old cases.
Any word on whether the AirTag 2 meets the new BT 6.0 specification? That includes a feature called “Channel Sounding”, which enables measurement of distances between BT devices; the claimed accuracy is ± 1cm.
That would be perfect for AirTags since, if your phone also has BT 6 (and soon the new ones will), then you can tell how far away the tag is, which would be helpful as you are trying to find objects that are close by but lost (e.g., your keys, your parked car, etc.).
It would be unfortunate if they upgraded the AirTags without also upgrading them to BT 6 with Channel Sounding.
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/news/bluetooth-can-now-measure-distance-hardware-support-en-route/
https://www.bluetooth.com/press/bluetooth-channel-sounding/
That would be perfect for AirTags since, if your phone also has BT 6 (and soon the new ones will), then you can tell how far away the tag is, which would be helpful as you are trying to find objects that are close by but lost (e.g., your keys, your parked car, etc.).
It would be unfortunate if they upgraded the AirTags without also upgrading them to BT 6 with Channel Sounding.
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/news/bluetooth-can-now-measure-distance-hardware-support-en-route/
https://www.bluetooth.com/press/bluetooth-channel-sounding/
None of the "hands on" or even other reviews say anything about whether the better Bluetooth improves the general finding of the Tags - i.e. when other phones have to help in locating the tag's location. E.g. with the current AirTags, I often see my luggage still at a departing airport, even though I'm sitting at the luggage return carousel already. I'm hoping AirTag 2 will reach those luggage handlers' iPhones a bit quicker 🙂
Well, for one, they could add a keychain hole. That wouldn't have to affect AirTag holders - but would negate the need for them in many instances.
wanha
macrumors 68030
how is it possible you have no idea what people use these for?
This is my biggest software feature request, if any find my device is not seen on a set schedule, set by the user (daily, weekly, monthly), you shoud get a notification, i've lost items, then looked on the findmy app to see "item not seen for 2 months", even though it was with me the day before. Users who don't want this can turn it off.
NightFox
macrumors 68040
Yes, too hard, and much harder than I think you realise. Apple products and services are available in 175 countries, and AirTag owners will probably travel to many others. Each of those countries will have their own laws regarding this, which Apple would need to understand and comply with. And then set up/massively expand a department to deal with these requests from police forces, some of which may be from more 'dubious' countries. And then ensure they were following proper legal process for sharing that information.
When Apple get a request from - say - the Chinese government, or even a large government closer to home, would you want them sharing that info with them?
I need to look up how long you are away from your device that isn't at home that it starts chirping... something I didn't think was an issue with the first Airtags.
EG:
Dog at a pet retreat for a week while I'm on holiday.
Bags left at another location for a few days while travelling elsewhere.
Are people going to start getting annoyed at the alarm?
EG:
Dog at a pet retreat for a week while I'm on holiday.
Bags left at another location for a few days while travelling elsewhere.
Are people going to start getting annoyed at the alarm?
Rychiar
macrumors 601
form factor still sucks but thankfully someone tipped me off that they sell redesigned official ones on Etsy that are more like flat cards and can fit in a wallet well.
The other option is to get a new wallet designed with a place to put a normal AirTag. There are both normal, leather wallets like this as well as the newer variety that is all metal.
I only want 1 feature:
"Your AirTag reported it was at 1% battery and is no longer transmitting, it appears the battery died."
My battery had been dead for 2 months and I had no idea. I didn't get a "left behind" notification because it died when I was at home.
"Your AirTag reported it was at 1% battery and is no longer transmitting, it appears the battery died."
My battery had been dead for 2 months and I had no idea. I didn't get a "left behind" notification because it died when I was at home.
Rychiar
macrumors 601
I have a plastic card shaped thing with a full AirTag in it currently and it's been passable but it sucks cus I have this ultra slim wallet and then have this big lump in it from the damn AirTag. and I've always kept my wallet in my back pocket so that sucks. Hopefully this re-engineered solution from Etsy will be a lot better. it's less than half the thickness
Rychiar
macrumors 601
same. mine was dead in my wallet the day I lost my wallet awhile back and actually needed to use it... luckily I did eventually find it... but the battery life is also frequently inaccurate on these things cus that day I replaced the battery and now less than a month later it's saying low battery again
hopefully that will work well. The leather version I mentioned would likely have a bulge from the AirTag that you could feel in a pocket. The metal wallet option could be a bit better because the place where the AirTag goes is in a empty circle in the outer metal case but still a metal wallet may be less comfortable than a leather one in a pocket. Good luck.
FYI, there's now the ability to find newer Apple TV remotes without an AirTag. See https://support.apple.com/en-us/108371
Johnny907
macrumors 68020
Yup. I have an Airtag taped to the inside of my dash behind the glove box where it's easy to reach if you know where to look, but I disabled the speaker so good luck finding that em effer lol. Same with my luggage, in which I have the Tag installed inside the sliding handle mechanism. For my camera bag, I bought a cheap wireless flash trigger, gutted it and installed the Tag inside. Same for my laptop bag except there it was an external enclosure for an SSD. My thinking there is any criminal with half a brain would pull anything that looks valuable and dump the bag, so as long as the contents stay together I'm still tracking the thief.
Sure, it'd be a nice-to-have, but I'd also suggest that by the time you're close enough for precision finding to work, you're also close enough to hear the audible sound emitted by the card.
The video should've compared precision finding distance when approaching the airtags - I suspect already being connected may give an overly optimistic demonstration of the range rather than detecting the airtag when not already connected.