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Accessory makers with a business model depending on Apple staying still often need to rewrite their business model in the future
 
Yes it is by device. I can see my wife's Macbook and iPhone location.
Do you have family sharing enabled?

I thought that the ability to see others devices was based on that. For example, I can see all of my wife and sons devices and that started when we set up family sharing.

Personal tracking is based on the device that the person selects as their location (usually their phone) and that can be shared with anyone.
 
I'd like to put it on my motorcycle and let family track me just incase I crash and then they'll know where.

They can track your crash location anyway if you have an iPhone and enable family sharing. Well if your iPhones survives the crash of course.
 
Yes it is by device. I can see my wife's Macbook and iPhone location.
As can I, because it's all on the same iCloud Family Sharing. But I can't, afaik, for example, let my brother track my wife's Macbook specifically.
 
Do you have family sharing enabled?

I thought that the ability to see others devices was based on that. For example, I can see all of my wife and sons devices and that started when we set up family sharing.

Personal tracking is based on the device that the person selects as their location (usually their phone) and that can be shared with anyone.

Yes I have family sharing enabled.
 
They can track your crash location anyway if you have an iPhone and enable family sharing. Well if your iPhones survives the crash of course.
Exactly, that's what I'm saying. It's a bad use case for the Air Tag. Just track the phone instead.
 
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Your phone has very likely recorded your cars position anyway, so you can do this without airtags. I use that quite often in big car parks (Theme Parks etc).
You forgot about the mentioned clumsyness.
I do need neither one nor the other opportunity, but 10 years ago I did not know what to do with a smartphone and today I do not know what to do without a smartphone... 🤣
 
Can I just interject here and say something no one seems to be talking about!! The airtag IF stolen, will alert the thieve if he has an iPhone that there is a tag tracking him. So he can dispose of it and keep my wallet. How is this a good idea?? I understand the need for privacy but seriously if I wanted to track someone I can just buy something on Amazon to do it. This makes no sense if someone actually wants to rob me?!?!
And what if the tag isn't there in the first place? You are still out your wallet... I see this product more so for the user and their typical lost items. Not so much as a crime prevention item. However, in the off chance it can prevent or locate a thief / your stolen item, more power to it! The advantage of the Airtag over "something on Amazon" is its ability to work with your iphone in providing precise location.
 
Would this easily allow someone to track a random person's vehicle for example? One could hide an airtag easily on a car and monitor its placement. The irony is that the car owner's phone will be the one reporting the position, since thats the closest iPhone to the tag.

Edit: nevermind, i can see this issue is solved by notifying the user about an unidentified airtag. Guess you need to make sure its an android user first...
 
With the 'unknown tag' alert to prevent stalking/nefarious uses, I'm guessing that ping will only show to iPhone users... so, the Airtags can still be used to track unwitting Android users I'd imagine.
 
Can I just interject here and say something no one seems to be talking about!! The airtag IF stolen, will alert the thieve if he has an iPhone that there is a tag tracking him. So he can dispose of it and keep my wallet. How is this a good idea?? I understand the need for privacy but seriously if I wanted to track someone I can just buy something on Amazon to do it. This makes no sense if someone actually wants to rob me?!?!
AirTags are not a theft preventive product. They are an aid for locating misplaced items. That's the answer to your question.
 
I think (HOPE) when your AirTag is in LOST MODE it will not alert the thieve.
Sounds good except it can still be abused. If someone slipped a tracker onto someone or something not meant to be tracked then the evil-doer would just mark it as "lost" to not alert the victim. Maybe there is a "happy medium" but I don't know. The requirement for privacy substantially reduces the ability to use the Air Tag as a theft deterrent. But again, it's necessary.
 
With the 'unknown tag' alert to prevent stalking/nefarious uses, I'm guessing that ping will only show to iPhone users... so, the Airtags can still be used to track unwitting Android users I'd imagine.
And even if users don’t have an iOS device, an AirTag separated from its owner for an extended period of time will play a sound when moved to draw attention to it. If a user detects an unknown AirTag, they can tap it with their iPhone or NFC-capable device and instructions will guide them to disable the unknown AirTag.AirTag is designed to discourage unwanted tracking. If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, your iPhone will notice it’s traveling with you and send you an alert. After a while, if you still haven’t found it, the AirTag will start playing a sound to let you know it’s there.
 
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One big problem I forsee with this is that using the feature will be so much fun I'll burn up the battery in my AirTags in the first month. :)

Just looked on the Apple website.
The CR2032 battery (which is user replaceable) lasts a year apparently.
 
I Hope the thief doesn’t have an iPhone
Don’t be surprised if the safety alerts become cross platform, with iPhones able to detect suspicious android tags and vice versa. Samsung’s announcement of the exact same feature on the same day smells of more than the usual pre-copycat tactics. I suspect a deal is being struck to get ahead of potential legislation. The idea of Apple users being protected from Apple’s trackers, while everyone else isn’t is actually pretty ugly when you think about it and not at all consistent with Apple’s stance on privacy.
 
It didn't mention anything about this feature (or if it has this feature).

But a handy feature for me, would be for the AirTag to notify me, when I left the item (which has the AirTag in) when I was a short distance away.

For example, if you left your bag in a restaurant, and the AirTag would send an alert to your iPhone to tell you the bag had been left. Or, if travelling on a train, and you left a bag on the train, you could be notified before leaving the train.

If the AirTag has a feature where it would send an alert to my iPhone, when I was a certain distance away, this would be a really useful feature. I'm sure I have read of this feature been on other similar tags. If the AirTag doesn't have this feature then it would seem a bit pointless when other similar tags have it.
 
Watch out as some people will tag almost everything or anyone...
Tag your child, tag your pet, tag your car, tag your wallet/purse, tag your keys, tag your spouse.
Let the fun times begin.

It should help finding one's car in a large parking lot esp. at night.
 
Can I just interject here and say something no one seems to be talking about!! The airtag IF stolen, will alert the thieve if he has an iPhone that there is a tag tracking him. So he can dispose of it and keep my wallet. How is this a good idea?? I understand the need for privacy but seriously if I wanted to track someone I can just buy something on Amazon to do it. This makes no sense if someone actually wants to rob me?!?!
This has been talked about for weeks. A particularly astute forum poster first raised it back in November last year.
 
I'd like to put it on my motorcycle and let family track me just incase I crash and then they'll know where.
Why not simply use your iPhone for this purpose? There is no need to buy a tag for that since you can allow others to locate you / your iPhone via Find My.

Edit: Just saw that others have suggested the same, this thread evolves just too fast 😁
 
That's my problem as well. I would like to use them to protect something like my bicycle. A thief will be notified there is a tracker inside and will just find it and discard it. Wtf??
Not only that, but apparently the battery is very easy to remove. My conclusion is airtags aren’t meant for theft deterrence.
 
A snowboard??? Pretty sure a thief would see an airtag stuck to a snowboard and discard it pretty promptly. Can't see how that would deter or catch a thief.

Depending on the size I was hoping to put it under the bindings
 
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