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Anybody else tempted to try drilling a hole in their AirTag?

smythey said:
I think maybe with the battery removed, it may be possible to drill a small hole in the plastic near the edge for some string to go through. I'll see how brave I'm feeling tomorrow when it arrives....

For SCIENCE!!
Click to expand...

Sounds like a fun project, good luck i you give it a shot.

I expect bumper-type frames which will add a key ring hole to hit the market since that seems to be a common complaint.
 
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I'm sure iFixIt will do a teardown. If the internals are like a Tile, no, you can't drill without damaging it. They're "simple" little devices, but there are a LOT of parts in there to get them to do what they do. If there was any free room, they'd just make it smaller (this is Apple we're talking about). Even if the PCB and internals don't take up all of it, the only reason it would be bigger is for the battery to fit (typically the biggest part in a device like this).
 
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Must admit this is one thing that I think is poor.
You can’t actually use them really without buying a holder as well.
I thought they might be adhesive, but no, just the tag.

Great for Apples bottom line, but annoying as a user!
a simple hole would have been nice, and less bulky than the holders as well.
 
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I just bought 4 AirTag holders for the equivalent of $1 usd each. Mind you, I’m in Hong Kong.
 
Not worth the hassle , just buy a cheap holder. This holder requirement IS causing launch day issues though. They seem to be out of stock everywhere which will leave those unprepared with no way to carry their Airtag
 
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darthbane2k said:
Not worth the hassle , just buy a cheap holder. This holder requirement IS causing launch day issues though. They seem to be out of stock everywhere which will leave those unprepared with no way to carry their Airtag
Click to expand...
I just decided to buy one 20 min ago, pick up at Apple Store later today.

Well it's 1000 times harder to find a 3rd party AirTag keychain holder now.

My logic - "Oo! Buy the AirTag NOW - since it shows available. Easier to get the holder." Um, no.. not quite. 😆
 
Here’s some videos showing the internals of the Airtags:

AirTag拆解后主板只有0.4毫米厚、再一次惊叹苹果制造设计能力 # - 抖音

AirTag拆解后主板只有0.4毫米厚、再一次惊叹苹果制造设计能力 #airtag #点亮我的思维火花 #科技 - 手机正维修于20210430发布在抖音，已经收获了358.1w个喜欢，来抖音，记录美好生活！
v.douyin.com v.douyin.com

Seems like theres a little bit of room to drill around the edge. You‘ll probably lose the water resistance of the device though.
 
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nguyen6323 said:
Here’s some videos showing the internals of the Airtags....

Seems like theres a little bit of room to drill around the edge. You‘ll probably lose the water resistance of the device though.
Click to expand...

With this in mind; maybe go a bit closer to the edge than I did. Seems to work fine though.

Cheapskate - 1
Apple - 0
 
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Holy ****, I was making an animation of an AirTag being drilled last night as a joke, and you actually did it! ****ing madlad… 🤣🤣🤣
 
Choose the position on the edge wisely.
 

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I’m not going to do this to mine but will one of you please try this: take the battery out, drill a hole right through the middle, then weave a non metal line through the hole and AROUND the battery as installed. Could look cool!
 
People on this site will spend 350 for a keychain, 50.00 for a phone case, up to 500 for a watch band yet complain about a 12.95 air tag holder
 
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smythey said:
With this in mind; maybe go a bit closer to the edge than I did. Seems to work fine though.

Cheapskate - 1
Apple - 0
Click to expand...
Great job, but is yours no longer waterproof?


Anyway, I understand why Apple makes acce$$ory-friendly products, but (IMO) a tracking tag is not something that lends itself to be accessorized or draw attention to. And an unnecessary case just adds one more point in which the airtag can fall out or get separated on the item you’re tracking.
 
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MK11 said:
People on this site will spend 350 for a keychain, 50.00 for a phone case, up to 500 for a watch band yet complain about a 12.95 air tag holder
Click to expand...
The issue for me, is more the fact the product isn’t really (very) usable without spending the extra.
They should be usable for their intended purpose out of the box, and keys were the main example they used to launch.

Phone cases or extra watch bands are optional and don’t affect the functionality of the original product.
 
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