Apple Announces AirTag Tracking Devices Starting At $29 Each

[Sir_Macs_A_Lot]

I'll take four please. One to put on my dog, my wife, and two girlfriends.
Who am I kidding? I don't have a dog. 😁

 

[snowatom]

Wonder if I can deactivate the use of my iPhone for AirTags. Would like to be able to do that, just in protest... 80$ for an AirTag with holder, screw that. I don’t want my iPhone wasting time on that overpriced junk 😂

Price in Danish currency.

Køb AirTag

Sæt AirTag på dine ting, så du kan spore dem på iPhone. Gravering med tekst og emojis. Køb nu på apple.com.

www.apple.com

 

[Baff]

Literally what it says. That finding the location won’t be as precise

Right... but how much less precise? What is the range? Seems like lots of unknowns still.

It is nice that these will work great in a city filled with billions of iPhones, but how well will they work outside of the city?

 

[Baff]

Wonder if I can deactivate the use of my iPhone for AirTags. Would like to be able to do that, just in protest... 80$ for an AirTag with holder, screw that. I don’t want my iPhone wasting time on that overpriced junk 😂

Actully, it is about $43 with holder in the US.

 

[archer75]

Right... but how much less precise? What is the range? Seems like lots of unknowns still.

It is nice that these will work great in a city filled with billions of iPhones, but how well will they work outside of the city?

same as how find my works on your phone now. UWB is needed for precise direction and distance like how they showed him looking for keys in the commercial. It's UWB that allows for that. Without that you just see a dot on the map like if you were to open the find my app right now and see the location of your phone, macbook, ipad, etc.

 

[Sir_Macs_A_Lot]

Precision Finding is limited to iPhone 11/12. Not sure exactly what that means for us with older iPhones.

It will give you the general area, but not the arrow displaying direction and distance from you.

 

[Henry S]

To not have some kind of built in hole for keyring or strap band is almost a dealbreaker for me. Those holders they introduced look to bulky.

I was afraid this was going to be the case from the leaks. I carry too many keys to need a fob for the tag.

 

[jimbobb24]

Yep, another big red flag for me. I want to like this so much, but that thickness isn't gonna work for a wallet. Early speculation was 6mm, whereas a Tile Slim is 2.4mm.

They came it at 8 mm. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

 

[bollyboy]

Curious to see if the Airtags offer any benefits over the Chipolo spot which comes supplied with a keyring hole so no expensive holders needed.

 

[snowatom]

Actully, it is about $43 with holder in the US.

How come it’s half price in the US. I guess they don’t wanna sell to a Dane.

 

[jimbobb24]

The Hermes Airtag is $350 LMAO

View attachment 1760463

What would it be like to be that rich? Wow.

 

[Sir_Macs_A_Lot]

They came it at 8 mm. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

I keep my wallet in my pocket when I leave the house and in a drawer next to my bed when I'm home.
Why do people need to track their wallets? Are they fall-down, pass-out drunks or something?

 

[danny1305]

All this excitement over a gps tag that has been offered in the power tool and construction world for 5 years at the same price....

There’s always this guy...always

 

[jimbobb24]

Crap - just seen this on the Apple site - so it won't work for car theft as it will let the thief know the car has an Airtag (assuming they have an iPhone I guess):

"AirTag is designed to discourage unwanted tracking. If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, your iPhone will notice it’s travelling 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."

That totally destroys some of the most useful situations so that you can prevent an almost unheard of super rare situation - using these to stalk someone. Thats implementation based completely on irrationality and fear.

 

[Baff]

How come it’s half price in the US. I guess they don’t wanna sell to a Dane.

$29 for the AirTag. $13 for Belkin holder.

 

[jimbobb24]

You may be able to drill a small hole in one for a lanyard. Silly you have to do that but it is an option.

Or someone will make a $2 accessory you can buy on amazon that will do the trick in the next 2 months.

 

[Baff]

Crap - just seen this on the Apple site - so it won't work for car theft as it will let the thief know the car has an Airtag (assuming they have an iPhone I guess):

"AirTag is designed to discourage unwanted tracking. If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, your iPhone will notice it’s travelling 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."

It will also make noise to let random strangers know that you left your purse/keys/whatever behind, which could be good, or very bad.

 

[Variant]

Don't need these, but look like a great project.

I was half hoping they didn't even exist after the 1-2 years of rumors.

 

[archer75]

It will also make noise to let random strangers know that you left your purse/keys/whatever behind.

I would guess that it takes a certain amount of time before you get an alert. Otherwise it would be going off constantly just as you're passing people. I would also guess it has to be within a certain distance from your phone, probably on your person. So if you put one in your trunk and someone stole your car i'm not sure it would go off due to distance from the drivers seat. Otherwise these things would get highly annoying. Constant alerts.

But we'll see once they ship.

 

[Combi06]

Then you've misunderstood how they and any similar tech works. It doesn't have a GPS tracker in it. This is local only, or happenstance, eg if someone with a Apple device is nearby. And has the feature turned on,

OP has a point though. Per Apple's article:
"AirTag is also designed with a set of proactive features that discourage unwanted tracking, an industry first. Bluetooth signal identifiers transmitted by AirTag rotate frequently to prevent unwanted location tracking. iOS devices can also detect an AirTag that isn’t with its owner, and notify the user if an unknown AirTag is seen to be traveling with them from place to place over time. 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."

Seems counter productive in the case of a stolen item no?

 

[Force332]

Way back in the iOS 13 betas there were hints of what appeared to be an augmented reality aspect to this. I remember someone finding a 3D balloon model, etc. I wonder if they ditched the AR aspect of this. Or if that’s yet to come? I always liked the idea of holding up my phone and seeing it’s exact location in the room shown to me. At least from what I see, Find My will only guide you with direction and distance.

 

[Feyl]

Seems like people really want another tracking device.

 

[rcread]

I am definitely attaching one to all of my 10mm sockets.

 

[theman510]

Wonder how these will work in luggage on a plane. Would it keep beeping or pinging the nearest person that a tag is nearby?

 

[Project Alice]

Does this mean they won’t work for phones without a U1?