Now, can Apple also update the firmware of all third-party Find-My trackers? Like those from Chipotle or whatever that company is called.
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Apple Enhancing AirTags Anti-Stalking Measures With Android App and Shorter Sound Intervals
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Apple is trying to provide the best of both worlds with AirTags. Thing is, had they released them and said “They are just like Tile with a 100X larger ecosystem and no app download needed” people would have been up in arms “My gawd, people can track me!!!” The press, as they already have to some degree (I’m looking at you WaPo) would have a field day.
Apple is trying to find the best balance to allow your to track your items AND a measure of protection of being stalked.
Everyone complains, but nobody has provided a realistic solution.
Hard to make everyone happy, the good thing is that the product is evolving. Not sure I ever saw a remote firmware update from the other guys.
Apple is trying to find the best balance to allow your to track your items AND a measure of protection of being stalked.
Everyone complains, but nobody has provided a realistic solution.
Hard to make everyone happy, the good thing is that the product is evolving. Not sure I ever saw a remote firmware update from the other guys.
Yup. Manufacturing fear for clicks. It’s the year 2021 - anyone with the even the tiniest desire to track someone can walk into any Walmart with $40 cash and walk out with a “better” solution than AirTags, and have been able to for many years.
So, if I leave my iPad or second iPhone at home (both signed into my iCloud), the AirTag on my dog would not chirp as he moves about, right? (Yeah, I know they’re not intended for pets, but people are using them that way.)
Yeah I did, but there are way more iPhones and Macs around than Amazon electronics. Both are probably more accurate than GPS, besides using less energy.
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Identify the owner, not really. It's not like you need a govt-issued ID to buy an airtag or phone.
And maybe Apple, being a large company with a lot to lose, doesn't want to get involved with the liability of giving users a way to track thieves. Users probably wouldn't be able to prove to the cops that the device was stolen, so they'd take matters into their own hands. And while I, for one, don't care what happens to the thief, the courts do.
It appears that it will chirp regardless of whether there are other iPhones around. Apple says: “An AirTag that isn't with the person who registered it for an extended period of time will also play a sound when moved so you can find it, even if you don’t use an iOS device.”
I don’t know how Apple is defining ‘absent owner’ here. They could be more or less strict here (and almost certainly change things server-side).
It varies between countries but in some you need a govt-issued ID to buy a SIM card. So you don’t need an ID to buy a phone, but you need one to use a phone as a phone (and not just a small tablet).
Three of my Airtags are attached to my apple TV remotes. Will they start going off as I work 12.5 hour shifts, sometimes nights as I'm a nurse. Will they start going off and waking everyone up at home?My girlfriend uses her AirTag with her iPad on her keychain (she has an Android smartphone). Should she now expect that the AirTag suddenly starts to beep when she is not at home for a few hours?
Motion is required, so a sedentary remote presumably would not chirp; but the distance that constitutes “moving” is unknown. If someone picked up it, maybe? I don’t know.
I think what would be helpful is if Apple outlined example scenarios under which they would chirp or not. However, they probably want it to be ambiguous.
I don’t know if Apple has addressed this, but I believe that if your AirTags are at or near your home, they hopefully won‘t be making a sound, even if they’re not connected to your devices. Since an unknown AirTag will not trigger an alert on the iphone until he or she gets home, I do believe Apple has made a similar decision on this matter.
I guess/hope it requires the tag to travel very far from its origin, in which case it wouldn't beep.
I’m not certain the AirTag knows where home is. You can label a location as home in Find My, but you don’t have to. And what about kids who go back and forth between divorced parents or people who have multiple homes?
You don't need an ID to buy the AirTag or phone, but when you activate the AirTag it gets tied to an AppleID. That AppleID information is what Apple can give the police.
Sure people can use fake names, etc. to set up the AppleID, but that AppleID is also going to be tied to a device that Apple can identify for the police. The police can use that to track the device and find it's location, which is likely to lead to the owner of both that device and the AirTag that was being used to stalk someone.
There's nothing that an AirTag can do as a theft prevention device. It literally can't prevent theft like an ignition kill switch, proximity key, or any other actual theft prevention device. At best, an AirTag can serve as an after-theft tracking device. But if Apple allowed the device to be flipped from a lost item finder to a theft tracking device, they'd essentially be creating a stalking device. The exact thing they're trying to prevent.
AirTags were rumored and leaked for a couple years. Every Apple event people speculated, "are they finally coming?"
But now that they're here... there seems to be a bunch of problems and/or confusion about what they can and cannot be used for.
Hopefully this all gets straightened out.
But now that they're here... there seems to be a bunch of problems and/or confusion about what they can and cannot be used for.
Hopefully this all gets straightened out.
When you notice the device is stolen, you mark it as stolen in your FindMy app. Apple locks it and the theif can't use it or change anything.