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Encrypted until law enforcement serves a warrant. How long will it take Cellebrite to hack this thing wide open?
 
Everyone here is focused on the thief disabling the tracker.

Has anyone thought of..... the thief just throwing it away when it's discovered?
EDIT: jonblatho did.
 
The thief can also — bear with me here — simply physically remove the AirTag, unless it is somehow permanently affixed to an item. Using it to track a stolen item is pointless.

It depends on the item. If you put that in your car somewhere it'll be hard to find...if you hide it effectively.

I think as a car tracker/lojack this'll be awesome.
 
I was thinking the same thing. This could have worked wonders to put on a necklace or wristband or something for a kid at an amusement park.
Sure, they would rather us buy a $300 device than. $30 device. Also I assume that means that the next Apple Watch isn't going to require an iPhone and/or Cellular or do we need to get the little buggers an iPhone too!?

I think Apple Watch on a family plan no longer requires a paired iPhone. I’m not sure how it works, but I thought they announced that at the event where they announced new Apple watches last fall.
 
Thief steals item. Thief turns off tracker. Great idea.

Yeah, its still unclear if this could be used with your bike? If the Thief can just disable the tag (assuming they also have an iPhone on them) its not very useful for any tracking, ie luggage, laptop bag, instruments, bikes, etc etc.

So whats the point of these tag? lost keys? anything else? Seems like "it () wanted to create something that no one else in the industry’s ever done before." So... a tracker that doesn't give you any piece of mind?
 
I was thinking the same thing. This could have worked wonders to put on a necklace or wristband or something for a kid at an amusement park.
I have already ordered some silicone cases to attach to my kids at festivals/zoo/events. I just need a general direction to head if we get separated. there will be so many phones around, will be super effective.
 
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It depends on the item. If you put that in your car somewhere it'll be hard to find...if you hide it effectively.

I think as a car tracker/lojack this'll be awesome.
It relies on iPhones/iPads/etc. being within Bluetooth range, and note that the Bluetooth signal will likely be passing through a metal frame first, impacting its range. You’d probably be able to get irregular pings but I don’t see it being all that useful in that case.
 
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Once enough of these devices have been sold, I'm sure Apple will release an AirTag premium paid service. Another reason to subscribe to the AppleOne monopoly.
 
So in order to know if you're being stalked you have to have an iPhone? Perfect device for stalking Android users then…
 
Apple is really stretching this policy. Every product I’ve submitted to the MFi application for Find My has been rejected, simply for being a pet product. Even products that do not physically attach to a pet (like my collar I submitted, that I understand). It’s a generic “not intended for people or pets” message. Basically unless they think it’s something someone can actually use that has limited liability to them, it’ll get rejected.
The way people on this very forum condemn Apple for even sneezing wrong I would say I can’t blame Apple for limiting any chance of liability.
 
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I wonder about this too if that description is accurate. Say I have the tags on my keys and my spouse's keys. I leave the house to get groceries, will her tag beep as long as I am not there? Or will it have to be tied to her phone? What about the kid's backpacks for if they leave them at school or swim practice. Will they start beeping as soon as they aren't near one of us who has the phone? They are too young for phones, but not for school. Will air tags not be useful for their backpacks?

I doubt we'll know before we get them in our hands - the influencers are clueless/useless to actually provide answers to these important questions.

Next Friday can't get here soon enough!
 
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It relies on iPhones/iPads/etc. being within Bluetooth range, and note that the Bluetooth signal will likely be passing through a metal frame first, impacting its range. You’d probably be able to get irregular pings but I don’t see it being all that useful in that case.
Remember, it's talking to every Apple phone in range, so if you're on a street with traffic it'll get picked up. Radio does bounce around more than you think, and there isn't a lot of actual metal in a lot of cars today.

If you want to see how well BT travels go to your BT settings when you're in the car and see how many car radios you can pair with. I do this occasionally by mistake, and I can usually see one or two in pairing mode.

And remember, you don't have to pair for this to work - it should work on relatively weak signals as well.
 
It depends on the item. If you put that in your car somewhere it'll be hard to find...if you hide it effectively.

I think as a car tracker/lojack this'll be awesome.

This exactly what I was thinking. The million dollar question here is - does it start chiming on its own if I'm in my house during the time I'm not in the car and I'm a hundred feet away. What if I step out my car to go shopping for an hour or two - will it start chiming then?

This is the question that everyone is looking an answer for to, and the influencers are too clueless to investigate.

I absolutely want to put these in my car, hiding them deep in a cushion, to track if (God forbid) my car was stolen, instead of paying stupid $20/month for worthless Onstar through GM, which can easily be disabled if the thief knows the wiring harness that powers the Onstar unit.
 
Remember, it's talking to every Apple phone in range, so if you're on a street with traffic it'll get picked up. Radio does bounce around more than you think, and there isn't a lot of actual metal in a lot of cars today.

If you want to see how well BT travels go to your BT settings when you're in the car and see how many car radios you can pair with. I do this occasionally by mistake, and I can usually see one or two in pairing mode.

And remember, you don't have to pair for this to work - it should work on relatively weak signals as well.

This isn't Bluetooth though, it's UWB. It has a whole different radio profile/capabilities which are vastly superior to BT tracking.

The distributed iDevice/Airtag network is only applicable to devices that have UWB - iPhone 11 and up. So it will grow, every year.

To my knowledge, the Airtag does not have Bluetooth.
 
A bike lock gives you peace of mind, a tracker would give you peace of mind, and insurance policy gives you peace of mind. Nothing is perfect but at least you try to protect yourself.
 
so when I walk with my wife or family member (with my keys), is she going to keep getting notifications all afternoon?
 
If you have so many issues locating your children then an air tag is the least of your problems
Yes but you’re primarily thinking of neuro-typical children. Having something that helps locate ASD children would be incredible to those who parent such children.
 
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I needed something to track my pets :(
I used to have a Tile on my outdoor cat’s collar. It worked great for a while.

After Apple started forcing the continual prompt to keep Tile working, I eventually got too annoyed and quit using it.

It sounds like this would work the same.
 
She isn't technical and has me do all that stuff, but that isn't the point. The point is, say I do it for the kids who don't have phones.
My wife is also not a technical person. I’ll do it for her *with her phone*.

As for kid stuffs, that will depend on a lot of factor for it to work.
 
It raises a question about use in a plane. with KLM I could chug it in my carry-on camera bag. (Cargo hold not allowed, you’re not allowed to put anything with a battery in there). Will a quarter or half the 777 then get a “a tag is traveling with you” message? :) Bluetooth 5.0 does have a range to make that funny or annoying.
The evilness of this plan just made my day.
 
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