Not really, still serves its intended designed purpose.
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Apple Reveals New AirTag Features Added in Latest Firmware Updates
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It's not an anti theft tracking device.
Correct, they’re not designed to track stolen items. Get it?
Yup. As handy as they would have been, Airtags are now useless for tracking down your items that have been stolen because a couple of people misused them and it generated heaps of press. Apple is in CYA mode rather than thinking of practical use, and CYA mode is never good for the average customer.
Literally everything can be misused. It's not Apple's fault what someone does with a product after purchasing, any more than it's Craftsman's fault if someone uses one of their screwdrivers to stab somebody. But in this ambulance chasing society, companies like Apple feel like they need to do this kind of nonsense to avoid lawsuits. And they aren't entirely mistaken.
So again, to make this crystal clear, the intended purpose of an AirTag is to help you find your personal items that
* you've misplaced in familiar locations,
* you've left behind in unfamiliar locations, that
* a Good Samaritan could be helped to return to you,
* but are no use in the case of theft.
Is that a good explanation of their current purpose and value?
* you've misplaced in familiar locations,
* you've left behind in unfamiliar locations, that
* a Good Samaritan could be helped to return to you,
* but are no use in the case of theft.
Is that a good explanation of their current purpose and value?
I believe this is a fair summary.
But if I correctly understand the latest changes, one drawback worth mentioning would be that if you are forgetting the item in an unfamiliar location, the AirTag could actually enable theft by advertising to everyone in the area that a presumably valuable item has been misplaced, and then guiding people to the actual item with precise location.
People keep mentioning the intended purpose. Personally, I don't really care what the intended purpose is. A more useful purpose is anti-theft tracking and it is frustrating that they keep changing the functionality of AirTags to eliminate the additional benefit they provided.
And yet Find My is used for anti-theft purposes every day to locate stolen phones. It's obvious to everyone including Apple that these features would be used for anti-theft purposes. Claiming Apple never intended them to be so isn't a persuasive argument, no matter what Apple publicly states.
Now if only you could buy a battery that works with an Airtag, as it stands I have purchased THREE brands, and none of them work due to the coatings on the bottom.
It seems unless I order online or just buy another Airtag I am going to lose the ones on my keys eventually.
It seems unless I order online or just buy another Airtag I am going to lose the ones on my keys eventually.
Apple could add an update feature, say through the 'Find My' app, to manually update the airtags instead of having users wonder if the airtags may update automatically.
Just buy her a considerably more expensive AppleWatch with cellular and remind her to charge it every day. 😉
In all seriousness I agree with your statement. We actually did purchase a watch for our ten year old daughter, primarily for that purpose. However she remembers to charge it. Someone in your mother-in-laws condition though, that could be an issue. I feel for you and your family. 😥
Yeah, but it seems not all AirTags get changed. Two of mine have and two haven't. I guess Apple is having a bet both ways
Yes AirTags are not for recovering stolen items.
But there is a difference between what it did before and the new « feature » made to enabling thieves…
What are the chance that you recovered a misplaced item if the Airtag broadcast to everyone around « hey look someone forgot his wallet/bag/…, better grab it quick and run away before they come back »
Because I found that the delay for the « left behind » messages are more or less 7 to 10min or 1km (by foot) or 2 to 3 km (by car) away from the AirTag.
A feature I would like is the ability to customize that time and/or distance.
But there is a difference between what it did before and the new « feature » made to enabling thieves…
What are the chance that you recovered a misplaced item if the Airtag broadcast to everyone around « hey look someone forgot his wallet/bag/…, better grab it quick and run away before they come back »
Because I found that the delay for the « left behind » messages are more or less 7 to 10min or 1km (by foot) or 2 to 3 km (by car) away from the AirTag.
A feature I would like is the ability to customize that time and/or distance.
Sounds like features that were not made for the person that purchased the AirTag.
Each update seems to make AirTags less useful.
Wipe them down with alcohol. That should remove the coating. You'll see a brown shmutz on the cloth afterwards.
I believe that FindMy doesn’t allow a stranger to use precion finding to locate your item. It only alerts if the Airtag is tracking with their location. So it won’t just alert everyone who passes near an AirTag. Rather, if a person stumbles on the lost item, then yes, depending on the intent of the finder, they will either chose to steal or return the item using the AirTag information. Either way, I don’t see how the AirTag is an assistant to a thief.
I had two use cases, the primary of which was outside their original intent. I did not keep up with the details of the updates, and when I bought mine a few weeks ago, they were useless for my primary use case.
Now with this update, it's a negative for my secondary use case.
Gonna sell them and the fancy little cases I bought for them.
Now with this update, it's a negative for my secondary use case.
Gonna sell them and the fancy little cases I bought for them.
Depends what those “missing” features are.
If it’s anti theft, you should consider yourself lucky you had it for awhile but Apple always stated that anti theft wasn’t the purpose of AT’s.
That's my sense from the comments as well.
Today's tech products carry an expectation that they could change down the road with added features.
We don't expect that future updates will actually neuter the product. And people who are upset about it, it's fruitless to blame them.
Admittedly, we are dealing with products in a space that humans haven't really thought through all the implications of, giving a tremendous amount of power that may have unintended bad consequences.
I do think the "AirTags are not for recovering stolen items" argument to be filled with problems, as if this was patently obvious from the get-go. Of all the reasons for loss, theft is a big one so it makes sense that anyone would assume that preventing theft would be a big reason to purchase a product like an AirTag.
I'm wondering how accurate this is. It'd be worth it to have a few sources for this since it seems to get contested any time AirTag news hits MacRumors.
I've seen baggage handlers mentioned a lot regarding Airtags. I doubt they will get pinged a lot. I assume the notifications happen if the Airtag follows/goes with you for a certain amount of time. These handlers keep moving luggage to other handlers and unlikely any of them travels with a piece of luggage for long enough to get a notification. However, I would be curious to see a good investigative piece of journalism on this subject. Would make for fun/light reading. For now I think it is mostly speculation.