This basically gives people some peace of mind and doesn’t require a subscription. Sure it’s not as good as a gps tracker but if your pet doesn’t escape a lot then it’s an fairly cheap insurance.
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ElevationLab Debuts AirTag Holder for Pet Collars
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So.... the place this collar will get the most ... hits.... on the network is when its in the middle of the road as cars keep passing over it.....
I think I'd rather do something to keep my dog near by....
I think I'd rather do something to keep my dog near by....
Dogs consider you part of the family. Cats consider you "staff".
this is specifically going to work in the very rare circumstance where the tag attached to your dog's collar comes within range of another device on the findmy network.
perhaps as this expands significantly, then sure. right now it's a tossup. i guess something better than nothing? but an upgraded cost airtag with gps module would have been better for this.
Hmmm, this actually may be one of the few uses I have for an AirTag. They just got me to look into this. Well done, TagVault...
Good idea. Being able to track your pets would help you find them, and prove they did not tear up the neighbor's garden.
Cool. Totally disagree as you are basically arguing its worthless for your use case, but there are plenty of others who will find the features of this much more useful than a GPS collar. As I live in a fairly urban area with lots of iPhones around this will be perfect. Will make it much easier to at least point you in the right direction of your pet and then you can pinpoint exactly once in range. The GPS collars currently available are way too big and clunky for small dogs and also cats. Plus the battery lasts a few days max in anything a decent size. I can leave this on my pet all the time without worrying about battery for life. Plenty of people who will find this functionality great and certainly not worthless!
Apparently they didn't get the memo that this not what AirTags are for, and there are several reasons why you shouldn't even bother.
Cool. Totally disagree as you are basically arguing its worthless for your use case, but there are plenty of others who will find the features of this much more useful than a GPS collar. As I live in a fairly urban area with lots of iPhones around this will be perfect. Will make it much easier to at least point you in the right direction of your pet and then you can pinpoint exactly once in range. The GPS collars currently available are way too big and clunky for small dogs and also cats. Plus the battery lasts a few days max in anything a decent size. I can leave this on my pet all the time without worrying about battery for life. Plenty of people who will find this functionality great and certainly not worthless!
I have a Samsung GPS collar over Verizon, and it works well, but it needs to be recharged every 3-4 days. The AirTag is a lot more convenient and unless you live in the boondocks, there is a good chance the dog would wander by somebody with an iPhone.
I think the smallest GPS pet collar is the Whistle Go Explore, which is only available in limited locations and even that is pretty huge and way too big for medium sized dogs, small dogs or cats. Most GPS collars are much bigger than that too. It's a chunky $150 tracker that has to be charged every couple of weeks at least with a monthly fee on top. They have a completely different use case from an AirTag, which costs way less, has no monthly fee and is small enough for a dog to have on it's collar 24/7 and it will last a year. Once gps trackers get down to actual reasonable sizes with longer battery lives then I'll be sure to get a couple for our dogs but until then, AirTags are better than nothing and should be immensely helpful if my dogs get lost. Unfortunately no current solution is going to help if a pet is stolen.
If you live in a rural area, something like Fi will probably be better for your use; but depending on just how rural you are, even it might not work as well as you expect. I've had a Fi collar for a little over a year now and find its cellular coverage (uses AT&T's LTE-M network) very spotty; even in some urban areas.
I got in on a good Black Friday deal with Fi and essentially paid for 2-years worth of service. After that subscription is up, I am not sure if I will renew and instead switch to an AirTag or something equivalent. In my own testing of AirTags in my area, I've yet to find a spot where it didn't have its location reported within 5 minutes; even while driving down the road in somewhat rural areas (was tested by having a friend drive around with one and had Find My turned off on their device as to make sure they weren't reporting its location).
This is actually perfect for pets. I don't like the dangling concept since dogs (maybe cats) can rip it off while scratching. This seems the best way to avoid that to happen.
Airtags are a far inferior product to locate dogs/cats than a GPS device. When a dog gets lost, time is of the essence. The longer dog is lost, greater chance of being hit by car. A scared dog won't approach a stranger so can't depend on iPhone picking up signal. The Elevation Lab holder is even worse as it hides the fact that an Airtag is attached.
Please....get a GPS type device. They are not bulky. I use "whistle.com" devices.
Please....get a GPS type device. They are not bulky. I use "whistle.com" devices.
There's nothing wrong with it, people are free to spend on what they want to. But it's odd to hinge an accessory with a solution in mind that the base product wasn't made for. Especially considering Apple's ability to adjust the software, an update to AirTags could be released that could make its tracking for things like pets worse.
My dogs are being trained to come to me with treats when they hear the sound.
We took our dogs swimming a couple of weeks ago. I noticed one of them was missing their AirTag from their holder. Pulled up the Find My app and saw that it never left the house. Sure enough we got home and found it sitting on the floor next to the coat closet. Find My works just fine, and demonstrated it will pick up the AirTag if an Apple device is nearby.
Our other dog is pretty mischievous so I know how the AirTag got out. Something like this would prevent that from happening.
You don’t need to be in a heavy urban area to get an accurate location reading. I’ve seen some YouTube videos of people making up scenarios in small towns to see how they work with smaller populations and if they update frequently. Don’t forget, the Find My network relies on iPhones, iPads, & Macs.
Just like the article title, you paraphrased the quote incorrectly.
“As for strapping an AirTag to a pet, Drance says, “If people do that, they just have to make sure that their moving pet gets into range of a device in the Find My network” so its location can be tracked.”
Not exactly saying that AirTags weren’t designed for tracking pets. Let’s not forgot Find My network uses iPhones, iPads & Macs to target an items location.
iPhones, iPads, & Macs are not present in rural areas where your next neighbour is ten miles away or more and may or may not have any of these. So I'll restate that I can only see these working for pets in heavy urban areas.
It's a very, very niche market accessory. Only people who's pets gets stolen by someone who uses an iPhone would be in the market for this. If you think your pet will be stolen by someone with an iPhone, this product is for you.
Most posters understand this, which explains all the snarky comments.