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Has anybody actually genuinely lost something outside, in the wild and found it with an AirTag yet?
- Thread starter Feek
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I'm waiting for someone to post that they lost their AirTag and used their iPhone to find it.
Or... that their dog ate it...
Consider the AirTag to be akin to the old metal detectors... they have a finite range, so when you are out of range of the tag, they are pretty much worthless. It's only if you are in range of the tag, and it's battery isn't dead, that you will find it.
Funny thing is, you are still hunting for your lost keys... you just are now relying on you iPhone to beep you in the right direction.
Or... that their dog ate it...
Consider the AirTag to be akin to the old metal detectors... they have a finite range, so when you are out of range of the tag, they are pretty much worthless. It's only if you are in range of the tag, and it's battery isn't dead, that you will find it.
Funny thing is, you are still hunting for your lost keys... you just are now relying on you iPhone to beep you in the right direction.
My wife popped an airtag in her handbag. She often forgets Where she left it and gets stressed when she’s in a hurry. I know she’s used the airtag at least once to track it down. We only have iPhone SE’s so no directional finding with uwb. She just made the airtag beep and quickly found her bag on a chair in the kitchen. I think the airtags are excellent for this low level finding of misplaced items.
I’ve put one in my wallet and one thing I’ve noticed is that it’s location is usually accurately reported in Find My. I wonder If the location is also being reported by HomePod minis via uwb.
I’ve put one in my wallet and one thing I’ve noticed is that it’s location is usually accurately reported in Find My. I wonder If the location is also being reported by HomePod minis via uwb.
If Apple allows third parties to create interfaces for find my, a bucket of money goes to the first developer that can provide a licensed “Aliens” interface
My Airtag got stuck in my case/mount, and when I tried to find it it kept saying "here" no matter where I went. I searched for my bag for hours.
Yes and no. As I posted in another thread I had to find my "car keys airtag". No, no the car keys, the airtag. It had popped out of its holder, so I had the keys but no airtag.
it had bounced into a plant of tiny flowers in neighbours garden, I'd have never found it without the ability to find air tags lol.
To be fair, it's a massive set of keys and cramming it into my pocket is well beyond spec. I've ordered a belkin locking one for this set.
But it does expose one of the main fails of this design, no integral hole.
it had bounced into a plant of tiny flowers in neighbours garden, I'd have never found it without the ability to find air tags lol.
To be fair, it's a massive set of keys and cramming it into my pocket is well beyond spec. I've ordered a belkin locking one for this set.
But it does expose one of the main fails of this design, no integral hole.
The Belkin holder is rigid and I think it’s very unlikely that the AirTag will drop out of it.
If Apple allows third parties to create interfaces for find my, a bucket of money goes to the first developer that can provide a licensed “Aliens” interface
That scanner has one of the scariest noises in the history of scary noises.
Yes. I found our living room remote control twice already thanks to AirTags. I have five year old twins and live with two boomers. The remote goes missing almost daily. Sometimes it gets so lost that we can't find it for weeks. We actually have THREE remotes for this TV, since it's such a problem. I attached an AirTag to one of the remotes, and it hasn't been a problem since.
We use Roku remotes on all five TVs in our house. They have a little fabric tag that's the perfect place to attach a key ring.
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That's not quite right for two reasons:
1) It doesn't have to be you in range of it, just somebody with an iPhone.
2) If nobody's in range of it you'll see its last known location, which is likely to be its current location since most things it might be moving on (eg public transport) are likely to also have iPhones on them.
So they're actually very useful when you're not in range.
So again, no. Not actually outside in the wild somewhere.
have you even looked at what they do?
yes, to get the little arrow thing you have to be close
once you get out of range, they are far from worthless. If you're out and about and drop your keys in some random location...
1 - your phone will automatically remember the last place it saw that tag.
2 - any iPhone, iPad or Mac that gets close to the tag can see it, and will automatically update apple and you. There are currently over 1.5 billion active devices that can scan it.
that "long range" scanning will help get you close to your item, then you can use the direction arrow to get you the last few feet.
I've never seen a metal detector with will over a billion sensors almost consistently and randomly searching the entire populated areas of the globe.
the battery is supposed to last a year, I'm sure it will alert you when the battery is getting low so you can replace it before it dies, the replacements are a very standard size that you can find at any store that sells batteries, and it takes about 30 seconds to swap, maybe a minute it you have a holder.
Wait, you expected us to actually read the post and not just the headline? 😂
I'm late to this party and I haven't paid much attention to the AirTag thing, so forgive me if this sounds uninformed: your point #2 appears to say that AirTag will inform on its location using strangers' iPhones. Am I reading that correctly?
yes, also iPads and Macs (must be on really recent softwar though)
and apparently if they're out of cell signal, phones will cache the info, and send when they get service again. So if you dropped your keys on a trail in the middle of the forest with no service, anybody who hiked by would probably sense the tag, and then update the location once they got back to service.
scroll down a bit, it's all here
AirTag
Attach AirTag to everyday items, like your keys or a backpack, to easily keep track of them in the Find My app.
www.apple.com
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And one of them has three remotes, because we lose them so often we bought two spares. 🤣
Yeah, that’s right. It’s anonymised so you don’t know whose iPhone helped locate your tag, and that iPhone doesn’t know anything about the tags it helps to locate.