It's Possible to Drill a Hole Through an AirTag

[nutmac]

Or, you know, instead of taking frugality to a ridiculous, risky, inelegant extreme, you could just buy a third-party holder (example, example 2) on Amazon. Just a wild thought . . .

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Right on. There are so many AirTag holders out there, many under $5. Apple isn't forcing you to buy their expensive (or Herme's) expensive holders.

 

[sparkinstx]

Or, you know, instead of taking frugality to a ridiculous, risky, inelegant extreme, you could just buy a third-party holder (example, example 2) on Amazon. Just a wild thought . . .

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Yep, waiting for my Belkin Secure Holder to get here. We'll see how "secure" it is.

 

[theshade247]

Keep that in mind by doing this your Airtag won’t be water resistant anymore. Article should’ve mentioned that.

 

[usagora]

The M1 does a great deal of memory swapping in its onboard SSD memory and some utilities show that it will have used up its probably useful life at about 2% a month giving you only 50 potential months of functional life. This is assuming that the M1 SSD ages the same as what the utilities are geared to measure and a other stuff.

Even if true, that's 4+ years, not 2. I'm not worried about it though. Apple would be quite stupid to engineer a machine with a soldered SSD that would fail in 2-4 years (there would be public outrage and bad PR that would hurt sales significantly).

 

[anup.chavda]

Willing to share the files ? Would def love to print this

Apple AirTag Keyring and Enclosure Mount by AnonymousHermit

Reference images and measurements sourced from https://www.apple.com/airtag/Vertical and horizontal keyring available.AirTag and blank enclosure model provided.Please support Right to Repair!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npd_xDuNi9khttps://www.gofundme.com/f/lets-get-right-to-repair-passed

www.thingiverse.com

No supports, printed at 0.12 resolution.

 

[MacModMachine]

Keep that in mind by doing this your Airtag won’t be water resistant anymore. Article should’ve mentioned that.

thats obvious.....why would you have to mention that? thats like saying if you drill a hole in a boat it will sink....

 

[justafew]

I mean they obviously did... seeing as these will probably be most useful for keys how could you not consider how peple will attach it to keys.

The cynic would say they did it on purpose so people have to buy the holder to attach it to keys = more profit for apple

I cant think of any other reason they would leave it off.... maybe they woul just say they want the 'cleanest design possible' or something, but I think the cynical assumption might be correct

‘cleanest design possible’ - just like the amazing Magic Mouse with its wonderful clean design, until you need to charge it… and it’s glaringly ugly when upside down and unusable.

 

[theshade247]

Unlike a Tile or some other item trackers, Apple's new AirTag does not have any holes or openings for attaching it directly to a keychain, forcing customers to purchase accessories like a leather key ring for this purpose.

Interestingly, though, MacRumors forum member smythey has proven that it is possible to drill a hole into the AirTag without breaking it, allowing for a string or a thin key ring to be fed through the opening. The result doesn't look very cosmetically appealing, but smythey said the AirTag seems to function normally after the do-it-yourself job.

A teardown of the AirTag shared on YouTube today provides a first look inside Apple's item tracker, revealing a circular circuit board with seemingly just enough room around the edges to drill a small hole in the plastic.

Keep in mind that drilling a hole into an AirTag will unsurprisingly void Apple's warranty and could damage the accessory if done incorrectly, but this still proves as a neat proof of concept for those looking to save a few dollars.

Is your AirTag order arriving today? Discuss with others in our AirTag forum.

Article Link: It's Possible to Drill a Hole Through an AirTag

thats obvious.....why would you have to mention that? thats like saying if you drill a hole in a boat it will sink....

Lol not everybody thinks like you. There are definitely people in this world that would try this and then complain later.

 

[Lemon Olive]

But...why? That looks terrible and is not an improvement.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

So everyone who said it would make the air tag too big to put a hole in it was wrong. I love Apple but I stand by my first comment that it was a mistake not to have one

Nah, it wasn’t a mistake. No one who actually plans to buy one cares for the hole. There’s a LOT of folks who care VERY PASSIONATELY about the hole, but never would have bought one anyway. It would have been a mistake to produce a product for folks that don’t want it.

 

[Lyrca]

This was just a matter of time, just didn't expect it so soon !

 

[Unregistered 4U]

But...why? That looks terrible and is not an improvement.

Apple painfully overlooked the,”Not only do I want an AirTag, but I also desire very much to wear it as jewelry” market. Happy to see there are enterprising entrepreneurs willing to take up the case!

Or lack of case.

as the case may be
(intentionally lowercase)

 

[cmaier]

So everyone who said it would make the air tag too big to put a hole in it was wrong. I love Apple but I stand by my first comment that it was a mistake not to have one

No they weren’t wrong. Did you see that hole? And what do you think that hole does to the water resistance?

 

[cmaier]

thats obvious.....why would you have to mention that? thats like saying if you drill a hole in a boat it will sink....

because there are people on here who don’t seem to get that fact. For example, people who say ”see? Apple should have put that hole there!”

 

[ChrisA]

They say in another article that these tags were going to ship in 2019. The means they were designed may be in 2018. Was this before or after Apple fired Jony Ives?

This no-hole stage sure looks like an Ives design where they sacrifice usability for appearance.

 

[rafark]

Ooh la la that’s fancy

 

[cmaier]

They say in another article that these tags were going to ship in 2019. The means they were designed may be in 2018. Was this before or after Apple fired Jony Ives?

This no-hole stage sure looks like an Ives design where they sacrifice usability for appearance.

Or … just hear me out here … by not putting a hole in it they have created an entire ecosystem (currently 7 pages long on Amazon) of third-party solutions that provide all sorts of form-factors and capabilities that a “one-size-fits-all here’s-******” solution might not address?

 

[alex00100]

Cool.. can’t believe that Apple’s design engineers did not think of this use case.

Oh they did trust me. But accessories cost extra so..

 

[Mutepointer]

This the dumbest product Apple has made in quite some time, why would I buy an accessory to a tag? That's just ridiculous. Tile beats Apple in design here.

Well said! ❤️

 

[JetBlack7]

But...why?

 

[Corsig]

No they weren’t wrong. Did you see that hole? And what do you think that hole does to the water resistance?

Do you think Apple would have left that hole exposed like that? This person drilled a hole himself. This isn’t manufactured this way?!?!?

 

[WiseAJ]

The AirTags Pro Max will come with a hole

 

[ChrisA]

I think the best design for these would be like a car key. The exterior might be made with a kind of hard rubber or nylon.

A better tag design would be the size and material used on modern electronic car keys with a hole very much as we find on car keys. The modern car key is a well-tested and practical design and fits on rings and in pockets and allows for periodic battery changes.

The hole on most keys is not round but rather a wider slot for a reason and this material seems to hold up for over a dozen years of daily use

 

[JosephAW]

I just 3D printed my own holders. Cost me less than 10cents and 10 mins.

Is it on thingiverse now?

 

[apparatchik]

this is so illogical, you need to look for one thing to find another. just use the apple watch or homepod

Or any device with a web browser, aka iCloud.com -> Find My