Teardown Reveals AirTag 2 Is Full of Hidden Changes

[erihp]

I’m wondering what Bluetooth version. Ugh. So frustrating.

how does this matter at all?

 

[Agent007]

the chime has changed from the note "F" to the note "G."

So from "Feet" to "Got".

Apple has not introduced a firmware-level lockout or alert triggered by physical modifications.

Because the "anti-stalking" measures are classic Apple "cover your ass" PR. Oh, you thought Tim Cook cared about your safety? That's so cute.

 

[Mike Wolf]

The audio "tune" it plays sounds cool, but it is not ideal for spatial location of an item. A simple beeping at a constant interval and the same frequency would make them easier to locate.

I saw a TWiT video today about Apple’s update to the Find My sound in iOS16, and it seems that lower frequencies travel farther but are harder to pinpoint, while higher frequencies cover shorter distances but are easier to find. Perhaps the melody aims to combine these advantages?

 

[Mike Wolf]

how does this matter at all?

We’re nerds and we wanna know for the sake of knowing? 😋

 

[erihp]

We’re nerds and we wanna know for the sake of knowing? 😋

I get the nerd thing.

But theres next to nothing you can really do or deduce from this information, so it's curious to me why not knowing would frustrate someone.

 

[Zenman12]

how does this matter at all?

wut? To get the most when purchasing future iPhone.

 

[erihp]

wut? To get the most when purchasing future iPhone.

to get the most of what, we're talking about connectivity to an airtag. a bluetooth spec bump isnt doing much here. now, what bluetooth chip is in the phone, sure, that is very interesting!

 

[Zenman12]

to get the most of what, we're talking about connectivity to an airtag. a bluetooth spec bump isnt doing much here. now, what bluetooth chip is in the phone, sure, that is very interesting!

Different ones have longer shorter range better, LE etc. Whichever is worse is the one you stay on (I believe AirTag 1 is 5.0).

 

[Tr55]

Imagine you’re a hardware engineer assigned to the AirTag team. After 5 long years of sweat, blood and tears, finally you give birth to this Mk2 version. It’s laughable.

Five years for this improvement.

Apple seems to be playing it safe across their whole range.

 

[erihp]

Five years for this improvement.

Apple seems to be playing it safe across their whole range.

i see you havent installed 26 😂

 

[erihp]

Different ones have longer shorter range better, LE etc. Whichever is worse is the one you stay on (I believe AirTag 1 is 5.0).

Marketing fluff

 

[Zenman12]

Marketing fluff

Yeah okay bud. 😂

 

[johnsawyercjs]

it's curious to me why not knowing would frustrate someone.

When someone wants to know something but doesn't, it's frustrating!

 

[wanha]

are these actually "hidden" changes or just internal ones?

 

[rjp1]

How so? Seems like they could do exactly what they do with the MacBook camera—power the board and speaker in series so if the speaker is gone/doesn’t have power then neither does the board.

That could easily be worked around.

 

[adrianlondon]

are these actually "hidden" changes or just internal ones?

Isn't that the same thing?

As a kid, playing hide and seek, when you found someone did you tell them they weren't hiding, so weren't playing properly? 😁

 

[wanha]

Isn't that the same thing?

As a kid, playing hide and seek, when you found someone did you tell them they weren't hiding, so weren't playing properly? 😁

😆 I get what you're saying

To me, "hidden" implies purposefully concealed from view whereas internals are just the machinery on the inside. Said another way, Apple wasn't trying to hide anything.

 

[Prof.]

Wonder if you’ll be able to use the CR3032 Batteries that have the bitterant coating on them?

 

[Mike Wolf]

Nice teardown but what Bluetooth chip is inside?

iFixit posted a teardown video on YouTube yesterday and discovered it’s using a nRF52840 SoC which supports Bluetooth 5.4

 

[Mike Wolf]

I’m wondering what Bluetooth version. Ugh. So frustrating.

Bluetooth 5.4

 

[Zenman12]

iFixit posted a teardown video on YouTube yesterday and discovered it’s using a nRF52840 SoC which supports Bluetooth 5.4

I thought Bluetooth 5.4 wasn’t really used. Usually goes to 6.

Surprised they’re not using 6.

Doesn’t gen 1 use 5.0?

 

[The Game 161]

seems decent not sure worth adding from gen 1 though