Airtags

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I got one yesterday, so far I’m impressed.

I have a iPhone 10, so not the latest U1 chip inside, so the indoors directional finding thing is not going to work for me.

But where it is interesting is the Bluetooth based tracking


We have a long drive with a busy road at end. I placed the airtag on the fence near road.

I moved all of our iOS devices to back of house so out of range Bluetooth airtag

Waited a couple of minutes and it said, last seem 1 minute 2 minutes, then at 4 it updated to being on the road (where the passers by iPhones gps reported it)

So once everyone has updated to the latest iOS this will only become more accurate

I’m getting one for my expensive trailer, not expecting miracles, but might be useful.

More importantly, for the dog, for example if it gets out it’s 50:50 if it goes left or right along the road. If it runs past someone with an iPhone it will at least narrow it down.

Last time to dog escaped she was sat outside sainsburys by the benches getting attention 3 miles from home, I think in that instance it would have worked, we were in the woods behind the house looking for her

I’ve now asked my Android using parents to carry it in pocket on their dog walks to simulate escaped dog scenarios

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alorotom said:

They do seem to be getting positive reviews for quite specific use cases ... I just can't think of anything that I would attach one to tbh - certainly not keys / wallet / cars / etc.

For us, we religiously hang keys up so never lost at home. However my wife is a nightmare for putting keys when out and about min a bag, a pocket a buggy, never the same place then there is a panic, is the coat bag buggy now in another car etc, so could eliminate the 5 minute flinging everything on the floor in the park routine

Add to the mix, having three cars, looking for a specific item, which could be hidden in our house, or my mums, her mums, one of the three cars, in the back garden, left in the park, it could help eliminate.


Will see how we go, certainly not fool proof and there is the separation/ stalking aspects which are due to be adjusted.

I’m interested in my expensive car trailer, it’s outside my office window, when it gets nicked, it’ll be interesting to see where it ends up, I have not expectation of me or the rozzers breaking down a garage door of some bandits and retrieving it. That said a friend has plant pinched all the time and it just ends up parked on a random street waiting to see if it’s tracked.

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Dracoro said:

Not sure how useful these would be for me.

1. Key fob - OK, so if lost keys I could find them. Great, although I’ve never lost keys in my life.
2. Car tracker - I think you can turn off the beep? If no, then if thief has iPhone then he’d know about it and find/remove it from car.
3. Don’t have anything else that I could attach one to to help with theft, and if visible a thief would just remove/bin the tag and still take the item (bag/bike/whatever).

So, sounds like it’s only real use case is for finding something lost….

It’s still coming out in the detail, but I believe the beeping doesn’t start straight away, time will tell.

My trailer will be interesting scenario when it gets nicked

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So popped it in my wife’s car today, she doesn’t have an iPhone

Got updated on her way to work which is fast a roads

Got numerous updates from her works car park, she also parks at the far end away from people, so assume people turning round etc

Overall it’s incredible for the money, will definitely get a couple more, and one for my parents dog who does range wide when out on her walks. She’s a lovely dog, so will be worthwhile if it reduces the risk of getting splatted on a road.

Will probably put one in my trailer, but not until they are less than 20 quid

Will be interesting to see what the behaviour is when it’s been away from one of my devices for a couple of days (thinking the parents dog here)


The other thing to note is it only works with peoples devices who have the latest update, which people won’t have necessarily installed as it only came out last week.

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K12beano said:

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The other thing to note is it only works with peoples devices who have the latest update, which people won’t have necessarily installed as it only came out last week.

… but then (surely) the sort of people who will be buying AirTag will be the sort who care about security on their devices and will be updating (automatically)….? Or am I missing something?

Mrs miggins down the road iPhone will detect passing airtags and report their location, but only if she updates her iOS

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Cybertronian said:

Mattt said:

I think you need an Apple device for initial setup - but thereafter using a browser should be ok, IIRC “Find My” can be used that way.

Doesn't currently work with Find My via iCloud on a web browser. Restricted to the Find My app on the phone that initially sets the AirTag up.

The above and the inability for more than one person/family sharing members to see an AirTag are big omissions that will hopefully be addressed in future updates. As the adage goes with technology, buy when a feature is actually available and not on the promise that it will be delivered.

I set it up on my iPhone and can see it on my iPad

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troc said:

I shall be hiding one on each of my bikes. Pondering supergluing one to my 7 year old son.

If it’s a push bike you can get an adapter that uses the bottle cage screws

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Mines been in my wife’s car, for 30 quid it’s excellent, she has an android but we still get pings when she is out and about

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TheRainMaker said:

I got some more and put one in each of my cars just to see how they get on, the one in the Jaguar is rubbish, you need to be within 3 meters of the car for it to connect, the one in the Vantage connects 20 meters from inside the house and the car is in the garage.

I’m guessing the Jaguar has some sort of sensors running which are messing up the signal.

Oddly the Vantage location is updated every 20 mins or so even when on one is in, but unless I actually go outside to the Jaguar it’s last known location is where my phone was last inside it.

Bit poop, could be a duff one I guess, I might switch them over tonight and see.

Try it in the rear of the jag, is suspect it’s the windscreen if modernish jaaaag

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TheRainMaker said:

C2Red said:

Let me get this right, so i understand how the ecostructure works.

Its essentially a bluetooth device, that will when out of range of the users phone, tap into an other Apple users bluetooth, if they have find my phone enabled and the relevant IOS.

It then flags where the tag is to the "owner" of said tag.

Correct?

Yep.

Yup, which makes it much better than a tile etc, as you have to rely on enough people running the tile app. Anyone with a modernish iPhone passing will report it. I’ve been playing with mine leaving it in my wife’s car (she is Android) and I can happily see her bombing along motorways etc

In a caravan would be a good place, if it showed up at the local transit van camp, I’d certainly not be interested in getting it back, if it turned up in a nice driveway after being sold on, I might be interested in getting it back.


For our dog, knowing which way it ran out of the drive would be better than guessing

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Still going well, a noticeable improvement in reporting when my wife’s car is out and about, I think that is down to people upgrading their iOS

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Mines still going well

One of our cars is in the dealers getting the usual bs

I can now roughly see if it’s inside the work shop, at the back of the yard or in between. Not concrete info but I can tell when it’s moved based on the phones triggering it