exp

True, if it chirps, it will certainly draw attention to itself. If it pops a notification on their screens, they may be more inclined to check it out, open your suitcase.

LordHamster

Connotation vs Denotation. I suggest you look up the first several definitions of Surveillance on the web or on Wikipedia. While by the broadest possible definition, "a close watch kept over someone or something (as by a detective)" may loosely apply... I think we all are aware of the connotation and most common usage of the word.

Repeatedly calling it a "Surveillance network" is IMO being intentionally hyperbolic.

As far as "Surveillance," I'd be far more concerned about the actual phone in my pocket than airtags.

draver

I assume you are not an Airtag user or potential customer? I wouldn't be too concerned about Airtags being in checked baggage. First, the tone they emit is fairly quiet and only lasts for a few seconds, sounding once or just a few times. Secondly, the button cell battery is a fairly common cell used in watches, portable alarm clocks, Selfie Sticks, camera accessories and other devices frequently used by travelers. I am fairly certain I will use both a Tile Pro, and Airtag in checked bags going forward. So far my experimenting has demonstrated each contributes features I find potentially useful. I hope to give a review of my testing and findings in the next week or two.

Need

Seems pretty easy to take out the magnetic coil which creates the chirps. https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comme...er_in_airtags/

StuckInYYZ

I've been resisting buying trackers of any sort but seriously considering it for future travels. My scenario... On the plane, great to know they made the flight... But more valuable to me, especially in the current climate is that they're about to surface on the merry-go-round of death aka the carousel. Right now, I'd like to stay away from the crowds that gather around the carousel waiting for their luggage. If I knew my luggage was about to pop up, I could wait a bit back, then grab them as they show up and not worry about the groupies that all gather within the first 100 feet of the exit.

​​​​​​Is this a must? Of course not. But a nice to have.

draver

A word of caution, the range I'm experiencing with Airtags after a week is within 50 feet or so. Reports are that if in motion that may be reduced. That is one reason I'm trying out the Tile Pro trackers also. Their advertised range is "Up To" 400 feet and I have seen in excess of 100' or so on occasion. They also are much louder when you trigger a tone.

I still see myself going forward with both for luggage tracking, but it may be too early to tell. I really want to know my bag is on the plane/train/baggage cart if at all possible in my vicinity, or a thousand miles away. I read today that Tile is about to team up with Amazon for networking, but don't know exactly what that may bring to the equation.

What we all would like is a GPS tracker with a 1 year battery that will be effective indoors with no subscription fees. Not gonna happen.

GUWonder

There is no reason to assume that upon which the above question is premised. I've been playing with AirTags and Tiles already, including for the kind of uses that Apple has not referenced.

That the button batteries in the AirTags are very common in small electronics doesn't negate the reality that such batteries inside electronics placed in checked-in luggage increases the chances for checked-in luggage to be opened for a search.

It's indeed the actual iPhones that are the primary building block of Apple's crowdsourced surveillance network which makes AirTags as effective a tracker as they are. And, yes, network-connected smartphones should be the bigger concern when it comes to surveillance.

I actually front-ran the above post's effort to try to negate language even in the face of the perfectly appropriate use of language, so I'm not going to be moved by the semantics play at this point either. The language used in my posts about Apple's Find My set-up and AirTags is anything but hyperbolic: tracking AirTags is done by way of Apple's crowdsourced surveillance network which locates and reports on the AirTags location. There is just no getting around that what makes AirTags useful from more remote distances too is Apple's crowdsourced surveillance network.

He already has a video of using the AirTags for tracking the movement of domestic mail in the Netherlands. In more ordinary times, I would be sure one of his AirTags in Norway-bound mail will get faster to Norway than one of mine, but nowadays the mail isn't what it used to be even 16 months ago.

draver

I don't know if you have any reference material to make this statement. It would be interesting to peruse, unless of course it's an assumption? LOL

GUWonder

It's not an assumption. It's a conclusion based on tracking.

HDQDD

So last week I shipped a package to myself via UPS from MKE to RDU (shipped home from a customer demo) with an air-tag in it. It was really cool to see the places it went over ~3 days. Looks like most of the trip was via rail (to the GSO center) then truck to the RDU hub and ultimately my crib. I could tell it was via rail because most of the pings were either along rail lines, or next to rail yards. Ultimately, I'd say anytime it was stopped (South of CHI, North of CMH), CRW I could see it's location update every few hours, presumably as either a UPS employee had an iPhone in the area, or someone with an iphone was near enough to the facility. I had it set to notify when found, and sure enough I got a notification.

I've also used them on a checked bag, and they worked great too. Could see it from the bagroom, and when onboard, it would show "near by" (although it couldn't seem to find an exact position, but I didn't try very hard).

I'm pretty impressed with how well they work. Will be interesting to see how long the batteries really last.

Need

The battery is the same one we have in our Tesla keyfobs. Our keyfobs last well over 1.5 year with the daily used one. The spare keyfob last over 3 years and still have not needed to change battery. I would expect about the same with the Airtag as both were LE Bluetooth.

GUWonder

Given how long the TilePro batteries last -- while also considering how people play with Tiles (by pressing a button on them) to page iOS and Android devices with Tile app running -- I would assume that the batteries in normally used AirTags would last for at least somewhere in the range of 9-20 months.

exp

Does it show a trail on a map where it's gone through?

Or what happens in areas where it's out of range of any iOS devices? Just a gap?

GUWonder

Using Tile with a subscription plan provides a map of the movements based on the captured data points for the trackers; the free way to map the movements of the Tile without a subscription plane involves doing something that has been done with AirTags to generate a map of where the tracker has gone: repeatedly monitor the Find My data for the tracker and manually map the captured points of the tracker and try to fit those points to a route; that or have a script map the points and then plot the likely route between the captured points.

See the video link provided earlier about what was done to generate a map for the movement of the Apple trackers.

exp

Oh Tile has a subscription plan?

good luck with that.