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A 10-Year Battery for AirTag

(www.elevationlab.com)
673 points dmd | 3 comments | 18 Dec 24 18:17 UTC | HN request time: 0.605s | source
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drdaeman ◴[19 Dec 24 19:14 UTC] No.42464753[source]▶
Are AirTags actually useful for anti-theft purposes?

I threw one in the trunk of my car (just in case - I ordered a 4-pack and I had a spare one), and every single time I drive somewhere it chirps loudly when I'm exiting my driveway, making its presence immediately obvious without any delays, and despite my phone being with me in the car.

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carlgreene ◴[19 Dec 24 19:21 UTC] No.42464809[source]▶
Yes, but only if you remove the speaker which is well documented on YouTube
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kube-system ◴[19 Dec 24 19:23 UTC] No.42464834[source]▶
Even if you do that they will still notify a thief with a notification on their iPhone.
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1. IncreasePosts ◴[19 Dec 24 20:06 UTC] No.42465191[source]▶
I wonder with customizations like in OP you could bypass this. For example, if the alert comes after 20 minutes of being near an air tag - if the power to the circuit was automatically cut for 1 minute every 15 minutes, would the alert still activate?
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2. kube-system ◴[19 Dec 24 20:09 UTC] No.42465226[source]▶
I don't think it works like that, anyway. The alert is not generated by the airtag, it is generated by the phone. And the phone knows what is around it because it scans for beacons on a periodic basis.
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3. IncreasePosts ◴[19 Dec 24 22:02 UTC] No.42466167[source]▶
Right - the phone itself is what is keeping track of the air tag, but if the phone doesn't detect the airtag for some period of time, I assume the anti-stalking timer resets. This is why if you walk past an airtag on the way to the store, and then walk by it again 20 minutes later, you won't get an anti-stalking alert.