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Query Apple's FindMy network with Python

(github.com)
378 points nkko | 5 comments | 21 Dec 24 12:14 UTC | HN request time: 1.028s | source
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josephernest ◴[21 Dec 24 22:28 UTC] No.42482849[source]▶
I don't have an iPhone or Mac. Can I buy an AirTag, initialize it with the help of a friend who has an iPhone, and then locate the AirTag or ring it from my PC with this Python lib?

It would be awesome.

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1. philsnow ◴[21 Dec 24 23:55 UTC] No.42483321[source]▶
Note that, locating airtags and making them play sound requires them to be near some other iDevice (the battery is a standard CR2032), so if you live in a remote ranch or something and nobody around you has an iphone, they might not be very useful.
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2. lolinder ◴[22 Dec 24 00:57 UTC] No.42483621[source]▶
It wouldn't even need to be a remote ranch—everything I'm seeing suggests they have a range of between 30-100 feet depending on walls and whatnot, which means even in a typical suburb you've got pretty high odds that none of your neighbors have a device within range at the moment you need it.
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3. bolognafairy ◴[22 Dec 24 03:46 UTC] No.42484259[source]▶
My experience is that this is rarely true in reality. I live in a freestanding house in a suburban area (not in the US, let alone SF). I’ve moved a couple of times since I’ve started using AirTags. Even when none of my own devices have been around, I still manage to get quite frequent location updates.
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4. lolinder ◴[22 Dec 24 04:34 UTC] No.42484400{3}[source]▶
How frequent is frequent?

For the use case of identifying where they are on a map, I can certainly believe that an iPhone will connect more often than you move the object the tag is attached to. But when it comes time to actually trigger a sound to find it stuck under a cushion or what have you, is there going to be an iPhone within range at that moment?

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5. NavinF ◴[22 Dec 24 08:26 UTC] No.42485085{4}[source]▶
That's a very unusual use case. When one of my airtags is in my building I can locate it with ~0.1ft precision using UWB. No matter how many other iPhones are in the building I can't get <100ft precision without UWB.

The difference between "airtag is in under the top left corner of the couch cushion" and "airtag might be in the same building as you" is so large that I wonder why you don't get a old used iPhone and swap the battery to create a functional phone.