
Leaked screenshots show how Apple's tracker tags might work - jpalomaki
https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/20/apple-tracking-tag-screenshot-leak/
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newscracker
Having tried such Bluetooth trackers a few years ago (don't want to get into
the brand name), the experience was terrible, with connections to the phone
dropping (or not pairing), the sound from the tag not being audible enough
even from a short distance, and lastly, the usage of Bluetooth to just
pinpoint the vicinity (not the exact location, which the UWB technology in the
new iPhones and this tag is supposedly good at).

Apple can surely bring in an "it just works" kind of integration to solve some
(or all?) of these pain points (like it has done with Bluetooth for AirPods),
but I wonder what the pricing will be. Tile seems to be selling some of its
products for about USD 12.5 per piece when bought as a pack of four. It also
sells some of its products for a much higher price. If Apple sells each tag at
$9.99, this would be a killer product. But it'd certainly be priced a lot
higher, considering Apple's profit margins and the kind of technology in it.
I'm sure it would have Bluetooth as an addition to UWB, so that it can be
compatible with more iOS devices than just the iPhones 11.

If this also has a replaceable battery, which is something Apple tends to be
moving away from (even the Magic Trackpad 2 from a few years ago switched to
proprietary lithium batteries from the previous release that had replaceable
batteries), it'd be great. This device would be a very low power device, and
commonly used smaller batteries should be able to power them for a very long
time. If it has a rechargeable battery, I'd bet that it'd have inductive
charging like Apple Watch and iPhone.

~~~
dataminded
I was a huge fan of my tiles until their most recent update. A month ago I was
singing their praises for helping me find my wallet which I'd left at the
hotel before leaving for the airport.

Now, they've reworked things to improve battery life and the tiles feel
worthless. It takes much longer to connect/find my stuff and I'll not get
connections within my own house.

I'm glad Apple is entering the space and hope Tile goes back to helping me
find my stuff.

~~~
urda
> Now, they've reworked things to improve battery life and the tiles feel
> worthless.

Yup, I'm in this same boat. Because of this update behavior I will be dropping
Tile at the end of their current life cycle on my keyrings.

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filleokus
Slightly OT: Both the existence of this and the AR headset thing have been
very leaky. I mean especially stuff like this
[https://www.macrumors.com/2019/09/10/xcode-11-gm-confirms-
ar...](https://www.macrumors.com/2019/09/10/xcode-11-gm-confirms-ar-headset/),
where Apple included a _read me_ text file detailing the headset is
incredibly.

It seems very unlikely to me that it was done by accident, and if it was done
intentionally, why?

I feel someone smart with some inside knowledge should write about this (ping
The Information maybe?).

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prepend
I think this is a good distinguishing feature for Apple. The more Bluetooth
products in a house the better these tiles will work.

I use a wireless “magic pad” and keyboard and used to use a Magic Mouse. It
works great via Bluetooth and my keyboard goes weeks of daily use without a
charge.

Surprisingly I tried to get a Bluetooth mouse for my windows machine and
couldn’t find a decent one that worked without a dongle. Maybe it’s improved
in the past two years but I was surprised that I could just pair a mouse with
a windows laptop via Bluetooth without any custom drivers or custom hardware.

With Mac it was very easy. Easy enough to walk my parents through on the
phone.

If all of a sudden MacBooks and iHomes and iPhones let you find your keys and
remotes and whatnot, then I can see this being very popular.

Especially if they came in the form of some sort of metallic super sticker in
he shape of apple’s logo that you stick onto something and the battery lasts
for a year.

Or maybe this comes free with an apple+ subscription. This could be a reason
to keep an apple+ sub current if you get 10 tracker stickers every year.

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saagarjha
I'm curious whether the location reported in the screenshot is accurate,
because I can't see why you'd like to advertise the fact that you work in
Building 1…

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mattmar96
Interesting bit from the prompt in iOS 13.

> "Walk around several feet and move your iPhone up and down until a balloon
> comes into view,"

Existing ultra wideband (eg Decawave) requires several "anchors" to
triangulate the location of the tag. I wonder if Apple has built some way to
locate the tag with its single anchor (the phone). Perhaps estimating the
phones location as it moves up and down via accelerometer.

~~~
mike_d
I suspect they are using all nearby Apple devices regardless of power state.
So your laptop charging in the corner with the lid closed and your friends
Apple watch are participating in the triangulation.

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m463
Can you disable it completely?

I thought wardriving was a little unethical, then it became commonplace and
even a business model.

This new tech uses crowdsourcing to reach deeper than ever into people's
lives, and you shouldn't have to "go along with the crowd" by default.

Not even to help with stolen stuff or any other "OMG think of the <x>!!"
reason.

~~~
dewey
You should read their privacy docs for the tracking tiles and how Find My
works for stolen / locked iPhones.

