iFixit Tears Down Apple's AirTag, Finds a Great Spot For a Keychain Hole (arstechnica.com) 76
iFixit has ripped apart Apple's recently-released AirTag, a small battery-powered tag that will allow you to track your items within Apple's "Find My" app on iOS. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from an Ars Technica article: Like with most Apple products, it looks like some serious engineering went into the $29 tracker. The device is barely larger than the user-replaceable CR2032 battery that powers it, putting competing devices like the Tile and Samsung Galaxy SmartTags to shame with their comparative bulk. Inside, a single circuit board uses a unique donut-shaped design that crams all the components into a ring under the battery. The hole in the middle of the circuit board lets Apple pack in a surprisingly huge voice coil speaker. The speaker is just for playing ringtones so you can find your AirTagged thing when you lose it, but apparently, the ringtones will be super high quality.
The other very Apple-like quality of the AirTag is that it almost seems designed to sell accessories. The most popular use for these trackers is to help find your car keys, but out of the box, there is no way to attach a keychain to an AirTag. Instead, Apple has enabled a wide ecosystem of AirTag cases ranging from a $13 keyring holder to a $449 (yes, that's four hundred forty-nine dollars) Hermes' luggage tag. iFixit's solution to the much-demanded keyring hole is -- what else -- a power drill! The teardown experts found some suitable dead space inside the AirTag that somehow isn't blocked by either the battery, speaker, or circuit board, and after some careful drilling, iFixit's AirTag now has a keychain hole with the least possible bulk. "The AirTag survived the operation like a champ and works as if nothing happened," the site says. iFixit went on to note that the sound profile "didn't seem to change much," but the IP67 dust and water resistance rating is now greatly compromised.
The other very Apple-like quality of the AirTag is that it almost seems designed to sell accessories. The most popular use for these trackers is to help find your car keys, but out of the box, there is no way to attach a keychain to an AirTag. Instead, Apple has enabled a wide ecosystem of AirTag cases ranging from a $13 keyring holder to a $449 (yes, that's four hundred forty-nine dollars) Hermes' luggage tag. iFixit's solution to the much-demanded keyring hole is -- what else -- a power drill! The teardown experts found some suitable dead space inside the AirTag that somehow isn't blocked by either the battery, speaker, or circuit board, and after some careful drilling, iFixit's AirTag now has a keychain hole with the least possible bulk. "The AirTag survived the operation like a champ and works as if nothing happened," the site says. iFixit went on to note that the sound profile "didn't seem to change much," but the IP67 dust and water resistance rating is now greatly compromised.
I wonder if its a big enough hole (Score:2)
Re: I wonder if its a big enough hole (Score:2)
Now Apple will update the tag and prevent that hack.
Idiots? (Score:5, Insightful)
The most popular use for these trackers is to help find your car keys,
Are vast amounts of people really this stupid that they don't put their keys in a specific location? One of the more important items to keep track of and they willy nilly toss the keys to wherever?
Re:Idiots? (Score:5, Funny)
I personally just throw my keys in a random direction in the back yard when I get home. I figure the dogs will bring it to me by the time I need them again. They can't leave anything alone.
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Eh, I've got tiles on both my keychains, and they've easily saved me enough time to be worth the investment. Keys fall down my couch, and I don't touch my car keys on the weekend... So yeah, even saving me 5 or 10 minutes a month of looking through my condo for my keys has been worth the investment. That said, I was out at a park last summer and my car keys fell out of my pockets. Thankfully someone foudn them, and hung them up somewhere where I could hear the beeper.
Will I get air tags? maybe, since they'r
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I dunno, shit happens. I have my keys/wallet box, but you know, sometimes you have your hands full with groceries or something and next thing you know you're looking and find them in the fucking freezer or on top of the toilet tank or some place weird. It really is one of those you don't need it until you do sorta things. Having said that, not gonna buy it. Another tracking device outside of my phone is just getting annoying.
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sometimes you have your hands full with groceries or something and next thing you know you're looking and find them in the fucking freezer or on top of the toilet tank or some place weird.
You could always hold the keys in your teeth and when your hands are free put them down in a secure location.
You insenstivie clod! (Score:4, Informative)
Some of us don't have teeth any more.
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If only clothing manufacturers could invent some sort of integrated pouch, and make several of them in most articles of outerwear. I don't think we should call them clothes pouches though, maybe some other word, like pack-it or sack-it, or pocket. Yeah. Patenting that idea now.
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Use cases you have not considered:
a. Taking the keys out of your pocket to use the keys
b. Putting on a different article of clothing
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You quite clearly never:
1) Got drunk, called an Uber, managed to open your front door but mistook your potted plant for your key bowl.
2) Had kids.
3) Watched other people's kids.
4) Did the stereotypical kiss at the door, fumble for your keys, go directly to the bedroom.
My Bowl of "Keys & Wallet" is usually full. But not always.
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I just assume this isn't really geared most adults under 40. See, most of us have figured this shit out with spending money at all. This is for the new people born only a scant 20 years ago that are still trying to remake the wheel and this is part of that.
Honestly, I wish I had the foresight to come up with such a thing myself. I don't have a need for it but I'm sure this will sell.
Re:Idiots? (Score:5, Informative)
I just assume this isn't really geared most adults under 40. See, most of us have figured this shit out with spending money at all. This is for the new people born only a scant 20 years ago that are still trying to remake the wheel and this is part of that.
I think it has more to do with personality than age. I always keep my keys, wallet, and cell phone in the same pockets. When not in my pockets they are on my nightstand. My wife, on the other hand, never knows where her shit is at.
You can always tell who these people are. When they walk toward their car in a parking lot, they are the ones who check multiple pockets before pulling out their car keys. I don' t think they're stupid, as the OP claims. I just think they're wired somewhat differently. They would probably call me OCD for insisting that my items have particular places. It crops up in other places, too. If I assemble something such as a piece of crappy furniture, I organize all the pieces and fasteners and then follow the directions. My wife just starts slapping things together. When things have to be disassembled to then be assembled correctly, I chastise my wife for wasting time. While she's waiting for me to organize things, my wife chastises me for wasting time. It's just a matter of priorities.
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I think it has more to do with personality than age. I always keep my keys, wallet, and cell phone in the same pockets. When not in my pockets they are on my nightstand.
Creatures of habit are not immune. All it takes is one subtle change outside of your control, or due to you being human and thus imperfect, and your keys are not in your pocket, or not on the nightstand, and effectively "lost" because as a creature of habit you don't actually commit to memory where something may be at any given time.
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You can always tell who these people are. When they walk toward their car in a parking lot, they are the ones who check multiple pockets before pulling out their car keys. I don' t think they're stupid, as the OP claims. I just think they're wired somewhat differently.
People aren't stupid for having problems finding their keys.
They're stupid when they don't use mitigation strategies like always putting them in the same pocket.
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I just assume this isn't really geared most adults under 40.
And under 70.
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Yes
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Are vast amounts of people really this stupid that they don't put their keys in a specific location?
I've never lost my car keys, but during the holiday shopping season when the parking lots get quite full, I have been known to misplace my car.
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"I've never lost my car keys,"
My car doesn't even have one.
Where's the key to the fusion reactor? (Score:3)
I literally do relational calculus in my sleep, waking up with elegant answers. I dream large prime order subgroups. And misplace my keys or wallet about once a year or so.
That's just the way my brain works. Maybe my brain is more into interesting things like the discrete logarithm problem and the Chinese remainder theorem than it is in remembering that my keys are in the pocket of my TEEX jacket.
If I took my keys out of my pocket to start the car and put them back in when I leave the car, that might be a r
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That's a common story, apparently because he wasn't a standout mathematician compared to the other phd physicists in his cohort.
I tried to read one of his books, but it's 70% calculus and 30% English. He spoke calculus as easily as he spoke English.
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No, they're Apple consumers. There was a kickstarter for a very similar product a few years back and the concept was roundly criticized on slashdot and some other tech sites. It even had rounded corners. Fast forward and Apple is stealing the same idea and doing it worse (due to lack of a keychain hole) and the fans are praising Apple.
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I have lost my keys twice, to substantial expense and great inconvenience. My solution was a watch chain. The last link on one end is threaded onto the key ring, and the other, with the lobster-claw, clips to a belt loop by the pants pocket where I normally carry my keys. The chain is long enough that I can fully operate any lock while the keys remain securely attached to me. As long as I have my pants (and I haven't been to *that* kind of party since college), I have my keys.
Costs about $24 less than s
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Are vast amounts of people really this stupid that they don't put their keys in a specific location?
You have just touched on the very core of the problem: The vast majority of people *do* put their keys in a specific location. It is when they don't do so (due to distraction, mistake, or whatever), that's when the keys become "lost".
Don't pretend you (or any human on this planet) are perfect enough that your keys always end up in the same specific location.
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"Are vast amounts of people really this stupid that they don't put their keys in a specific location?"
No, but there are apparently a small number of commenters stupid enough that they fail to have a plan for when they go to the spot where their keys are supposed to be and the keys are not there.
Think Different (Score:2)
and buy something else [thetileapp.com]. Apple seems a bit pricey as a DIY solution.
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I wonder how much effect these things have on your battery life. Even if you don't own one then if Bluetooth is enabled your phone is picking up the transmissions and having to do a bit of processing to decide that they are of no interest to it.
If you do have one of these tags then the app will be using location services every time a tag is seen (regardless of if it is yours - the community feature tracks other people's tags too), and then consuming a bit of data to report it all back.
The battery life of th
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it's a noticeable impact even with BLE (BlueTooth Low Energy). Improved high-level APIs on iOS and Android help a lot in power management of newer BLE chipsets that can very cheaply monitor BLE traffic while keeping the classic BT portion powered down. For really low power wireless stuff there are LR-WPANs (IEEE 802.15.4, Zigbee, MiWi, etc). Not that I'm aware of it being in any phones, I suspect BT Mesh will come to phones for much of the same reasons that I want Zigbee. It's about having a long range thro
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They'll sell a billion of these (Score:2)
Is it new? No. It does have an Apple on it though and everyone who owns an iPhone will buy these because now Apple makes them and that carries all of the necessary cachet with their market. They didn't even realize they wanted this type of thing until now.
For all that we can rip on Apple and it's fanbase about we can't ever say they don't have great engineering and marketing.
The speaker being a transducer that uses the body to transmit sound is a clever touch.
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Re: They'll sell a billion of these (Score:2)
Even with anonymized data, they would be able to, for instance, track large crowds moving around.
ZOMG!!!1!1!!!
Apple can actually tell that lots of anonymous Apple Tag users are riding the bus?!? Tell me it isnâ(TM)t so!!!
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Even with anonymized data, they would be able to, for instance, track large crowds moving around.
ZOMG!!!1!1!!!
Apple can actually tell that lots of anonymous Apple Tag users are riding the bus?!? Tell me it isnâ(TM)t so!!!
Would have been useful during the riots last year.
Re: They'll sell a billion of these (Score:2)
Would have been useful during the riots last year.
No need.
Haven't you seen the videos of the cellphone GPS(?) "swarm" maps for January 6th?
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I have a lot of respect for Apple's attempts to take privacy seriously, but despite your mockery that is actually useful data. I do hope that Apple continues to be vigilante on the privacy front, but for that to happen we need skeptics to help keep them honest.
Even if Apple has the best of intentions, if there is a way to de-anonymize these trackers or use them for nefarious intentions, there are governments that will force them to do so or do it without Apple's knowledge. It's crucial that white hat hacker
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I have a lot of respect for Apple's attempts to take privacy seriously, but despite your mockery that is actually useful data. I do hope that Apple continues to be vigilante on the privacy front, but for that to happen we need skeptics to help keep them honest.
Even if Apple has the best of intentions, if there is a way to de-anonymize these trackers or use them for nefarious intentions, there are governments that will force them to do so or do it without Apple's knowledge. It's crucial that white hat hackers explore this system from every angle because what Apple is attempting—large scale tracking—could be be disastrous.
Having said all that, I trust Apple enough that I already bought my wife some of these things for Mother's Day.
But, but...
Almost by definition, these Tags will often be where a particular User is not; so how is this some sort of stealth tracking device for a particular User?
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It's okay. I'm quite sure 99% of Apple users aren't technies of any kind. I know one person with an Iphone that's in technology but his side gig is photography so possibly that's why he's into Apple.
Everyone else I know that uses iphones are kids or grandparents.
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The main reason people buy iPhones is because they're not techies and they need someone (Apple) to hold their hand to do the simplest tasks.
At the same time they make it a hellacious chore to do something that should be simple, like load a ringtone from an unapproved source. Putting a ringtone on an iPhone can be an exercise in frustration if you don't already have it on another iDevice or if you're not buying it from their walled garden.
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The reason I use Apple stuff is because I'm a techie. I know enough that I don't want to deal with all the constant technical knowledge requirements / bullshit that comes with using Linux, Windows and Android. Computers are there to let me do my job and should get the fuck out of my way with their stupid annoyances.
Re: They'll sell a billion of these (Score:2)
The reason I use Apple stuff is because I'm a techie. I know enough that I don't want to deal with all the constant technical knowledge requirements / bullshit that comes with using Linux, Windows and Android. Computers are there to let me do my job and should get the fuck out of my way with their stupid annoyances.
Precisely.
Same here. I am an embedded Developer with over 4 decades of paid software and hardware Development experience.
The closer my day-to-day computing devices (especially the mobile ones) come to being as carefree and generally appliance-like as my microwave oven, the happier I am.
Apple fills that bill far better than anyone else.
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I'd be a target for the pinephone, if the current model's Allwinner chip wasn't so anaemic. Set up the distro how I like, without the whims of UI 'experts' from the valley dictating the experience - perhaps it's better on iOS but Google's app teams appear to continually reinvent messaging and email just for the hell of it.
But I guess if your day job is messing around with device trees in uboot and Linux, i can see why you want a device that 'just works'.
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You've never heard of the "Find my" feature ?
Apple users have had the ability to track every iDevice they own, anywhere in the world, since basically forever.
AirTags integrate into this technology, and simply expands it to allow you to tracks basically any object you own, as long as you can fix an AirTag to it.
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Re: They'll sell a billion of these (Score:1)
You mean like cell phone providers actually do, such as traffic jam detection etc. You carry a programmable 2W radio and you worry about a 50c microcontroller with a range under 50ft.
Better RF transmission/reception? (Score:2)
I think one of the reasons Appleâ(TM)s Tag is so small, and the reason it doesnâ(TM)t have a keychain hole, is to keep a keyring from messing with the antenna pattern and/or range.
Just a thought.
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Then it's useless to put one of them on anything with metal in it. You already can't put on one your phone (so that you can find your phone with your phone), now you can't put it on your remote control or keys either, and that covers the three most commonly lost items. (and before you ask, your glasses are on the top of your head where you pushed them up to look cool)
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Then it's useless to put one of them on anything with metal in it. You already can't put on one your phone (so that you can find your phone with your phone), now you can't put it on your remote control or keys either, and that covers the three most commonly lost items. (and before you ask, your glasses are on the top of your head where you pushed them up to look cool)
It was just a postulate. I am not an RF engineer...
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The keychain hole is actually a $13 or more accessory. Seriously.
So IMHO, the antenna is not the problem. And if it was, they could have put a tiny hole like sometimes do with USB sticks and old cell phones, too small for a key ring but perfect for string, like for attaching lanyards.
I think the reasons are: it looks better without a hole (according to Apple), it is not always needed (ex: baggage tags), and selling high margin accessories makes good money.
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The keychain hole is actually a $13 or more accessory. Seriously.
So IMHO, the antenna is not the problem. And if it was, they could have put a tiny hole like sometimes do with USB sticks and old cell phones, too small for a key ring but perfect for string, like for attaching lanyards.
I think the reasons are: it looks better without a hole (according to Apple), it is not always needed (ex: baggage tags), and selling high margin accessories makes good money.
Or what I said originally: Their testing showed interference with RF.
There is some reason why the other Tags have soooo much blank PBC space around where the keychain-hole is.
Jus' sayin'...
Why am I not surprised (Score:2)
Apple's sense of aesthetics was offended by a hole and/or an imperfect circle, so they sacrificed the ability to attach the thing to anything without an accessory piece.
Can I glue it to my 10mm socket? (Score:2)
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Doesn't work the other way around (Score:2)
I had a tile thingee on the key ring, was connected to my trusty rusty iPhone 4S, and then lost the phone during holiday shopping. At least I had the keys to drive home!
Was it too hard (Score:2)
Was it too hard to super-glue a little ring or tag or whatever to it so it could be put on a key ring?
Or was it too hard to use a tiny bit of extra plastic to, I dunno, make a little tab with a hole in it so it could be put on a key ring?
It seems like a retarded design not to include a hole but what do I know, I use an Android phone that lets me load music easily or change the ringtone whenever I want without jumping through hoops or finding a PC to load iTunes on.
And don't get me started on the steaming pi
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Everyone rolls their eyes when they are subjected to your ringtones.
A clever Android user like yourself should know that.
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I'm going to just assume that your posts are all parodies playing off your username.
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I'm going to just assume that your posts are all parodies playing off your username.
Same here.
link (Score:2)
Sheesh, why link to a guy talking ABOUT the tear down when we could have linked to the actual teardown.
https://www.ifixit.com/News/50... [ifixit.com]
I do like the x-ray of the US quarter coin - even though the size of a US quarter means nothing to me as a non-American.
That drilled hole won't last (Score:2)
Even if you're careful, I don't think there's enough plastic there that it'll hold up for very long before it cracks, taking keys in and out of one's pocket.
If I were going to buy one, I'd just be chucking it into the bottom of a bag anyway, but I guess a hole or clip ring for a small carabiner would be nice.
Find my ... empty battery! (Score:2)
Is there anything more insane, than recharging a dozen stupid fucking gadgets each couple of days for no fucking reason whatsoever?
Seriously, anyone who thinks his is a good idea, belongs in a mental asylum.
I am serious. I want that to be am actual law, in all seriousness!
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Those CR2032s last a long time.* The one in the meter has lasted several years and only recently started chirping. Only other type as long is 9V.
*Better shelf life than the standard AA(A)s.
Spaceship campus (Score:2)
They should have made the thing look like their spaceship campus.
IP67 rating is now greatly compromised (Score:2)
IP67 dust and water resistance rating is now greatly compromised, or perhaps non-existent.
If I wanted to sell more units... (Score:2)
...I would modify the internal layout so that People would drill through the PCB modding them.
What? (Score:2)
What's an 'Air Tag'?
powered speaker (Score:1)