AirTags: Apple’s New Trackers
Last Tuesday, During the Apple event, they announced the release of their new gadget, AirTag, which is a small tracker one can attach to their keys, baggage, or anything else and can find that item with the help of Apple’s Find My system. This event included newly designed iMacs, iPads, but this thing got everyone interested since it is too small but can have a huge use in the future since it can be tracked and returned to the owner with the help of iPhones and Android devices.
Rumours of this device which is a Tile competitor stretch back to 2019 when it was hinted when it was found that the iPhone 11 has the ultra-wideband, or UWB, technology in it. While Bluetooth can track items and has an accuracy of 5 metres, UWB can pinpoint them to around 5 to 10 centimetres.
Some Features
It is a small, lightweight, stainless steel disc that has Apple logo on one side and the other side can be personalized with a free engraving. This gadget comes with IP67 water, dust resistant coating, and has a detachable cover which is designed to make it easy to replace the CR2032 battery, which as per Apple’s claim can work for a year or so. Its equipped with Apple’s U1 chip which uses Ultra-Wideband technology to find the device using its Precision Finding feature.
Personalizing your AirTag
Apple promises to engrave one side of your AirTag for free after purchase. While ordering, you can use the letters, numbers, and any of the 31 different emojis. Since the tag is small, you can choose only up to 4 characters to engrave. As you choose, you’ll be able to see a preview of what the tag will look like, once it is engraved
Cost of AirTags
This will be available for purchase in India via Apple Authorised Resellers from April 30. One can order a single AirTag via apple.com for ₹3,190, while a pack of four costs ₹10,900. And even though it’s not required, you can attach AirTags to your items with the keychain accessory that will be much safer.
Functioning of the AirTag
After the AirTag is paired with your device, You can name your items as well, with recommendations from the app or names of your own choice. From there, you can see the item’s last known location if AirTag is attached to the item. If the item is within the Bluetooth range, you can use the Find My app to signal the AirTag’s impressive built-in speaker to create a sound. You can also ask Siri to find that item. The finding process relies on camera input, ARKit, accelerometer and gyroscope to guide you to your AirTag using sound, haptics and by offering on-screen arrows and visual cues to point the way.
If you’re out of Bluetooth range, Put your AirTag into Lost mode and you will receive a notification when it’s in range of the Find My network. If someone else finds your AirTag, he or she can use an iPhone or Android device which is NFC supportable to view your contact number, address or any other information, which you would have listed what to show a stranger if you lost your item.
Privacy
During Apple’s AirTag release last week, they discussed on privacy as well. Carolyn Wolfman, an engineer at Apple, said safety features are in place that discourages unwanted tracking. and also said that it is designed to track items, not people
Possibility of Stalking?
And if your iPhone notices that there’s another unwanted or unknown AirTag that is near you or following you, it notifies you, once you reach your home which is the safest place for you and it won’t make you panic. But if sometimes there is another AirTag which is of your friend’s or a family member it won’t notify you as a stranger’s AirTag that is trying to follow you. It will only notify you when another AirTag is away from the owner which adds more clarity to the fact that it might be used to follow you and in case if it is not following you, this might indirectly help you in finding the owner of the other AirTag easily.
Tile and AirTag
The working of AirTag makes it way better than Tile because it depends upon being around other active Tile devices to find the item.
But AirTag depends on other iOS devices and hence it has a way better chance to find your item easily because there are lots of iPhones around than Tile devices. And also as stated earlier the AirTag can be also located by using an Android device by using the NFC feature which is not present in Tile.
Moreover, AirTags don’t store any sort of location data or communication history through the Find My app. It is end-to-end encrypted, according to Apple. Plus, Apple will further improve the anti-stalking feature by adding more smarter algorithms that alerts you if an unrecognized AirTag tracker is trying to keep tabs on your location.
