Air Tags, who is using them?

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by AllanEdie

Just one of the reasons I deleted my Facebook account.

Go ahead and use the debit or credit card or a points/values card at a store. Walking even gets you captured by cameras, you don't even need to drive a car. And you're worried about Facebook? We are loooong past being anonymous.

[iamunique127]

Originally Posted by AllanEdie

Just one of the reasons I deleted my Facebook account.

Me too.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

Your stat was global too, afaik

ok, i did a bit more poking, found a range of numbers, but in the USA, Apple has maybe 60-65% market share vs Android. so, maybe two iphones for every android. yet, globally, its nearly 3 androids for 1 iphone.

[Fender]

This too is an iOS only device but for anyone looking to add some security to their bike I have had great luck with the Knog Scout.
This mounts unobtrusively under your water bottle cage and along with the same "Find My" feature of the Air Tag the Scout also has an 85 db motion activated alarm.
This combined with a sturdy lock gives peace of mind with an expensive bike.

https://www.knog.com/products/scout

[Ooshkaboo]

And then there’s where to hide it, under the gray handy box cover.

[hugh]

Originally Posted by Ops

Both my dogs are wearing Air Tags, and I've seen a few other doggo's in my 'hood with them on as well. Cheap insurance in the land of forests, camping, bears and cougars.

But the guilt trip displayed on my iPhone when I leave them behind at home - the two of them are reminding me "You left without us ".

The question is: will they survive the trip through a cougar's digestive system?

[sofmerc]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

Go ahead and use the debit or credit card or a points/values card at a store. Walking even gets you captured by cameras, you don't even need to drive a car. And you're worried about Facebook? We are loooong past being anonymous.

agreed!

[miclip]

I use Monimoto for my motorcycles and decided to throw one in my Escape. It activities when the key fob is more than 10 meters away. Movement makes it call my cell and it starts tracking its location from that moment. As it’s designed for motorcycles it detects any movement (someone sitting on the bike) but when configuring it has a car mode which changes the sensitivity. Only issue so far is that it was called me when driving but probably addressed by leaving the keys inside whilst traveling or hanging in the back of the cab. It can be put into sleep mode to ignore movement. Obviously depends on cellular but eventually it would get coverage of stolen from out of range.

Small, zip ties to install, $40/yr for the SIM card.

https://monimoto.com/

[Donna D.]

I didn't want to start a new thread about data mining, when this one works. Thought folks might be interested in this: If You’ve Got a New Car, It’s a Data Privacy Nightmare

[Lanark Camper]

Here is a story about AirTags tracking a stolen vehicle around the world. Might even work for an Escape……

https://youtu.be/A3eG8ZbeXeQ?si=aW9yTcIJLkBsYW8l

[emers382]

I just finished reading that on CBC just before coming here. Note that the owner of the Yukon is having nothing but trouble trying to get the vehicle back. Police were even right beside it when it was sitting in a container on a rail car in Toronto yet it still ended up in the UAE.

[WillyB]

Our girls have said they are going to get us an Apple tracker when I retire later this year and start Escaping. They said if we spend too many nights in one spot and they're sending in the National Guard to find us.

[oldwave]

I have an AirTag hidden in my trailer, one in my mandolin and one in my fiddle cases

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by miclip

it detects any movement (someone sitting on the bike)

Reminds me of the alarm I designed for my little low open car. It's triggered by a proximity sensor. A women parked close, got out and then leaned into her car to retrieve something. Her butt swung over the cockpit and the alarm went off. She jumped like someone had just pinched her butt. Watching from inside I almost spewed my coffee.

Ron

[HABBERDABBER]

At least the Yukon guy knows where it's at. He can go visit it, in the UAE, someday.

I've got an Apple Air Tag sequestered away in my E19. I also have insurance on it. Better than nothing, not not by much. Thievery plays the game theory, and often bests the latest until there's a new bestest.

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

I hate that Airtags are an apple only thing. My tablet and phone and my wife's phone are Android, so we're stuck with Tile, which I use on her keys and wallet and purse that she's always misplacing, and it works well enough within range of our own devices but I don't think is good for wide area tracking as the density of Tile users is far lower than the density of all iPhone users.

John, I’m just speculating here because I have been an iPhone user since the 4th generation and have little recent experience with Android, but I do not believe you would have to activate an iPhone to use its “Find My” app. I have an older, inactivated iPhone that connects to my home WiFi and is capable of connecting to my active phone via its Hot Spot. If Android phones have a Hot Spot feature, and I believe they do, all you would have to do is find a 3 or 4 year old iPhone that someone is trading in, buy it from them at a low price, and I believe you could track Air Tags with it. Maybe I’m wrong and someone else can confirm or deny my supposition.
Finally, you have my condolences for choosing the wrong cellular platform!

[Eggscape]

So how close to my house/iPad does an AirTag sitting in my trailer have to be before it is out of range and goes into anti staking mode and starts beeping.

Also if it does start beeping does it stop automatically if it sees my iPad again?

As a side note, our trailer is within the range of our wifi network if that makes a difference. We don’t have iPhones…just iPads that we use all the time. From what I have read I am not interested in Tile for Android.

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

ok, i did a bit more poking, found a range of numbers, but in the USA, Apple has maybe 60-65% market share vs Android. so, maybe two iphones for every android. yet, globally, its nearly 3 androids for 1 iphone.

I just read an article on the BBC News website that states Apple has taken over the #1 spot for global phone sales over the Chinese based manufactures and South Korea’s Samsung. This does not refute the 3 for 1 statement, but it does indicate a growing share. Apple’s biggest problem would seem to be its premium price. Apple, although very innovative (Windows is a copy of Apple’s interface) has not always made the best marketing decisions. When Wozniak and Jobs “invented” the first desktop computer, they marketed it primarily to schools. As a teacher, my wife purchased an Apple IIe. For a few years, that was what I used for all my computing needs, primarily word processing (remember dot matrix printers and dial-up connections!). Had they marketed it to business, IBM’s PC may not have gained a foothold, yet the PC has the greatest share of the market by far. Apple’s proprietary components meant that if one wanted to add another disk drive, it had to be one of Apple’s. Having used (not owned) a Mac, it is, IMHO, superior to a PC. People who are into graphic design will say the same thing. But the excessive price of the Mac (primarily), its far more limited peripherals, and service availability is why I would now never even considering purchasing a Mac.

[iamunique127]

Originally Posted by C&G in FL

Apple’s proprietary components meant that if one wanted to add another disk drive, it had to be one of Apple’s. Having used (not owned) a Mac, it is, IMHO, superior to a PC. People who are into graphic design will say the same thing. But the excessive price of the Mac (primarily), its far more limited peripherals, and service availability is why I would now never even considering purchasing a Mac.

While those may be your experiences I'm not sure they are completely applicable now. Mac has had USB connections for many years. I haven't needed Apple peripherals to work with my Macs since at least the year 2000. I buy everything off the shelf at the local computer store which does not cater to Mac at all. At least for the type of peripheral I tend to use: printers, external hard drives, scanners, expansion hubs, etc. Even when there were Firewire ports on the Macs, there were adapters and any brand hard drive would work. Now that there are Firewire ports, they are also easily adapted.

I was constantly having to fix, in some way, my Windows machines and got so frustrated and annoyed with the unreliability that I switched to Mac back in 2000. Sure the machines cost more but I find they are reliable, intuitive to use and I have no down time. I have yet to re-load an operating system or do any of the other foolishness that was so common with my Windows machines. I've also never needed a Mac to be serviced, as was so common with Windows machines. I'm willing to pay for that. As always, YMMV.

Back to the topic at hand: I haven't looked into the price of AirTags but they might be interesting to use but neither of us tend to misplace things. Maybe we'll stash one in the trailer on the off chance it goes missing. We both have iPhones and the wife has an iPad so compatibility is not an issue. Again, we pay dearly for those iPhones but never have to fiddle with them. As someone said recently in another thread: "pay once, cry once."

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by iamunique127

While those may be your experiences I'm not sure they are completely applicable now. Mac has had USB connections for many years. I haven't needed Apple peripherals to work with my Macs since at least the year 2000. I buy everything off the shelf at the local computer store which does not cater to Mac at all. At least for the type of peripheral I tend to use: printers, external hard drives, scanners, expansion hubs, etc. Even when there were Firewire ports on the Macs, there were adapters and any brand hard drive would work. Now that there are Firewire ports, they are also easily adapted.

I was constantly having to fix, in some way, my Windows machines and got so frustrated and annoyed with the unreliability that I switched to Mac back in 2000. Sure the machines cost more but I find they are reliable, intuitive to use and I have no down time. I have yet to re-load an operating system or do any of the other foolishness that was so common with my Windows machines. I've also never needed a Mac to be serviced, as was so common with Windows machines. I'm willing to pay for that. As always, YMMV.

Back to the topic at hand: I haven't looked into the price of AirTags but they might be interesting to use but neither of us tend to misplace things. Maybe we'll stash one in the trailer on the off chance it goes missing. We both have iPhones and the wife has an iPad so compatibility is not an issue. Again, we pay dearly for those iPhones but never have to fiddle with them. As someone said recently in another thread: "pay once, cry once."

Lyle, I got so fed up with Apple Computers sometime around 1990 that I switched to PCs and haven’t looked back, and I mean that literally. I have no clue what is compatible with Apple nowadays. I do agree PCs can be problematic. I do use iCloud on my Windows laptop and desk top. I am not a power user, mostly word processing and spreadsheets. But I will admit that I am iPhone all the way, and honestly use the phone to read the news, order merchandise online, etc. I have said many times if forced to give up either the computers or the smart phone, it would be a no-brainer. The computers would be gone. If you were an Apple user in the early days, then you know what I said was true, at least back then.