APPLE AIR TAGS FUD PING!
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Posted on 04/30/2021 8:05:02 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Last week, Apple announced its new AirTags — $29 location-tracking fobs that can help find your keys or purse anywhere in the world. The devices, which are roughly the diameter of a quarter, have since been tested and lauded by tech journalists, including our own.
But technology often comes with unintended consequences, explain representatives from the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), a leading nonprofit with the goal of ending violence against women. NNEDV sits on advisory boards for Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Uber and has consulted for both Google and Apple in the past (but not on AirTags). The organization’s representatives say that while Apple AirTags are a cheap, easy-to-use product to find a lost item, they are also a worrisome surveillance tool that could be leveraged by an abuser to discreetly track a partner. An AirTag simply needs to be slipped into someone’s bag or jacket pocket to track exactly where they go.
(Excerpt) Read more at fastcompany.com ...
I was affiliated with doing some work for this company (Ball Semiconductor) years ago! Fascinating!
https://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp.jsp?med_id=59796
[snip] Apple warns it can’t make enough iPads and Macs to keep up with demand, thanks to the global shortage in semiconductors that has already disrupted production at almost every major car company, from Ford to VW. [/snip]
...OTOH...
[snip] Apple said Wednesday that it would lose $3 billion to $4 billion in sales in the current quarter due to limited supplies of certain older chips.
Still, that represents just a few percent of Apple’s projected sales of $68.94 billion for the fiscal third quarter, according to Refinitiv revenue estimates, compared to a massive 50% production hit at Ford...
The uneven impact of the chip shortage was evident in mobile phone chip supplier Qualcomm Inc’s (QCOM.O) results announced Wednesday: The company said business was booming on strong demand for smartphone processors and 5G communications chips.
Mobile phone processors are not suffering the same kind of manufacturing capacity shortage as auto chips because they are made with more advanced production technology that chipmakers have spent heavily on in recent years.
Mobile phones do, however, require some older-technology chips in addition to their advanced processors. Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) also announced strong earnings and said it expected to see a hit to smartphone sales in the current quarter due to the chip shortage. But profits at its chip division are expected to be robust.
In cases where advanced chip production technology faces bottlenecks, semiconductor firms are finding some ways to mitigate them. Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.O) on Tuesday raised its annual sales targets, with CEO Lisa Su saying the company saw no problems in secure the supplies needed to meet the targets. [/snip]
“OK, we’ll take the meanderers, but we don’t want the saunterers!”
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I wouldn't count on it. LoJack will find a car inside a garage. My wife was part of the rollout with the San Diego Sheriff's Office before we left San Diego. Excellent technology. The rub was the stolen cars were ending up in a garage in Tijuana that was controlled by the cartels. There is no way to get it back. Your insurance company won't pay for it as a loss because you know where it is. The bank won't forgive payments. A real no win.
Qualcomm marketed devices that worked with the CDMA towers. You could find a car inside a concrete parking structure in San Diego....right down to the floor.
The AirTag has limited reach. Low power Bluetooth. Perhaps a 10 meter radius of useful range from the tag to an iPhone that can "hear" the Bluetooth signal. Upon seeing the tag, the iPhone can report it's own GPS LAT/LON and the Bluetooth MAC ID as a coarse approximation of location. If it's your AirTag, the UWB support in the iPhone lets you do a low budget "transmitter hunt" to locate the tag. It works within 30 feet of the tag. You can also make the tag emit an audio alert to pin it down when you're within a couple feet.
I keep a Whistle 3 on my dog. It has GPS, WiFi and cellular. The battery needs a recharge about every 30 days. When the Whistle 3 can see my household WiFi, it knows it is "home" and switches the GPS/cellular off to conserve power. As soon as the device is out of my household WiFi, it switch the GPS on and transmits tracking "pings" with current LAT/LON. The app on my phone is notified that the device is outside the WiFi network and brings up a moving map display with the current device location.
Not likely to work. The metal around the trunk will block the Bluetooth signal and you're beholden to an iPhone users to walk within range of the tag to "hear it" and report the GPS lat/lon of the iPhone that hears it.
A tag in a purse or jacket would be more effective.
I think it does work. There is no metal barrier between the trunk and the back seat. It might as well be in the passenger compartment.
We all know that cell phones and bluetooth work from inside the passenger compartment to outside the car.
Bought my sis a gift like that 15 to 20 years ago. Apple product probably hooked up to some evil network now.
A non buy.
Not really different, the airtag is found with the same find my app the iPhone uses, but when you are close enough to the item it switches to BlueTooth and pinpoints the tag.
“Not really different, the airtag is found with the same find my app the iPhone uses,”
Very different! The Find My app requires the device to be turned on. The Airtag has no battery or on/off functiin.
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