I have a few near perfect $2 bills from having visited Monticello in past years. At one point in the past they would give you change back from the admission price (which I seem to recall was $8) using two-dollar bills because ... Jefferson is on the two. The half dollar coin is just something I so rarely encounter that I don't have an intuitive feel for the size. For non US readers imagine that using a lesser known US coin as a size reference is kind of like saying that something has "the airspeed of an unladen swallow."
Jokes aside, from the comments I'm seeing here am I to believe that Apple's AirTags will have geo tracking capability, as in I can see exactly where my tags are anywhere in the world at any time? Is there a GPS and active pinger in the tag? If this is true, it would far exceed the capabilities of the Tile tags, which seem to be limited to Bluetooth ranges. My understanding was that these tags have to have been reported as "lost" before they will communicate with other iPhones that happen to be within Bluetooth range of the tag. So if a tagged item is not within range of a participating iPhone they would be undetectable.
That’s nearly one and half inches in diameter, and close enough to a quarter inch thick.
A half dollar (US) is 1.205 inches in diameter and 0.085 inches thick, not 0.25 inches thick or 1.5 inches in diameter. Your thickness claim was triple the actual value.
Actually the thickness is supposed to be 6 mm. An inch is 25.4 mm. So he’s right about the thickness.
I have a few near perfect $2 bills from having visited Monticello in past years. At one point in the past they would give you change back from the admission price (which I seem to recall was $8) using two-dollar bills because ... Jefferson is on the two. The half dollar coin is just something I so rarely encounter that I don't have an intuitive feel for the size. For non US readers imagine that using a lesser known US coin as a size reference is kind of like saying that something has "the airspeed of an unladen swallow."
Jokes aside, from the comments I'm seeing here am I to believe that Apple's AirTags will have geo tracking capability, as in I can see exactly where my tags are anywhere in the world at any time? Is there a GPS and active pinger in the tag? If this is true, it would far exceed the capabilities of the Tile tags, which seem to be limited to Bluetooth ranges. My understanding was that these tags have to have been reported as "lost" before they will communicate with other iPhones that happen to be within Bluetooth range of the tag. So if a tagged item is not within range of a participating iPhone they would be undetectable.
It's fairly certain that there isn't GPS in the tag, but in effect there is, because neighboring iOS devices do have GPS, and can send the actual GPS location of the page to Apple's servers.
Regarding your claim that the tags will have to be reported "lost" before the communicate with other iPhones. I don't think that's even mechanically possible because by definition a device that's lost can't be "told" it's lost to have it start communicating. But with a billion phones and a billion AirTags, it seems that there would be an inordinate amount of traffic being sent via other people's iPhones. I haven't figured out how much traffic there will be or whether people will be unhappy that they are getting charged for cellular data that doesn't have anything to do with them.
That’s nearly one and half inches in diameter, and close enough to a quarter inch thick.
A half dollar (US) is 1.205 inches in diameter and 0.085 inches thick, not 0.25 inches thick or 1.5 inches in diameter. Your thickness claim was triple the actual value.
Actually the thickness is supposed to be 6 mm. An inch is 25.4 mm. So he’s right about the thickness.
You should go correct wikipedia then which says the thickness is 2.15 mm.
The only time I care about what some yank currency might look like would be when I visit.
I was talking about the airtag’s rumoured thickness. 6 mm = 0.24 inches. Close enough to a quarter inch to me and anyone else really. It might be best to read more carefully next time.
The only time I care about what some yank currency might look like would be when I visit.
I was talking about the airtag’s rumoured thickness. 6 mm = 0.24 inches. Close enough to a quarter inch to me and anyone else really. It might be best to read more carefully next time.
Yes, you could have been referring to the AirTag. Or the half dollar. You didn't say in your original post. That's why I misunderstood. I'm sorry for not resolving your ambiguous pronouns correctly.
I have a few near perfect $2 bills from having visited Monticello in past years. At one point in the past they would give you change back from the admission price (which I seem to recall was $8) using two-dollar bills because ... Jefferson is on the two. The half dollar coin is just something I so rarely encounter that I don't have an intuitive feel for the size. For non US readers imagine that using a lesser known US coin as a size reference is kind of like saying that something has "the airspeed of an unladen swallow."
Jokes aside, from the comments I'm seeing here am I to believe that Apple's AirTags will have geo tracking capability, as in I can see exactly where my tags are anywhere in the world at any time? Is there a GPS and active pinger in the tag? If this is true, it would far exceed the capabilities of the Tile tags, which seem to be limited to Bluetooth ranges. My understanding was that these tags have to have been reported as "lost" before they will communicate with other iPhones that happen to be within Bluetooth range of the tag. So if a tagged item is not within range of a participating iPhone they would be undetectable.
It's fairly certain that there isn't GPS in the tag, but in effect there is, because neighboring iOS devices do have GPS, and can send the actual GPS location of the page to Apple's servers.
Regarding your claim that the tags will have to be reported "lost" before the communicate with other iPhones. I don't think that's even mechanically possible because by definition a device that's lost can't be "told" it's lost to have it start communicating. But with a billion phones and a billion AirTags, it seems that there would be an inordinate amount of traffic being sent via other people's iPhones. I haven't figured out how much traffic there will be or whether people will be unhappy that they are getting charged for cellular data that doesn't have anything to do with them.
I’ve seen references to “lost mode” on other sites along with the notion that the lost mode would be triggered by geofencing. I guess this would make sense if lost mode refers to the tag owner’s phone making this determination.
I suppose the tag owner’s phone could always store the last geolocation where it was able to talk to the tag and establish it as the center of the geofence. If the tag owner receives a notification via the cloud from another phone with a tag geolocation that is outside of the geofence it would be declared as lost. This seems workable for most situations. I can also imagine someone with a tagged item in an environment with lots of iPhones walking by their tag, like a ticket taker, a TSA agent, or an air traveler with a tag on their carry on bag would generate a constant stream of messages up to the cloud from all of those nearby phones.
Don’t get me wrong, if Apple can pull this off at a reasonable price I’ll be in line to buy a bucket of tags. If they can only do what Tile has done, AirTags will be a nonstarter for me.
I have a few near perfect $2 bills from having visited Monticello in past years. At one point in the past they would give you change back from the admission price (which I seem to recall was $8) using two-dollar bills because ... Jefferson is on the two. The half dollar coin is just something I so rarely encounter that I don't have an intuitive feel for the size. For non US readers imagine that using a lesser known US coin as a size reference is kind of like saying that something has "the airspeed of an unladen swallow."
Jokes aside, from the comments I'm seeing here am I to believe that Apple's AirTags will have geo tracking capability, as in I can see exactly where my tags are anywhere in the world at any time? Is there a GPS and active pinger in the tag? If this is true, it would far exceed the capabilities of the Tile tags, which seem to be limited to Bluetooth ranges. My understanding was that these tags have to have been reported as "lost" before they will communicate with other iPhones that happen to be within Bluetooth range of the tag. So if a tagged item is not within range of a participating iPhone they would be undetectable.
It's fairly certain that there isn't GPS in the tag, but in effect there is, because neighboring iOS devices do have GPS, and can send the actual GPS location of the page to Apple's servers.
Regarding your claim that the tags will have to be reported "lost" before the communicate with other iPhones. I don't think that's even mechanically possible because by definition a device that's lost can't be "told" it's lost to have it start communicating. But with a billion phones and a billion AirTags, it seems that there would be an inordinate amount of traffic being sent via other people's iPhones. I haven't figured out how much traffic there will be or whether people will be unhappy that they are getting charged for cellular data that doesn't have anything to do with them.
I’ve seen references to “lost mode” on other sites along with the notion that the lost mode would be triggered by geofencing. I guess this would make sense if lost mode refers to the tag owner’s phone making this determination.
I suppose the tag owner’s phone could always store the last geolocation where it was able to talk to the tag and establish it as the center of the geofence. If the tag owner receives a notification via the cloud from another phone with a tag geolocation that is outside of the geofence it would be declared as lost. This seems workable for most situations. I can also imagine someone with a tagged item in an environment with lots of iPhones walking by their tag, like a ticket taker, a TSA agent, or an air traveler with a tag on their carry on bag would generate a constant stream of messages up to the cloud from all of those nearby phones.
So what you just said there was that the tag talks to other iPhones even before it is lost. This is different from your explanation a few hours ago in which you said the tags need to be "reported as lost" and before that they would be "undetectable." Are you changing your prediction?
I don't know how it will be implemented but I'm not smart enough to imagine any solution in which the owner is required to indicate or determine that it is lost before the AirTag starts reporting its position. I think the only solution is to report all the time. However if an AirTag is near an iPhone that the iPhone doesn't recognize, for a significant period of time, then the iPhone will give you a warning that you may be being tracked. This is how iOS will prevent users from being stalked. However I think most users won't be bothered with these warnings (so they will disable them) and there will be lots of people who get stalked by this tech.
I highly recommend that you read up on the SS7 network which is how telephone companies trace the location of your cellphone. Did you know that at any time any telephone company (even one outside your own country) can send an SS7 request and find your general location as reported by your cellphone? All they need is your telephone number. It's pretty scary, especially since so many people's telephone numbers are publicly available. You might say to yourself "but we trust telephone companies." But do you really have any reason to trust a telephone company in Iran or China? They can also get your location. The SS7 network has no access controls. Although it is illegal for citizens in the US and Canada to track people here using this method, it's not illegal for websites and telephone companies in other countries to sell your geo-data. And some of those companies have websites that are accessible from North America. This is one of the reasons why the US president has to have a special phone, in order to prevent his location from being tracked by the SS7 network.
I think they will be very useful and I plan on ordering a few for myself when they come out. I can't help but wonder though, what impact will it have on battery life? If there are hundreds of AirTags communicating with my phone as I walk past them everyday, I assume those "pings" will have some (albeit minor) impact on battery life? I know we have buttons already for turning off Bluetooth and Wifi, I wonder if we will get an extra toggle for the UWB chip?
I have a few near perfect $2 bills from having visited Monticello in past years. At one point in the past they would give you change back from the admission price (which I seem to recall was $8) using two-dollar bills because ... Jefferson is on the two. The half dollar coin is just something I so rarely encounter that I don't have an intuitive feel for the size. For non US readers imagine that using a lesser known US coin as a size reference is kind of like saying that something has "the airspeed of an unladen swallow."
Jokes aside, from the comments I'm seeing here am I to believe that Apple's AirTags will have geo tracking capability, as in I can see exactly where my tags are anywhere in the world at any time? Is there a GPS and active pinger in the tag? If this is true, it would far exceed the capabilities of the Tile tags, which seem to be limited to Bluetooth ranges. My understanding was that these tags have to have been reported as "lost" before they will communicate with other iPhones that happen to be within Bluetooth range of the tag. So if a tagged item is not within range of a participating iPhone they would be undetectable.
It's fairly certain that there isn't GPS in the tag, but in effect there is, because neighboring iOS devices do have GPS, and can send the actual GPS location of the page to Apple's servers.
Regarding your claim that the tags will have to be reported "lost" before the communicate with other iPhones. I don't think that's even mechanically possible because by definition a device that's lost can't be "told" it's lost to have it start communicating. But with a billion phones and a billion AirTags, it seems that there would be an inordinate amount of traffic being sent via other people's iPhones. I haven't figured out how much traffic there will be or whether people will be unhappy that they are getting charged for cellular data that doesn't have anything to do with them.
I’ve seen references to “lost mode” on other sites along with the notion that the lost mode would be triggered by geofencing. I guess this would make sense if lost mode refers to the tag owner’s phone making this determination.
I suppose the tag owner’s phone could always store the last geolocation where it was able to talk to the tag and establish it as the center of the geofence. If the tag owner receives a notification via the cloud from another phone with a tag geolocation that is outside of the geofence it would be declared as lost. This seems workable for most situations. I can also imagine someone with a tagged item in an environment with lots of iPhones walking by their tag, like a ticket taker, a TSA agent, or an air traveler with a tag on their carry on bag would generate a constant stream of messages up to the cloud from all of those nearby phones.
So what you just said there was that the tag talks to other iPhones even before it is lost. This is different from your explanation a few hours ago in which you said the tags need to be "reported as lost" and before that they would be "undetectable." Are you changing your prediction?
I don't know how it will be implemented but I'm not smart enough to imagine any solution in which the owner is required to indicate or determine that it is lost before the AirTag starts reporting its position. I think the only solution is to report all the time. However if an AirTag is near an iPhone that the iPhone doesn't recognize, for a significant period of time, then the iPhone will give you a warning that you may be being tracked. This is how iOS will prevent users from being stalked. However I think most users won't be bothered with these warnings (so they will disable them) and there will be lots of people who get stalked by this tech.
I highly recommend that you read up on the SS7 network which is how telephone companies trace the location of your cellphone. Did you know that at any time any telephone company (even one outside your own country) can send an SS7 request and find your general location as reported by your cellphone? All they need is your telephone number. It's pretty scary, especially since so many people's telephone numbers are publicly available. You might say to yourself "but we trust telephone companies." But do you really have any reason to trust a telephone company in Iran or China? They can also get your location. The SS7 network has no access controls. Although it is illegal for citizens in the US and Canada to track people here using this method, it's not illegal for websites and telephone companies in other countries to sell your geo-data. And some of those companies have websites that are accessible from North America. This is one of the reasons why the US president has to have a special phone, in order to prevent his location from being tracked by the SS7 network.
I have a few near perfect $2 bills from having visited Monticello in past years. At one point in the past they would give you change back from the admission price (which I seem to recall was $8) using two-dollar bills because ... Jefferson is on the two. The half dollar coin is just something I so rarely encounter that I don't have an intuitive feel for the size. For non US readers imagine that using a lesser known US coin as a size reference is kind of like saying that something has "the airspeed of an unladen swallow."
Jokes aside, from the comments I'm seeing here am I to believe that Apple's AirTags will have geo tracking capability, as in I can see exactly where my tags are anywhere in the world at any time? Is there a GPS and active pinger in the tag? If this is true, it would far exceed the capabilities of the Tile tags, which seem to be limited to Bluetooth ranges. My understanding was that these tags have to have been reported as "lost" before they will communicate with other iPhones that happen to be within Bluetooth range of the tag. So if a tagged item is not within range of a participating iPhone they would be undetectable.
It's fairly certain that there isn't GPS in the tag, but in effect there is, because neighboring iOS devices do have GPS, and can send the actual GPS location of the page to Apple's servers.
Regarding your claim that the tags will have to be reported "lost" before the communicate with other iPhones. I don't think that's even mechanically possible because by definition a device that's lost can't be "told" it's lost to have it start communicating. But with a billion phones and a billion AirTags, it seems that there would be an inordinate amount of traffic being sent via other people's iPhones. I haven't figured out how much traffic there will be or whether people will be unhappy that they are getting charged for cellular data that doesn't have anything to do with them.
I’ve seen references to “lost mode” on other sites along with the notion that the lost mode would be triggered by geofencing. I guess this would make sense if lost mode refers to the tag owner’s phone making this determination.
I suppose the tag owner’s phone could always store the last geolocation where it was able to talk to the tag and establish it as the center of the geofence. If the tag owner receives a notification via the cloud from another phone with a tag geolocation that is outside of the geofence it would be declared as lost. This seems workable for most situations. I can also imagine someone with a tagged item in an environment with lots of iPhones walking by their tag, like a ticket taker, a TSA agent, or an air traveler with a tag on their carry on bag would generate a constant stream of messages up to the cloud from all of those nearby phones.
So what you just said there was that the tag talks to other iPhones even before it is lost. This is different from your explanation a few hours ago in which you said the tags need to be "reported as lost" and before that they would be "undetectable." Are you changing your prediction?
I don't know how it will be implemented but I'm not smart enough to imagine any solution in which the owner is required to indicate or determine that it is lost before the AirTag starts reporting its position. I think the only solution is to report all the time. However if an AirTag is near an iPhone that the iPhone doesn't recognize, for a significant period of time, then the iPhone will give you a warning that you may be being tracked. This is how iOS will prevent users from being stalked. However I think most users won't be bothered with these warnings (so they will disable them) and there will be lots of people who get stalked by this tech.
I highly recommend that you read up on the SS7 network which is how telephone companies trace the location of your cellphone. Did you know that at any time any telephone company (even one outside your own country) can send an SS7 request and find your general location as reported by your cellphone? All they need is your telephone number. It's pretty scary, especially since so many people's telephone numbers are publicly available. You might say to yourself "but we trust telephone companies." But do you really have any reason to trust a telephone company in Iran or China? They can also get your location. The SS7 network has no access controls. Although it is illegal for citizens in the US and Canada to track people here using this method, it's not illegal for websites and telephone companies in other countries to sell your geo-data. And some of those companies have websites that are accessible from North America. This is one of the reasons why the US president has to have a special phone, in order to prevent his location from being tracked by the SS7 network.
Okay. If the discussion on that link about "lost mode" is correct, then the other mode, which they seem to be calling "intermittent mode" is the mode I'm concerned about. In intermittent mode the device sends out a signal intermittently. It says, "these devices may update a server or other database with the tag's location." So even in the non-lost mode, the AirTags are still sending data to a server "even if they're miles away and unable to directly communicate with the tag with her smartphone." That means the device is using other people's iPhones to update Apple's servers. This is exactly what I'm talking about. As I wrote above:
I'm not smart enough to imagine any solution in which the owner is required to indicate or determine that it is lost before the AirTag starts reporting its position.
If AirTags had two features that other Bluetooth tags do not, they would be a market killer product. Those two features are GPS and long range slow speed RF data. GPS takes a lot of power but only if it is used all the time. With a small rechargeable lithium ion battery, a device the size of an Air Tag could wake up the GPS receiver, get the exact location within a meter or three and shut down again. Long range low speed RF data already exists in a few devices the size of an Air Tag. It allows transmission of small packets of encrypted data within a mile or two. That's just enough to ping the ID and location of the Air Tag. Again this could work on a small battery. The Air Tag would listen for its own ID and then wake up and ping back its location to the correctly encrypted request. Bluetooth would still be used for nearby communications but being able to get an exact location at long range without needing an expensive cellular data plan would make Air Tags the market leader.
If AirTags had two features that other Bluetooth tags do not, they would be a market killer product. Those two features are GPS and long range slow speed RF data. GPS takes a lot of power but only if it is used all the time. With a small rechargeable lithium ion battery, a device the size of an Air Tag could wake up the GPS receiver, get the exact location within a meter or three and shut down again. Long range low speed RF data already exists in a few devices the size of an Air Tag. It allows transmission of small packets of encrypted data within a mile or two. That's just enough to ping the ID and location of the Air Tag. Again this could work on a small battery. The Air Tag would listen for its own ID and then wake up and ping back its location to the correctly encrypted request. Bluetooth would still be used for nearby communications but being able to get an exact location at long range without needing an expensive cellular data plan would make Air Tags the market leader.
The reason AirTags will be a killer product is that they don't need internal GPS because any iOS device around them already has GPS, (even devices that don't belong to the AirTag owner) and it's the iOS device that sends the GPS data to Apple's servers. Why would you need to duplicate the GPS hardware when it provides no added benefit? Since the AirTag is relying on neighboring iOS devices to send its location to Apple's servers, it also uses the neighboring devices to obtain the GPS data.
As for "long range low speed RF data", that's a legitimate request, but I feel that it's unnecessary because it's hard to find any location in the USA that's not already within bluetooth or wifi range of an iOS device at least once per day. All an AirTag needs is to come within close range of any iOS device once every few hours to be useful as a tracking device.
The only time I care about what some yank currency might look like would be when I visit.
I was talking about the airtag’s rumoured thickness. 6 mm = 0.24 inches. Close enough to a quarter inch to me and anyone else really. It might be best to read more carefully next time.
Yes, you could have been referring to the AirTag. Or the half dollar. You didn't say in your original post. That's why I misunderstood. I'm sorry for not resolving your ambiguous pronouns correctly.
And then you doubled down when someone else pointed out you had the wrong end of the stick. Maybe you are the Fonz? Just say it. Admit it, you were “Wrong”. You can do it. https://youtube.com/watch?v=fbMKjLe-RFA&feature=share
The only time I care about what some yank currency might look like would be when I visit.
I was talking about the airtag’s rumoured thickness. 6 mm = 0.24 inches. Close enough to a quarter inch to me and anyone else really. It might be best to read more carefully next time.
Yes, you could have been referring to the AirTag. Or the half dollar. You didn't say in your original post. That's why I misunderstood. I'm sorry for not resolving your ambiguous pronouns correctly.
And then you doubled down when someone else pointed out you had the wrong end of the stick. Maybe you are the Fonz? Just say it. Admit it, you were “Wrong”. You can do it. https://youtube.com/watch?v=fbMKjLe-RFA&feature=share
I definitely interpreted him wrongly. I admit it. It was not very humble of me to point out that he could have worded his statement better. But you will note that I admitted I misunderstood. P.S. That was an apropos video link. I liked it a lot.
Comments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_two-dollar_bill
Regarding your claim that the tags will have to be reported "lost" before the communicate with other iPhones. I don't think that's even mechanically possible because by definition a device that's lost can't be "told" it's lost to have it start communicating. But with a billion phones and a billion AirTags, it seems that there would be an inordinate amount of traffic being sent via other people's iPhones. I haven't figured out how much traffic there will be or whether people will be unhappy that they are getting charged for cellular data that doesn't have anything to do with them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_dollar_(United_States_coin) <-- copy entire string into wikipedia
I don't know how it will be implemented but I'm not smart enough to imagine any solution in which the owner is required to indicate or determine that it is lost before the AirTag starts reporting its position. I think the only solution is to report all the time. However if an AirTag is near an iPhone that the iPhone doesn't recognize, for a significant period of time, then the iPhone will give you a warning that you may be being tracked. This is how iOS will prevent users from being stalked. However I think most users won't be bothered with these warnings (so they will disable them) and there will be lots of people who get stalked by this tech.
I highly recommend that you read up on the SS7 network which is how telephone companies trace the location of your cellphone. Did you know that at any time any telephone company (even one outside your own country) can send an SS7 request and find your general location as reported by your cellphone? All they need is your telephone number. It's pretty scary, especially since so many people's telephone numbers are publicly available. You might say to yourself "but we trust telephone companies." But do you really have any reason to trust a telephone company in Iran or China? They can also get your location. The SS7 network has no access controls. Although it is illegal for citizens in the US and Canada to track people here using this method, it's not illegal for websites and telephone companies in other countries to sell your geo-data. And some of those companies have websites that are accessible from North America. This is one of the reasons why the US president has to have a special phone, in order to prevent his location from being tracked by the SS7 network.
GPS takes a lot of power but only if it is used all the time. With a small rechargeable lithium ion battery, a device the size of an Air Tag could wake up the GPS receiver, get the exact location within a meter or three and shut down again. Long range low speed RF data already exists in a few devices the size of an Air Tag. It allows transmission of small packets of encrypted data within a mile or two. That's just enough to ping the ID and location of the Air Tag. Again this could work on a small battery. The Air Tag would listen for its own ID and then wake up and ping back its location to the correctly encrypted request. Bluetooth would still be used for nearby communications but being able to get an exact location at long range without needing an expensive cellular data plan would make Air Tags the market leader.
As for "long range low speed RF data", that's a legitimate request, but I feel that it's unnecessary because it's hard to find any location in the USA that's not already within bluetooth or wifi range of an iOS device at least once per day. All an AirTag needs is to come within close range of any iOS device once every few hours to be useful as a tracking device.
Maybe you are the Fonz? Just say it. Admit it, you were “Wrong”. You can do it.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fbMKjLe-RFA&feature=share