Flytrap

AppleInsider said:

According to data from the Post-IDFA Alliance, only 36.5% of iOS 14.5 users are opting in to ad tracking, which is causing an advertiser exodus to Android.

Good Riddance!

ITGUYINSD said:

My Samsung A71 5G (backup phone) has a headphone jack.  How convenient, right?  Lossless made easy.

I am not sure if this is a seriously ignorant statement or just intended to be a tongue in cheek joke. Either way, it is very misleading because that is not how it works. If you are not connecting your headphones or DAC directly to the lightning or usb connector, then you are definitely doing it wrong, when it comes to making the most of your lossless audio.

If you are going to pin your hopes on the el-cheapo low powered internal DAC and low fidelity built-in amp, then you might as well stick the headphones that came in the box with your mobile phone into that 3.5mm jack and enjoy the whatever noise it can crank out. You may be using a lossless audio file, but you are not listening to a faithful reproduction of what was encoded in that file.

And that is why everyone will choose AirTags over Tile...

19,000 Delta Air Lines flight attendants just joined the Find My network... now you will know that you forgot your AirTagged item in the plane before the cleaning crew even gets on.

AppleInsider said:

As previously reported by AppleInsider, the publication also says that a significant number of advertisers are planning to move away from iOS to Android.

I say, good riddance!

I understand that developers have to eat and have bills to pay... but, if I have to choose between the two evils of ads that follow me around from one app to the next, and in-app payments, I will pick the latter most times (some in-app payments are just rip-offs).

The other day I watched my son playing an iOS game that had so many ads, that he was getting an unskippable 30-second ad for every minute or two of game time - that is just ridiculous! It made a fun little game unplayable. Even after I paid the in-app subscription, the ads did not stop... they were just reduced in number and some became skippable. Developers should at least give users of their apps the option to pay for the app or pay to use certain features of the app in lieu of being tracked by ad agencies who then use that data to bombard us with targeted ads.

chaicka said:

FizzyPanda said:

Tile is probably wishing it hadn't poked the bear. They're now just a commodity and irrelevant with products that integrate Apple Find My directly. I never liked the fact that Tile tried to block Apple from releasing a competing product under the guise of anti-competitive behaviour. It always felt like Tile were the ones being anti-competitive.

Great move by Apple, the move adds a lot of value to the whole ecosystem, making what was a narrow service much more relevant and mainstream.

And the much delay in releasing 'AirTags' may also be a move to wait for other 3rd parties accessories to be ready and available so as to avoid any perceived anti-competitive flaming. It's great to have choices and integrated 'Find My' devices, equipment, etc without having to solely depend on Tile's devices. Totally agree with what you mentioned - a great move that adds lots of value.

Tile is now faced with a difficult choice for which there are no good options for them. Either they:

1. Stick with their proprietary technology and app, which is cross platform and works on iOS and Android. They already have a sizeable deployed base of users for this - which is necessary to increase the probability of your Tile item being found by another Tile user - but it is a tiny fraction of the number of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and MacBook users who have the Find My app pre installed. This sounds like a lose slowly kind of strategy. Or
2. Switch to Apple's Find My MFi programme where they will likely have a head start over similar competitors due to the number of existing users who are likely to just upgrade to the new Find My compatible Tile device (and maybe find a way of making the new Tile devices backward compatible for their Android users). But they will quickly be swamped and overwhelmed by cheaper Asian copy-cat OEMs who will flood the market with cheap Find My compatible tiles that leverage the same installed base of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and MacBook Find My users as tile - essentially eliminating the one advantage that Tile currently has over any new startup trying to compete with them. This sounds like a race to the bottom kind of strategy, unless they can leverage their brand name to carve out a premium Find My compatible tile niche for themselves (think MFi accessories like cables, battery power packs, phone cases, etc.)