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Apple introduces AirTag (goodbye Tile!)

Joe Money

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Apple introduces AirTag
Apple expands the Find My ecosystem with AirTag, an iPhone accessory that provides a private and secure way to easily locate the items that matter most, available beginning Friday, April 30





AirTag is a small and elegantly designed accessory that can be personalized with free engraving, and enables iPhone users to securely locate and keep track of their valuables using the Find My app.
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today introduced AirTag, a small and elegantly designed accessory that helps keep track of and find the items that matter most with Apple’s Find My app. Whether attached to a handbag, keys, backpack, or other items, AirTag taps into the vast, global Find My network1 and can help locate a lost item, all while keeping location data private and anonymous with end-to-end encryption. AirTag can be purchased in one and four packs for just $29 and $99, respectively, and will be available beginning Friday, April 30
“We’re excited to bring this incredible new capability to iPhone users with the introduction of AirTag, leveraging the vast Find My network, to help them keep track of and find the important items in their lives,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing. “With its design, unparalleled finding experience, and built-in privacy and security features, AirTag will provide customers with another way to leverage the power of the Apple ecosystem and enhance the versatility of iPhone.”

Precision Finding gives users the exact distance and direction to their AirTag, guiding them through a combination of sound, haptics, and visual feedback.
Lightweight Design with Magical Setup
Each round AirTag is small and lightweight, features precision-etched polished stainless steel, and is IP67 water- and dust-resistant.2 A built-in speaker plays sounds to help locate AirTag, while a removable cover makes it easy for users to replace the battery.3 AirTag features the same magical setup experience as AirPods — just bring AirTag close to iPhone and it will connect. Users can assign AirTag to an item and name it with a default like “Keys” or “Jacket,” or provide a custom name of their choosing.

A simple setup magically connects AirTag with iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Customers can personalize AirTag with free engraving, including text and a selection of 31 emoji, when purchasing from apple.com or the Apple Store app. Users can easily place AirTag into a bag or pocket on its own, or utilize a wide range of Apple-designed AirTag accessories, including the Polyurethane Loop, which is both lightweight and durable, and the Leather Loop and Leather Key Ring,4 featuring specially tanned European leather. The enclosure of each accessory fits securely around AirTag, while conveniently attaching to a user’s belongings, further personalizing AirTag while making sure it is always with their important items.

AirTag can be placed into a bag or pocket on its own, or utilized with a wide range of Apple-designed AirTag accessories, with personalized free engraving including text and a selection of emoji.

The Apple-designed Leather Key Ring features specially tanned European leather and comes in three elegant colors.

The Apple-designed Polyurethane Loop is both lightweight and durable, and fits securely around AirTag.
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A Comprehensive Finding Experience
Once AirTag is set up, it will appear in the new Items tab in the Find My app, where users can view the item’s current or last known location on a map. If a user misplaces their item and it is within Bluetooth range, they can use the Find My app to play a sound from the AirTag to help locate it. Users can also ask Siri to find their item, and AirTag will play a sound if it is nearby.

Users can keep track of AirTag in the new Items tab within the Find My app.
Each AirTag is equipped with the Apple-designed U1 chip using Ultra Wideband technology, enabling Precision Finding5 for iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 users. This advanced technology can more accurately determine the distance and direction to a lost AirTag when it is in range. As a user moves, Precision Finding fuses input from the camera, ARKit, accelerometer, and gyroscope, and then will guide them to AirTag using a combination of sound, haptics, and visual feedback.

Precision Finding with AirTag fuses input from the camera, ARKit, accelerometer, and gyroscope on iPhone to provide a more precise, directionally aware finding experience.
If AirTag is separated from its owner and out of Bluetooth range, the Find My network can help track it down. The Find My network is approaching a billion Apple devices and can detect Bluetooth signals from a lost AirTag and relay the location back to its owner, all in the background, anonymously and privately.
Users can also place AirTag into Lost Mode and be notified when it is in range or has been located by the vast Find My network. If a lost AirTag is found by someone, they can tap it using their iPhone or any NFC-capable device and be taken to a website that will display a contact phone number for the owner, if they have provided one.
AirTag includes support for the accessibility features built into iOS. Precision Finding using VoiceOver, for example, can direct users who are blind or low-vision to AirTag with directions like “AirTag is 9 feet away on your left.”

If AirTag goes missing, the Find My network can help track it down, providing a notification to the user if it has been located.
Privacy and Security Built In
AirTag is designed from the ground up to keep location data private and secure. No location data or location history is physically stored inside AirTag. Communication with the Find My network is end-to-end encrypted so that only the owner of a device has access to its location data, and no one, including Apple, knows the identity or location of any device that helped find it.
AirTag is also designed with a set of proactive features that discourage unwanted tracking, an industry first. Bluetooth signal identifiers transmitted by AirTag rotate frequently to prevent unwanted location tracking. iOS devices can also detect an AirTag that isn’t with its owner, and notify the user if an unknown AirTag is seen to be traveling with them from place to place over time. And even if users don’t have an iOS device, an AirTag separated from its owner for an extended period of time will play a sound when moved to draw attention to it. If a user detects an unknown AirTag, they can tap it with their iPhone or NFC-capable device and instructions will guide them to disable the unknown AirTag.

iOS devices can detect an AirTag that isn’t with its owner, and notify the user if an unknown AirTag is seen to be traveling with them from place to place over time.
AirTag and Hermès
Apple and Hermès are introducing AirTag Hermès, featuring an elegant assortment of handcrafted leather accessories including the Bag Charm, Key Ring, Travel Tag, and Luggage Tag. Hermès accessories will be sold with a custom-engraved AirTag based on the brand’s iconic Clou de Selle signature.

AirTag Hermès features an elegant assortment of handcrafted leather accessories, including the Bag Charm, Key Ring, Travel Tag, and Luggage Tag — all of which will be sold with a custom-engraved AirTag based on the brand’s iconic Clou de Selle signature.
The Find My Network Accessory Program
Third-party products and accessories can also add support for finding with the new Find My network accessory program. Through the program, device and product manufacturers can now build finding capabilities directly into their products using the advanced Find My network with uncompromising privacy built in, allowing customers to use the Find My app to locate other important items in their lives. Details about the program can be found at mfi.apple.com.

With the Find My network accessory program, the vast and secure Find My network now helps users locate and keep track of even more important items in their lives using the Items tab in the Find My app.
Committed to the Environment
Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations, and by 2030, plans to have net zero climate impact across the entire business, which includes manufacturing supply chains and all product life cycles. This means that every Apple device sold, from material collection, component manufacturing, assembly, transport, customer use, charging, all the way through recycling and material recovery, will be 100 percent carbon neutral. AirTag will utilize 100 percent recycled tin in the solder of the main logic board, is free of harmful substances and highly energy efficient, and uses wood fiber in the packaging that is recycled or comes from responsibly managed forests.
Pricing and Availability
  • Customers can order AirTag beginning at 5 a.m. PDT on Friday, April 23.
  • AirTag will be available in one and four packs for $29 (US) and $99 (US), respectively, from apple.com, in the Apple Store app, at Apple Store locations, and through Apple Authorized Resellers and select carriers (prices may vary) beginning Friday, April 30.
  • Apple-designed AirTag accessories include the Leather Key Ring in Saddle Brown, (PRODUCT)RED, and Baltic Blue for $35 (US); the Leather Loop in Saddle Brown and (PRODUCT)RED for $39 (US); and the Polyurethane Loop in White, Deep Navy, Sunflower, and Electric Orange for $29 (US).
  • AirTag Hermès includes the premium Bag Charm and Key Ring in Fauve Barénia, Bleu Indigo, and Orange leather, as well as the Luggage Tag and Travel Tag6 in Fauve Barénia leather, all of which will be available beginning Friday, April 30.
  • Purchase from apple.com or the Apple Store app and add personalized engraving for free.
  • Customers are able to find the same great shopping and support services at apple.com and at Apple Store locations. Anyone can get shopping help from Apple Specialists, choose monthly financing options, trade in eligible devices, and get Apple Support and no-contact delivery or Apple Store pickup options.
  • Customers can see AirTag at an Apple Store and have their questions answered in person. Before their visit, customers are encouraged to check apple.com/retail for more information on opening hours, services available, and the health and safety measures in place.
  • AirTag requires iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 14.5 or later, or iPad running iPadOS 14.5 or later. These software updates will be available starting next week. Customers must have an Apple ID and be signed into their iCloud account. Certain features require Find My to be enabled in iCloud settings.
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Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Apple’s five software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

www.apple.com

Apple introduces AirTag

Apple today introduced AirTag, an accessory that works with iPhone and other Apple devices to track and find important belongings.
www.apple.com
 
Tile will accuse Apple of tactics it alleges are bullying, a day after iPhone giant unveiled a competing product
Tile’s general counsel will testify before Congress again just a day after Apple unveiled a new product called AirTags to compete with the company.

Apple unveils AirTag, a device that will compete with Tile to help people find lost things. Both companies will testify at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday. (Apple Inc./Handout)
By
Cat Zakrzewski
April 21, 2021 at 9:06 a.m. EDT

One of Apple’s most outspoken rivals plans to argue that the iPhone giant’s alleged anti-competitive behavior has only worsened since the company has come under Washington’s microscope.

Tile, the maker of devices that help people track their wallet or keys, was one of the first small companies to publicly accuse Apple of alleged bullying tactics in a high-profile congressional hearing 15 months ago. It will up the ante in another hearing Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where lawmakers want to focus on competition in app stores.

Kirsten Daru, Tile’s general counsel, will testify before Congress again just a day after Apple unveiled a new product called AirTags, which will directly compete with Tile in helping people track their items. The AirTags release “paints the perfect picture of precisely how Apple uses its ownership and dominance over the entire ecosystem to disadvantage competition,” she told The Washington Post in an interview. Daru contends Apple is giving its own trackers advantages on the iPhone that other device makers don’t enjoy, which makes their finding capabilities more precise and the devices easier to set up.

Tile’s testimony puts a personal face on the long-running Washington criticisms that technology giants have become too powerful, and it was cited in last year’s House antitrust investigation concluding that Apple wields “monopoly power” over how software is distributed to Apple devices. Daru plans to tell senators the investigation’s conclusions have “seemingly done nothing” to deter Apple’s behavior and accuse the company of continuing to exploit its power to Tile’s detriment.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary subcommittee hosting Wednesday’s hearing, called Apple’s product launch “exhibit A” as lawmakers seek evidence of competition problems in the app store ecosystem.

“It’s timely given this is the kind of conduct we’ll be examining at the hearing, and Apple and Tile will both be in the room,” she said during an interview.

Apple has pushed back on claims of anticompetitive behavior, arguing that more high-quality services from outside developers working with its phones and tablets make them more valuable. Apple argues its ecosystem has contributed to the growth of Tile’s business.

“We have always embraced competition as the best way to drive great experiences for our customers, and we have worked hard to build a platform in iOS that enables third-party developers to thrive,” Apple spokesman Fred Sainz said in a statement.

Tile’s testimony highlights a fundamental challenge with Washington’s current antitrust moment. Tech giants are known to move fast, constantly releasing new products and services directly competing with rivals, or acquiring smaller start-ups. Meanwhile, efforts to craft and pass changes to antitrust laws or bring lawsuits against companies frequently consume multiple years. The Justice Department brought an antitrust lawsuit against Google in October 2020, for instance, but it isn’t expected to go to trial until at least late 2023.

Daru hopes that by speaking out publicly, she will compel lawmakers to move quickly to pass legislation preventing large tech companies from using their dominance to give their own products and services an upper hand over rivals.

“We are hopeful that we will see legislative reform, and the sooner the better,” Daru said. “We’re already seeing all of these known abuses affect industry and innovation in this country, and in effect consumer choice. The longer we wait, the bigger and more powerful Apple is going to become and it’s just going to be harder.”

Klobuchar says lawmakers recognize the urgency of the competition issues in the tech industry, and that’s why she’s trying to pass legislation “very soon” to better fund agencies doing antitrust enforcement. She said lawmakers are trying to break up antitrust proposals into smaller bills focused on issues with bipartisan support and a better chance of passing Congress.


In the case of AirTags, Daru argues Apple’s new product will allow users to automatically connect to their phones without requiring them to open an app, making it easier to use versus rivals. Tile users, meanwhile, must go through a more clunky process to enable their trackers on iPhones, making changes deep in their phone settings.

Apple also says AirTags will use ultra-wideband technology, which is available on newer iPhones and permits users to get more precise details about the location of lost items. Tile devices currently rely on Bluetooth signals, which can tell users which room a lost object is in; with the ultra-wideband technology, Apple goes further by identifying the precise location of users’ lost objects. Apple says the new tech will allow people to see the distance to their AirTags, and in what direction they need to head to find them.

Tile is also developing a new product using ultra-wideband technology, according to a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly about them. But Apple has not yet given Tile access to a chip allowing the company to access this technology on iPhones, despite repeated requests for access since 2019, Daru said. That’s been a significant impediment to Tile’s product development. Apple has said it will allow device makers to access the chip later this spring.

The new AirTags are just one of Tile’s many grievances with Apple that it’s speaking publicly about for the first time. Daru also plans to home in on the Find My program, which recently launched and was seen as an olive branch allowing developers to use Apple’s vast network of signals from hundreds of millions of iPhones, iPads and computers to track devices. E-bike companies, headphone makers and even Chipolo, a company that makes tags similar to Tile’s, have joined the program to use Apple’s network to help people keep track of their belongings.

But Daru will paint a starkly different picture of the Find My program. She says for Tile’s devices to work with Apple’s network, it would have to abandon its own network and app, and instead direct people to use Apple’s Find My app. She said that would have negative consequences for Tile users who access the service through Google’s Android or Amazon Alexa.

She explains for companies to take advantage of the program, they have to agree to terms giving Apple “unprecedented control” over their businesses. Tile did not disclose the specifics of what controls it would have to hand over to Apple due to a nondisclosure agreement, she said.
“One of Apple’s strategies is to create an ecosystem that’s really hard for consumers to leave,” Daru said.

Apple argues the Find My network is a private and secure way for people to keep track of important belongings, and that Tile is free to join the program at any time. The company says its work on finding lost items began more than a decade ago, when it first launched a feature to help people locate and wipe clear missing Apple products.

Tile also plans to criticize the 30 percent fee Apple takes for purchases made in its app, arguing that under Apple’s current guidelines, it should be exempt from paying it. Spotify and Match have also criticized this fee, and it’s one of the top issues in a lawsuit brought against Apple by Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite. Apple has defended the fees, and under pressure, it cut its commission rate to 15 percent for software developers with less than $1 million in annual sales on its platform.

Daru will also tell lawmakers that Apple has not followed through on commitments to make changes to settings on phones making it easier for people to set up their Tile devices.

Tile is not alone in its criticism of Apple’s business practices. Officials from other Apple foes, including Spotify and Match Group, are scheduled to appear at the hearing, as well as from Apple and Google. Spotify plans to criticize Apple’s requirement that developers exclusively use its payment system for in-app purchases, according to excerpts of the company’s testimony reviewed by The Post.

“Without immediate help and specific rules, Apple and other gatekeepers will entrench their monopolies and control innovation in adjacent markets for decades to come,” Spotify head of global affairs Horacio Gutierrez will say in his testimony.

Klobuchar hopes that people walk away from Wednesday’s hearing with an understanding of how “widespread” the competition concerns about app stores are.

“I don’t want it to take away from the fact that we have a major problem beyond that with the exclusionary conduct,” she said. The Tile complaint “just one example.”

 
A bunch of people will be caught by their spouses cheating thanks to these.

Having these tied to the find my ... network is nuts, especially since other devices not connected to your network will help to broadcast the signal.
 
Database Error said:
What all are yall misplacing?
Click to expand...
APOPHIS said:
I'm at the point where I seriously believe
that Apple is trolling their consumers.
Click to expand...


vieFhsk.gif
 
Database Error said:
What all are yall misplacing?
Click to expand...

It’s a good option for people who travel a lot to attach to bags and other gear. The Airtag communicates with the Find My network, so think about how many people are moving around with iPhones.

And it’s Apple. It’s a status-symbol! That Airtag Hermès will sell out quick!
 
Yes. I have a tile for my parents (getting up in age). Thy have iPhones. I’m switching them over to this for the ability to exactly pinpoint lost times (keys, glucose monitor).

I don’t care about the brand. I care about the effectiveness. And I’m buying two packs for my parents.
 
APOPHIS said:
I'm at the point where I seriously believe that Apple is trolling their consumers.
Click to expand...
They are pumping money into an EV proof of concept now and are growing their banking/financial services. Too much cash on hand and not enough smart leadership. The homosexual, Tim Cook has to go. The only blue chip stock I own that isn’t growing as I expect :mad:
 
thismybgolname said:
A bunch of people will be caught by their spouses cheating thanks to these.

Having these tied to the find my ... network is nuts, especially since other devices not connected to your network will help to broadcast the signal.
​
Click to expand...

If the person has an iPhone it warns them, via a message on their phone, that an AirTag that is not theirs is tracking them.​
 

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