Apple AirTag

Buddy had his golf bag stolen on Saturday. What the POS thief didn't know was there was an Apple AirTag hidden away. He had it recovered within 2 hours. 4-pack at Amazon for $100. Money well spent IMO.

I WOULD IMAGINE THESE WOULD WORK GREAT FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT LEAVE CASED GUNS IN YOUR TRUCKS OR CARS.

Is that some sort of gps tracker?

Small tracker, little larger than a quarter.

Better not to leave an unsecured firearm at all.

Where did he find golf bag?

If the POS has an iPhone their phone will notify them there is a tag near by tracking...the reason they did this was some guys were using them as a stalking tool. Read an article not long ago about a lady who randomly found one in her purse and had no clue who put it in there.

I concur about unsecured firearms but you know the overall general consensus on the THF...it's been beat to death.

He lives in Scottsdale, AZ. About 20 minutes from course he was playing.

I put one my youngest at Disney, worked great. More worries about her getting lost in crowds then stolen but nonetheless. Down side is needs other apple devices around for location

Wow, thats a great idea. I have some Airtags but had only been using them when traveling to throw into luggage. These days with traffickers it only takes a few seconds of you turning your head or looking down at your phone.

Maybe I should attach them to my catalytic converters

I read this too. So I was wondering if this would really be a good thing because if the thief has an iphone, wouldn't it alert them it was in the area or on the thing they just stole? They could just find it and ditch it and then your stuff is still their stuff.

not a fan. too much room for abuse.

So my wife just tested this. My AirTag in her purse. She did not get any alert on her iPhone. How does this alert her she's being tracked?

Ya I dont understand these little things but I knew they had issues with people being stalker on celebrities. So I thought apple made it where it could be detected by other devices which defeated the purpose of not informing thieves there was one present if they had an Iphone. I haven't done hardly any research into them but that is what I understood after criminals started abusing them so that was it for me.

Apple Update on AirTag

It’s not immediately, takes 10 minutes plus.

It’s only a matter of time before the elderly have these for when they wander off

Some Romans 1:30 coming to fruition there.

I am so dumb when it comes to this stuff. So read the article, and if you have airpods and it detects a tag that is near you, it will say detected some unwanted device. Also the iphone will alert you of this undetected device supposedly if its near you or if you are being tracked. So again, I guess that kind of sucks if the thief has an iphone or an apple product, it should detect them that there is an air tag and they will just ditch it and still run off with your stuff.

The US DoJ is prepping to file an anti-trust against Apple [regarding AirTags].

That's the way I read it too however my wife has had it in her purse for about 30 min and she has yet to get any message on her iPhone. She's very tech savvy too.

Take your phone out of range of it or turn phone off and see if she picks it up.

I connected my kids to my phone. When they got out of range it would alert me, and then wife would get a pop up about them when she was with the kids and me away

I'm 200 miles from her.

As with everything some will find a way to abuse. After by Daughter/SIL had one of their dogs escape through the fence (we thought it was gone as we looked for hours), they added the air tags to the dogs collars and does a good job tracking them.

Of course, this wont stop the crooks as they'll just remove the collar/tag.

But what we are trying to figure out is if the dog didnt want to be tracked. So what apple is saying they have done is that if an airtag comes into contact with another apple device that is not known, it will let the apple user know. What we are trying to figure out is how not to be tracked by one of these devices since they were abused. According to The DUDE, his wife has had his air tag in her purse for 30 minutes and she isn't being alerted. This means people still can track you if you do not want to be tracked which is kind of scary as well.

In some ways then it might be worth our while to keep with our belongings, but in some ways it is also scary in the wrong hands if people are tracking you and you have no idea it is happening.

They are so easy to defeat with an iPhone.

https://www.macworld.com/article/345863/how-to-find-block-disable-airtag-moving-with-you.html

From the article:
Apple’s Find My app can be used to manually scan for AirTags near you using the Items That Can Track Me option in the Items tab as well as the Tracker Detect app on Android.
or
Apple has two kinds of alerts it offers to help let someone know that there’s an AirTag near them that isn’t associated with their iCloud account. These alerts happen after some period of time or while you’re moving and the AirTag is moving with you.
First, if you have an iPhone or iPad running iOS/iPadOS 14.5 or later, it tracks whether when you’re moving from place to place a Bluetooth ID associated with an AirTag is, too. If so, you’ll get a notification that tells you there’s an AirTag moving with you, and, when tapped, provides additional information. This includes how long it’s seen this AirTag, and the locations that your device has transmitted associated with the AirTag.

Looks like there are a couple of ways to find them. The second option requires you to be on a newer IOS version for the phone. Not sure what IOS you need to be on for the first option to have the option in the find my phone app.

Thanks,
Rich