Clever.

Find my tortoise

If your tortoise displays a curious bent, meaning he wanders off into the blue beyond now and then, a spot of epoxy and an Apple AirTag will see him found in record time, unless he just happened to be crossing the road at the same time as that Mack truck came trundling along.

Size and weight.

It’s not as if aforesaid tortoise is going to struggle too much under the weight, but perhaps a more useful application is to deter theft of expensive toys. Like cars and cameras.

I recall years ago some buyers of high end cameras would have them engraved with their Social Security Numbers. It’s hard to conceive of a dumber idea. The thief is not about to stop his thieving ways because you engraved the camera, is not about to report it to anyone when he sees it and will use your SSN to loot your credit card, destroy your credit score, etc.

But if you could find some way of building this into your camera where it could not be removed, then you have a winner. Apple says the replaceable battery lasts 12 months. It looks like AirTags need an iPhone 11 or later to work in ‘high precision’ finding mode, or an iPhone SE, 6S or later for regular accuracy.

Pricing is $29 or four for $99, and you can read more here. And you can forget those megabuck installations in your car which claim the cops can find it once it’s been pinched. An AirTag does the trick. Bring your own gun. The cops are busy killing innocents with theirs.

The billion node network:

To avoid high power consumption, AirTags do not use GPS but rather depend on the worldwide one billion iPhone base of users to transmit location data using Bluetooth. Brilliant and not invasive.

The three day warning:

If your AirTag is out of range of your iPhone for 8-24 hours (this was originally three days or more, but Apple subsequently reduced it), the AirTag will emit a recurring beep. Does this not destroy its value as a theft tracker? Not at all. You should notice someone has stolen your $10,000 Schwinn before three days have elapsed, or you have more money than sense. Come to think of it, if you spend that much on a push bike you do have more money than sense.

Silencing the AirTag – update on Feb 4, 2022:

The AirTag is easily silenced if you are prepared to open it and remove the speaker. Most break the tabs holding the body together, and have to glue it back together. Not a process likely to enhance the Airtag’s water sealing. You can see a way of opening the back with no damage to the tabs here. I used this method and confirm that the AirTag continues to show its location properly but emits no sound. I used a very fine bladed Xacto knife to minimize scarring to the casing, which is invisible in use. The key is to identify the tab locations correctly.

An Xacto knife is used.

Tab locations are marked. The knife blade is inserted
immediately adjacent to the grey snap in ring.

The three tabbed cover is removed, as in the linked video, above.

The speaker is popped out.

Back side of the cover with unmolested tabs – it snaps back on easily.

Update June 15, 2023:

My iPhone just alerted me to change the battery, meaning the original CR2032 lasted 14 months. It’s in my (easily stolen) scooter and yes, it’s silenced.