I know this is useful (for something), but I'm stuck on the plot holes in the motivating story...

Why didn't they replace the battery when the app complained?

How long would a thief really keep the AirTag anyway?

If the thief did keep the AirTag and you tracked them down, then what? A confrontation has a fairly high chance to have a worse result than losing some equipment. You could try to get the police to do it, but that's going to take more time, during which the thief is even more likely to ditch the AirTag.

Anyway, you're really swimming upstream trying to think of aigtags as an antitheft device. They're really for something lost, not stolen. Generally, they are specifically designed to not work well in adversarial situations.

My $2 version: https://img.alicdn.com/bao/uploaded/i3/278427340/O1CN01LBluO... https://img.alicdn.com/bao/uploaded/i3/278427340/O1CN01qLKoY... https://img.alicdn.com/imgextra/i4/4611686018427384736/O1CN0... https://img.alicdn.com/imgextra/i1/4611686018427381970/O1CN0...

Nice solution, but the bigger problem is how AirTags can basically be turned off, which makes it poor for many use cases.

Of course, I get it from Apple's perspective, they dont want AirTags to be used to tail others. However, that precludes it from being used for theft tracking.

For example, I use an AirTag on my bicycle. If someone steals the bicycle, they are literally informed "an air tag is following you" https://support.apple.com/en-us/119874

There are a lot of things I'd love to put long-term AirTags on (luggage, snow-blower, childrens' backpacks) but if theft isnt really deterred, then the case for a bulkier AirTag is quite reduced.

Are AirTags actually useful for anti-theft purposes?

I threw one in the trunk of my car (just in case - I ordered a 4-pack and I had a spare one), and every single time I drive somewhere it chirps loudly when I'm exiting my driveway, making its presence immediately obvious without any delays, and despite my phone being with me in the car.

Not a bad price, but it does require an existing Airtag.

Ten years is a very long time in tech. I wouldn't be confident that the Airtag protocol will be functioning in 2035, and there are already rumors of a new Airtag and possibly a newer protocol coming up.

If you could disable the public key rotation on the AirTag, presumably you could greatly extend its battery life at the cost of your own privacy. When your battery gets low, Apple warns that "privacy protection is temporarily adjusted, AirTag may be traceable over Bluetooth". Wish I could enable this behavior in certain situations to extend the life.

(Or hook up an oversized external battery like this one, but tune the voltage to ~2V so it always looks like a nearly depleted CR2032 battery!)

The size and cost of this unit and the AirTag to put in it get close, but not quite to, the size and cost of a cellular asset tracker. Roughly $30 more to get into a reputable brand asset tracker.

The promised ten-year life is better than the e.g. 4-year life you can get out of a GPS/LTE NB-IOT with lithium primary cell and deep sleep, and with fewer compromises around tesponsiveness to commands (primary-battery asset trackers are usually waking up like once every 6 hours). Still, standalone asset trackers have a number of features that make them more suitable for theft scenarios than airtags, not least of which is the absence of the anti-stalking feature of airtags which means they're never really a concealable option.

The major difference left is consumer-friendliness... Most asset trackers are provided by vendors with pretty hefty ongoing fees, and more oriented towards commercial customers like fleet operators and construction. Big difference in ease of purchase and use. It does make you wonder about the market for a really consumer-friendly solution, though.

What is the point of CNC machined screws? I have only seen that type of thing on specialized military applications and the like.

I'm sure standard rolled screws would be just fine...

I'm OK with the One-Year-ish battery life and happy to change them yearly. I try to do them in batches (the fours usually die together within about a month).

The irritating ones are in the bags/check-ins I stashed/stored snugly, and now I have to take them out to replace the battery. Of course, the bearable thing is that the battery lasts for about a month after the warning, so there is that.

I think I'm complaining about something which is not a big deal.

I’m not sure if this much bigger device is any benefit just to make it last 10-years and forget about it.

The third time someone calls to complain that the alkaline batteries they put in this leaked, they'll wish they used a soldered-in 3V lithium primary cell. Even though that goes against a certain ethos.

A 3D-printed part + two washers + battery case. DIY approach. https://www.printables.com/model/383741-cr2032-battery-adapt...

A browse through this companies product selection is interesting. They make some really well thought through options for mounting and attaching AirTags that I’ve not seen elsewhere. In particular the pin, bike tube, and fabric mount ones.

The CNC screws mentioned in other thread appear to be part of their design language btw.

My $0 version:

https://object.ceph-eu.hswaw.net/q3k-personal/5143b5491fca11...

Usually wrapped in electrician's tape.

1. NRF52 board from some scrap given by a friend, running forked/ported OpenHaystack firmware

2. AA battery holder from junk box

3. AA batteries from junk drawer

If my math is correct, this should last until AA self-discharge, ie. around 10 years. Yes, it works with Apple's FindMy network. Yes, I've flown with it.

I wonder if they really don't know that Apple already has a product named Time Capsule.

I know the concept here is set it and forget it, but still: wouldn't it make more sense to have a smaller (but still probably larger than the current setup) rechargeable battery? I admit I haven't done any research on this, but the Magic Mouse/Keyboard seem to prove the concept of a rechargeable battery lasting months at least, and the Apple Watch proves the idea of wireless charging in a compact form factor, so it seems likely you could produce something that 1. Still roughly fits the AirTag physical profile (i.e. could be used as a dog tag, which this certainly could not) and lasts for months at least and is easily rechargeable. And again, I get that I'm making it require more maintenance rather than (effectively) zero maintenance with this product, but the wireless recharging makes that maintenance much less of a burden than sourcing and swapping a watch battery.

If you’re the type of person who forgets to change a battery every year, in spite of Find My app warning you a couple of times, most likely you’ll forget to change it in a decade too

At 10 years I kinda wonder what the odds your AA batteries become problem occasionally (leaking, etc) long before the Airtag... although they are Lithium batteries.

Really neat idea and at that price I’ll probably get some for luggage and my backpacks, where I have AirTags that stay there the whole time.

One thing I’m curious about battery leakage. Many of the batteries of my remotes and similar devices seem to leak after a while (including one I heard pop and got very warm). These are devices that do get frequent usage, so they aren’t just sitting without any discharge (but also the drain for a remote would be very minimal).

Would this device experience the same, given how little power the AirTag needs?

Nice! Definitely somewhat of a niche use case, but I don't doubt that it exists.

I do wonder though: Do AA batteries actually have a shelf life of 10 years even without supplying any current?

I was hoping to see a betavoltaic battery here.

About a year or so back, there was an issue about Airtags being used for stalking a person. Has that issue been resolved by Apple? Or does the issue still exist?

Any chance that the AirTag could have a software memory leak that would normally be masked by cutting power once a year? Its possible right? The code must be written in something low level like C.

Would be kinda funny if 10 years from now the author gets his stuff stolen again and then discovers said memory leak crashed the Airtag 9 years ago. As Elon Musk likes to say: "The most ironic outcome is the most likely" . (OP I hope your stuff does not get stolen again, its just a joke)

I have a AirTag in my car so I can find it when I park in an unfamiliar city or an airport parking lot. I'm imagining a rechargeable version I could plug into the cigarette lighter and it would theoretically last as long as my car does.

I'm almost sure they are 3D printed on a nylon SLS machine, what a lovely example of high quality printing enabling relatively small scale, high number of SKU production!

This solves one of my biggest issues with AirTags and I'd be tempted to buy one if AirTag 2s weren't right around the corner...

Who leaves 10K worth of anything in their car? I get antsy leaving my $200 laptop hidden under my seat! This person is crazy.

There is also no guarantee they person who stole the bag wouldn't dump the bag(with the hidden AirTag) and just keep the gear or that the police would help recover it even if you gave them the location(many times the don't).

This is cool, but i can see simple improvement. You're supposed to discard airtag backplate, but the capsule is big enough to provide compartment for storing it. Just in case that you decide to re-use that airtag in some other way in upcomming 10 years... I think that would be neat addition.

Cool idea. I actually just recently changed my air tag battery for the first time. The FindMy app notified me when the battery was at 30%.

Personally I'm able to risk the battery dying since the tag is on an inexpensive item I lose frequently, but I understand the annoyance of replacing the battery often.

I have once used a airtag to track a parcel. This is now 3 years ago and despite several low batt warnings since about a year ago its still running. So even wit the tiny cell battery the runtime can be quite long.

I don't see how this huge tracker would help with the stolen camera gear. At least an airtag is small enough, you can probably glue it to the bottom of the camera, paint it black.

I wonder if the signal strength is worse or not now that the AirTag is enclosed in another case? I have my AirTag in the car hidden, which already seems to reduce the strength.

Cool idea for a product but you either have to be a serious airhead or just lazy to miss or ignore all the low battery notifications. Also, that case should have a spot to store the back plate.

> Just discard the AirTag's back plate

Something like air tags would be a great use case for an open source DePin project. Ideally Zero Knowledge proofs would be used to preserve privacy.

Replacing batteries is a pretty big annoyance for me. But if I’m honest, the $19.99+Li Cell Cost is too steep for me. I’ll just replace these every year.

Get all perils insurance and make sure your typical use is covered. Often, commercial use will not be covered so it's important to double-check!

> we recommend Energizer Ultimate Lithium

The advantage of "lithium" is high rate discharge, not longevity right?

Does anyone know what camera bag that is on that website. Peak design? Looks perfect for my usual load out.

I think this is a sleeper ad for the new AirTag, and that it will have a ten year battery life.

ISTM that this use case would be better served by building a nice piece of openhaystack hardware.

I'm genuinely surprised that Apple product has a replaceable battery at all.

Maybe just set a reminder in your phone annually to replace all AirTag batteries

If the battery can work so long, I'd love to use it for my quartz watch!!

this is a great idea and I'd love to see v2 with a 20 year flat-pack cell with usb-c charging. It would be 40% smaller and you could call it "lifetime charge"

Incredibly cool and stupid simple. Just purchased 10 of them!

Don’t AA batteries leak long before 10 years?

there you go. It's useful, but you can find cheaper alternatives easily on chinese websites.

The last line could be a real link :)

double the battery & double the size would be the sweet spot for me.

this is a bit big and heavy.

Good god. Do you see how good things happen when you let people change their fucking batteries?

This addresses the main reason why I haven't bought an AirTag yet.

how long do batteries in watches last for?

AirLuggages!

the battery will erode on the contact springs way before 10 years tho. just sayin. Sorry to hear about your stolen gear

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what a joke.

Why can't the AirTag simply report its battery status and warn the user e.g. through a nearby iPhone?

This is another case of bad UX by a company praised for its great "product design skills".

This solution makes the AirTag bigger. Might be okay for a photo bag, it's quite cumbersome for car keys and dogs. Besides, your phone will warn you when the battery is getting low. I always keep a couple of 2032 batteries on hand and soon as I get the low battery warning I just pop a new one in.

Brilliant, I just ordered a couple. But I bet that case muffles the sound when the AirTag decides to sing you the song of its people. This might be a boon to AirTag stalkers who are too lazy or unskilled to disable the sound and upgrade the battery life.

> My camera bag with $10k of gear was stolen from my car. When I saw the broken glass and empty backseat, I immediately pulled up FindMy to track the thief ...

Aha, but that's not what AirTags are for, according to Apple at least.

On https://www.apple.com/airtag Not a single mention of "theft" or "stolen".

It will even politely inform the thief you have a tracker in your stuff:

> AirTag is designed to discourage unwanted tracking. If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, the network will notice it’s traveling with you and send your iPhone an alert

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple will come down on them with their legal team for promoting usage of the AirTag that's not according to their intended use.

That is not how batteries work. Batteries drain even under minimal usage.

My bet is that in 2/3 years this device will stop working already.

Just change the batteries if you AirTag once a year. Especially if you are using an AirTag to keep watch over 10.000 dollar equipment.