Anyone here using Airtags for anything?

[RABid]

Over a week ago I lost one of my Toyota Camry wireless keys. A replacement was going to be around $550 from my Toyota dealer. A cheap third party key from a locksmith was going to be about $300. I put it off and today I found the key in my lawn. Guessing it was uncovered yesterday during leaf removal. I got lucky. Now I am thinking about buying an Airtag keychain for my remote keys. Just wondering if these are working out for people?

[KenElevenShadows]

I do not. But I was going to buy them before there was a run on them and were out of stock. And now....I haven't. Not sure why. I love the idea of them. My friend loves them and has several of them, all of which he can track via his iPhone. They apparently sync very well with iPhones.

[RABid]

I ordered a four pack from Amazon, an expensive Apple keychain, and a cheap Belkin keychain. May offer one to my sister who has the same expensive Toyota keys for her High Lander.

[Anderton]

The big deal about AirTags is they can interact with Find My Network. Otherwise you won't have more than a range of about 35 feet. There are other trackers that do much better with bluetooth (the Tile Pro and Samsung's Galaxy Smart Tag claim 400 feet), but they don't have the Find My Network "secret weapon." It won't locate the exact location, but it will get you close enough to where the AirTag's Bluetooth can take over. 

[nursers]

Invaluable in luggage as we recently discovered on a trip to Canada / US.

[analogika]

Yep, I have eight of them. A couple are gaffer-taped inside some of my equipment, especially small cases that are easily forgotten or spirited away from a gig. 

 

I finally caved when some of the equipment that was ostensibly in storage in a building that was devastated by a gas explosion last May was offered to me through dubious channels a few months after the explosion. 

 

Had it been tagged, I would have been alerted to the plundering as it happened, and might have been able to recover some of the stuff that'd already disappeared without a trace. 

[Anderton]

So in theory...could you put an AirTag inside a guitar's control cavity, and even if it was hundreds of miles away, you could still find it?

[Reezekeys]

33 minutes ago, Anderton said:

So in theory...could you put an AirTag inside a guitar's control cavity, and even if it was hundreds of miles away, you could still find it?

 

Yes , there are youtubes of guys tracking shipments around the world. So, hundreds or thousands of miles.

 

I have one in my keyboard case. When flying to a gig, I can be in my seat waiting to leave the gate and see my keyboard make its way from the terminal to the plane.

[Anderton]

That is very cool. I just wish they'd been invented before I had a ton of stuff stolen!

[Reezekeys]

Yes it's cool but a reality check: knowing where your stolen gear is doesn't mean you'll get it back. Anecdotal evidence is that (at least in the USA) police will often not assist in recovering gear based on a location you provide. Even when your luggage is lost by an airline, they may not care what your "Find My" app shows; they'll only act according to what their tracking system says.

[analogika]

Note also that AirTags depend upon a proximity network of APPLE devices. iPhone, iPads, and Macs will pick up nearby AirTags and give a brief (anonymous) ping with an attached location to Apple's "Find My" servers. AirTags themselves do not have network capability. 

 

If you're in, say, Egypt (as I was a few weeks ago), where virtually everyone is on Android, then it's not going to do that much outside of areas frequented by tourists or slightly better-off business people. 

[nursers]

2 hours ago, analogika said:

Note also that AirTags depend upon a proximity network of APPLE devices. iPhone, iPads, and Macs will pick up nearby AirTags and give a brief (anonymous) ping with an attached location to Apple's "Find My" servers. AirTags themselves do not have network capability. 

 

If you're in, say, Egypt (as I was a few weeks ago), where virtually everyone is on Android, then it's not going to do that much outside of areas frequented by tourists or slightly better-off business people. 

 

Good point. We were able to track a bag delayed in Vancouver (thanks Air Canada) from Australia, so thankfully no shortage of devices around.

[Mike Kent]

I have one hidden inside my Jupiter-8.

My wife has one in her purse. That has come in handy a couple of times, pinging to find it in the house.

I have one in each of my cars but I read online that car thieves are very aware and know look out for them.

[Reezekeys]

6 hours ago, SynMike said:

I have one in each of my cars but I read online that car thieves are very aware and know look out for them.

 

You do get a warning if an Airtag that's not yours is "following" you, that's Apple's anti-stalking measure (our road manager/equipment guy gets a warning about my keyboard's Airtag regularly since he's in the van with the gear!). However, I thought this warning didn't kick in until a certain amount of time has elapsed - which would give the car owner a fighting chance to locate his or her car before the thieves discovered the location.

[Reezekeys]

6 hours ago, SynMike said:

I have one hidden inside my Jupiter-8

 

I wonder if the range is any different vs having it gaff-taped to the inside of my keyboard's (plastic) SKB case as I do. The idea of having the tag in the keyboard itself vs the case is appealing, since the two pieces aren't gonna necessarily be together all the time.

[Mike Martin]

I usually have one hidden in my camera bag. I plan on getting more. 

I did put it in my checked luggage one time I had more photo gear than I could carry on a plane. That ended up being a flight with a layover and I could actually see that my bag did not make the second flight. It works great for me.

[Joe Muscara]

There are a couple of third-party alternatives. If I start to travel more or hell, leave the house more often, I might pick up a couple. Right now, neither my wife nor I tend to lose our keys or anything like that around the house, so our best use might be when traveling or gigging.

 

My wife leaves her sunglasses around a lot ("I think I left them in the car"), but I doubt she'd want to attach a tracker to those.  

[Joe Muscara]

3 minutes ago, Joe Muscara said:

There are a couple of third-party alternatives

I just discovered the Eufy one (and probably the other one the article mentions) doesn't have UWB support. IOW, it won't have that precision finding the AirTag does. Oh well.

[harmonizer]

One of my co-workers told me today that he was able to recover a brand new mountain bike that had been stolen from him, because he had put an airtag on it.