• cole@lemdro.id
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    1 year ago

    just for clarification, they are Bluetooth trackers. They don’t have a GPS radio within them and have no intrinsic knowledge of where they are located. Essentially just a Bluetooth beacon

    • paper_clip@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      The drawback of non-AirTags is that they depend on people consciously opting in to the network (by, say, buying Tiles themselves and running the app). The AirTag network just exists because every iPhone is part of the network, whether or not people have bought AirTags themselves. The AirTag network is orders of magnitude larger and denser than, say, the Tile network.

      This vast difference between coverage networks will also push Tiles to extinction, as the Tile network is now far, far worse than the AirTag one, and there’s not much point in buying one. If you’re serious about tracking your stuff, it’s quite possibly worth buying a used iPad just for this purpose.

      • cole@lemdro.id
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        1 year ago

        I suspect Tile will end up being forced into using either Google’s or Apple’s network. Would be cool to be able to use both someday

    • rDrDr@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Air tags do not have GPS either. They use UWB+bluetooth but rely on the phone for location data.