I see a market for a purely "local" version of AirTag, consisting of the Bluetooth component only, for locating objects inside the home or office. Could such a stripped-down version be implementable as a stick-on device small enough to be attached to the eyeglasses, remotes, Apple Pencils, and other small objects that are always getting lost indoors? Could the battery be built-in and rechargeable with a MagSafe?
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Proposed product: AirTag Lite
- Thread starter alangore
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What are you suggesting they remove to make it local? AirPods have three radios: bluetooth, ultra-wideband (UWB), and NFC. If you take away UWB you won’t get precise tracking. If you take away NFC, setup probably gets more complicated. I doubt that either of these radios require much physical space or power. So I think the only way to make them smaller is to use smaller batteries. Would you want that trade off?
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orbit x glasses is pretty tiny. no magsafe though
findorbit.com
Orbit x Glasses
Find your glasses with Orbit Glasses and Apple Find My Orbit Glasses is the world's smallest tracker. Simply stick it to your glasses and you will never have to look for them again. In most cases, Orbit Glasses will fit on the inside of the arm, keeping it discreet so no one will notice. Apple...
they already exist, in different form factors, from other manufacturers. but you seem to have a misunderstanding of how they work.
"bluetooth component only" and "working local" don't go together. Bluetooth is used for the find my network. So the "global" part. if you have bluetooth, you've got the find my network. The way it works is very power friendly for the tag since it just has to send out a bluetooth ping, and hope it gets picked up by a phone. Then the phone forwards its (the phone's, not the tags) location back to apple. With bluetooth you're also able to get the device to chime.
local precision finding is done withe the ultra wide band hardware. This is needed for the arrow that points and tells you how far away the device is. This does not work for devices from other manufacturers, not sure if apple hasn't opened it up, or it's more complex to implement.
so with Bluetooth only, you'll only be able to see a devices general location, and make it ring. You may be able to narrow it down to the front or back of your house. and the make it ring and hope you find it.
"bluetooth component only" and "working local" don't go together. Bluetooth is used for the find my network. So the "global" part. if you have bluetooth, you've got the find my network. The way it works is very power friendly for the tag since it just has to send out a bluetooth ping, and hope it gets picked up by a phone. Then the phone forwards its (the phone's, not the tags) location back to apple. With bluetooth you're also able to get the device to chime.
local precision finding is done withe the ultra wide band hardware. This is needed for the arrow that points and tells you how far away the device is. This does not work for devices from other manufacturers, not sure if apple hasn't opened it up, or it's more complex to implement.
so with Bluetooth only, you'll only be able to see a devices general location, and make it ring. You may be able to narrow it down to the front or back of your house. and the make it ring and hope you find it.