MODERN DAY TECH
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By: Eric from ModernDayTech
Predictions before Apple's Sept 2019 event
AirTags! Will it CRUSH the competition?
Update after Apple's Sept 2019 event
AirTags! Is Tile & Google Teaming up on Apple?
APPLE AIRTAG
AirTags! Privacy and & Security Issue?
AirTags! More Rummors!
What is the new Apple Tag?
Simply it's a Bluetooth tracker. There are 100s hundreds of the Bluetooth trackers on the market, and in general, they all help you find your lost or misplaced items. Like your keys, your wallet, or your purse. If you misplace your item, you simply go into the app, hit the find button, and it will ring your device if it's within Bluetooth range. Once you hear it, you walk in that direction, and you find your device. All is good in the world! You can also do it in reverse. If you lose your phone, you can simply press the button on the Bluetooth tracker to make your phone ring.
But what if your device is out of the Bluetooth range?
A lot of devices have a crowd community feature that allows you to
mark your item as lost and if another user gets within range of your
Bluetooth tracker, it will anonymously report back the GPS location
of the connection. You go to that location, look for Bluetooth tracker,
and all is good in the world. Now the advantage of the Apple Tag is not
the Apple Tag itself. It's the device that 900 million people in the world
are carrying in their pocket.
There iPhone!
Plus all the other Apple devices like MacBooks and iMac that make up
this mess network of apple devices. They can all connect to the Apple Tag
via Bluetooth or some other technology (more on that in the moment) and
then once the connection is made it will report the GPS location of the connection
back to you. The game-changer is the number of active users looking for
your lost item. In comparison, the next largest tracker community is Tile
which has an estimated 15 to 20 million active users. With the Apple Tag, it's 900 million +.
Now that we understand what a Bluetooth tracker is let's back up for a moment. Apple Tag is not the official name yet. It was a name that rumors made up (including myself) after a developer with the Beta edition of IOS 13 found coding with the word tag1,1 in the most recent combined app now called "find my" app. Which was originally "find my iPhone" and "find my friends" app. Together as one now and with the new Apple Tag, it can find a lot of missed place and lost items in the world. But when comes that name we are still not really sure. Since tag 1,1 was in the coding, all the rumors include the word "TAG" like iTag and AirTag, but your iTag is already a name of a Bluetooth tracker out there in the market. (Don't waste your time) And AirTag is the name of a lot of different companies for already business. Plus the word AirTag doesn't make sense. AirPods worked cause Airpods sound like "EAR" pods, and they went into your ears, but AirTag doesn't go into your ears. What will it be, we just have to wait and see.
Is it Bluetooth?
So like I mentioned it could be using a different way to communicate. There are other communication chips in your iPhone already like Wi-Fi and NFC but not but neither of these chips will work in the Apple Tag due to battery consumption and range limitation, respectively. But Apple could be releasing a long-range communication standard in there new iPhone 11, like Ultra-Wideband technology but I don't think they will do that. Not only will this diminish the number of active users in the crowd community but that also reduce the number of people that will be willing to buy the AppleTag, and I can see that being a failure if they do so. Now that doesn't mean they aren't tweaking Bluetooth technology to use it to their advantage as they have done before iBeacon. But the underlying technology but still be Bluetooth Low Energy.
When it comes to the design, there're a lot of rumors about it being round, and I think' that's going to be true. It's going to be white and has some small way to attach to things like your keys. I don't think it's going to be thin enough to be able to put into your wallet though, but I know people will still try to do it. They're all going to have that big old fat wallet.
I think it's going to be a pretty flat item overall, maybe with a couple of curves here and there because there's gotta be a way to be able to attach the Apple Tag to more items, like bikes laptops, luggage, and other personal belongings that you want to track. It's going to have a replaceable battery. I don't see Apple Tag having a way to recharge yet, and I also don't see them making a device that gets thrown away every year, forcing you to buy a new one. They are not going to make the same mistake that Tile did with their original trackers. I'm hoping the battery should last at least one year. It's going to have a loud ringer, so you find it faster and easier. And it should be water-resistant. In future designs, it will get thinner and move into a wireless rechargeable model like Safedome.
Most of the top 10 Bluetooth tractors in the world cost between $14.99 in $49.99, depending on brand and model — most averaging around $25 for your keys and 40 dollars for your wallet trackers. But being Apple, I don't think they're about being average. I think they're pricey the Apple Tag at $59.99 for one device or two for $99.99. Very expensive but worth it if you misplace and lose yours belongs all the time as I do.
Will Apple do a subscription plan……. UMMMM… No! Tile made that mistake. Even though Apple loves their subscription models, I don't see them charging for additional features or services with the Apple Tag.
Talking about additional features, there are a bunch of features they could add to the Apple Tag but I think they will keep it very simple. No selfie remotes here. They will have one very important, though! Out of range notification. Which means if you leave your Apple Tag behind, say at a restaurant, as you walk away, your phone will buzz to let you know to go back and get it, and vice versa. But to make it effective and not drive people crazy, they will have to figure out a way to eliminate false notifications. Bluetooth is very finicky, and there are a lot of obstructions and environmental factors that could drop the Bluetooth signal for a split second, which will trigger the out of range notification.
Thus they need to put in timer delays and quiet or safe zones to make sure your device doesn't go off at the wrong place or time. You don't want your phone ringing in a business meeting or while you are sleeping. So they will have quiet or zones bases off of your location, like work and home, but it will still look for your Apple Tag once you have left one of these locations, to make sure you have the Apple Tag and the device that it's attached to, with you. The timer delay will work when your away from your safe zone to help prevent false alerts. This timer delay will operate by delaying the notification alert for about a minute to see if the connection comes back. If it does, it won't sound the notification, but if it doesn't come back within that minute, it will then send the notification, thus being a slight delay, but totally worth it cause you won't get the false notifications.
One more thing…
Another expected feature is AR. Augmented Reality can really help you find your lost or misplaced item in a whole different way. I demonstrated this feature in a similar tracker that has AR, called the Pixie. Once you activate it, you can move your phone around and see in which direction your misplaced Apple Tag is in Augmented Reality. Pretty cool and very useful if you lose your Apple Tag in the couch and even help the hearing impaired. With all these features and the enormous crowd finding community with over 900 million iPhones users. The Apple Tag will charge the way you find your misplaced or lost items FOREVER. What will you put you Apple Tag on?
If you want to learn more about what the Apple Tag will do to the Bluetooth tracker industry and competitors like Tile, Chipolo, TrackR and many others, check out this videos,