AirTag 2 not expected until 2025 as Apple sits on backlog of first-gen inventory::If you’ve been hoping for a second-generation AirTag, you’ll have to keep waiting. According to a new report from Bloomberg,…
“If you’ve been hoping for a second-generation AirTag”
People are clamoring for the second generation of a Bluetooth luggage tracker?
Remember this is Apple we’re talking about. Gen 2 will introduce additional form factors and fanboys will call it “game changing”, “amazing”, and god knows what else.
“it’s our most AirTag ever”
New form factor you say?
Credit card sized trackers are handy for wallets.
Revolutionary!
Honestly, there aren’t a lot of credit card sized trackers with a good tracking. Chipolo recently launched one with Find My support, but from what I can tell, most other credit card trackers are on pretty small networks.
I use Tile’s personally.
I was using those for the better part of a decade. Cut over to the AirTags recently. The tracking network is night and day.
If Google’s rumored tracker launches as expected this year, and Android is also has a core tracking service that doesn’t require a third party app install, Tile’s days are numbered.
I thought Google’s platform was going to allow 3rd party participation and Tile (among others) had signed on. Dunno, I haven’t been following closely but I thought I had read that. I’ll use whatever works on the new platform though, so if it’s proprietary then I agree that the other trackers are in rough shape.
Next version will make the current generation cease working, even though there’s nothing wrong with the hardware
Isn’t apple quite good at supporting old products?
100%
Aside from that iPhone 6s batterygate issue back in 2017, they’ve generally been one of the best companies at keeping old hardware running.
Yes, vastly better on the average compared to PC makers and other phone makers. Having worked at an Apple Store once upon a time, we were happy to help the technically-savvy keep ancient stuff working if they had a need, but no way would we take the time to help a typical tech-phobe granny get one last year out of unsupported hardware. Granny gets a new mac that ‘just works’! It’s just basic business, a different solution might work better for different customers.
I literally just helped my friends pick out a new Mac to replace their old one. Their reason? The decade old computer finally stopped getting software updates.
It makes sense to dump on Apple for being pricy, a walled garden, or being crappy with right to repair, but longevity / software support? Come on. They famously provide software updates for a long ass time.
Yeah, my old iPad Air 2 finally stopped receiving updates sometime this year. It’s like a decade old by now. There’s a lot of things to criticize from Apple, but legacy support isn’t one of them.
Of all the things to criticise Apple on (and boy are there a lot of those), software support isn’t one of them, particularly in their mobile division.
I think the rub is how they’re happy to obsolete hardware and make customers re-buy accessories. That’s tenuous here for sure.
As I understood it, removing the headphone jack was supposed to allow for higher water resistance. I don’t know if that is completely accurate, but that was part of the pitch at the time, and seeing how other manufacturers followed suit, it seems like there must have been some design benefit to it. I get the annoyance, but at least there is some logic other than money grubbing at play.
And the switch to USB-C was to comply with the evolving laws in Europe—can’t really blame Apple for that, and the move was probably good in the long run.
Apple isn’t perfect, but your complaints here are a bit off base.
Next gen will be a square with rounded edges. Oh and the pro version will come in dark gray! But personally I prefer the round ones so I‘ll wait for the 3rd generation.
You don’t want the AirTag2 Pro? It’s titanium.
For a lot of Apple users it’s about flaunting that you have the latest toy. A multi year old device is not a good status symbol.
OK, well… What would people want in a second generation AirTag anyway that couldn’t be addressed with software updates? Who, other than profit-hungry shareholders, can even see a need for a second generation AirTag? The original works just fine.
Smaller. Thinner.
Faster. Stronger.
Work it harder. Make it better.
Only thing I could see is making them somewhat harder to tamper with and sealed with a rechargeable battery.
They fit on the Apple Watch charger exactly. A lot of people assumed they were originally supposed to be rechargeable.
I don’t know how that could possibly been seen as an “upgrade”.
It could be used to make the device completely waterproof.
There are plenty of waterproof devices with replaceable batteries.
The idea you have to seal in the battery (and the device goes to landfill instead of getting a replacement) is a myth.
Of course it can be made waterproof with a replaceable battery, but would you trust your grandma to swap such a battery so that it stays waterproof?
Would you want to be the customer support for a device like that with a billion users? The amount of idiots failing to close the case properly and drowning their device is staggering, and the idiots are usually the ones who call CS to complain…
Yeah, it’s a stretch for sure.
That said, because the tracking network is way broader than the other BT trackers, so stalkers love use and mod these little things. And they’re very un-Apple like, in that they’re easy to open up.
Stalking has been the one thing that AirTags constantly get slammed for in the press about. I wouldn’t be surprised if they sold an updated tracker that was sealed, packed full of resin, and marketed as “more secure.”
EU objects. The replaceable battery regulation kicks in 2025 and I believe it will apply to devices like AirTag.
I kinda hope the next gen ones have a stronger nearby find feature. I love the feature but I still have to be within about 5 ft of it and practically have line of sight i imagine that cant be resolved with simple software updates
Those Apple fans see the need for a gen 2.
Show me those Apple fans. Show me anyone (aside from shareholders) who want a new generation. Really. Even those guys are pretty happy with the current generation.
Those guys are pretty happy with their current phone too. But when a new one comes out they buy it day one.
I worked for them for a while, and my observation was that the power users upgrade less frequently than the tech-illiterate ones. I think you actually see this behavior across a lot of machines people interact with—especially cars. People who understand and work on cars often like to take care of old ones and keep them running forever, while people who don’t know much about cars will just lease them or buy a new one when they can afford it.
Waste aside, it isn’t necessarily a bad approach. If a user doesn’t know how to update their software or properly care for their device, and they’d rather spend money than learn, then remaining on a relatively quick upgrade cycle does all that for them without them having to think about it, just like how buying a new car resets the clock on your brake pads.
I’d much rather have my tech illiterate mother be the person who comes in every other year for a new phone that she doesn’t really need rather than being the person who shows up with the crusty iPhone gen 1 who is furious that their long discontinued bible phrases app isn’t supported anymore.
Sometimes, money really is the easiest patch to a problem.
Tile works on both platforms
Wile true, AirTag has significantly more coverage because all iPhones, regardless of AirTag ownership, transmit AirTag data. Tile, on the other hand, only works when people have the tile app installed and (ifaik) running in the background.
Edit: tile, not time
Apple opened up the find my network to third party trackers but I don’t think tile has decided to join it yet. Looks like this brand supports it though: https://chipolo.net/en-us/products/chipolo-card-spot
Apparently, that specific device is also exclusive to the “Find My” network
running in the background.
Even then if you don’t use it enough android will remove its permissions unless you override in the android settings.
Right. Although if you don’t use the iOS app enough and have the default settings, iOS will remove the app and you’ll have to reinstall it. Found that out the hard way with some games on an airplane with no WiFi 😅
Tiles are fine for stuff around the house, but if you leave something out in the wild, that’s where they shit the bed. Tile’s tracking network is dependent upon people willingly installing the Tile app. Apple’s FindMy network was deployed via an OS release that most iPhones auto updated to.
Google is about to follow Apple’s lead and bake something into Android. Once that happens, Tile is up shit creek. They will have the worst tracking network on both iOS and Android.
Yea and I’ll tell you that Tile is far from working because I have never heard of Tile.
And I own a few AirTags myself
Tile is basically the original tracking device and predates AirTags by about 8 years.
What, tile has been around for a long time
My point is that if tile requires people to have the app installed to broadcast it, and I, someone that has multiple AirTags has never heard of Tile let alone have the app installed, then it’s fair to say a significant amount of the population hasn’t either so their network has major gaps.
I don’t doubt that the device itself is capable or anything. But if you aren’t apple it’s just hard to get to that critical mass of users.
tbh i think Samsung’s one is better just because of much larger network of devices
Yeah. I still have a preorder on a few android trackers. But picked up a samsung tracker for a trip where I would actually need to check my luggage and have it moved from hotel to hotel.
in the US it seemed like near constant coverage. Had fun sitting in a lounge watching it pin every minute or so as it was moved to get loaded onto my plane or to luggage claim. And even in Japan (where Samsung has a much smaller market share because… beef with Korea), it was still maybe every half hour or so that it would ping while the luggage delivery service had it. Was especially funny to realize I was on the exact same shinkansen at one point and acknowledging I should get a drink before walking to my hotel.
Tried a Tile a few years back (bought two right before the company got sold to the company that monetizes user data…) and coverage was atrocious on my dry run where I just uninstalled the app on my phone and kept the tracker in my backpack for a trip. I think I got one ping in something like five days.
I’m looking forward to the promised Android alternative. It should be coming any day now…
They’ve only been on preorder for half a year…
Has Apple addressed the security issues that Google was holding out for before they released their tracking network?
No idea, but it sure seems like something you’d want handled before you announce and put a physical product up for preorder.
The issue around people being notified that an unknown tracker is following them to stop people stalking. This is for Google’s and Apple’s AirTags. Apple has not yet implemented this into their own devices. It’s not a Google problem, it’s Apple.
Google doesn’t have any trackers. You can’t own them yet.
The current version has a replaceable battery, so I don’t see any reason to upgrade to some other device.
Maybe if they where cheaper people would be buying them in droves
Last year they were up to $1B sales.
They’re around $25 and priced pretty similarly to Tile an Chipolo. And unlike Tile, they’re actually good at precision tracking outside of your home.
Of all the stuff Apple sells, these things actually seem priced well. They’re like $5 more than the competition, but they have a much broader network.
Samsung ones have a pretty huge network too, especially in the eu
The trouble is Samsung is only for it’s own ecosystem. The Google version should render the Samsung one obsolete.
My bike cost 1000€, the cost of an AirTag is a rounding error when keeping it safe.
Not everyone owns a 1k bike.
No, but I bought the pack of four and it’s nice to have one on my bike, in my car, and in my bag where my laptop and iPad live when I’m traveling.
You can tag your 1k car with it too.
…but not everyone. Yeah yeah 😆
You joke, but I definitely bought a Civic for $950 and drove it a couple years. It burned oil and looked atrocious. But hey, it got me to work. Then I sold it and broke even. 😂
And that’s why apple sucks
