@phendrick the rumored Apple car never materialized, but apparently it was a serious and expensive development project that got scrapped. Tech firms do this a lot. Having been in some I’ve seen my share of “plan this, prototype that, oh, never mind, marketing changed their mind.” But not on as large a scale as I assume Apple must have been doing.
EDIT so I guess it’s just an iCarly now. (Actually never watched that but probably I should)
@pmarin tech companies used to do things like that. hell, the first iPhone was a very similar project and nobody was sure they could pull it off until they did. there were a couple predecessors that failed horribly that nobody remembers…
Now, all R&D time and money is spent chasing the dragon (AI) even though that’s a dead end and there’s no path to ROI.
@Adamamesh@shahnm NO, I think it’s obviously an indication that iPhone users are lacking in brain power. Can’t remember where they park and leave items.
@chienfou light-side here responding; it’s a constant annoyance communicating properly with those that have not been assimilated. Half the messaging and forwarding features can’t work. Often have to ask can you even get this? Or maybe never get an answer because they never got this.
@tweezak They do work, at least in mine (a Fidelo). As said below, the tone they emit is rather anemic, so you have to be in the same room as the wallet to hear it, and you don’t get the directional advice that Apple AirTags give you. But I’ve been happy to have it when I have misplaced my wallet in the house, my primary use case.
“ Activate Lost Mode to display a message and your contact information while viewing the card’s last known location on a map”
Does it materialize a screen on one side?
Very few people make devices that work with both Apple’s Find My and Google’s Find Hub. Newer Pebblebee devices do. Even with those that work with both will only work with one at a time.
There are a lot of cheap trsckers on AliExpress. In my experience, the main issue is that they aren’t as loud as I want them to be. Just make sure the ones you buy explicitly work with Apple Find My and/or Android Find Hub (formerly Find My Device). Proprietary trackers, especially those with subscriptions (Tile) are no longer cool.
These use Bluetooth* (which your tinfoil wallet may or may not block). When a phone “sees” a device it reports it to the network. This means it only works when phones are within range, so it won’t locate something in the middle of the woods unless someone happens by.
Also Google Find Hub will not report a location when seen by just one phone unless it’s your device or the phone has been opted in. This is to prevent stalking, or at least make it less effective, but it also means.
*Ultra Wide Band (UWB) is the cool new tracker thing that allows a lot more precision, but your phone and tracker need to support it, as do the phones of other people if you haven’t lost your device at home.
@craigthom "This means it only works when phones are within range, so it won’t locate something in the middle of the woods unless someone happens by.”
I believe devices get locations reported even when nobody is in “Find My”, so if you had the card in a backpack while you were on a hike and left it at a stop your phone would have been nearby and recorded the location already.
Or if you we having a snack, and a bear decided to amble over and you ran away and the bear picked up the pack and ambled off with it and left it elsewhere and a park ranger with “the right kind of phone” found it and took it to the fire watch long before your heart left overdrive mode, when you finally hit up “Find My” the fire watch location will already be reported.
Because discovered FindMy devices aren’t identified in any useful way by their bluetooth packets there is no actual way for the discoverer to know if the device is lost or not. So if say my phone sees your backpack it just knows “I saw this temporary ID”, and I send it to Apple who also doesn’t really know much of anything about it. When the owner of the card asks Apple about it, the owner has some key material and can recreate the temporary ID for various time spans and ask Apple “have you seen this” which is the first time Apple has an inkling that that ID belongs to you!
The discovering device can pretty much only tell “I found an Apple FindMy device, something somebody decided was important enough to track”, but not what kind of device it is or if it is “currently lost”, or who owns it (or even the AppleID involved), and I think the beaconID changes over time so you can’t even really tell if it is the same device over time (so a store can’t tell if the same person is in the checkout line today v last week based on the presence of a FindMy device)
(Note: all my examples assume the reported location has cell or WiFi service, I don’t remember if Find My “remembers” devices it comes across when it has no connectivity to tell Apple about when you get connectivity again, or if it just forgets them the instant it discovers it can’t immediately inform anyone about the discovery! If the discoveries are queued until network connectivity exists again things would work largely like I described except you might find out where a FindMy device was hours or days after it was discovered, I think FindMy only tracks the most recent location it sees, so if that backpack when from the fire watch tower to a visitor center you might never see the fire watch location, or if the person that brought it to the fire watch wasn’t the person that brought it to the visitor center you might see a update to the fire watch location when they get somewhere with service and not the visitor center location if nobody with an iPhone is close to it…)
Or get one of these for less than half the price. Has a 5 year battery and is IP69. I accidentally washed my wallet last week and was pleasantly surprised to find it still worked (I didn’t remember the card was waterproof).
@jandrese Yes, they do rely on other people to have an iPhone. If the thing had to have its own cellular modem and GPS receiver & battery for both it would be way way bigger and the battery would last way less time. More like a pet tracker size and duration.
@jandrese@theonetruestrip yes, I use Tile and it is similar. But I think it supports Android too. You can find things when someone else with the right app passes nearby. So it depends on volume of users. Of course you can always find your own stuff if you are nearby.
Correct about much higher weight and cost of a truly independent self-reporting system. Most of these had a high monthly fee, and earlier ones were 3G which I think is no longer supported.
I got one in May 2024 during a sale here and it gave up the ghost June 2026 with a swelled battery. The connection was always spotty but worked well enough.
Specs
Product: 3-Pack: KeySmart SmartCard
Model: KS500-BLK-V2-3PK
Condition: New
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
$70 at Amazon
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Tuesday, Aug 4 - Thursday, Aug 6
Can I borrow your iPhone, so I can use this?
@phendrick nope, I can’t use my car without it.
@pmarin What model of an iCar is it?
@phendrick the rumored Apple car never materialized, but apparently it was a serious and expensive development project that got scrapped. Tech firms do this a lot. Having been in some I’ve seen my share of “plan this, prototype that, oh, never mind, marketing changed their mind.” But not on as large a scale as I assume Apple must have been doing.
EDIT so I guess it’s just an iCarly now. (Actually never watched that but probably I should)
@pmarin tech companies used to do things like that. hell, the first iPhone was a very similar project and nobody was sure they could pull it off until they did. there were a couple predecessors that failed horribly that nobody remembers…
Now, all R&D time and money is spent chasing the dragon (AI) even though that’s a dead end and there’s no path to ROI.
The fine print on the images indicates that these devices are not for those with proper phones.
@shahnm no they’re only for people who don’t prefer their data be sold.
@Adamamesh
@Adamamesh @shahnm NO, I think it’s obviously an indication that iPhone users are lacking in brain power. Can’t remember where they park and leave items.
@shahnm @spirit299 yes. That’s exactly it. Thanks for educatin us dumbs. I’ll make sure to use your ssn first tho.
despite having SmartCard in the name, these are not actually smartcards. No using these for 2fa.
@minuette correct. These are just csrd-shsped air tags.
No sale
I, also, am not allowed to play in the Apple sandbox…
@chienfou
@chienfou That’s no sandbox, that’s a litter box.
@chienfou light-side here responding; it’s a constant annoyance communicating properly with those that have not been assimilated. Half the messaging and forwarding features can’t work. Often have to ask can you even get this? Or maybe never get an answer because they never got this.
You stink. Always apple stuff. Give us the non conformist trackers!
@ColeSloth
@ColeSloth sorry, we got our share of TrackRs in our IRKs. Would you like a couple of dozen?
For those wondering:
No Android, no sale.
(All right, all right, doubt I’d buy if they did support Android)
I assume they don’t work in an RF shielded wallet.
@tweezak or in a tinfoil suit
/image tinfoil helmet
@tweezak Bluetooth is not blocked by standard anti-RFID wallets/purses, etc. (BTW, anti-RFI items are just snake oil anyway).
@tweezak They do work, at least in mine (a Fidelo). As said below, the tone they emit is rather anemic, so you have to be in the same room as the wallet to hear it, and you don’t get the directional advice that Apple AirTags give you. But I’ve been happy to have it when I have misplaced my wallet in the house, my primary use case.
“ Activate Lost Mode to display a message and your contact information while viewing the card’s last known location on a map”
Does it materialize a screen on one side?
Very few people make devices that work with both Apple’s Find My and Google’s Find Hub. Newer Pebblebee devices do. Even with those that work with both will only work with one at a time.
There are a lot of cheap trsckers on AliExpress. In my experience, the main issue is that they aren’t as loud as I want them to be. Just make sure the ones you buy explicitly work with Apple Find My and/or Android Find Hub (formerly Find My Device). Proprietary trackers, especially those with subscriptions (Tile) are no longer cool.
These use Bluetooth* (which your tinfoil wallet may or may not block). When a phone “sees” a device it reports it to the network. This means it only works when phones are within range, so it won’t locate something in the middle of the woods unless someone happens by.
Also Google Find Hub will not report a location when seen by just one phone unless it’s your device or the phone has been opted in. This is to prevent stalking, or at least make it less effective, but it also means.
*Ultra Wide Band (UWB) is the cool new tracker thing that allows a lot more precision, but your phone and tracker need to support it, as do the phones of other people if you haven’t lost your device at home.
@craigthom "This means it only works when phones are within range, so it won’t locate something in the middle of the woods unless someone happens by.”
I believe devices get locations reported even when nobody is in “Find My”, so if you had the card in a backpack while you were on a hike and left it at a stop your phone would have been nearby and recorded the location already.
Or if you we having a snack, and a bear decided to amble over and you ran away and the bear picked up the pack and ambled off with it and left it elsewhere and a park ranger with “the right kind of phone” found it and took it to the fire watch long before your heart left overdrive mode, when you finally hit up “Find My” the fire watch location will already be reported.
Because discovered FindMy devices aren’t identified in any useful way by their bluetooth packets there is no actual way for the discoverer to know if the device is lost or not. So if say my phone sees your backpack it just knows “I saw this temporary ID”, and I send it to Apple who also doesn’t really know much of anything about it. When the owner of the card asks Apple about it, the owner has some key material and can recreate the temporary ID for various time spans and ask Apple “have you seen this” which is the first time Apple has an inkling that that ID belongs to you!
The discovering device can pretty much only tell “I found an Apple FindMy device, something somebody decided was important enough to track”, but not what kind of device it is or if it is “currently lost”, or who owns it (or even the AppleID involved), and I think the beaconID changes over time so you can’t even really tell if it is the same device over time (so a store can’t tell if the same person is in the checkout line today v last week based on the presence of a FindMy device)
(Note: all my examples assume the reported location has cell or WiFi service, I don’t remember if Find My “remembers” devices it comes across when it has no connectivity to tell Apple about when you get connectivity again, or if it just forgets them the instant it discovers it can’t immediately inform anyone about the discovery! If the discoveries are queued until network connectivity exists again things would work largely like I described except you might find out where a FindMy device was hours or days after it was discovered, I think FindMy only tracks the most recent location it sees, so if that backpack when from the fire watch tower to a visitor center you might never see the fire watch location, or if the person that brought it to the fire watch wasn’t the person that brought it to the visitor center you might see a update to the fire watch location when they get somewhere with service and not the visitor center location if nobody with an iPhone is close to it…)
Or get one of these for less than half the price. Has a 5 year battery and is IP69. I accidentally washed my wallet last week and was pleasantly surprised to find it still worked (I didn’t remember the card was waterproof).
@gryhnd Meh is selling a 3-pack. That listing is actually $2 more expensive per tracker.
@loofkid Ah crap, I did miss that. Anyhow I prefer not having to recharge my tracker every few months. One less piece of clutter too.
Odd that the “Georgia Red” rather than the “Mac compatible” question was asked, given the opportunity to answer “in fact, it’s ONLY Apple compatible!”
No wonder they ended up here on Meh!. They not NOT compatible with my S26
Apple TrackMe required.
Do these work like AirTags and use other people’s phone to report their location?
In other words are they of any use at all in tracking down stolen items?
@jandrese Yes, they do rely on other people to have an iPhone. If the thing had to have its own cellular modem and GPS receiver & battery for both it would be way way bigger and the battery would last way less time. More like a pet tracker size and duration.
@jandrese @theonetruestrip yes, I use Tile and it is similar. But I think it supports Android too. You can find things when someone else with the right app passes nearby. So it depends on volume of users. Of course you can always find your own stuff if you are nearby.
Correct about much higher weight and cost of a truly independent self-reporting system. Most of these had a high monthly fee, and earlier ones were 3G which I think is no longer supported.
@theonetruestrip I was more wondering if it uses a special app on the phone or if it is part of the larger ecosystem of these location devices.
I got one in May 2024 during a sale here and it gave up the ghost June 2026 with a swelled battery. The connection was always spotty but worked well enough.
/buy
@flooners It worked! Your order number is: tragic-trendy-harmony
/showme tragic trendy harmony
@mediocrebot Here’s the image you requested for “tragic trendy harmony”
/buy
@Jebbielax It worked! Your order number is: juicy-poignant-elbow
/showme juicy poignant elbow
@mediocrebot Here’s the image you requested for “juicy poignant elbow”