Ok as a combat vet and experience with tracking down enemies over in foreign countries, always having a back up way to track ur item. Putting two devices in ur sensitive item would be ideal. Have one with the speaker attached so they could find that one and have the other with the speaker removed. Leave the one with the speaker, easy to be located so they don’t easily find the quite one by mistake and they will dispose of the easy one and carry on about their business. Most criminals won’t look or check for a second one.
@@jeanmartin6410 boomer that has no idea how technology works lol. Instead of 1 notification, AirTag is following you, now 2?! Lol then boomer suggest 3,4…
As a fellow combat veteran, whom deployed to Iraq three times and Afghanistan once, I'm just here to inform you how stating "as a combat veteran" just makes you sound like a dip-shit.
Just did this after picking up a 4 pack. Apple has changed the internal design and glued the device shut, there isn't a way to open the AirTag without breaking the tabs. Also, the speaker isn't adhered to the plastic part that comes out, it is glued into the center of the other smarts of the device. The speaker is still disabled but the tag no longer holds itself together. I'm going to toss it into some type of case to keep the battery connected. Just an FYI to anyone attempting this after March of 2023.
100% worth buying airtags! Had my welding helmet bag stolen from my welding truck, the bag was valued at $3k, long story short I found the thieves house, called the police, and got my bag back! They are worth every penny
@@gregoryblanche8390 yeah! I was very surprised but the RCMP actually acted and helped. The thieves ended up damaging 7 vehicles in my neighbourhood, and their house was full of stolen stuff
On a trip a few months ago my Airtag told me my bag had been left behind the flight after the airline personnel had messed up my reservation. I showed my phone's "find my..." app to the airline baggage agent; they did a deeper search on their computer and found it was on a later flight. I picked up the bag the next day and the airline gave me a flight voucher for my trouble. The tags paid for themselves.
Influencers' enthusiastic promotion of Apple's new AirTags, despite the technology's potential to track and collect data on users' location and habits, is really concerning. I rather not use them.
@@greglist2991 Please tell me that you don't think that the NSA having a room at AT&T where all the cables go through is completely benign. The problem with this sort of thing is that it's of no interest to anybody else, until it is. And there's no telling why they may ultimately decide that they're interested in you. You may not even be notified of it ever.
Don't pop the speaker off. Just put a tiny piece of saran wrap to block speaker contacts, to disable speaker. Then it's reversible when you want to restore it.
Judging by the wire coil seen at 6:57 what he removed was the speaker driver. The Speakers voice coil (copper winding) is still in there so technically if he wanted to he can put the driver back in by gluing back in and assuming he got it in the right spot the speaker will work again.
For the Airtag Vault, and anything that uses adhesive make sure to clear the area well with rubbing alcohol to ensure a clean area that will get the best adhesion, also pressure and friction. Sometimes i might heat up the adhesive area with a hairdryer before hand to get a more permanent stick. Some helpful tips.
Just use two AirTags, one with noise, one without. The thief finds the noisy one, tosses it, then disables the message he was getting which disables the other one too because he will probably cancel the notice when the alert pops up one more time. Hence disabling the second device notice too. You can then continue tracking the thief.
"he will probably cancel the notice when the alert pops up one more time" how can you be so sure what a thief may do? you don't know. and besides, the second airtag WILL continue to generate alert popups on the thief's iPhone because every airtag has a unique ID embedded in the device's hardware. cancelling alerts for the beeping airtag will NOT cancel alerts for the other airtag with its speaker removed.
@@techcafe0 I’m not positive they would do that, but I would bet they would. Of course, you’re right canceling the first one’s alert does not cancel the second one. That’s why we hope they cancel the second one when it pops up again. In my opinion it definitely way better than no AirTags at all.
Honestly the biggest problem i find with airtags is you cant family share them. we use them for the appletv remotes and car keys things that are shared. Its damn annoying not being able to see my wife's tags or her being able to see mine.
exactly. 99.9% are being punished because 0.1% are being bad actors. apple is worried about abuse of the tags even inside a family (husband / wife tracking the other without knowledge etc.)
AirTags saved my trip to Ireland last year during the time when international airports were having major issues with not enough staff. Some people were without luggage for weeks. I had AirTags in all of our bags including my bicycle travel case. The bike missed our connection fight and was left behind in London. I knew that immediately because while boarding for Dublin I could tell that one case was not on the plane, and as soon as s I arrived in Dublin I filed for the lost bag. Shortly after leaving the airport I saw on my phone that the bag had just made to Dublin, so I returned to the airport and informed the baggage claim rep that I was tracking my bag and I that it was in the airport Sure enough they went to check and it was there… however they had no idea where my bag was. The baggage claim representative told me that had I not had an AirTag in the case it could have been weeks before I’d gotten my bag. AirTag may not be perfect but it works!
Yes, they are very good at stalking your luggages and other valuables. I use them predominantly to locate where my items are (beep my wallet, beep my keys) that don’t have an Apple Find Me function (like beep my iPad). If someone stole something of mine, I didn’t think I would find it using this or similar tech - unless I left it behind in a restaurant or some place where the Good Samaritan is trying to get the thing back to me but unable to contact me otherwise. I do use it to stalk my daughter who keeps losing her wallet. If she does, she will call me to beep it, or I can track her down when I need to. She knows I have this superpower and when she is a teen, she will probably leave her wallet behind when she needs to sneak off 😂
This is awesome! An airtag helped recover my 16k motorcycle some months back and the thief seemed to not have found the tag by pure luck. I will certainly add an additional ninja tag to the bike (as the sound of the OG tag did actually help localize the bike once we where on location) Super simple hack. Appreciate the video! For those that want to go even crazier: There is an open source project to flash the airtags (or any other tag for that matter) to piggyback on the airtag network to create actually 100% stealth airtags that also send no notification to the tracked person. Of course: This is to track YOUR stuff and not to stalk someone, so use this with some good judgement!
@@lisunovroman There's a github project about it, the OpenHaystack project, but it's somewhat unhelpful. You need to know enough python to be able to write your own script to generate private keys, and you need to construct your own device. So it's not as simple as the above method. That said, if you have the time and are willing to devote the effort to it, you can make a "stealth" tracker that uses the Apple "Find My" network to track it. The item it's based on is a good bit bigger than an AirTag though. The base computer board is a micro:bit, and it looks like they retail for about $20 USD as of the time of writing.
@@lisunovromanI’m sure apple has disabled whatever workaround that is. All it takes is one headline with “airtag stalker” and the media wouldn’t mention it’s a hacked tag
I just did this with a new AirTag purchased march 3rd 2024. The speaker was locked down inside the middle of the electronics (instead of attached to the plastic in the video). I could still pry it up. Put everything together and the tag worked perfectly.. without the sound! Thanks again for the great video explaining how to open and put together. This AirTag is going on my expensive bike.
Put one of these in my checked bag on an international flight. Didn't see the bag on the belt at all, even though Find my was telling me it was there. I sought help from Baggage Claim personnel and we walked around searching. Then noticed it literally tracks its proximity to you on the phone so you can walk rigjt to it. We found the bag and it was hidden behind another right next to it. A good laugh had by all - at my expense - but this thing realy was useful. 😅😅😅
I thought about doing this and then I realised police here in the UK don't actually do anything even if you tell them the exact coordinates of the thief's house and provide CCTV footage of the theft.
Simple solution to that is to say "I know where they are, and I'm about to blow their heads off so you better send someone". They'll be there in a flash, meanwhile you're still sitting at home.
@@ericrichardson3332 just make sure to tell them they are conservative and republicant's maybe throw in a little maga and they will throw the book at them. however if you say they have a D in front of their name it will be ignored by the Fbi DOJ and everyone in between. just my 2 Cents
I have a couple problems with this video. First is that "Help a Friend" allows you to find other people's AirTags with your iPhone. Second is that you should receive a notification if your AirTag is "Left Behind" (stolen and removed from your immediate vicinity) at which point you'd probably enable Lost Mode (which *should* disable the "stalker notification" to the thief).
There are Airtag holders that screw into dog collars. What you can do is instead use that Airtag holder to screw into your luggage or backpacks. That will help secure the Airtag to your luggage incase someone steals it or whatever and rummages around through it. And if they do find the Airtag, they'd need a torx driver to unscrew it to remove it from the bag.
For anyone wondering this still works, however the speaker is glued to the base instead of the cover that’s pryed off, just pop a razor blade underneath and pry it off.
I can confirm it still works for new AirTags. People say they're glued now or don't work without the magnet. Nope. Works just like in your vid. Thanks, great job.
You must've won the lottery that day. Probably picked your name out of a truckload of names, said "we'll do this one, and we're done for the day." And they didn't mean them, they meant the whole division.
My friend had an airtag hidden in her car by someone (still unknown) for months, she would have the notifications pop up saying shes been followed via the air tag whenever she drives. She ended up selling the car before she was ever able to find it. stay safe out there yall
You have to be somewhere where there is not too much noise so you can hear the sound. And think about where on your car is accessible from outside the car unless you suspect it was placed by someone that was inside your car.
just picked up a 4 pack and tried it one of them, the speaker is now glued inside the tag itself ( not on the 3 tabbed door that’s pried open as shown in vid ) however it’s fairly simply to remove the speaker still then attach everything back together. tag still works after everything
All you had to do was remove that white circle on top of the speaker which is magnetic. Didn’t have to peel off the speaker. That way you can put the magnet back if you wanted to bring the sound back
This is great! I keep an AirTag in my car in case of one of two things, either I forget where I park, or someone steals my car. The only issue is sometimes when I get into the car the chime is automatically going off, which can get very annoying. First thing I’m doing tomorrow is removing that damned chime!
It's important to separate the ability to hack/modify hardware and the intent. There are plenty of use cases where disabling the speaker is a good thing - in fact, I'd argue that most use cases aside from stalking are fine. My dogs hate the sound, but if I want to find one of these, my phone will lead me right to it, so the AirTag is still useful/functional. I think the best thing, which you already mentioned, is that all Apple AirTags must be associated with a valid Apple ID account. As long as they maintain that functionality, along with the ability to be warned that a foreign AirTag is following you around, that's enough. The sound isn't necessary. As long as you aren't committing crimes with a modified device, device modification should always be allowed. Thanks for the thoughtful video, and also, thanks for wearing gloves with your sharp-knife method of taking these apart. I have a drawer full of spudgers (plastic and metal) - I'd probably use those first - but you didn't break any tabs or stab yourself, so that's awesome!
Just FYI, you may not want to do this if you're using an older iPhone without precision tracking ability (pre U1 chip). Without the chirping sound, it may make it harder to locate the item.
this answers a question I had about the other way an AirTag might direct a thief to the location of the device. the thieves i hope to thwart by removing the speaker now that I know how are homeless dilapidated RV fentanyl addicts who relentlessly steal everything in my neighborhood, including cars. they are less likely to have pre-U1 chip phones so i’m like 👌😎
Remember you are doing this only to protect something from being stolen, not lost. I keep an airtag in my car, you will never need to use the sound to locate your car once your in the Immediate vicinity. Another workaround that I do is for my toolbag I hide TWO airtags, one that sort of easy to find and one that's not, so when a crook gets the alert and finds and disables one and thinks they are in the clear, there is another one. The notification wont say there are TWO airtags following you. Now of course sooner or later the crook will get another notification but hopefully by that time I'm standing outside his door with either the cops or some people that he wishes were the cops if you know what I mean.
To safely open most small portable electronics, you can buy a small set of tough plastic pry bars. These are purpose-designed and can even pry open smartphones with no damage to the device or your fingers.
Air Tags were cool to have in our luggage when we traveled internationally a few months ago. Another couple on our trip wished they had them in their bags which were not located for 2 weeks…on the last day of the trip. Though frequent travelers, they allowed the airline to put their carry on bags in the hold. All they had for 2 weeks were the clothes they were wearing and some they had to buy on the trip. No clothes or underwear - no makeup - no toiletries.
Had a flight come into my station, 170/175 so a full size forward and aft bin. Well the station it came from forgot to check the aft bin(required due to pets/dry ice). There were 23 bags that had been left in the bin and came to my station. This is bad not only from a passenger standpoint, but really really bad for pilots. They need to know the weight and balance of everything put on the aircraft to know where to set wing angle and landing/takeoff variables. If something is off too far to one side or the other the plane can crash. It's also a fine on the airline. If passengers knew half the crap we had to put up with to get them to their destination then they would just drive.
@@rampagent9226 we know all the crap you go through but we don't care because we are paying for it and you're making living out of it. Stop pretending like you're doing us a favour.
I tried putting an airtag on my dog's collar. But because Airtags can't be shared with family, whenever my wife would take our dog someplace the thing would start beeping which really freaked him out. So I am definitely going to remove the speaker on his right away. Thanks for this video
Same for use Jeff! I’ve got one on my dog and when we were out of town, our house sitter told me that it would randomly beep and freak out my dog. Speaker removed👍
I’ve been using Tile. As soon as they added replaceable batteries I upgraded because I appreciated that move. Hated throwing out the non serviceable early model.
The main problem with Tile is that it's only detected by phones with the tile app. Unfortunately, Google's foray into bluetooth beacons was ended unceremoniously.
@@chaos.corner I use my Tile for my tool bags while working. If I’m in an office building and running cables between floors and some stupid face sees my bag while I’m around a corner and picks it up. It’s happened once but they genuinely were keeping it safe in their office. Other times it’s my glare that keeps them away. But for the amount invested in my tools it’s peace of mind.
@@FearsomeWarrior Yeah. I have several tiles and I quite like them. They don't get picked up by random other phones that often though and I wish they were a bit cheaper.
FYI, when I opened mine, the speaker stayed attached to the back white portion instead of coming off with the gray cover like this video. If you just push the center of the rounded white cover, it’s easy to pop the speaker out. Hope that helps anyone who has that happen.
I like this idea. If I want to put it in my car, it would be so much harder for thieves (even if notified on their phones) to find the hidden tag. Could be anywhere. But with the sound, it could be found quite quickly.
In NYC with stacked buildings, it's nearly impossible to locate something stolen. But I did enjoy and appreciate you taking time to share. I use my tags to save me from myself e.g. losing my keys.
if your iphone can utilize the u1 chip then you can get the green arrow and it'll point you to the location then just find the room # and call the police to meet you there. iphone 13 and 14 have this feature. no idea how far back in series has it.
because it's easy to uproot your whole life and family versus getting an updated airtag and iPhone... find a place, get a new job, take the kids out of school, all really easy.
@@Raphmatic5000 cities have been getting worse for years. My best friend grew up in Harlem. He left 15 years ago and did so much better without the insane rent along with the high crime. He has been convincing his parents to move. My family left the city 20 years ago. When I go back it’s clear that was the correct decision.
For most people, going on your own to try and track a stolen item to the thief is probably a fabulously bad idea, in any event. Also, even if you remove the speaker, a thief could still scan for airtags and find it that way, or at least know that one is present to look for, and really, that's a good as found.
Actually it is possible to create an AirTag clone tracker which will be not detectable by phones automatically (iPhone will not notify you). So it there are significant demand it is possible to start manufacturing.
They should make an update to the AirTags where the owner of the AirTag can disable the chime/tone for any device that it is not registered to. For instance only my phone can disable the chime for specific AirTags and if something is stolen, the thief gets notified but can’t use the chime, and if I find the location of the thief, I can enable the chime and make it go off.
@@Kingkilla0127 and the first time a stalker uses this method to silence the AirTag Apple will make it so if you remove the speaker the AirTag quits working altogether, and that’s of they don’t do it sooner if this catches on.
Things that never happened: Print guy suggesting to go for lower quality shirts to bring costs down - Lying to seem like a swell guy only to earn more money, such a good human
You convinced me to finally do this to 2 of my tags. The 2 I got on my cats can stay for legit stalking. But my escooter & brand new esk8board can do without a beeping.
Remember that airtags will also make a sound if disconnected from their owner's iphone for a few days and then moved. That may make your cats very uncomfortable, I know the sound made my dog uncomfortable, so I went ahead and removed the speaker on its airtag.
We have them in all our travel bags, cars, trailers etc. It is anoying when the wife takes my car or uses my bag for a vaction or the kids take school trip etc. Apple needs a family plan for the air tags too.
Keep a cheap iPhone constantly plugged in (se or 8s or higher) in your car that stop the anti stalker feature from activating (I use samsung so when I forgot to replug the iPhone back in it sets off my Samsung phone that my own tags are following me) I the uk we have a 3uk sim that gives you 150mb every month for free
A fellow photographer has AirTags in all his camera bags and cases. He owns a duplex and rented the other side out to a single young woman. This woman had moved because of a stalker. A few days after she moved in, he came home to find 2 police cars at the house. Guess what her iPhone was telling her..
As one of those "authorities" you say to call, we have no way of finding an AirTag in, say, a car--especially after turning it off. I have experience in this. This victim could make the tag sound, but it was turned off before we could find it. It would be impossible to find a silenced AirTag hidden in a victim's car or in some of her personal effects when she has taken great pains to move away from an abuser and hide her location. The most recent was a young lady who coordinated friends and family to help her move out and escape her abuser while he was away on a business trip. Within hours of his return, he showed up at her apartment door.
It's a bummer that there's people like that out there Ken, but I think that's an edge case of someone using something that's well intentioned improperly. It's impossible to make any product that someone with ill intent couldn't use improperly
They are a big stalking tool. Apple did what they could but people immediately put out info on how to defeat it. This video, though not intended, gives a stalkers master class on beating the protections. I, like Apple, feel people protection outranks property protection. I’d have avoided making this kind of video. 30+ year LE veteran here, btw. I’ve seen the bad side of this too many times.
This is why I use BOTH an Apple AirTag and Samsung SmartTag on some things. I hide them in different places, and if a thief is notified and finds one, they will think they "found it" and they will probably quit looking and not find the other.
How easy it has become for someone who knows someone's an android user, can stalk that person at all times without worrying they would ever get notified about it.
Hey y’all. This is a convenience device that is for finding your lost items. It is not a loss prevention/recovery device NOR is it a spy/stalking device. These instructions, however do help the bad actors that otherwise might not be sophisticated to now have the ability to use low cost, easily accessible AirTags to follow my daughters home and bypass the built-in security. Brilliant. Thank you.
i was literally just trying to figure this out last week. i have an airtag attached to my bike incase someone steals it. The airtag is well hidden but then when the bike is moved it makes the chiming noise defeating the purpose of hiding the airtag and also alerting the potential thief that there is an airtag on my bike. I posted to reddit asking if there was a way to disable the chime sound and everyone said no, apple put the chime sound on it so people will know if someone slipped it into their bag or something to track them. As you said Apple's main purpose of the airtag is to track an item you've lost it is not intended to be a tracking device for stolen objects. I am going to be doing this little hack immediately to the airtag on my bike.
I have an airtag hidden in my truck and sometimes it chimes, for no apparent reason, as I get in the truck giving away the approximate location and I would imagine also using some of the energy in the battery. I will be doing this mod as soon as I get back home.
@@wayneberry3453 Thieving junkies know every trick in the book . Whatever you think you know they know much more , trust me . But hey maybe the person who steals your stuff is like new the game or something , you never know . =P
@@SabbaticusRex bahahahaha yeh. Junkies are usually reeeeeally smart. Lets just start leaving things unlocked and just hand it to them. 🤷♂️. My stuff doesnt get stolen. Guess i know more than your "genius" junkies bahahaaha
Someone close to me has been being stalked and has had their devices hacked and identity stolen. I've seen other videos that show the notification takes too long if it notifies at all. Its believed its someone in their apartment complex. Its good to know that searching for tags is best done by physical search instead of relying on the sound or notification.
You could sew the airtag between 2 pieces of fabric to make it built into your bag or even in a car seat than it will be unfindable when paired with the silenced airtag
You don't have to destroy the airtag. Just pack the airtag in a latex glove and tape it several times with some acoustic foam. Noone will hear it I promise. I tried I cannot hear a damn thing.
They need to have a way to set up a enterprise or family account. That would help secure an inventory of valuables be a team. As you probably know, this is done by companies already when they send laptops and tablets to employees, plus other stuff.
Thanks so much for this video! I feel better knowing that a thief won’t easily be able to find the AirTag now that I have removed the speaker. BTW, I broke all three tabs prying it open and I didn’t need to glue it back together. It locked back in place just fine. 😊
if you leave the coil in there, if the airtag was touching a magnet or anything magnetic, it would still beep but will only be heard in a completely quiet room.
Thanks for another great video! I'm wondering if the "tag vault", is capable of being sound proof for the air tag? If so, then a person wouldn't have to worry about possibly damaging the air tag when attempting to remove the speaker. Just a thought.
In Switzerland it is a crime to follow a thief or robber by airtags, GPS-trackers or any other means that violates his privacy. Criminals are held in high esteem in my country - as everybody can learn from our world-famous banksters from CS, UBS et alia.
You don't follow the thief, you follow your property. The airtag is attached to your own property and not to the thief. As the owner, you cannot do anything about the fact that the thief takes your property without asking.
@@ilikepizza3x22 It is stated in the DSG (Datenschutzgesetz, aka Data protection law), nobody is allowed to process and keep personal data from anybody without his consent. Of course, eavesdropping-, or tracking data is included. The only exemption is made in the NDG (Nachrichtendienstgesetz, aka Intelligence agency law), that allows such things, if a judge from the federal state attorney office issues a permission to law enforcement, or intelligence agencies upon formal request in a particular case.
If this is used for security (anti-loss), use two. One with a chime, one with the chime removed. They'll find the one that is chimed, but think something is wrong why the second one keeps being found, but no sound.
AirTag came to the rescue last week when my Kindergartener mistakenly got on the bus when no one was able to be home. Fortunately, I was alerted that her backpack was on the move and was able to meet the bus at the intermediate school and tell the principal at that school she was there.
This is awesome. The next time I replace the batteries in all my vehicles and bags, I’ll have to remove the speakers. Those cases are also pretty cool. I feel like the stalker update only harms law abiding citizens. There’s probably 10,000 thefts to every stalker.
So...what was the purpose of releasing air tags, as security devices, when someone with an iPhone can simply load an app, and find it? So you hide an air tag on your bike, so you can find it if it gets stolen, thief scans your bike with his phone, finds your ai tag, and removes it, then rides away on your bike. You're spending money for no protection. Apple should be sued for this.
keep in mind the airtags give the location of the nearest device that detects them, not the actual location of the airtag. So in common use, its where you iphone with bluetooth is, but the airtag could be anywhere in range, but showing your iphone gps location. If you put it into missing mode, then the location of the gps of the iphone that detects it, which gives you a good idea, just not exact location. I think as an anti theft device in a car it would work as it would be detected where the car was taken to ... and only starts alerting about 24 hours later, which you could be able to location it before then. And not all thefts would have iphones.
Thanks for explaining the vital details to me, other comments have only given somewhat vague details, - 'I thought that there was more to the story' than others had told, glad you took the trouble to write.
While youve got the Tag apart - any way to hook it up to an alternative power source? Maybe hardwire it into the cars electrical somewhere so you dont have to worry about the battery running out of juice or whatever
As per the sales pitch for your "BE A GOOD HUMAN" shirts at the intro here while talking about the beneficial, as well as malicious, uses of Apple's Air Tags and their ability to track objects as well as people, you mentioned that they would be good "stocking stuffers" this Christmas season. Or did you mean stalking stuffers?
However, if someone stole your item and they were still notified that your tag was tracking them how hard would it be for them to go to the stolen item and search for the tag? Who needs the tone?
@@BrianKushner sorry, that is what I meant. Many people are placing these INSIDE of their bikes. Sometimes in non serviceable areas. (Not easily anyway) or putting them inside the liners of bags. Proper hiding.
Just get a buddy that works at a tire shop. Have him throw one in the spare tire. Once a year, at tireswap time, he just replaces the battery and remounts it. Perfect.. Have fun trying to find it in a tire.
Apple should prioritize anti-theft, it makes no sense to prioritize anti-stalk because stalkers will buy cheaper alternatives, with no anti-stalk warning, and no linked Apple ID. It's a great company but sometimes they make really stupid decisions.
When apple notifies you that you are being tracked by one of their devices it should have a popup to give you the option for getting directions to or to call the nearest police station. If you get to the police station and the tracker is still with you then you can start to more safely search your vehicle
Coolest hiding place I’ve seen is a camera body cap that had something like that vault built into it. Even if someone just grabs the camera out of a case, the air tag goes with it.
Too bad criminals are using these to track a person's car or a person. Just stick the airtag on a car or drop it in someone's pocket or purse, then follow them home... So terrible.
This seems like a good idea! But this doesn't completely solve the problem of a thieve disabling it. Because precision finding will still screw you over even without the speaker inside.
Well good news, the prompt for seeing if an AirTag is tracking you doesn't allow precision finding, so the thief won't be able to find it still. The problem, however, is if a stalker stumbles on this video and utilizes this hack to find where people live. If people can't find it, it'll be too late when they do.
@@LVessell Not tying to argue, but on Apple’s website it specifically says this: “We’re also investigating a series of updates that we plan to introduce later this year, including: Precision Finding: This capability allows recipients of an unwanted tracking alert to locate an unknown AirTag with precision. iPhone 11, iPhone 12, and iPhone 13 users will be able to use Precision Finding to see the distance and direction to an unknown AirTag when it is in range.” So much for just disabling the speaker.
@@shawndavismedia I was just thinking this. If Apple is set on not allowing the AirTags to stealthily track anyone there’s no way in hell ppl will beat Apple with a lil DIY. I could also see them straight up disabling AirTags that have been tampered with or are ”functioning incorrectly” in the future.
It's still going to tell the person that there's an airtag there. So unless it's something like a car where there are just way too many places to look, it's not going to take more than a minute for them to find it without the chime.
They're not designed to prevent theft or to stop items being stolen. They're designed to find items you've lost. Which part of this is difficult for people to understand? It's like complaining that your Apple TV remote doesn't make a very good cricket bat.
@333Orobas 666 I'm laughing that you think I'm seriously offended. I don't care that people are modifying their stuff to serve a dfferent purpose. But your use of the phrase "to serve a different purpose" makes it clear you understand my point that, as designed, their purpose isn't to stop items being stolen.
AirTag isn't intended as an anti-theft device. Apple has been vocal about this from day 1. So has Tile. People should perhaps read the product page as diligently as they listen to RU-vidrs before investing their money.
Tl;dr: you can hobble your AirTag by removing the speaker, and thus make it moderately more difficult (but not impossible! - the radio can be detected) for a thief to locate. This would be most valuable if you AirTagged something large, like a vehicle. It doesn't disable the notification that the AirTag sends to nearby iDevices. And for those who have bad intentions to stalk someone, again, it will still notify nearby users they are being followed, and can be tracked back to the original owner/purchaser.
I discovered one of these when the battery 12V in my Camry Hybrid needed changing, and when I got to the destination of the service station to put some fuel in the car, I discovered on my phone that there was an Air Tag in the vehicle, so I immediately located it, and discovered it was in deed mapping out everywhere I had been that day, so I did the best thing so I would get notified, and to prevent the person who owned the air tag from discovering where I lived, was actually disabled it by removing the battery no more airtag, as this was a rental, I would also be notifying the rental company of it as well... the fact is I own a ANDROID phone, so the fact that I got a notification on my Android Smartphone, was amaazing.
most rental company's use tracking an have done so for many years this tech is not new kids , its been available since the early 90s as long as gps has been around
Idk who needs to hear this, but vhb tape fails on me all the time. Ie, using vhb tape to connect to an (especially a dirty or dusty) outdoor surface like a wheel well is virtually guaranteeing the tape will fail at some point. If you do, make sure to clean contact surfaces well and finish with rubbing alcohol before applying the tape.
Immediate question would be, if you wanted to stalk someone, why use an AirTag? And not a GPS tracker you can buy in bulk from Ali Express for about $5 a pop.
What GPS device do you think you can purchase that only costs $5? GPS devices need a power source to transmit and receive data and need a line of sight to satellites.
@@mook528 I've gotten a few TK102 for less than $30 10 yrs ago, I don't think the price is too far fetched for a bulk purchase. The issue (if you want to use it for "nefarious" intent) is they need a sim card to connect and send back data.
@@mook528 depends on how many you buy. You can purchase GPS trackers for as low as $1 per unit. But if you're using those for stalking, you better be stalking a good 10,000 people. A quick search showed some for $3 with no minimum order or $0.98 minimum order of 10 but I can't say how good they'd be. Cheaper than an AirTag for sure and you don't need to pull out any speaker or worry about it pinging an iPhone.
another feature i think that needs to be allowed to happen... is this needs to be cross compatible with other phones. Apple needs to allow google and samsung and other phones to pick up on them too so that women everywhere can be more protected in general and not have just iphone users protected. seems kinda jank if only apple users get the benefit of protection if you get the drift.
It’s such a small thing, but it’s really cool how even on a small cheap product like the Air Tag, Apple makes the circuit board black and beautiful. Hardly anybody will ever see it, but their design language is present inside and out
wow. when you talk about your phone i bet you always casually mention the model, whether its a pro or not, whether its a max or not, and the day a new one comes out you regard the previous one as outdated uncool and plain worthless.
@@danwake4431and your android is just a outdated android that doesn’t get any update’s and if it did it takes months to get it (security updates don’t count everyone gets those except across users sometimes don’t…)
We hid an AirTag in my wife's trunk just in case someone was to steal her car or something (who knows, unlikely but possible). So this is actually good to know. I may get more AirTags just to hide in our personal bags just so we can find it if it goes missing!
@@Lion_lamb I'm trying to imagine the nonstop notifications on a thief's phone plus the hundreds of chimes that would go off and drive them insane... LOL
@@zahktuthalxalyrion6364 You would find them in fetal position covering their ears and crying on the side of the highway while they screaming "make it stop".
Make sure you find out the correct way to remove the battery cover by rotating the silver cover counter clockwise. Do not pry off the cover because that will break the internal plastic tabs and the silver cover will never be able to hold the battery in place.
