AirTag - page 2

Imagine a Siri capable of opening your preferred email client on your iPhone and sending an important email seamlessly. Picture an Apple-branded smart home hub, elegantly wall-mounted in your kitchen, equipped with Apple Intelligence for instant access to smart home controls and a conversational voice assistant. Envision an iPhone just 6mm thin, standing out for its ultra-sleek, stylish design.

All of this could turn into a reality in 2025, with Apple already working on these devices and services for launch next year.

The Apple AirTag is arguably among the company’s most useful product releases in recent years. Once you set up an AirTag, it gives you powerful options for locating it (and whatever you attach it to). Put one of Apple’s tracking tags on an item like a keychain or luggage, and you can easily track its location from your iPhone, Mac, or iPad. If you’re wondering, do AirTags make noise, the answer is yes, but only in specific circumstances.

Since AirTag’s launch, numerous reports have detailed how the tracking tag helped owners find lost items. If you recently acquired an AirTag, here’s how you can set it up the right way and use it properly.

When Apple launched the AirTag, you could link the tracking tags to only one person. Luckily, Apple expanded that. Now you can share an AirTag with up to five other people, so each one can see where it is.

Here’s how to share an AirTag with family members or friends.

Want to extend your AirTag’s battery life to 10 years and keep the tracker dry and concealed? Well, that’s easy to do with ElevationLab’s innovative new TimeCapsule AirTag battery case. The weatherproof case keeps an AirTag safe and sound — and frees you from swapping out the Apple tracking tag’s coin-shaped batteries every year.

If you’re looking for a last-minute gift for an Apple fan in your life, there’s one surprisingly simple answer: Get them an AirTag. Or a bunch of them. With frequent discounts from Amazon and other retailers, AirTags make the ultimate stocking stuffer for anybody in the Apple ecosystem.

A new ultra-wideband chip inside AirTag 2 could make Apple’s tracker tag findable at a much longer range than the current model thanks to new UWB chip.

The device is expected in mid-2025.

United Airlines built support for AirTag’s new Share Item Location into its app. This lets flyers easily show the airline the real-time location of the tracker tag hidden in their lost luggage.

The optional tracking feature debuted in iOS 18.2 on Wednesday.

A Cyber Monday sale on a four-pack of AirTags brings the Apple tracker close to its lowest price ever. Each AirTag costs just $18.25 after a 26% discount from Amazon. If you’d prefer a single tracker, you can get a solo AirTag for up to 14% off the usual price from Best Buy. Use these Cyber Monday AirTag deals to stock up on Apple’s tracking tags.

AirTags are a great way to keep you from leaving important items behind, or to help you find them if you misplace them.

Apple added Share Item Location to the Find My app to let AirTag users securely share with an airline the exact position of a tracking tag attached to lost luggage.

Here’s how to use the new feature to show an airline employee that your bag is actually just outside Concourse C in the Atlanta airport, not in Denver where they think it is. They can even see the exact position of the luggage.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The rumored “iPhone 17 Air” supposedly will delete major features to become Apple’s thinnest smartphone ever — and sell at a premium price. We debate the pros and cons of such a scenario. Plus, Apple reportedly plans to make AirTags even better … and might be reconsidering making an actual TV set.

It’s a rumor-packed podcast!

Also on The CultCast:

• We discuss the possibility of Apple selling SSD upgrades for Mac mini.
• Apple slipped a surprise feature into the M4 MacBook Pro.
• Image Playground produces some truly ridiculous images. See a sampling below. Is this the best Apple Intelligence can do?

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.

Apple’s first AirTag upgrade is another step closer to launch, with the tracking tags reportedly progressing to “manufacturing tests.” The company apparently plans to launch the AirTag 2 in mid-2025.

Codenamed B589, the new AirTags reportedly will look the same but provide increased range and improved privacy features.

Share Item Location lets AirTag users securely share the location of their tracking tag with an airline. The goal is to help find and recover lost luggage.

“The Find My network and AirTag have proven to be a powerful combination for users while traveling, providing invaluable location information when bags have been misplaced or mishandled,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, in a press release Monday. “With Share Item Location, we’re excited to give users a new way to easily share this information directly with third parties like airlines, all while protecting their privacy.”

Attach the Pebblebee Clip to your keys, backpack or purse and you won’t need to worry about misplacing your item or leaving it behind. You can locate the missing item with your iPhone (or Android), or have the tracker tag play an audible alarm.

The item tracker is a rival to Apple’s AirTag, and both use Apple’s Find My network so they can be located almost anywhere on Earth. But Pebblebee has a new advantage: it just launched a Universal version that supports either Apple’s or Google’s similar tracking service.

I tested the new version of Pebblebee’s tracker tag and found a lot to like. It even improves on Apple’s offering, but not in every way.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group laid out details on Bluetooth 6.0 on Tuesday. The standout feature in the upcoming short-range wireless standard is dubbed “true distance awareness,” which should make tracker tags like Apple AirTag easier to find.

However, there’s no mention in the specifications of the change many are hoping for: faster connections.

A sale on a four-pack of AirTags brings the Apple tracker close to its lowest price ever. Each AirTag costs less than $20 after a 19% discount from Amazon or Best Buy. If you’d prefer a single tracker, you can get a solo AirTag for up to 14% off the usual price.

AirTags are a great way to keep you from leaving important items behind, or to help you find them if you misplace them.

The KeySmart Air is a smart AirTag key holder that offers a major improvement over your standard AirTag keychain. Instead of connecting your AirTag to an existing keychain, the KeySmart Air becomes your keychain.

It can hold five keys and one AirTag, all kept safe in a tough silicone or leather shell. And you can snag a KeySmart Air on sale for as little as $14.99.

Amazon is running some deals on Apple accessories right now, with discounts on AirTag trackers and Apple Pencil models. In addition to some lesser savings, you can actually get $50 off Apple Pencil 2, a solid deal on a great iPad stylus.

A Virginia carpenter put Apple AirTag trackers on some of his tools so he could find them if they were stolen. It worked beyond his wildest expectations — he led police to what eventually turned out to be multiple collections of 15,000 stolen construction tools.

This is far from the first time an AirTag has helped locate a stolen item. But it’s never been quite this enourmously successful before.

The slim new Nomad Tracking Card works with Apple’s Find My app on your devices and recharges via MagSafe to help you keep tabs on your wallet, purse or other valuables, Nomad said Tuesday.

The credit card-sized tracker goes for $40 individually or $120 for a four-pack.

Amazon launched a bunch of deals Tuesday on Apple gear that includes what looks like a lowest-ever price by a touch on Apple Pencil 2. And it matches low prices on AirPods Pro 2 and Studio Display, and offers nice prices on Apple Watch and AirTag packs.

The Device Therapy Bike Mount & Reflector gives you a place to hide an Apple AirTag tracker. With this combination, you can (hopefully) track the location of your bike if it gets stolen because millions of iPhones around the world can report the location of your lost item.

Amazon bargain site Woot! is known for its bargain-basement sales on tech items, but Tuesday’s Best of Tech sale digs up some oddities, including an offbeat selection of Apple products. An international travel-adapter kit, for example. The much-maligned FineWoven iPhone cases (also silicone). And an AirTag keychain with a carabiner clip.

Not to mention gear from Belkin, Victrola and others — everything from chargers to solar panels.

The Best of Tech sale runs through April 9. See below for some of the most interesting items on sale.

A U.S. federal judge gave a go-ahead to a class action lawsuit accusing Apple’s AirTag of being “the weapon of choice of stalkers and abusers.”

Apple argues that it designed the product to discourage stalkers.

Are AirTags waterproof? Keeping liquids out of our electronics isn’t always easy. Especially when it’s something we take with us everywhere, like our AirTags. Those with Apple’s handle little item tracker, or anyone thinking about getting one, might ask the questions:

• Can AirTags be submerged in water?
• Can AirTags go through the wash?
• Can my dog swim with AirTag?

I’ve kept a tracking tag on my indoor/outdoor cat for years, so I fully understand wanting to be sure a bit of rain won’t cause problems. And I have tags on my keys and many other items, and I also don’t want a trip through the wash to ruin them.

Fortunately, I have lots of good news.

If you love your AirTag soooooo much that you take it on romantic bike rides (or, more likely, you just want to track your sweet ride), check out these brilliant bike mounts from Laut. They’re well-designed and wonderfully affordable.

You can either attach your tracker to your saddle for less than $20, or beneath your water bottle for even less cash. And because Laut’s mounts are so inconspicuous, thieves won’t even see that your AirTag is there.