AirTag 2026
Apple (Hacker News, MacRumors):
Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip — the same chip found in the iPhone 17 lineup, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch Series 11 — powers the new AirTag, making it easier to locate than ever before. Using haptic, visual, and audio feedback, Precision Finding guides users to their lost items from up to 50 percent farther away than the previous generation. And an upgraded Bluetooth chip expands the range at which items can be located.
[…]
With its updated internal design, the new AirTag is 50 percent louder than the previous generation, enabling users to hear their AirTag from up to 2x farther than before.
Works better, same price, sounds good.
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No mention anywhere of battery life, so probably not improved; that's a shame. And needs iOS 26.2.1, and the improved precision only works with iPhone 15 or later (minus the 16e).
@ED More battery life would always be welcome, but it seems reasonable now. I think I’ve been getting about a year.
Requiring iOS 26.2.1 or later is not good. I wonder what the reason for that is. Presumably this is only for viewing/controlling it, and older versions can still help it participate in the Find My network. I had missed this detail because Apple also mentioned that it required watchOS 26.2.1 for Precision Finding, which seemed reasonable; it didn’t occur to me that the iOS 26.2.1 requirement was to work at all.
Not a product for me, but I do notice Apple is explicit in their press release about AirTag encryption:
"AirTag doesn’t physically store location data or history on device, and end-to-end encryption protects all communication with the Find My network, ensuring that only the owner of a device can access its location data. No one, including Apple, knows the identity or location of any device that helped find it.
That's a distinction from what was discussed here previously, such as last month:
@Tsai It's probably my bargain-bin CR2032s but I get about half a year. Maaaaybe power use is higher in areas with few iOS devices?Which the EU certainly is compared to the US.
50% louder still seems bad considering how low the previous version is as soon as it’s put inside one of the cases designed for it.
