The test Shane did is flawed. Apple did say that if you are with the airtag (in which case, Shane did when he was walking with his GF) the other iphones won't be notified.
@@Walshyification I am not sure. if you really just "turn off" your phone, it might still be sending bluetooth beacons and therefore the other iphones pick your phone up therefore icloud still knows your location. (just a theory). Next test would be: leaving your phone home and walk with your gf.
@@Walshyification "We we'd have heard it by now", is not a good argument ;) Maybe nobody bothered to check, or the feature "Find My Phone" is soooo old, that it was already mentioned somewhere and just forgotten. But checked it last night. And you are right. It really doesn't beacon. The macbook, for example, does that in standby mode (lid closed), that's where i was coming from.
One of the biggest selling features of Tile for me is the built in loop (no need to buy a $30 accessory) and the ability to press the tile itself to ring your phone, even if it's ringer is turned off. This makes Tile better for me personally, especially when I use it to find devices locally around my house rather than out in public.
Feel like this needs a pretend theft. To see how it would work in the real world. Get a friend to ride away with your bike make it a moving target, stop for coffee, go home etc. Whilst you give chase. Would make a good video. You’d have to wear a beige Mac, sunglasses and broadsheet under the arm
A thief can grab your property, then mark their current location as home or work and they will then get a notification that your airtag is covertly tracking them in your stolen property. They would cause it to ‘sound off’ then they find it and toss the tag, voila. That will teach you for trying to be a stalker. Basically, Apple has decided to lump all their customers into the creeper category when actually they just want to secure their property. In other words it’s worthless as a theft deterrent. Sorry but true.
@@sciencescripture ‘theft deterrent’ I don’t think that’s been implied! It’s would be hidden in the frame / under the saddle etc. A deterrent would mean you put a sign on you’re bike saying ‘this bike is being tracked with an apple air tag BEWARE’. No, Its just one more hoop for a thief to jump through. Any tracking device on an item as small as a bike is easy to overcome if the thief is looking for one! A methodical, smart and calculating theft is hard to protect against. An average dumb piece of shit might just get caught with a tracking device such as this. Yes it isn’t fool proof but show me an anti theft device that is!
I'm really suprised there isn't ebike batteries with built-in bluetooth tracking capablities. Will be interesting to see if anyone builds a frankenstein battery based on the apple network.
Does the Airtag allow the owner to set an alert if it moves? For example if one leaves their bike in a bicycle garage and only rides every few days, the owner would want to receive an alert if their bike suddenly starts traveling (e.g. someone has stolen the bike from the garage). This would be helpful for when your bike isn't always in sight.
Someone (why, hello K-Edge & Silca) needs to make a Garmin/Wahoo mount with a slot for one of these. Ultra stealth, easier to access than stuffing it down around the BB area, and probably less impact on signal strength. Other option - for drop bars maybe a custom hood would work. Fake cadence sensor would be good too - looks like it would fit in a Yahoo RPM mount?
exactly my thoughts. hidemybell would also be perfect for this, as the bell size is a bit bigger as an airtag. just needs some added space between the bell and wahoo mount.
@@DrWeaselander Air Tag X: Alerts the landlord if someone enters the perimeters of your domains. AirTag Space: Notifies you if your AirTag leaves the Earth.
i love that people are freaking out about this devices privacy and there have been way sketchier gps trackers some with sim cards even for LIVE tracking
If you have an aero cockpit (not the TT kind, but like the aeroad with flat bars) you could wrap it under the bar tape on the bottom side of your bars. As Shane mentioned, you could also put it in the seat tube if it's aero, but I also want to add that this would not reduce it's connectivity because of the low dielectric constant of CF and epoxy.
@@VR_Wizard once word gets out about these, thieves will be ripping them off from under saddles & obvious places with each theft. No, the range/efficacy of the device needs to be high enough to sit within a bicycle frame or component. And sitting in anything metal SHOULD act as an antenna for the device. Carbon? Bets are off there...
@@dudeonbike800 I agree under the saddle is not ideal but in the saddle seems a nice hiding place. Often saddles are just glued together so opening it up and gluing it back together should be doable and with one year of care free running time not to much of an issue doing it every year. From physics lecture I know about Faraday cages and putting the tag in such a cage which a metal frame is no signal should come out, so you have to put it somewhere else but not inside the frame.
The only thing I’m interested in is this. I have a 4iiii power meter on my crank that apparently connects to the chip polo network. Is it worthwhile to get yet another tracker on my bike even if it’s better
That integration was interesting. It never worked for me. The Chipolo tag did, the crank was never ‘located’. I was trying to get to the bottom of it with 4iiii, but they never resolved it.
@@theinstigatorr Not insinuating, I'm confirming it was completely useless in my testing and 4iiii never explained why. It wasn't due to the device not being in range of another Chipolo user either. I ran comprehensive testing with multiple phones and accounts. I confirmed my test case worked with a Chipolo tag and failed with the 4iiii power meter. This could possibly be a regional thing (given I'm in Australia)... but this was never explained or given as a reason.
@@gplama in that case it makes sense for me to get this for my road bike especially considering that I’m pretty deep into the apple ecosystem already (like you it seems)
A question... when in lost mode... does it still notify the iPhone user they are being tracked... because it seems daft to notify somebody if it’s been marked as lost, it defeats the purpose doesn’t it? Unless Apple don’t car about thefts, maybe after a 2-3 days it could notify but not straight away
I think they would still put privacy above that. If you could completely disable the alerts by setting your tag to lost mode it would effectively become a great device to track people without them knowing - which I'm sure is not something they want people to do. I guess this is what happens if the person being tracked is not using an iPhone though.
They dont care about theft and since it only notefies you when you are bome with a unknown tag it makes total sense to notify you no matter if lost mode is enabled or not. But to be 100% sure this would need to be tested.
The FindMy network now has a public API, so other tags can make use of it. Chipolo has signed up for it, although I don't know if they're shipping compatible products yet.
I love the network, and think it would be useful for putting on not just bikes, but expensive tools and such. I did just that, but I would rather see stalkers caught and punished than give up the ability to recover my property because it told the thief that I had a tag on it. I have installed some of these, but am concerned their utility may be lost by them alerting a thief to their presence before I get my stuff back if stolen.
Best way to track Android users without being snitched. Now.. how to convince my wife to use an Android phone ? Aah, I don't have a wife. So, first things first
For 29$! I’m cutting a piggy bank sized slot in my bike frame and dropping a tile into the frame. The battery last nearly a year so I’ll just drop a new one inside each summer.
The best place I have found so far on my bike is to put it into the stem. It fits. Remove the handle bar, put the airtag in some foam and put it into the stem. Thieves will never find it easily.
You can simply test different locations using your own phone, probably depends on the material of your bike and orientation. Just some ideas for you you can remove the metal part and use tape to make it smaller and it fits under the bar tape or you put it inside the saddle ... many possibilities. You can even remove the plastik but thats more tricky to make it almost as thin as the battery
I have a Trek Domane SL with downtube storage for a flat pack and was wondering if I could slip an air tag inside that flat pack as a recovery measure. Thanks for the demo!
it would be great if you could activate a "notify me when the tag starts moving" setting on your phone, so you'll get alerted once your bike is being stolen. that way you'll have a chance to chase your bike before the thief gets home... 🤔
After initial pairing, does the AirTag continue to broadcast bluetooth (which is visible to others), i.e. would the AirTag show up if somebody nearby is searching for Bluetooth devices? i.e. if the robbers smarten up, could they just turn on bluetooth and search for "nearby devices" to see if any AirTag is close by?
I assume so if you search for the UUID….but if you’re at that level you’re scanning for other devices of value, not a little tag that is of no value itself. A quick scan with LightBlue doesn’t show any AirTags here by name.
So if I put the AirTag in my bike and lock it in the building bike storage room underground, then i leave there for like three days, would it starts beeping because it’s been of out range for three days?
In my German city it works well, with multiple pings per hour. In a german village I saw a test where it took a few hours for the first pink, but thats quite ok for a tracker with a one year battery life
A really interesting part about how easy they're found by other users is that iOS 14.5 has only been out since April 27th. As more and more people update their devices this will become more and more effective.
I'm very surprised Apple didn't make 'Find My' an opt-in service. I'm happy they didn't as it makes finding AirTags VERY effective having everyone participate in the network.
Exactly what I wanted to know about AirTags. I need it to put on my bike. Bikes get stolen all the time here in France. My 2 bikes were stolen from my building’s closed, locked bicycle parking garage. So someone who has a key or one of my neighbors is doing it.
If the bike garage has a numeric lock, the crack is generally on the internet. But if he’s doing it several times, maybe Apple could identify him as a regular thief? Also, we need AirTags to alert if one Android user gets nearby ;) As he said, all bad guys are Android users !
Same for me. I live in france and my only solution now for my electric bikes is to sleep with them in my room at the last floor of my flat with no elevators....
Where would you place this on a bike so that it wouldn't be easily visible and then thrown away by a thief, but easily accessible to you so you can change the battery? All I can think of is maybe it could go inside the and of the handlebar but it looks too big. Also, if a bike thief gets alerted that they're moving around with an air tag and they've just stolen your bike, they're going to search the bike for the air tag and remove it....
While these scenarios are all true, I think in practice most thievery isn't conducted by rational actors. On the other hand, there are indeed professional thieves and their strategy is to find the mix between the high value item and the ease of acquisition (weak locks, etc) so I would expect they may treat an airtag alert as friction and move on to an easier target if they can't find and remove the tag quickly. In my view it sort of works either way or at the very least it is pretty cheap to get a fighting chance to recovery a stolen bike even if it doesn't work 100%.
Under the saddle is probably the best place to hide it, but it shouldn't take anyone too long to find it if they are alerted. I guess you could also have two tags. One more exposed that would hopefully make a thief think it's not worth stealing that bike over the one next to it, and one concealed. If you can manage to hide two, this could also mean that when the person is alerted they would eventually find one and disable it, but the second one would still be working and giving you some extra tracking time.
Can you put it inside of your handle bars? Other than the size constraint, your bars/frame/seatpost will kill the antenna (Faraday cage) and there will be no signals in our out. I suggest a patch of same coloured material covering the tag, pasted to the underside of your seat.
@@gplama There must be a LOT more polyester in the CF than I expected. The carbon portion is conductive, so it's either going to re-radiate or block. But if your fill factor is low, and bikes are more like plastic frames than carbon, sure it would penetrate, if attenuated. Thanks for the correction.
Warning the thief that the stolen item has a tracker is really a stupid oversight. They didn't even think of theft at all. I think it is much more common that your stuff gets stolen than that you use an AirTag to stalk other people
Hi Shane, the Airtag fits into my stem. However, location is only possible when I am really close, approx. 0.5 meters. Maybe it is best to have one in the stem and a second one in a bag or below the saddle. What do you think?
So not sure I understand. See if my bike was stolen, and the thief has an iphone, are they going to be aware the tag is there? Or, becuase not in lost mode and they haven't returned home they wont be alerted but you will?
They’ll be alerted when they return to their ‘Home’ location, if they have an iPhone and the tag is still within range. You’ll be able to see the location without them knowing regardless of where they are.
@@gplama but if the thief takes the bike to a "warehouse" location some distance from their home, the thief won't be notified (they're out of range), but you will?
So if they take it back to their warehouse to sell on, and that's their home location, they will get a notification to say theres a tag on the/one of the bikes?
@@CarlForde In that scenario, it's unlikely the thief will know they're being tracked. The AirTag owner will be able to view the location of the AirTag.
This is the most actually informative video I’ve seen on these doohickeys. Good to know the stalking alert is how you get movement history out of them. I bet the reason you didn’t get more is because Apple realized that you were trying to probe the inner workings of the system. Or maybe it was the same airtag, and Apple thinks it’s your responsibility to find it after they’ve told you you’re being stalked. I’m going to see how they respond to GPS spoofing of a phone.
@@gplama sweet! What are you using to do the spoof? Any tweak I might have heard of? Also, it would be interesting to leave a location-spoofed phone near a heavy-traffic place to spoof random people’s tags. Or maybe have it be a geocache where you spoof people to a particular location and put a surprise there.
iTools. The spoofing is only good until another iPhone comes along and reports the correct location (which will happen a lot!). The trick would be to spoof the location of a tag and then pull the battery. That way the last known location will be the fake location. I've been tinkering with this :)
@@gplama Thx, I’ve not used iTools, or any spoofer before. And my intent is to test this in a location where my phones are the only ones around. One thing I want to see is if, when there are two phones nearby providing updates on the tracker, one spoofed to a ridiculous location, if Apple has any way to prefer the non-spoofed location.
Can you use them to remind you if you leave your bag or keys behind ? For example if you forgot to take your bag and are walking away from it. Or if your keys fell out of your pocket and you didnt notice. Thanks
question . . . what is stopping someone using an air tag to track someone else, like to hide it on their car and stalk them? Or to put one inside of a package sent to a private PO box, and when they collect it, find their private home address?
Morality. Anti stalking laws. Technically there are a few things Apple have implemented to alert someone they're being tracked. It's always after-the-fact though.
9:05 At the wildlife park, maybe turning off iPhones doesn't complete turn them off? That would explain why she didn't get notified if you stayed with her. Tough to say since the phone's battery can't be removed.
Bluetooth and Ultra Wideband (iDevices with the U1 chip). I'm not 100% sure UWB is used for community 'discovery'. I'm sure that's documented somewhere... maybe... Something that could be tested.
where would you hide it if you had it on your bike...? ( I would think the bike post but then will it effect the signal) also if you report it on lost mode will it beep to let the thief know..?
I think thieves will get savy to this fairly quicly and will start checking under the seat and ditching the bags or at least separating them from the bike. You could epoxy one to the frame or a fender. A bodyshop could fair it up and paint it if you want to get fancy.
Good video Shane! I will get one, James Cameron predicted this in Terminator 30 years back, all this IOT stuff, Skynet is just around the corner...with the rise of the machines :)
I was thinking about adding an airtag to my bike, but realized: It will start to make noise after not being in touch with my phone for 3 days. Leaving my bike in the storage for 3+ days happens quite often. So this would not work, would it?
Good honest review and test! These are my first trackers I’ve invested in purely because the Apple network being so big. :) The privacy concerns are very real, but I don’t think trackers in general are going away, so I think the real question is: “How good are the privacy-features of one tracker compared to another tracker.” I don’t currently have a bike, but I’m considering one simply in my car.
My new e bike is arriving today, so I'm considering a tracking devise. I have had tiles in the past, though only needed them to locate car keys. I'm shopping for a new phone and have always had Android, but am considering I Phone simply for the Air Tags for my bike/luggage.
So if the thief is alerted when they get home, it will give them you full name? Is there any way of preventing this or choosing the name that they will see when it says ‘x-name’ has been tracking you? I don’t really want a thief knowing who I am?! Thanks
No. If the thief has an iPhone, they'll be alerted of an AirTag following them. No name or detail of the owner is provided. If the owner chooses to put the AirTag into 'Lost' mode the thief can scan it with NFC and view the owner's phone number. Best never put something in lost mode if you know someone has stolen it and you know where it is.
@@gplama thanks so much for explaining this and for your videos! I’ve looked at a tone of GPS trackers designed for bikes and none seem to be very reliable when you end up looking at customer reviews. Thanks to your videos I’m going for this option and feel confident I will be able to locate my bike if it did ever go missing! Although I have got 2 alarms and £500 worth of locks on it when parked up 🙈 if you lived where I do, you’d know why! Haha
I’m thinking a good place on the bike would be in the bottom of the steerer tube, bit harder for a thief to find, once they get wind they will just end up ripping off and throwing a saddle bag away or having a look under the saddle then again rip n throw, I’m gonna definitely leave one in my car in case it ever stolen, miles cheaper than a tracker !
Great stuff Shane! Problem is I live in a place where people don't know what an expensive bike is. I'll probably still buy some though for when we travel interstate with our bikes.
You can remove the metal pert its just show not relevant for function. More tricky you can even remove the plastik and end up with the motherboard and battery.
You can remove the metal part its just show and use tape to fix the battery in place. Than it is fin enough to even go under the bar tape ori inside the saddle but probably looses IPD water resistance
When you say "ordinary results", do you mean less than ordinary? What are you comparing your results to decide those tracking devices are ordinary/average/middle of the pack? We hadn't seen your past video on those tracking devices but have been looking for some way to track a fleet of bikes for a number of years are really interested! Thanks for the vids and for finding these tech-nuggets!
@@gplama Interesting. Due to noone being on those networks.... so gotta rely on an Apple of Google to make the concept reliable. Cool stuff! Thanks for the insight!
could you compare this to tile? mainly im wondering if only people using the tile app will find other people tiles passively, or can any phone with blutooth? because i mean how many people are likely to have the tile app installed and blutooth turned on? idk i just want an option which is reliable and isnt "join apple"
Here's my other testing of Tile and Chipolo: th-cam.com/video/AkBEeFw796M/w-d-xo.html *These results will be greatly influenced by by location/popularity of Tile/Chipolo (not very popular here).
You can just glue them together in pairs and track one with the other AND track the other with the one. You are stupid, if you did not find that - it took me less than 5 minutes.
Probably not gonna happen but apple could find thieves with this. Imagine, over time there are like 20 lost airtags from different owners, always going to the the same home and being shut down by the same guy. Would be cool but isn't likely to happen
Apple wouldn't even unlock a terrorists cell phone for the most powerful government in the world's FBI... You think Apple is going to care about petty thefts? Ya right, they only care about money.
@@cup_and_cone that was a political stunt. The phone was unlocked by a hacking group instead for a couple k$. Since then Apple routinely unlocks iphones for police/they have ways to do it in which they are trivial.
would fit GREAT in a the SWAT storage compartment on a specialized diverge. Bonus is, most thiefs probably wouldn't even realize that that storage compartment is even there under under the water bottle cage :D
I suppose it wouldn't be completely useless if you're an android user. I assume you could still log into an iCloud account via the browser and use find my to track the tag, right?
@@gplama Knog Scout has a rechargeable battery that lasts 6mths and costs $75 at 99 bikes V Orbit Velo that claims 3yr battery life (replaceable) and costs Aust $57 delivered
If they just could provide a feature that when ur out of range of ur Airtag u get a msg on ur iphone saying ur moving away from ur Airtag so u would go back to ur lost item and get it before its too late, that wouldve been so much helpful
robber's iPhone snitching on its owner for stealing a bike lmao
The test Shane did is flawed. Apple did say that if you are with the airtag (in which case, Shane did when he was walking with his GF) the other iphones won't be notified.
@@BunToomo except he turned his phone off so Find My had no idea where he was as he walked round
@@Walshyification I am not sure. if you really just "turn off" your phone, it might still be sending bluetooth beacons and therefore the other iphones pick your phone up therefore icloud still knows your location. (just a theory).
Next test would be: leaving your phone home and walk with your gf.
@@nv1t pretty certain if iPhone Bluetooths were pinging other Bluetooth devices when turned off we’d have heard about it by now…
@@Walshyification "We we'd have heard it by now", is not a good argument ;) Maybe nobody bothered to check, or the feature "Find My Phone" is soooo old, that it was already mentioned somewhere and just forgotten.
But checked it last night. And you are right. It really doesn't beacon. The macbook, for example, does that in standby mode (lid closed), that's where i was coming from.
One of the biggest selling features of Tile for me is the built in loop (no need to buy a $30 accessory) and the ability to press the tile itself to ring your phone, even if it's ringer is turned off.
This makes Tile better for me personally, especially when I use it to find devices locally around my house rather than out in public.
Very good points. Those are two areas the Tile does it better.
Maybe now I will finally be able to find the sunglasses that are sitting on my head.
Firstly, we need to find the mobile phone that are holding in my hand.😂
You could put TWO AirTags in your bike in different locations, one easy to find and unmodified, and a secret one with disabled speaker... hmmm
Sneaky!
Now robbers are going to look for two of them. You spoiled it.
@@JoseHernandez-my4lm three?
@@JohnR31415 make that 5
@@JoseHernandez-my4lm make that 12
Feel like this needs a pretend theft. To see how it would work in the real world. Get a friend to ride away with your bike make it a moving target, stop for coffee, go home etc. Whilst you give chase. Would make a good video. You’d have to wear a beige Mac, sunglasses and broadsheet under the arm
Sounds more like a GCN special. I’ll stick to the boring things like planting it on my wife and seeing how well it tracks.
Loved the idea
Would appreciate such a video as well.
A thief can grab your property, then mark their current location as home or work and they will then get a notification that your airtag is covertly tracking them in your stolen property. They would cause it to ‘sound off’ then they find it and toss the tag, voila. That will teach you for trying to be a stalker. Basically, Apple has decided to lump all their customers into the creeper category when actually they just want to secure their property. In other words it’s worthless as a theft deterrent. Sorry but true.
@@sciencescripture ‘theft deterrent’ I don’t think that’s been implied!
It’s would be hidden in the frame / under the saddle etc. A deterrent would mean you put a sign on you’re bike saying ‘this bike is being tracked with an apple air tag BEWARE’.
No, Its just one more hoop for a thief to jump through. Any tracking device on an item as small as a bike is easy to overcome if the thief is looking for one!
A methodical, smart and calculating theft is hard to protect against. An average dumb piece of shit might just get caught with a tracking device such as this. Yes it isn’t fool proof but show me an anti theft device that is!
Apple says they will put an M1 CHIP in the next generation of Air Tags...it will enable you to find your lost item BEFORE YOU LOSE IT!!
hahahahah! This is brilliant! 🤣
I'm just waiting for the M1 Cranial Edition - straight to the optic nerve. I guess then I could just tag my head in case I totally lose it.
No, it gets better, it will be an Apple Mini chip, with USB-C port on side, just hook up Bluetooth keyboard and monitor, but will cost $700.
I'm really suprised there isn't ebike batteries with built-in bluetooth tracking capablities. Will be interesting to see if anyone builds a frankenstein battery based on the apple network.
wow sounds like a dream
Yeah well unfortunately the company WANTS your bike stolen ^^ why wold they develop anything like that when they want you to just buy another one
Does the Airtag allow the owner to set an alert if it moves? For example if one leaves their bike in a bicycle garage and only rides every few days, the owner would want to receive an alert if their bike suddenly starts traveling (e.g. someone has stolen the bike from the garage). This would be helpful for when your bike isn't always in sight.
Someone (why, hello K-Edge & Silca) needs to make a Garmin/Wahoo mount with a slot for one of these. Ultra stealth, easier to access than stuffing it down around the BB area, and probably less impact on signal strength. Other option - for drop bars maybe a custom hood would work. Fake cadence sensor would be good too - looks like it would fit in a Yahoo RPM mount?
exactly my thoughts. hidemybell would also be perfect for this, as the bell size is a bit bigger as an airtag. just needs some added space between the bell and wahoo mount.
I can’t believe it, this review is better than any of the top tech reviews. Many thanks.
@gplama does have brilliant tech review form. I say it's totally unsurprising this is so good.
As soon as Apple announced these getting one to track my bike was the 1st thing I thought of. I’ll be getting one I think.
3rd party companies are already making stick-on cases/containers for these, really perfect for attaching to a bike to be honest
Would be interesting to have the opposite, alert mode that’ll trigger when tag moves while it was not supposed so. AirTag 2 maybe, or AirTag Pro Max.
really just an alert if the tag is pinged outside of a set radius, just need a software update
@@DrWeaselander Air Tag X: Alerts the landlord if someone enters the perimeters of your domains.
AirTag Space: Notifies you if your AirTag leaves the Earth.
@@antoy384 🤣
"what happens if I lose it?" is the perfect example of not thinking about something first. I loved the way you "answered" 😁
I thought the way the way ration was answered is a bit condescending. Just ignore the question if it did not make sense :)
@@mohamadjamil3164 long toes and no humor?
@@mohamadjamil3164 nah man it wasn't condescending at all he just said "hmm🤨🤨🤨"
i love that people are freaking out about this devices privacy and there have been way sketchier gps trackers some with sim cards even for LIVE tracking
Agreed. I feel bad for Apple too- so scared of a lawsuit they made these close to useless.
An RF detection device is around the same price!
So you can only be alerted your being tracked if you use apple products?
If you have an aero cockpit (not the TT kind, but like the aeroad with flat bars) you could wrap it under the bar tape on the bottom side of your bars. As Shane mentioned, you could also put it in the seat tube if it's aero, but I also want to add that this would not reduce it's connectivity because of the low dielectric constant of CF and epoxy.
Drop one down the seat tube with foam around it and a fishing line to pull it out when the battery dies and your set🙂👍👌
There might be an issue with range when putting it in the seat tube but havent tested the range difference compared to putting it under the saddle
This is actually big brain
@@VR_Wizard once word gets out about these, thieves will be ripping them off from under saddles & obvious places with each theft.
No, the range/efficacy of the device needs to be high enough to sit within a bicycle frame or component. And sitting in anything metal SHOULD act as an antenna for the device. Carbon? Bets are off there...
@@dudeonbike800 I agree under the saddle is not ideal but in the saddle seems a nice hiding place. Often saddles are just glued together so opening it up and gluing it back together should be doable and with one year of care free running time not to much of an issue doing it every year. From physics lecture I know about Faraday cages and putting the tag in such a cage which a metal frame is no signal should come out, so you have to put it somewhere else but not inside the frame.
@@VR_Wizard - I agree.
The only thing I’m interested in is this. I have a 4iiii power meter on my crank that apparently connects to the chip polo network. Is it worthwhile to get yet another tracker on my bike even if it’s better
That integration was interesting. It never worked for me. The Chipolo tag did, the crank was never ‘located’. I was trying to get to the bottom of it with 4iiii, but they never resolved it.
@@gplama are you insinuating that the 4iiii tracker will essentially be useless in a case of bike theft?
@@theinstigatorr Not insinuating, I'm confirming it was completely useless in my testing and 4iiii never explained why. It wasn't due to the device not being in range of another Chipolo user either. I ran comprehensive testing with multiple phones and accounts. I confirmed my test case worked with a Chipolo tag and failed with the 4iiii power meter. This could possibly be a regional thing (given I'm in Australia)... but this was never explained or given as a reason.
@@gplama in that case it makes sense for me to get this for my road bike especially considering that I’m pretty deep into the apple ecosystem already (like you it seems)
@@theinstigatorr They're worth checking out for sure if you're an iSheepy like me. :)
A question... when in lost mode... does it still notify the iPhone user they are being tracked... because it seems daft to notify somebody if it’s been marked as lost, it defeats the purpose doesn’t it? Unless Apple don’t car about thefts, maybe after a 2-3 days it could notify but not straight away
I think they would still put privacy above that. If you could completely disable the alerts by setting your tag to lost mode it would effectively become a great device to track people without them knowing - which I'm sure is not something they want people to do.
I guess this is what happens if the person being tracked is not using an iPhone though.
They dont care about theft and since it only notefies you when you are bome with a unknown tag it makes total sense to notify you no matter if lost mode is enabled or not. But to be 100% sure this would need to be tested.
Ordered mine as soon as I finished watching... thanks for the great video!!
As soon as I saw them I thought of Tile. But now I realize the massive network advantage that Apple has over it's competitors. Thanks
Yep. That’s the key component for sure.
The FindMy network now has a public API, so other tags can make use of it. Chipolo has signed up for it, although I don't know if they're shipping compatible products yet.
@@TheGotoGeek that's interesting. Perhaps even better alternatives to AirTags will emerge
I love the network, and think it would be useful for putting on not just bikes, but expensive tools and such. I did just that, but I would rather see stalkers caught and punished than give up the ability to recover my property because it told the thief that I had a tag on it. I have installed some of these, but am concerned their utility may be lost by them alerting a thief to their presence before I get my stuff back if stolen.
RF detectors are so cheap these days, I don’t understand why Apple is so careful.
For around the same price, you can get a bug detector.
Can't wait to see youtube bike bait videos with those 😅
Best way to track Android users without being snitched. Now.. how to convince my wife to use an Android phone ? Aah, I don't have a wife. So, first things first
If they aren’t near an Apple user, you wouldn’t know where they are either!
@@markroush7535 And as we all know, bad guys only use Androids too.
@@antoy384 I didn’t say that at all but proving a point!
You can track them for three days. (Assuming you don't disable the speaker by snipping the wires.)
Best air tag review yet. Cheers
For 29$! I’m cutting a piggy bank sized slot in my bike frame and dropping a tile into the frame. The battery last nearly a year so I’ll just drop a new one inside each summer.
🤣👍🏼
It may rattle. Best put it in the seat
A very good Concise video 👍🇬🇧
Great video Shane, just what I was looking for.
The best place I have found so far on my bike is to put it into the stem. It fits. Remove the handle bar, put the airtag in some foam and put it into the stem. Thieves will never find it easily.
Good idea. Only now all thieves who watch this channel will know where to look. Still, a good idea.
have you noticed any decreased performance? ie the stem shielding the bluetooth signal?
You can simply test different locations using your own phone, probably depends on the material of your bike and orientation. Just some ideas for you you can remove the metal part and use tape to make it smaller and it fits under the bar tape or you put it inside the saddle ... many possibilities. You can even remove the plastik but thats more tricky to make it almost as thin as the battery
Great review. Better than most of the tech media reviews. Also great to see some familiar places in the video. 😉
I have a Trek Domane SL with downtube storage for a flat pack and was wondering if I could slip an air tag inside that flat pack as a recovery measure. Thanks for the demo!
My Madone has a plastic cover to hold the Di2 battery at that exact spot where your domane’s storage is, guess that’s the perfect place to hide it
I would hate to lose my Domane only to track it and discover the flat pack without the bike.
I’m confused .. not tech savvy so if we aren’t going to be around the item we need to turn on lost mode or no
it would be great if you could activate a "notify me when the tag starts moving" setting on your phone, so you'll get alerted once your bike is being stolen. that way you'll have a chance to chase your bike before the thief gets home... 🤔
Apple is so careful not to let people use these to track others that they’re almost… useless?
funny shane, i just got me a 4 pack for a trip we are doing next month and who's video did i stumble on pretty quickly. cheers!
Can you tell if the battery is almost out of juice using the app? Can the device monitor battery strength?
There's a battery capacity indication in the 'Find My' app, yep.
It'll be tough to get a good signal if inside carbon, the carbon blocks signal, like using carbon blades on a drone gives you control issues.
I could maybe hide it in the battery frame on my Cube e-bike… hope that isn’t like a faraday cage.
In the bike’s lights.
After initial pairing, does the AirTag continue to broadcast bluetooth (which is visible to others), i.e. would the AirTag show up if somebody nearby is searching for Bluetooth devices? i.e. if the robbers smarten up, could they just turn on bluetooth and search for "nearby devices" to see if any AirTag is close by?
I assume so if you search for the UUID….but if you’re at that level you’re scanning for other devices of value, not a little tag that is of no value itself.
A quick scan with LightBlue doesn’t show any AirTags here by name.
So if you put it in lost mode would it still tell the thief he’s being tracked?
My order of 4 shipped yesterday. Excited to get it.
So if I put the AirTag in my bike and lock it in the building bike storage room underground, then i leave there for like three days, would it starts beeping because it’s been of out range for three days?
Yes. It’s not clear if it’ll only beep when moved after three days though.
Great video and informative. Main reason for purchasing is to tag my bike and your info is very helpful .thanks stay safe 👊🏽
I wonder how well will it work in non Apple dominant countries (which is actually majority of the world).
In my German city it works well, with multiple pings per hour. In a german village I saw a test where it took a few hours for the first pink, but thats quite ok for a tracker with a one year battery life
A really interesting part about how easy they're found by other users is that iOS 14.5 has only been out since April 27th. As more and more people update their devices this will become more and more effective.
I'm very surprised Apple didn't make 'Find My' an opt-in service. I'm happy they didn't as it makes finding AirTags VERY effective having everyone participate in the network.
Great video Shane. I’ll be grabbing a packet of these & tracking some gear 👍
Finally something to put on my AirPods Pro because the built in find me function is absolutely useless!
Exactly what I wanted to know about AirTags. I need it to put on my bike. Bikes get stolen all the time here in France. My 2 bikes were stolen from my building’s closed, locked bicycle parking garage. So someone who has a key or one of my neighbors is doing it.
If the bike garage has a numeric lock, the crack is generally on the internet. But if he’s doing it several times, maybe Apple could identify him as a regular thief?
Also, we need AirTags to alert if one Android user gets nearby ;) As he said, all bad guys are Android users !
@@antoy384 the dude with the 2000$ Samsung fold being called a thief "🤨🤨🤨"
Same for me. I live in france and my only solution now for my electric bikes is to sleep with them in my room at the last floor of my flat with no elevators....
Where would you place this on a bike so that it wouldn't be easily visible and then thrown away by a thief, but easily accessible to you so you can change the battery? All I can think of is maybe it could go inside the and of the handlebar but it looks too big.
Also, if a bike thief gets alerted that they're moving around with an air tag and they've just stolen your bike, they're going to search the bike for the air tag and remove it....
While these scenarios are all true, I think in practice most thievery isn't conducted by rational actors. On the other hand, there are indeed professional thieves and their strategy is to find the mix between the high value item and the ease of acquisition (weak locks, etc) so I would expect they may treat an airtag alert as friction and move on to an easier target if they can't find and remove the tag quickly. In my view it sort of works either way or at the very least it is pretty cheap to get a fighting chance to recovery a stolen bike even if it doesn't work 100%.
Under the saddle is probably the best place to hide it, but it shouldn't take anyone too long to find it if they are alerted.
I guess you could also have two tags. One more exposed that would hopefully make a thief think it's not worth stealing that bike over the one next to it, and one concealed.
If you can manage to hide two, this could also mean that when the person is alerted they would eventually find one and disable it, but the second one would still be working and giving you some extra tracking time.
What about under the bar tape on the underside of the handlebar?
Can you put it inside of your handle bars?
Other than the size constraint, your bars/frame/seatpost will kill the antenna (Faraday cage) and there will be no signals in our out.
I suggest a patch of same coloured material covering the tag, pasted to the underside of your seat.
The Shimano Di2 wireless module (also on 2.4GHz) works fine for short-range stuff in the bars. This won't fit in the bars though.
@@gplama There must be a LOT more polyester in the CF than I expected. The carbon portion is conductive, so it's either going to re-radiate or block. But if your fill factor is low, and bikes are more like plastic frames than carbon, sure it would penetrate, if attenuated. Thanks for the correction.
Warning the thief that the stolen item has a tracker is really a stupid oversight. They didn't even think of theft at all. I think it is much more common that your stuff gets stolen than that you use an AirTag to stalk other people
They’re not theft tracking devices. That’s the real answer.
Is it easy to remove the saddle and drop the tag inside the frame?
Hi Shane, the Airtag fits into my stem. However, location is only possible when I am really close, approx. 0.5 meters. Maybe it is best to have one in the stem and a second one in a bag or below the saddle. What do you think?
Your call where to mount it. I haven’t done any signal tests with mine other than from the saddle bag.
@@gplama At this price, having two protecting an expensive bike should be a no brainer. :-) Thanks for testing!
@@gplama 3D printing: www.thingiverse.com/thing:4845883
So not sure I understand. See if my bike was stolen, and the thief has an iphone, are they going to be aware the tag is there? Or, becuase not in lost mode and they haven't returned home they wont be alerted but you will?
They’ll be alerted when they return to their ‘Home’ location, if they have an iPhone and the tag is still within range. You’ll be able to see the location without them knowing regardless of where they are.
@@gplama but if the thief takes the bike to a "warehouse" location some distance from their home, the thief won't be notified (they're out of range), but you will?
So if they take it back to their warehouse to sell on, and that's their home location, they will get a notification to say theres a tag on the/one of the bikes?
@@CarlForde In that scenario, it's unlikely the thief will know they're being tracked. The AirTag owner will be able to view the location of the AirTag.
Definitely getting some for my Llamas
My Lama would be pissed if she’d noticed I tracked her.
Hit em with da llama
This is the most actually informative video I’ve seen on these doohickeys. Good to know the stalking alert is how you get movement history out of them. I bet the reason you didn’t get more is because Apple realized that you were trying to probe the inner workings of the system. Or maybe it was the same airtag, and Apple thinks it’s your responsibility to find it after they’ve told you you’re being stalked.
I’m going to see how they respond to GPS spoofing of a phone.
It’s possible to fake the location via GPS spoofing. One of my tags is ‘in’ the Grand Canyon now 🤣
@@gplama sweet! What are you using to do the spoof? Any tweak I might have heard of?
Also, it would be interesting to leave a location-spoofed phone near a heavy-traffic place to spoof random people’s tags. Or maybe have it be a geocache where you spoof people to a particular location and put a surprise there.
iTools. The spoofing is only good until another iPhone comes along and reports the correct location (which will happen a lot!). The trick would be to spoof the location of a tag and then pull the battery. That way the last known location will be the fake location. I've been tinkering with this :)
@@gplama Thx, I’ve not used iTools, or any spoofer before. And my intent is to test this in a location where my phones are the only ones around. One thing I want to see is if, when there are two phones nearby providing updates on the tracker, one spoofed to a ridiculous location, if Apple has any way to prefer the non-spoofed location.
That last last faq was good :)
Can you use them to remind you if you leave your bag or keys behind ? For example if you forgot to take your bag and are walking away from it. Or if your keys fell out of your pocket and you didnt notice. Thanks
I don’t believe this is an option. It’s a great use-case for that kind of functionality though.
Hey Shane Miller , i have my eye on this thumb bell that hides a air tracker .
Have you tested this one yet ????
Not yet.
question . . . what is stopping someone using an air tag to track someone else, like to hide it on their car and stalk them? Or to put one inside of a package sent to a private PO box, and when they collect it, find their private home address?
Morality. Anti stalking laws. Technically there are a few things Apple have implemented to alert someone they're being tracked. It's always after-the-fact though.
I'm adding airbags to my two Ti bikes, wrapped under the handlebar tape under the hoods
9:05 At the wildlife park, maybe turning off iPhones doesn't complete turn them off? That would explain why she didn't get notified if you stayed with her. Tough to say since the phone's battery can't be removed.
Do other people have to have their Bluetooth on for it to see your air tag? How does it communicate?
Bluetooth and Ultra Wideband (iDevices with the U1 chip). I'm not 100% sure UWB is used for community 'discovery'. I'm sure that's documented somewhere... maybe... Something that could be tested.
where could you put them in a bike so its not visually seen ? Inside the tubes ?
Using for trek bike, luggage, my mom (happy Mother’s Day) and bought one for my daughter’s stroller.
where would you hide it if you had it on your bike...? ( I would think the bike post but then will it effect the signal)
also if you report it on lost mode will it beep to let the thief know..?
It’ll only beep after three days away from the owner. Enough time to plot their tragic demise…. and make it appear as an ‘accident’ of course.
I think thieves will get savy to this fairly quicly and will start checking under the seat and ditching the bags or at least separating them from the bike.
You could epoxy one to the frame or a fender. A bodyshop could fair it up and paint it if you want to get fancy.
▪
Good call.
🟥
Good video Shane! I will get one, James Cameron predicted this in Terminator 30 years back, all this IOT stuff, Skynet is just around the corner...with the rise of the machines :)
I was thinking about adding an airtag to my bike, but realized: It will start to make noise after not being in touch with my phone for 3 days. Leaving my bike in the storage for 3+ days happens quite often. So this would not work, would it?
It will only make noise when moved after three days. Even then, it only chirps half the alert tone then won’t do it again for another 24hrs (or so).
This channel is priceless
hahah! Cheers.
Good honest review and test! These are my first trackers I’ve invested in purely because the Apple network being so big. :)
The privacy concerns are very real, but I don’t think trackers in general are going away, so I think the real question is: “How good are the privacy-features of one tracker compared to another tracker.”
I don’t currently have a bike, but I’m considering one simply in my car.
Today’s testing was exactly this. Tracking my car. It worked well.
@@gplama Good to know!
My new e bike is arriving today, so I'm considering a tracking devise. I have had tiles in the past, though only needed them to locate car keys. I'm shopping for a new phone and have always had Android, but am considering I Phone simply for the Air Tags for my bike/luggage.
I agree Shane that AirTags are very useful indeed, especially if you can hide them in the seat post.
So if the thief is alerted when they get home, it will give them you full name? Is there any way of preventing this or choosing the name that they will see when it says ‘x-name’ has been tracking you? I don’t really want a thief knowing who I am?! Thanks
No. If the thief has an iPhone, they'll be alerted of an AirTag following them. No name or detail of the owner is provided. If the owner chooses to put the AirTag into 'Lost' mode the thief can scan it with NFC and view the owner's phone number. Best never put something in lost mode if you know someone has stolen it and you know where it is.
@@gplama thanks so much for explaining this and for your videos!
I’ve looked at a tone of GPS trackers designed for bikes and none seem to be very reliable when you end up looking at customer reviews.
Thanks to your videos I’m going for this option and feel confident I will be able to locate my bike if it did ever go missing! Although I have got 2 alarms and £500 worth of locks on it when parked up 🙈 if you lived where I do, you’d know why! Haha
Great info...thanks. Where would you hide on the bike?
Wherever it'll fit. Under the saddle would be hidden enough for most gutter-trash thieves to have no clue they're being tracked.
I’m thinking a good place on the bike would be in the bottom of the steerer tube, bit harder for a thief to find, once they get wind they will just end up ripping off and throwing a saddle bag away or having a look under the saddle then again rip n throw, I’m gonna definitely leave one in my car in case it ever stolen, miles cheaper than a tracker !
Is there a good accessory to mount this under a bike seat?
Strong double sided tape. Hot glue. You'll need to get creative.
Great stuff Shane! Problem is I live in a place where people don't know what an expensive bike is. I'll probably still buy some though for when we travel interstate with our bikes.
It truly works as good as they say. It’s the best tracking device for my Lecric XP E-Bike =D
Did you put an Air Tag on your Lectric?
@@lahawk7410 yes I did. It works great!!
@@Miczael Thank you for the reply. I'm looking for a new phone so maybe I will venture into the Apple World afterall.
Does it have an option for a lightweight carbon fiber version for ultimate weight saving?
Get creative and start selling a cf mod for it. Don't get mad, get rich!
You can remove the metal pert its just show not relevant for function. More tricky you can even remove the plastik and end up with the motherboard and battery.
DO NOT SWALLOW YOUR AIRTAGS.... (Just for the algorythm really) :-)
I was thinking he could feed it to Max to track him .
Ok just ordered one. Will see where to install it at my Madone, maybe aero handlebar, maybe down tube. Have to test if carbon fiber affects the signal
You can remove the metal part its just show and use tape to fix the battery in place. Than it is fin enough to even go under the bar tape ori inside the saddle but probably looses IPD water resistance
That last question 🙋 😅
planning to buy this for my car as tracking device...will it be effective though?? that's the question.
There's likely much better alternatives out there for car tracking. This is a 'key finder'... with benefits.
When you say "ordinary results", do you mean less than ordinary? What are you comparing your results to decide those tracking devices are ordinary/average/middle of the pack? We hadn't seen your past video on those tracking devices but have been looking for some way to track a fleet of bikes for a number of years are really interested! Thanks for the vids and for finding these tech-nuggets!
It was my polite way of saying “Tile and Chipolo were really shitty at the public/community find tests compared to the AirTag”.
@@gplama Interesting. Due to noone being on those networks.... so gotta rely on an Apple of Google to make the concept reliable. Cool stuff! Thanks for the insight!
I keep forgetting my girlfriend everywhere I go. I’ll give this as an earring gift to her.
@B B wow, thats smart one dude, thansk
could you compare this to tile? mainly im wondering if only people using the tile app will find other people tiles passively, or can any phone with blutooth? because i mean how many people are likely to have the tile app installed and blutooth turned on? idk i just want an option which is reliable and isnt "join apple"
Here's my other testing of Tile and Chipolo: th-cam.com/video/AkBEeFw796M/w-d-xo.html
*These results will be greatly influenced by by location/popularity of Tile/Chipolo (not very popular here).
Excellent video Shane!
”What happens if i lose them”
My stupid head went like: Damn that’s a Really good question... oh wait
You can just glue them together in pairs and track one with the other AND track the other with the one. You are stupid, if you did not find that - it took me less than 5 minutes.
😂😂😂
Great review! Thanks :)
i have a feeling the criminal underbelly of ballarat is somewhat limited and your bike is known in the whole town anyways
They're more interested in cars (and burning them out).
I have acquired one of these tags , I have a top security D lock for my bike . Certainly is needed if you have an ebike .
Probably not gonna happen but apple could find thieves with this. Imagine, over time there are like 20 lost airtags from different owners, always going to the the same home and being shut down by the same guy. Would be cool but isn't likely to happen
Apple wouldn't even unlock a terrorists cell phone for the most powerful government in the world's FBI... You think Apple is going to care about petty thefts? Ya right, they only care about money.
Yeah I know, was just thinking about how ‘powerful’ that small thing could be
@@cup_and_cone That’s what Israel is for.
@@cup_and_cone that was a political stunt. The phone was unlocked by a hacking group instead for a couple k$.
Since then Apple routinely unlocks iphones for police/they have ways to do it in which they are trivial.
would fit GREAT in a the SWAT storage compartment on a specialized diverge. Bonus is, most thiefs probably wouldn't even realize that that storage compartment is even there under under the water bottle cage :D
Any bike, remove BB, hot glue gun, bam!
Would they fit inside the brake hoods ?
Nope
I already saw an under the water bottle AirTag holder advertised online.
Yeah. Neat business idea.
That's a decent solution. Ironic, as I just bought and affixed four new water bottle cages on my $8k tandem! Off to the store I go...!
I suppose it wouldn't be completely useless if you're an android user. I assume you could still log into an iCloud account via the browser and use find my to track the tag, right?
The iCloud (web) version of "Find My" doesn't appear to support items (AirTags, etc) yet.
@@gplama And still doesn't 7 months later. Really dissapointing from Apple. I can't even look up where they are on my Mac.
@@aegisdesign The Find My app on macOS has an 'Items' tab to track AirTags.
Don’t you need to charge them ? And what’s the range ?
No. See my latest video for range testing.
Will the metal of a seat tube prevent this from working? Kind of a faraday cage.
Possibly. Needs more testing.
nice review; have you had a chance to look at the Orbit Velo?
Haven't had a look at those yet. Looks similar to the Knog Scout.
@@gplama Knog Scout has a rechargeable battery that lasts 6mths and costs $75 at 99 bikes V Orbit Velo that claims 3yr battery life (replaceable) and costs Aust $57 delivered
If they just could provide a feature that when ur out of range of ur Airtag u get a msg on ur iphone saying ur moving away from ur Airtag so u would go back to ur lost item and get it before its too late, that wouldve been so much helpful
That’s coming in iOS15.
@@gplama Can you do an updated video on these airtags?
@@elderone7733 Maybe closer to the release of IOS 15.