AirTags, What Does It Do and Why Is It So Expensive?

AirTags’ been out for a while now, but I still have a handful of friends in real life ask me what an AirTag does. So, today I’ve decided to suck up and write about it. I’m going to tell you what it does, what you need to know and why it is so expensive.

Basic Functions

AirTags works like Tiles if you’ve ever used one of those. It’s basically a find your phone feature, but for everything and anything you attach the AirTag to. You can attach it to some keys, a backpack, or even your glasses if you wanted to. When you first get your AirTag, you simply have a pair of it to your iPhone and attach it to something you think you might lose or something very important to you. Once again, this can be anything you desire.

When you lose the thing you attached the AirTag to, you can simply go to your iPhone’s items tab or ask Siri to find the AirTag. When you do this, the AirTag will start making a beeping noise that gradually becomes louder in a repeated pattern. It will beep 3 times and pause, rinse and repeat until you find it. So if it’s next to you on a sofa or even in the next room, you will be able to find it. Even if it’s not near you though, you will still find it. This is because Apple will give you an onscreen map to help you locate the AirTag even easier.

What You Need To Know

There isn’t a lot of things you need to know because it’s just a simple tracker, so this is going to be mainly about privacy. The main privacy concern of most people is that someone might sneak an AirTag inside your backpack. This is a reasonable thing to be worried about, but I have a few counterarguments to hopefully make you less worried. Keep in mind that these are not in any particular order.

1. Tiles have been out for a long time and these kinds of things don’t happen as often as you might think.
2. Apple has designed an anti-tracker mechanism. When an AirTag is put inside your backpack, your iPhone will understand that it’s an unidentified AirTag and when it thinks you’ve gotten to a safe place or settled down, it will tell you that an unidentified AirTag is following you. It will also give you instructions to locate it. Although we don’t quite know how this will work if you have an android.
3. AirTags are quite expensive, so it is very unlikely that theft would choose this method over pickpocketing.
4. Apple will give you instructions to disassemble it if necessary so there is no need to worry if you don’t know what to do after you find that unidentified AirTag.

Here are a few other things you might be pleased to know. Keep in mind that these are not in any particular order.

1. If your AirTag is very close to you, your iPhone will give you exact directions to find it.
2. AirTag have a lost mode like other Apple Devices, so you will get a notification when someone’s device detects it on a network, you will get a notification.
3. An AirTag has a battery life for over a year, so there is never a need to worry about it running out of battery.
4. When you buy an AirTag, you can customize it with text, emojis, or even both.
5. AirTags are IP68 water and dust resistance so there is no need if you drop it in water or something.

Price

Now that you know everything able the AirTag, let’s talk money. This is like one of those “how much is it?” “Yes,” memes. An AirTag is 29$……. WHAT? Before you start boycotting Apple for its ludicrously expensive tracker, I want you to think about the 999$ Apple Pro Stand. Jokes aside, I think the reason that the AirTag is so expensive is that it’s an Apple product, simple as that. Apple has always been a luxurious company, and if they want to retain that status, they would have to make some expensive things, but I don’t think that’s the only reason.

I think that the reason Apple is making these AirTag so expensive is these AirTag can use the iPhone to its full extend. Since that this is an official product, the AirTag can use every single piece of hardware inside your iPhone to its full extend. Pushing every bit of hardware inside your iPhone to its full extend.