For the first time since the original’s release in 2021, Apple finally has new AirTag hardware, with the “new AirTag,” aka AirTag 2, delivering some hardware improvements that make me a little jealous as an Android user.
Apple’s new AirTag model is visibly identical to the previous one, still rocking a design that requires a second accessory to attach it to anything, adn still sitting at the same $29.99 price tag. The biggest update, as Apple explains, is a “second-generation Ultra Wideband chip,” which makes it “easier to locate than ever before,” backed up by expanded Bluetooth range. The new hardware is also “50 percent louder” – likely around 90db – which enables “users to hear their AirTag from up to 2x farther than before,” Apple says. Apple has also updated the experience of tracking it’s new AirTag via the Find My app, with “Precision Finding” coming to the latest Apple Watch models.
It all sounds well and good for iPhone owners, but as an Android user, this just makes me wonder why Google hasn’t made its own first-party Find Hub tracker yet - a “Pixel Tag,” as we’ll call it for now.
There’s a thriving ecosystem of trackers for Android Find Hub from brands such as Pebblebee,chipolo,and a ton of other brands,but apple’s announcement today is just a reminder of what happens when you control both the hardware and the software,and aren’t thinking about other platforms.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that most Android Find Hub trackers are cross-compatible with Apple’s network, because it expands the options we see for Android, but it also means that full-featured trackers for Android are rare. If you’ve noticed, the only Find Hub tracker with UWB like the AirTag is still the Moto Tag, and that’s because apple is known to not be allowing third-party trackers to use UWB with iPhone, as Tile brought to court (page 6) a few years ago. Since Bluetooth-only is what makes third-party trackers possible with iPhone, it’s understandable that companies making these accessories aren’t putting much of a priority on UWB when it cuts out (or at least doesn’t work for) half of their buyers, if not more.
The bulk of Apple’s announcement today is centered around UWB, and even having used
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