Drill You Fools! iFixit corrects the biggest failing of Airtags - the missing hole

[sekker]

Grab your trusty 1/16" drillbit, take out the battery, close your eyes, and you have a corrected Airtag!

'After some reconnaissance inside our first AirTag, we grabbed a 1/16” drill bit and carefully punched a hole through the second tracker in our four-pack—after removing the battery, of course. We miraculously managed to avoid all chips, boards, and antennas, only drilling through plastic and glue. The best part? The AirTag survived the operation like a champ and works as if nothing happened.'

'To drill through your AirTag safely, you’ll need to bore through one of the notches in the circuit board / antenna shield (more on those parts coming soon!) made for the clips that hold the tag together. We’ve highlighted the three notches in the video above. '

'...(A) DIY hole gets an AirTag onto a keyring or loop with as little extra space and mass as possible. Even in the tiniest single-purpose device, there is room to hack, and we’ll fight for your right to do it.'

https://www.ifixit.com/News/50145/airtag...his-tracks

[NewtonMP2100]

....so this is a**** hole.....???

[Gareth]

But this might ruin the water resistance of the Airtag.

Better to just buy a "Find My" compatible device with a hole from the start: https://chipolo.net/en-us/pages/chipolo-one-spot

[hal]

how hard would it have been to engineer a hole in these things? No... we'll make 'em buy holes for $30

[sekker]

Gareth wrote:
Better to just buy a "Find My" compatible device with a hole from the start: https://chipolo.net/en-us/pages/chipolo-one-spot

Depends on your use-case. Many of the plastic holders that are being sold will become quite brittle in cold weather, and losing the Airtag will become a likely scenario. Sorry that Apple (again) forgets to check with us cold-climate users. A metal ring would be far superior to ANY of the holders they announced.

Good to note that this might reduce water resistance. But for some applications, that's an ok compromise.

[sekker]

hal wrote:
how hard would it have been to engineer a hole in these things? No... we'll make 'em buy holes for $30

Very clear this is Apple's latest version of what they tried with the Watch - sell a commodity product and upscale on accessories.

[Gareth]

sekker wrote:
[quote=Gareth]
Better to just buy a "Find My" compatible device with a hole from the start: https://chipolo.net/en-us/pages/chipolo-one-spot

Depends on your use-case. Many of the plastic holders that are being sold will become quite brittle in cold weather, and losing the Airtag will become a likely scenario. Sorry that Apple (again) forgets to check with us cold-climate users. A metal ring would be far superior to ANY of the holders they announced.
I think you may have misunderstood my post. Chipolo is not an accessory for an Airtag. It's literally a third party Airtag with the keyring hole built in, so you don't need any accessories, other than adding the appropriately sized metal keyring for your application.

[Gareth]

[sekker]

Gareth wrote:

Thanks, an interesting product for sure. Good to give Apple competition. I did click, it's not available to purchase now, but you can get on the wait-list.

Tile is also a potential competitor, but they are in a legal fight with Apple, so I doubt they will be 'Find My' compatible anytime soon.

[Ombligo]

sekker wrote:
losing the Airtag will become a likely scenario.

]
How do you lose something that is meant to make losing things nearly impossible?