The embargo on reviews of Apple's new AirTag item tracker has officially been lifted. Below we have summarized the first impressions of some media representatives.
Apple's AirTag will be available from Friday, April 23 (from 2 p.m. in this country) pre-ordered and will be officially delivered from Friday, April 30th. The smart trackers can be attached to personal items such as wallets, keys, purses, backpacks and much more. Location tracking works via the Find My app, which is available on iPhone, iPad and Mac. But how is the new accessory being received by media representatives? The Verge Editor Dieter Bohn as follows:
AirTag: Apple continues to expand its own ecosystem
Really, the AirTag is the best Apple product I've seen in a long time. It's just a bit more expensive than the competition. It's beautifully designed. Yet its hardware somehow still doesn't take into account the practical realities of our dirty, messy world. It's very privacy-focused. It really only works with Apple devices. It offers features that no third-party device can really match, thanks to Apple's tight integration (or tight grip on its APIs, depending on how you look at it). And since there's no Android version of Find My, it's another piece of the Apple ecosystem that will keep you from switching.
In the accompanying video, Bohn gives a closer look at the AirTag setup process and then goes on a game of hide-and-seek in New York City to test the device's capabilities. Meanwhile, Matthew Panzarino from TechCrunch goes into more detail about location tracking. In his report he writes:
In my very limited testing so far, the AirTag's range matches this basic Bluetooth expectation. That means it can be thwarted by lots of obstacles or walls, or unfavorable signal bounce. For example, it often took 30 seconds or more to get an initial position from an AirTag in another room. However, once the location was received, the instructions for locating the device seemed to update quickly and were accurate to within a few centimeters.
“At its core, it’s still a Bluetooth tracker”
Brenda Stolyar from Mashable was less enthusiastic about the AirTag, but she praised the "Exact Find" feature, which uses the AirTag's built-in U1 chip and accelerometer along with ARKit and the iPhone's gyroscope to guide users to the AirTag with an on-screen arrow, haptic feedback, and sound. Stolyar said of the AirTag:
Bluetooth trackers aren't new. Companies like Tile, Chipolo and Orbit have been releasing them for years - but Apple has managed to make them a must-have accessory. Sure, for iPhone users it means seamless connectivity that works with Apple's Find My app. But at its core, it's still nothing more than a Bluetooth tracker.
On the whole, various media representatives have spoken positively about Apple's latest product. In the course of this, the importance of Apple's ecosystem has been highlighted several times. Anyone interested in the small trackers can pre-order them directly from Apple in this country starting tomorrow at 2 p.m. While a single AirTag costs 35 euros, Apple charges around 119 euros for a pack of four. (Image: Apple)
