Comment by bob1029

4 days ago

> We have removed the product and will use our patent on it to prevent anyone else from making one in the future.

I am not sure I follow the unique technological aspects of this solution. The last time I needed to silence a beeping contraption, I broke out the cordless drill and ran it through the offending PCB element. Air tags seem affordable enough to practice this operation a few times. Not sure what is actually protected here.

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bob1029

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nomel  4 days ago

It's all from people not understanding the very trivial technology that is the hardware of an AirTag. Most tech is magic to most people. To be fair, fact that we use electric fields to bend a literal crystal, to make sound, is pretty damn magic. :)

Anyone that knows how a speaker works also knows how to silence an AirTag, without instructions required. Anyone that wants to silence an AirTag can just find one of the hundreds of videos on youtube [1], and spend some minutes carrying out the act.

The removal of this product will stop exactly zero people from silencing an AirTag, besides those that are probably doing it for legitimate purposes. For example, I silenced the one in my car, because I was tired of it constantly beeping anytime someone with a iPhone drove with me (including my family).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to++silence...

  • nomel  3 days ago

    My memory was incorrect. It uses a voice coils, rather than a piezo. Still, sending electrons through a wire to move something (slightly) distant is even more magic!

lynndotpy  3 days ago

I am sure you have heard the infamous Dropbox comment :)

AirTags are expensive at $30, which is about five hours of the legal take-home minimum wage of about $6/hour in the United States, after tax. The cheapest cordless drill you can find is about $20 and you run the risk of damaging the AirTag.

This device was $10 and meant to be foolproof. Instead of spending $20 + $30 for each "practice AirTag", you can spend $10 with certainty.

For those on the side of our economy with more access to resources, they might value their time enough that $10 is a trivial price to pay to silence multiple airtags more easily.