- [Announcer] Your attention please.
(upbeat music)
- I'd like to introduce you to Apple's AirTag.
It's their latest foray
into the world of Bluetooth trackers.
And it's something we've been waiting quite a while for now.
The idea is it helps you find things you've lost
whether it's nearby or far away, it's put to the test.
I'm going to be leaving this backpack
full of precious merch on this train.
And we're going to see how easy it is to get back
in a couple of hours.
(upbeat music)
Now, before the panic sets in,
what you're gonna want to do
is put the AirTag in lost mode.
You can do that by just opening up the
Find My app and then tapping on the object and clicking
enable lost mode.
Now, what this lets you do is put your phone number
with the AirTag so that if somebody finds it
they can connect to the AirTag with NFC,
be taken to a webpage with the number,
and hopefully reconnect you with your lost object.
I'm curious if that's what's going to happen to us today.
All right. So in the meantime,
what we're going to do is we're going to
find a set of keys that I had a colleague hide
somewhere in the city.
And one of the great things with AirTags
and the Find My app is that
you can get directions straight to the place
using Apple Maps.
(upbeat music) (starting car)
Now, while we're on the way to this AirTag
I should probably explain how AirTags work.
Now, they don't have GPS built into them.
That would take too much electricity.
So, they use Bluetooth low energy.
And with Bluetooth low energy,
what an AirTag is doing is
it's looking for another phone to connect to,
to then send out its location.
The big leverage point for Apple is that they
use their Find My network, which is basically
every iPhone that has it turned on, which is upwards
of a billion users now.
And what that means is that the AirTag can connect
with an encrypted connection to any iPhone that's nearby
and tell you where it is.
So you're bound to get a more accurate reading, more quickly
with AirTags than you would with any other competitors.
- [GPS] In 250 meters, the destination is on your left.
- [GPS] Arrived.
- Where are we?
All right so we've arrived at where it says the keys are
and now I have to go and find them more precisely.
So let's see how this goes.
(upbeat music)
Okay. So it says that
the keys are here with me.
So we're going to have to use is ultra wide band to
get a precise location of
where it is just by hitting find nearby.
It's going to try and connect, Oh six and a half meters away
try and connect to the AirTag
and then point me in the direction of where it is.
Now. Ultra wide band only works
if you have an iPhone 11 or 12.
Otherwise you can make it make a sound.
So it's around here and I should put the sound on.
(ringing)
Is it on the ground? Like in the garden?
(ringing)
Is it on a-
(laughs)
There it is.
Now, when you get really close to the object
your phone starts to vibrate.
Like it's in a game of hot and cold and here it is.
In a bike. How clever.
Could have been anywhere in this city.
(upbeat music)
Well, now that I have an AirTag,
we can now talk about the design of it.
It's a curious little thing that really evokes the design
of the old iPod, you know, with the glossy white plastic
on the front and the shiny glossy chrome on the back.
It's also just as easily scratched and scuffed
as those old devices were. Now annoyingly,
it doesn't have any sort of hole or anything on it so
that you can attach a key ring or some sort of land yard.
So if you buy one of these things, you have to buy a holder.
If you want to attach it to a key or a backpack.
And this key ring from Apple costs, $35 on top
of the already $30 you spent on the AirTag.
Now I'm sure Amazon will come
to the rescue with really cheap options.
But I hope they're good quality.
(upbeat music)
So whenever, when it comes to tracking people
which is probably something you don't want.
Apple has thought about that in the design of the AirTags.
They have a couple of protections, which are interesting.
For one, an AirTag that's separated from its owner,
will start chiming whenever it's moved after three days.
So if you don't even have an iPhone, you'll probably know
about it then, but if you do have an iPhone
and you're running iOS 14.5 or higher
you will get a notification saying
that an AirTag that's not yours is nearby.
We tested this with my cameraman, but he
didn't get the notification until he arrived at home.
So it's not that instantaneous.
In fact, today I've had an AirTag on me
all day that isn't mine and I'm still not in the wiser.
Alright, so it's been a couple of hours
since we left the backpack on the train.
And so I'm curious where it is at the moment.
Oh, it's at the sky train station.
Well, actually the Canada line station nearby here
Marine drive, which incidentally is the train station
where I left the backpack on the train.
Now I have been monitoring it through the day
and it did make a couple of links up and down the line
but it made it back to its home.
(upbeat music)
It says it's here, but it could be,
you think there's an office below or something?
We should be near it.
According to the last update, which was eight minutes ago
I can't get a signal.
I can't even get a U1 signal
and I can't get it to play a sound.
(upbeat music)
With the ultra wide band chip,
the range isn't that great.
I've seen maybe 10 meters max.
Which is about 30 feet, 100 feet, 200 feet
make things a lot easier, but I'm not getting a signal.
(upbeat music)
According to the map, it's on the tracks.
(upbeat music)
I don't see anything.
Disappointed. Disappointed.
Okay. So it's the next day.
And I thought I'd have to end the piece.
You know, thinking that the bag is gone and lost forever and
that we really pushed what the AirTag can do.
But actually I took the app this morning and it's moved.
It's in the maintenance building for the train line.
So there's hope.
(phone ringing)
- [Canada Line] I forwarded your message onto my manager.
And I'm sure he'll be in contact with you.
When the train loss property gets your backpack.
You can pick it up from them at Stadium station.
- Okay. Well I appreciate all the help.
(upbeat music)
Now Jonathan, you said you called when you were coming here
because it could still be here
but it could still be in quarantine right now.
Why don't you give me a description
I can go back there and look for it.
- It's just a blue and red backpack.
It should have a little thing dangling on the front of it.
- Little thing dingling, Don't worry Jonathan.
I'll go have a look.
- Thanks.
- It must be not out of quarantine, Jonathan.
- Okay. So.
- So here's our number.
- Okay.
- Give us a call and it should be out tomorrow morning.
I'm hoping.
- Right.
- Cause you said you tracked it right here. Right?
- Yeah, I can, it's literally right here.
It's right here.
I could probably beep it.
I could make it beep.
- Really? I just want to see if I can hear it.
(beep)
It isn't in quarantine.
- Wonderful.
- Thank you for doing that.
(laughs)
Very, yeah they're so handy.
We got it back.
(laughs)
I never thought that would have happened.
All right. So I guess what we showed is that the lost
and found system does in fact work, which is nice to know
but if I didn't have this, I'd have to use TransLink
broken web form or call them and try and describe
what the bag looks like and hope it just turns up.
But this just made things so much easier
And now I have it back.
For me, Initially, I thought the AirTags would just
be ideally suited for my wallet
because I do lose it in the house on occasion.
But I don't know, after this
there's something to be said about attaching ones
to your bag or to another object you value.
Should you ever really lose it?
It really goes to show just how handy
that Find My network is.
Thanks for tracking this Mac address
and make sure to like, and subscribe.
Now I'm sure you're curious,
what's in this bag.
So let's take a look.
We got an adorable little CPU pillow from the LTT store
as well as a water bottle still in its box.
A fashion wireless keyboard and a bunch of t-shirts
that are too big.
Where is the mock turtleneck?