Apple just announced new and improved AirTags, with louder sounds, an extended range, and a better chip. You can also use the “precision finding” feature with recent Apple Watches for the first time.
Really, there’s nothing not to love here — a good, useful product is getting better. And best of all, the price — $29 for one or $99 for a four pack — is staying the same.
But I won’t be buying it.
Instead, I’m going to get the old version, which is on sale for $69.99 on Amazon and a few other sites for the four-pack.
Why? Well, the main reason — possibly the only reason, I guess — is that I’m a cheapskate. (OK, maybe not “cheapskate,” which implies I don’t tip well, I mean more like, thrifty.)
The AirTag is an amazing product, and when it first came out in 2021, I was blown away. Mind you, at the time, I already had a Tile tracker for my house keys, which functions mostly the same. Actually, the Tile tracker I preferred initially for a specific reason: You could press your Tile tracker to ping your phone, but you can’t use the AirTags to make your phone ding.
As someone who is constantly forgetting where their phone is — my purse? The countertop? Bathroom sink? Coat pocket? — I loved that I could use my keys (which always stay in the same place) to find my phone. But now I use my Apple Watch for that purpose.
The fantastic thing about the AirTag is that you can use your phone to track it at close range, where it will tell you just how close it is and which direction to turn, like a divining rod for lost keys in a couch cushion.
AirTags help find my lost remotes
Years ago, I got a four-pack of AirTags, gave one to my husband for his keys, put one on my own keys, and one in my son’s school backpack in case he forgot it on the bus. The final one was my favorite of all: attached in the Air Tag-sized compartment in a bright orange silicone sleeve case for the Apple TV remote. (If you have an Apple TV, I really, really recommend getting a $7 brightly colored rubber cover for it so it’s not so slippery in the hand.) I can’t tell you how much time of my life I have spent not being able to find that damned remote — and finally, a solution.
Life was good for a while. But after about a year, the batteries died. It’s easy to replace the battery, but you also need to remember to buy new batteries in the correct size. And if you’re the kind of person who needs an Air Tag on your TV remote, you might always be the kind of person who keeps forgetting to replace the batteries in your Air Tags.
Eventually, the AirTags started getting lost. The one on my keychain fell off. My son lost his. The TV remote one has been gone for years. Somehow, these devices, meant to exist only to be found, kept slipping away, untraceable.
That’s not Apple’s fault, that’s all mine — user error. I’ve been meaning to buy more, but just haven’t gotten around to it. (Remember, I’m “the kind of person who can’t remember to buy batteries for the AirTag on her TV remote.)
I’m sticking with the old AirTag version for now
Typically, when Apple announces a new and improved version of an existing product, I’m excited about the new features, and I usually believe it’s best to buy the newest and latest version.
But Air Tags are a sort of special category. They don’t provide any pleasure or enjoyment; in fact, you don’t use them at all, most days or weeks. The trick is that they’re there in that one moment that really saves your bacon — when you’re racing out the door and can’t find your car keys anywhere, or the airline loses your luggage.
In my opinion, this is a gadget where getting the best price trumps getting the latest updates. “It gets the job done” is all you need it to do.
And for those few and far between moments when an AirTag really saves you, well, I think the old ones will get the job done just as well. And if I’m saving $30? Eh, worth it.
