Apple accidentally leaks AirTags, its Tile-like item tracker

Apple’s popularity means its products are some of the most leaked on the market, but it’s always nice when the leak comes from the source itself. As first reported by Appleosophy, Apple accidentally confirmed the existence of ‘AirTags,’ its Tile-like item tracker.

We most recently reported on the AirTags back in January and rumors had been floating around for months earlier. But Apple today posted a support video — now deleted — which all but confirmed the tags. Assuming this wasn’t a belated April Fools video, it seems AirTags are not too far off.

The deleted video did not directly deal with AirTags, but rather showed a screen in the Find My iPhone settings menu that mentioned the gizmos.

Under the ‘Enable Offline Finding’ setting, the text reads:

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Offline finding enables this device and AirTags to be found when not connected to Wi-Fi or cellular.

Aside from confirming the existence of the AirTags, it also confirms speculation that the tag would be able to work without Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Instead, it uses the Ultra Wideband radio first implemented in the iPhone 11 family, which should allow you to find objects with greater accuracy than existing Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi options – within centimeters.

In fact, rumors suggest Apple will offer an augmented reality experience of sorts to be able to find your missing items using the tags, although it’s not clear what form this will take.

The tags themselves are expected to be shaped like circular disks and to be able to emit a chime to make them easier to find. If an item is marked as lost, any iPhone user who ends up finding it will be asked to return it to the original owner, as reported by 9to5Mac.

While the coronavirus has muddied up many release schedules, such a blatant leak makes it likely we’ll see the AirTags sooner rather than later.

Via The Verge