Apple’s new Tile-inspired item trackers, AirTags, will be waterproof and charge magnetically.
According to Japanese Apple news website Mac Otakara, AirTags will be announced “in the fall of 2020” and be completely waterproof, making them useful in outdoor situations such as losing your keys in a busy street during bad weather, or a set of keys when diving in the sea.
The new UWB tag is also expected to charge in a similar method to Apple Watches, using a magnetic charging case on the rear of the device.
Whether the small AirTags will use the existing Apple Watch charger or a new charging method entirely remain to be seen, but it would be good for Apple to streamline the number of chargers users need for its products.
Apple inadvertently teased AirTags last year, when it released a beta of iOS 13 in the Summer and revealed their name, use, user interface, and appearance.
Since then, we’ve seen further mentions of AirTags in the new Find My app, such as a new augmented reality feature designed to show users exactly where their missing items are using a balloon.
Designed to work in a similar manner to Tile, Apple hopes that AirTags will help the company to further expand its Wearables and Services division, which recently overtook the Mac product category following the success of Apple Watch and the AirPods and AirPods Pro.
There’s no concrete evidence as to when Apple will launch AirTags, with conflicting reports suggesting they could be coming as soon as March. Reliable insider Ming-Chi Kuo has said that the company won’t “ramp up” production on AirTags until the second or third quarter of this year, so it could be that we have to wait until September alongside new iPhones.
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