Apple officially unveiled its object monitoring system, the AirTag, at its Spring Loaded event last month.
Although interested buyers immediately noted that it lacks a suitable hole for attaching it to a keychain, one AirTag user discovered that the tracker protrudes from his pocket. As a result, they agreed to take action.
Apple Air Tag Becomes A Slim Wallet Tracker
Andrew Ngai found (via 9to5Mac) how the battery is packed with the mainboard when he opened the battery lid of AirTag. He also decided to rearrange the circuit board and battery so that they could coexist.
As a result, the AirTag will be less cumbersome and will slip more comfortably into the bag. Andrew modelled and 3D printed the card enclosure to house the AirTag after successfully removing the battery from the frame. Andrew then soldered the wires in place, and the new AirTag card was full!
On Andrew’s YouTube page, you can watch the whole video demonstrating the process:
Of course, although this can seem appealing to others, it does necessitate some simple DIY familiarity with electronics.
If you want to duplicate this and make a slim AirTag (like Tile Slim) for yourself, you’ll need to know how to solder. And, of course, there’s a catch to this project: it puts the speaker in jeopardy.
If you’re curious, Andrew has kindly shared the card enclosure’s 3D printable raw file, which you can download here. Although it isn’t flawless, it is a fun DIY project that has solved his tracker problem.
At the end of the day, in a personal endeavour, that’s all that counts. If you don’t want to deal with all of this, you can simply purchase an Apple AirTag option like Tile Slim, which is designed to fit into your pocket.