The Apple AirTag has been out in the wild for only a week, but it's already having its fair share of issues, from scratching to stalking. Size isn't one of them, yet one YouTuber has deemed the gadget too thick for wallets — and so the AirTag card was born.
The AirTag's 8mm thickness does make it difficult for the tracker to slot in alongside your cards. Unless you deconstruct the entire thing and rearrange the components. AirTag (re)Assemble!
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Andrew Ngai (opens in new tab) set himself the task of tearing down his AirTag and rejigging the components into a card that can slip into his wallet, with no unsightly bulges to be seen. While the 10-minute video might make you think you could give this a go, Ngai warns against it isn't for average Joe users.
"I would not recommend this to anybody who's not familiar with hands-on electronic work, because some components on the PCB [printed circuit board] is really delicate — and I actually broke off the power connector once. And I had to solder it back on. That was not fun.
"But if you do want to replicate it, then you can refer to my video and see what I did wrong, and what you can expect."
In his quest to recast the AirTag into a thinner form factor, Ngai gave up on prying the PCB out of the plastic shell. He had to resort to heating it up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit / 65 degree Celsius to get the glue to soften, allowing him to remove the board.
The board and battery are stacked in the AirTag, so by splitting them up and sitting them side by side, Ngai managed to reduce the thickness significantly. What's more, he demonstrates how neatly it fits into his wallet in its new state.
As he points out, this is not for the faint of heart. If you've just shelled out $29 / £29 / AU$45 for an AirTag. But if you have experience with this sort of thing, or don't mind spending for a new one if you botch the job, then you can judge whether it's worth the risk.
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