The first report about Apple working on an item tracker was back in April 2019, here on 9to5Mac. Since then, we’ve seen the device appear and disappear from iOS builds and even show up in an official Apple video on YouTube. More recently, rumors started picking up again about its imminent release, given the presence of support for third-party item trackers in iOS 14.5, which will also work for Apple’s own item tracking device.
But if you’re tired of waiting for Apple to release their own item tracker, there’s an open-source project that might help you, but only if you’re into hacking. Researchers from German university TU Darmstadt reverse-engineered the protocol used by Apple devices to participate in the Find My network and released free resources for those who would like to create their own item-tracking device at home.
more…
