It’s finally LIVE! Google’s Find My Device network, the Android equivalent of Apple’s Find My network, is rolling out to Android devices today, starting in the U.S. and Canada (with more regions to follow). The Find My Device network is a crowdsourced network of over a billion Android devices that’ll help you find your misplaced or lost Android devices. You can locate compatible Android devices by ringing them or viewing their location on a map in Find My Device.

Starting in May, you’ll also be able to locate everyday items by placing a Bluetooth tracker tag compatible with the Find My Device network on them. Chipolo and Pebblebee are the first to offer accessories built for FMDN but later this year eufy, Jio, Motorola, and others will offer Bluetooth tags. Tracker tags built for FMDN are also compatible with the unknown tracker alerts feature, available now on Android and coming soon to iOS, which means you don’t have to worry about unwanted tracking.

Find My Device has some nice features to make tracking down a lost item easy. If you’re near a lost device, a “find nearby” button will appear in the app that helps you pinpoint its location. If you have Google Nest devices at home, FMD can also show your lost device’s proximity to them, making them easy reference points. Lastly, you can share accessories with friends and family so they can help you keep track of them.

The new Find My Device works on devices running Android 9 or higher. By default, aggregated location reporting is enabled (this corresponds to the “with network in high-traffic areas only” setting) but you can opt into contributing non-aggregated locations (“with network in all areas”) or turn the network off entirely (“without network” or “off”). Select headphones from JBL, Sony, and other audio brands will be receiving software updates soon that enable them to join the FMDN.

If you have a Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro, you’ll be able to locate your phone on the Find My Device network even if it’s powered off or the battery is dead! This is possible because the phones have the specialized hardware to support the Powered Off Finding feature I previously reported on. The company tells me that the Pixel 8 has reserve power on the device that is channeled to the Bluetooth chip for several hours even after the battery is dead.

Google tells me the Powered Off Finding feature is available now and that you shouldn’t need to take any further action to enable it on your Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro, such as updating your phone to Android 15. (I thought the system APIs for Powered Off Finding would be limited to Android 15, but it looks like that won’t be the case!)

Google says the Find My Device network is built with “multi-layered protections” and offers numerous privacy controls. Location data is end-to-end encrypted with a key that’s only accessible to the Bluetooth tag’s owner and whoever the owner shared the tag with. Locations are contributed to the FMDN in a manner that doesn’t let Google ID the owners of the nearby Android devices that contributed that data. Tag owners aren’t given any info on those devices, either.

Another safety feature of the Find My Device network is aggregated device location reporting. The FMDN, by default, requires multiple nearby Android devices to detect a tag before reporting its location to the tag’s owner. This provides extra protection against someone tracking a device back to a home or private location. Also, if you’ve saved your home address in your Google Account, your Android device won’t contribute crowdsourced location reports to the FMDN when it’s near your home.

Find My Device also limits the number of times that a nearby Android device can contribute a location report for a particular tag; it also throttles how frequently the owner of a tag can request an updated location. And as mentioned before, tags built for FMDN are compatible with the unwanted tracker alerts feature. With all these features and protections, it’ll be difficult for anyone to abuse the FMDN to track someone without their knowledge.

Redmi x Harry Potter

Redmi Turbo 3 also called Poco F6 will be available in Special Harry Potter Edition as well

Since Xiaomi kept Redmi Note 12 Turbo Harry Potter Special edition China exclusive, thus Poco F6 Harry Potter will be China only too

Launching on 10th April in China

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Apple AirPower Prototype charging an Apple Watch

AirPower‌ was an Apple-designed charging mat designed to charge Qi-based iPhones, the Apple Watch, and ‌AirPods‌ that the company announced in September 2017 alongside the iPhone X

However, it was NEVER released as AirPower went into several issues related to Heat management, Buggy inter-device communication, Mechanical and interference issues, etc
Apple then ended up cancelling AirPower in 2019 without releasing it

Now, a 'working' prototype of an AirPower featuring 16 coils and can charge a DVT prototype Apple Watch Series 4 has surfaced, which also apparently gets quite warm.

In December 2023, a functional AirPower prototype from 2017 was showcased too which had 15 coils.
Later revisions had like 22 coils

That prototype showed that AirPower could get extremely hot and could even leave devices with scorch marks.
In fact, the AirPods Pro charging case began to MELT when charging on the ‌AirPower‌.

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