AirTags show up airline
Apple's AirTags are an excellent way to know where your luggage is — and a snitch on airlines who don't know where your luggage is. Lufthansa is the first to ban them, after an awful summer of lost bags. The airline points to the
industry's policies against electronic devices on flights: that baggage trackers fall into the category of portable electronic devices, and are therefore subject to dangerous goods regulations issued by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The transmission function needs to be turned off during flight when in checked luggage, just as is required for cellphones, laptops, etc. AirTags mean travellers know exactly where their lost bags are, and that intel may not be something airlines are particularly fond of customers having. Maybe the real problem for airlines is passengers publicly exposing baggage-handling failures.
You can't snuggle a robot dog
Photos and videos of people walking robot dogs have been circulating on Chinese social media lately, signalling a trend among the younger generations. Robotic dogs inspired by the impressive creations of Boston Dynamics have been available on Chinese shopping platforms for a while now, but they've only recently started actually becoming popular. According to several Chinese news outlets, the vast majority of robot dogs spotted in the streets of cities like Shanghai and Beijing are domestically produced and have a number of built-in features, such as following, rolling, sitting, running, and carrying weights of up to 5 kilograms. A camera in the dog's head allows it to identify and bypass obstacles, and even recognise its owner. Prices for Chinese robot dogs reportedly vary between 15,000 yuan ($3700) and 100,000 yuan ($25,000), depending on build quality, built-in features, and battery life.
