(dog panting) (suspenseful music)

- AirTag not reachable.

Move around to connect.

Wasabi.

To my left.

(dog sniffing)

Oh wait.

(dramatic music)

Allow me to explain.

This is my fanny pack

and attached to it is an Apple AirTag,

a new $29 gadget that you attach to items you often lose.

So you could find them using your iPhone's Find My app.

This is Wasabi, a professional detection dog

that can sniff out the most hidden of items.

And well, I think you can tell where I went

with this whole thing.

I put this AirTag and other competing lost item trackers,

like the Tile Pro and Samsung SmartTag

up against Wasabi's nose

in a series of indoor and outdoor hiding challenges

because well, yeah, my dog only moves for bacon.

Up.

(hands clapping)

Do anything.

And since many have been asking if AirTags could be used

as a pet tracker, there you go,

we put one Wasabi for a separate challenge.

Of course, Alisa, Wasabi's owner

and professional narcotic K9 handler with 3DK9

was along for the whole ride,

ensuring Wasabi was happy,

healthy and hydrated.

All right, here we go.

Challenge one, fanny pack lost in the house.

AirTags and other lost item trackers

use lower-powered Bluetooth

to stay constantly connected

up to several hundred feet away.

Wasabi's sniff range?

It depends on a lot of factors

but about five feet in every direction.

For this challenge, we had him sniff out drugs,

fake drugs, more specifically,

a substance that smells like heroin.

Yeah, it definitely smells.

But is absolutely not heroin.

It's used in K9 training.

Instead of using my nose,

I used my ears for this challenge.

When you're in range of an AirTag,

you can press on this button

in the Find My app to sound an alarm

on the tracker itself.

So I had my producer Kenny here hide the fanny pack

someplace inside my townhouse.

- And I'm gonna wrap it.

You can't hear the dangles.

(dramatic music)

- [Joanna] Of course, Wasabi found the fanny pack

in one minute and 20 seconds.

- Yes. - Yo.

Hey, yeah.

- Me and the AirTags?

Okay, not so quick.

I knew it wasn't on the basement floor

because I don't hear anything in here.

When I hit the second floor,

Apple's precision finding feature came in super handy.

It says connected but the signal's weak,

so it's not in this area but I hear the sound.

Tap Find Nearby in the app

and it uses ultra-wideband technology,

which is more precise than Bluetooth

in very close distances.

If you're within a couple of feet of the item

and you have an iPhone with ultra-wideband,

the iPhone 11 and up,

it can guide you to the item

with on-screen directions.

Fanny pack may be on a different level than you

unless it thinks it's upstairs in this area.

And so what?

Bathroom?

Nearby here.

Whoa, I found it.

Got it.

I also tested the Samsung and the Tile in the same location.

The Samsung and the Tile's alarms

were louder and I could hear them clearer

from the second floor.

But they lack ultra-wideband,

so no detailed on-screen instructions

about the direction of the object.

The winner?

(Wasabi barking)

Obviously.

Challenge two.

Funny pack lost outside.

(playful music)

- The planter and you can't see it from the street.

- All the trackers' apps show the location

of where your phone

and the tracker were last connected.

In this case, where I had the fanny pack last,

standing on this street corner.

But Apple's Find My network goes a bit further.

Anyone's iPhone in the real world

can report the location of an AirTag.

Think of it as an invisible network.

Whenever an iPhone passes the AirTag,

it anonymously and unknowingly picks up

that Bluetooth signal

and the location of where it picked it up.

The owner of the AirTag

can then see the location in the Find My app.

Tile and Samsung have similar networks

but in this case, it's likely that no one

with a participating Samsung phone

or the Tile app on their phone walked by

but a billion active iPhones in the world

is a big AirTag selling point.

The Find My app says

that it is on the corner of Newark over there.

Tile has no idea where it is.

But once that Find My app led us into that 10

to 15-foot range,

Wasabi took off.

(beep)

All right, so if I'm standing over here,

it's on the corner over here.

No.

Arg, damn you.

- Yes.

- You wouldn't have known it over here, Wasabi

if it wasn't for me.

Winner, AirTags and Wasabi.

(dramatic music)

Challenge three.

Dog lost.

All right, go anywhere within 10-mile radius,

turn your phone on airplane mode

and wait there.

Before sending them off,

I equipped Wasabi with two trackers,

an AirTag and the Whistle Go Explore,

a real pet tracker.

With the Whistle, I had a live GPS view

of where they were headed.

The device connects to AT&T's cellular network,

which is why in addition to the $150 device,

you have to pay a subscription fee.

Then it says that Wasabi is currently on Freedom Way.

You zoom out.

That seems to be Liberty State Park.

- [GPS] Turn left onto Freedom Way.

- With the AirTag,

it was similar to the lost fanny pack on the street.

I had to wait until someone with an iPhone came

into contact with the AirTag at the park

to see the location.

Wasabi.

Ah, I see Wasabi over there.

As you so impressed that I found you.

The winner?

The Whistle, through the AirTags held their own,

plus the Whistle drops battery quick.

The AirTags have replaceable batteries

that are said to last up to a year.

So what did we learn here today?

Well, that everyone should get a Wasabi.

But really, AirTags are very good.

The lost mode feature needs improvement,

it sucks that you have to buy an accessory

to make sure you don't lose the actual AirTag

and despite Apple's anti-stalking features,

I have fears about these being used secretly

to track people.

But if you often lose things,

the only other real option is to well, not lose them.

Guys, I've gotta get a real dog.

I love you, Browser, I love you.