Would be much easier to script that all out and have a single Bluetooth device.

https://github.com/seemoo-lab/openhaystack#how-to-track-othe...

Do you know if I can use this to track a tag from the web if I don't own a recent Apple device?

Probably using QEMU and an macOS VM.

Oh interesting, thanks. Might require a TPM though.

There are scripts to setup QEMU with all the correct widgets.

At about $3000 (tax included) per 100 you could probably do more interesting things with say $10,000. Like giving stacks of 100 $1 bills to everyone around you except the people you want to piss off.

Right- I feel a Raspberry Pi and a bluetooth module (or a handful of them) would be a lot cheaper. Set it up to repeatedly ping everything in range, stick it to a battery pack, and just go about your business. It would certainly illustrate some of the many shortcomings of Bluetooth, and always-listening services.

I'm not advocating that you should, keep in mind. It certainly seems to be in poor taste, but there may be a platform for using it educationally, I.e. hacker cons.

Why are not seeing the next evolution of whatever bluetooth (a hardware device and a standard to talk to similar devices in cross vicinity?) is

I was going to say: you should be able to program it on a single esp-32... and then I noticed the sibling's comment and a working prototype.