Apple Developing These 5 New Satellite Features for iPhone

[segfaultdotorg]

How about this: expand this allegedly lifesaving technology to phones older than the iPhone 14. As we all now know, ANY iPhone can be made to work with Globalstar.

 

[Agent007]

I think, in 2-3 decades, most "mobile devices" will use direct-to-satellite service. Once the tech is small and cheap enough, satellites will be cheaper than negotiating land agreements and building and maintaining towers. Not to mention all of the locations inhospitable to cell towers.

When I imagine tech in 20-30 years, my first thought is: what kind of crap do the "tech bros" have in store for us?

 

[Ctrlos]

Mostly. I know I do. But I'm sure now and then someone will get caught off guard so this feature can bail them out. No one's perfect.

Oh I know. I’m totally clutching at straws on that last point!

 

[Earendil]

Apple is working on a series of new satellite connectivity features for the iPhone, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.

In this week's "Power On" newsletter, Gurman revealed that the new features in development include:

• Apple Maps via satellite: Navigation in Apple Maps without cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity.
• Photos in Messages via satellite: Support for sending photos in the Messages app using satellite connectivity.
• Natural Usage: Satellite connectivity from indoors environments, without the need to physically point the device toward clear sky.
• Satellite over 5G: Support for 5G NTN, allowing cell towers to use satellites for increased coverage.
• Satellite API framework for third-party apps: An API that will allow developers to voluntarily integrate satellite connectivity into their apps. Not all features and services will be compatible.

There apparently no plans to enable phone calls, video calls, or web browsing via satellite at present.

Today, Apple's satellite connectivity features are available for free. For more advanced capabilities in the future, Apple reportedly plans to let customers pay satellite carriers for features directly.

Apple could also create a paid option for extended connectivity with a company like SpaceX. Gurman added that there have been discussions in the company about offering its own satellite service, but concerns that Apple shouldn't act like a carrier have stifled that possibility.

Many of the new satellite features in development will apparently require upgrades to Globalstar's infrastructure, which Apple helped to finance. Gurman said that if SpaceX acquires Globalstar, the necessary enhancements could roll out faster.

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Article Link: Apple Developing These 5 New Satellite Features for iPhone

This feels borderline like a nothing burger.
All of this is technically possible today, it’s just a matter of who will pay for it. So the proper headline from Gurman should be:
“Apple in negotiation to include additional data at a cost that they will pay for and provide to users for free”.

 

[CATiNTHESTORE]

Who is Bloomberg? Is it a fake news organization that fails to investigate the real issues surrounding Nvidia's traffic and instead presents an unrealistic picture of everything being fine? Why would anyone choose to listen to or partner with this organization? MacRumors, do you have any respect for yourselves?

 

[SamSwede]

Surely you mean "5G over (via/by/from) Satellite, enabling 5G coverage from satellites where terrestrial towers are not providing coverage", not the other way around? 😉

• Satellite over 5G: Support for 5G NTN, allowing cell towers to use satellites for increased coverage.

 

[keith57]

Some satellite service is already available in the UK (emergency, roadside service), but not sure about routine messaging.

Yes, SOS via Satellite seems to be working in a number of countries, including the UK. Not so for iMessaging, I am sure about it not being available to use in the UK. No one from Apple seem to be able to tell me anything more about this either…

 

[Passthru]

If SpaceX buys Globalstar that’s going to create a monopoly from the get go. This’ll mean higher prices and poor service for customers.

Globalstar isn't anything close to a monopoly. Iridium provides a better service, has done it for longer, and provides service over the entire globe (even Antarctica.) That's who Garmin's InReach products use, btw. And there's also Immarsat and a couple of others, but Iridium is the biggest and oldest.

 

[nsayer]

The most positive outcome of this is that we will never see a reboot of the series "Lost."

 

[vvgogh]

doesn't the S in GPS stand for Satellite?

Global Positioning System

 

[MNWildFan]

For most of us, most of the time, it likely makes far more sense to download Apple maps than to use a satellite service, doesn't it?

Personally, I would quite like an auto-download which detects when I am somewhere new and downloads the appropriate map(s).

However I can see sense for traffic, or emergency situations, when no mobile signal is available.

True, and actually, while I don't use AM, I've noticed that if my cell service is wonky I know with Waze it caches some map data to be available offline

At that point, you can still do navigation just fine, but if you want to do everything like incident reporting and all that requires a full on cellular connection

I wouldn't be surprised if at some point though that satellite connectivity gets good enough to the point that you can then use all those features of Waze or any other mapping app if you're in an area where you don't have any cellular service but you do have satellite

 

[polyphenol]

True, and actually, while I don't use AM, I've noticed that if my cell service is wonky I know with Waze it caches some map data to be available offline

At that point, you can still do navigation just fine, but if you want to do everything like incident reporting and all that requires a full on cellular connection

I wouldn't be surprised if at some point though that satellite connectivity gets good enough to the point that you can then use all those features of Waze or any other mapping app if you're in an area where you don't have any cellular service but you do have satellite

Will satellite ever be good enough to use while driving? Can the signal get through the roof!

Maybe we'll see roof-mounted aerials for precisely that purpose. Add-ons to begin with, built-in to follow.