I know it would likely be a huge bother, but you might want to read the first paragraph of the story. Or at least the headline.
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Apple Reportedly Plans to Expand iPhone 14's Satellite Feature to More Countries
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I know it would likely be a huge bother, but you might want to read the first paragraph of the story. Or at least the headline.
You can see in their demo that the icons change at the top including the cellular bars go to a block.
I’m thinking they disable all the other radios in order for this to work properly. Also you can see the microphone was being used, They weren’t using Siri unless it was the Siri that runs locally.
I’m thinking they disable all the other radios in order for this to work properly. Also you can see the microphone was being used, They weren’t using Siri unless it was the Siri that runs locally.
What I meant is not that you connect to 911 from India. What I meant is it doesn't matter from where in the world you reach any satellite, it can all be handled from one point. So you're in the US connecting via a satellite to a central relay station in India which contacts 911 and handles the situation. There is no need for a global call/response structure at all.
I was at first excited about this feature, but let's take a few things into consideration. This requires a line of sight to the satellite, if you are in a valley, a canyon, or heavily forested area, good luck. Not all areas are as clear as in the presentation. And if you are injured standing and pointing a phone directly at a satellite for a period of time will be difficult if not impossible depending on your injury. There is always the PB (personal beacon) device for this, and it may serve you better in tough situations.
I would guess 99% of iphone users don’t need this feature and most believe that they have full communication capability. Those that want the emergency communications will probably only want to enable it when they go to areas with poor cellular access. This will drive up the monthly cost for the small set of users willing to pay.
Because this is not satellite phone service. This is more like an SOS messaging platform, with Apple sitting in the middle handling the messages and dispatch. The *only* way it works with how this is designed is if Apple is prepared to do emergency dispatch in the countries it's planning on operating in.
This is a fundamentally different approach than the T-Mobile/SpaceX/Starlink arrangement which would enable basic connectivity. However, Starlink doesn't have any gen2 satellites in the air to do this yet. Advantage for the T-Mobile/Starlink arrangement is SpaceX is really good at launching satellites - there are only 24 Globalstar satellites in the sky. SpaceX has ~3000 gen1 satellites in the air already in just 2 years.
Hope there is no commitment to a certain time period once subscribed. Then you could just pay for for the month during which you go camping or hiking in a remote area.
It's probably wise to make sure it works really well before rolling it out everywhere.
I will guess that Apple will continue to offer 2 yrs of service for every new phone you buy. Since everyone seems to buy a new phone every 1-2 yrs, most people will never pay. Those that want it will probably be charged a nominal fee like iCloud, or have it included as part of Apple One.
stick with the iPhone upgrade plan and you have "free" satellite service for life! ;-p
Tuscany is one of the "wildest" regions (reason why it's so beautiful), so I'd expect good fiber/5G adoption being a little slower there.
Hope you enjoyed your stay regardless.
I mean, you just need to check GlobalStar coverage. They cover practically the whole world except for Africa so there’s no reason Apple can’t offer this worldwide other than government regulations.
In two years from now Starlink will likely have its satellite connection ready and that will not only work in an emergency. it also will work worldwide and will be included in many mobile data plans.
People who want this today (prior to the release of the iPhone 14) pay for it. If it’s a service that’s NOT rolled into Apple One, people who want this in the future will also pay for it.
Granted, there ARE always a large number of people that never want to pay anything for anything, so most is likely still accurate.
Fortunately, there are enough folks that want to pay for safety services/features/equipment that makes catering to those folks profitable.
Got you. I misunderstood your earlier post. My bad. If you are in the US then you would be connecting to a satellite flying over you in the US anyways so not an issue.
What I'm trying to say is that they will not want to release this feature in all markets as their response service need to integrate with the emergency services of the locale where user needs this service.
Yes. In life you cannot expect 100.0% perfection 100.0% of the time with respect to any endeavor or scenario. With the exception of gravity which seems to always work.
Sometimes, based on likely scenarios, you may be forced to accept 90-95% perfection.
The good news is Globalstar has approx 48 low-earth orbit satellites. And Apple is committing to purchasing an 85% allocation of their total system capacity. In addition Apple will be paying 95% of the costs for future updated satellites to expand the Globalstar constellation going forward.
Doubt it, Garmin inReach works worldwide, also all satellite phones. I’m actually amazed that this feature is limited to USA & CA, as it is that one feature which should literally work everywhere.
It may work everywhere but Apple is taking the responsibility of managing and dispatching help. That’s a level above whether or not the technology works, with a ton of responsibility and coordination with the regional nuances of getting the right help to the right place.
I suspect Apple is intentionally rolling out this service slowly in order to learn and deal with any problems that might come up, while still being manageable over a smaller chunk of the world.
After the deal is sealed with Apple paying Globalstar to reserve 85% of its system capacity (and Apple paying 95% of future upgraded satellites), I suspect Apple will expand the service worldwide. And may even acquire Globalstar.
Supposedly, Apple paid $450 million to fund the satellites, and paying upwards of $100 million per year for the service.People who want this today (prior to the release of the iPhone 14) pay for it. If it’s a service that’s NOT rolled into Apple One, people who want this in the future will also pay for it.
Granted, there ARE always a large number of people that never want to pay anything for anything, so most is likely still accurate.
If it's primarily funded by folks that could use the service on a regular basis (the number will be far less than 1 million in the US and Canada), AND Apple wants the service to be sustainable, it won't be cheap.
As part of Apple One bundle, it is one more thing that could push more to subscribe. And I have a hard time believing that non-subscribers will be stuck unable to use the feature built-in to the phone they are holding. Apple will figure out a way to charge, such as my aforementioned pay-per-incident fee (or on-demand subscription activation).
They are already standards for that in place.What do you think it happens when you use inReach from Garmin in emergency?
Wouldn’t it be better if it can be used no matter where you are in the world? Especially within territories where you are completely unfamiliar?
There is a world outside of America you know. My point is that this is an feature used for emergencies. If in an emergency situation you shouldn’t have to worry about whether a feature works in your region or not, it should just work , especially when the thing connects to satellites in space. Geography shouldn’t even be a factor.
Case in point the ECG feature in Apple Watch where in the first year it only worked in the US. So if you are wearing a device and live outside of America and there’s an issue with your heart - tough luck in being notified , you’re in the wrong region.