Decentralized, encrypted real-time conversations? Who exactly are you supposed to subpoena call records from? Who handles the wiretap? The decision to "pass" on this, at least for now, may not have been entirely Apple's.
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Apple Reportedly Shelves 'Walkie-Talkie' Feature Allowing iPhone-to-iPhone Messaging Without Wi-Fi or Cellular
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Possibly, but walkie-talkie & baby monitor companies navigate these regulations.
This could’ve completely killed the need for a separate basic walkie-talkies / baby monitors, similar to how our phones have help replaced basic cameras.
How would re-introducing a 15 year old technology be innovative? A differentiating feature, sure, but hardly innovative. In any case, Qualcomm does not offer this feature with their baseband chips. Intel could have provided it, and Apple may or may not support the feature when they switch to their own silicon, who knows.
btw for those interested, the capability being discussed—phone to phone, even when there’s no cell service—was called MOTOtalk, and it was limited to maybe 5 miles. It used an ISM band in the 900MHz spectrum and was only available on a subset of Nextel-compatible phones, as mentioned earlier by other posters.
The standard push-to-talk service was Direct Connect (Motorola’s iDEN technology), which used cellular frequencies and required phones to be within range of a cellular base station. But since the calls were routed over the data network that connected the cell towers, the range wasn’t restricted; participants could be 100s of miles away from each other and still have one-to-one, or one-to-many, push-to-talk calls.
U ok? This feature would be great. Who else has it? Won’t you want to be able to send messages without network, even if it’s not on your watch (they could migrate it over to the iPhones)?
It would be enough if that would work over 2,4Ghz and the typical 100m range.
Be able to create groups of up to ~20 people where the phones also create a mesh network on a narrow channel (<<1MHz to keep spectrum usage to a minimum) and use a low complex modulation as we prefer stability and range over bandwidth.
Why? Ever been to a festival where networks are often overloaded. Or simply any area where there's no cell coverage.
Be able to create groups of up to ~20 people where the phones also create a mesh network on a narrow channel (<<1MHz to keep spectrum usage to a minimum) and use a low complex modulation as we prefer stability and range over bandwidth.
Why? Ever been to a festival where networks are often overloaded. Or simply any area where there's no cell coverage.
It would be very interesting if it was an industry standard, so Android and iOS could communicate. In case of an emergency without cell coverage it would be great if smartphones were able to route messages via this channel until a device connected to internet is able to finally deliver the information. Doesn't need to be high bandwidth, low speed is ok to send a few info like GPS coordinates and some text.
It would be subjected to regulations and that's why it should be a standard
It would be subjected to regulations and that's why it should be a standard
This is an extremely useful feature, for safety reasons too. ( I know one can carry a UHF radio)
But maybe it's bigger than Apple and maybe it should be a gov standard where checks and balances are in place, covering items as interference with other bands, security, spam, range, etc.
Anyway, I hope it gets implemented and will work as people expect it too.
But maybe it's bigger than Apple and maybe it should be a gov standard where checks and balances are in place, covering items as interference with other bands, security, spam, range, etc.
Anyway, I hope it gets implemented and will work as people expect it too.
Bummer, that could be one of very few pro-user and innovative feature. That would be a fantastic treat during outdoor activities where mobile networks often fail. Also, imagine rediscovering the real walkie-talkie - kinda Stranger Things era fun that is still capable of delivering communications - not only for kids. I recall that Motorola has tried that one day but that wasn't the right moment, I reckon. Now it's time for Apple to offer something unique and based on communications freedom.
But aren't they going back to Intel modems by then? I'm confused. Why did they buy the Intel cellular modem business?
GPS works without cellular connection, you just need access to enough sky (ie, in a deep gorge it's unlikely to work). And even without GPS, offline maps, altimeter, compass are things that can be very useful. When I am in the mountains, the offline map app is the largest power consumer (though that includes the GPS usage of that app).
This would have been incredibly helpful in June when a group of us were hiking in the mountains of northern New Mexico and a member of our group got separated coming down from a 12,000 peak. We found the guy three hours later completely exhausted, dehydrated and eating dirty snow. We all had our iPhones with us but when we're in the backcountry for extended periods of time they stay in airplane mode. I would hope this feature works in airplane mode...
Isn’t this what FireChat was? As I recall that app was able to turn all phones into a private mesh network allowing protestors in HK during 2014 riots to communicate with each other off the grid. I don’t recall that pap being banned by the Chinese. Not sure what happened to it either ...
I wonder if Apple will ever consider buying up a satellite network to try to bypass mobile carriers.
There’s also a product called Beartooth that is also available (now reaching 2.0 for hardware as well).
I have the first version and it works indoors and out.
Can see location, mapping, send text and walkie talkie.
Wouldn't there be different laws and regulations because it's a phone though? Baby monitors and two-way radios pretty much only do just that. But a phone does everything and is capable of so much more than a product with a single purpose like those other things, so the FCC has to be extra careful when deciding what to allow.
I'm just theorizing, of course. I have no idea how all that actually works.
Yeah :/
I was just replying to another forum member talking about how I have no idea how all that regulatory stuff works haha. But you would think Apple certainly does by now... And if they don't they obviously have the resources to quickly get up to speed
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While not the same, it would presumably mimic the functionality. The implementation on the Apple Watch is pretty terrible in its current iteration. Hopefully a future phone app would be MUCH more intuitive, reliable, and useful.
Another perspective is that this is exactly what iPhone was designed for...replacing the need to carry other single function devices.
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When it works, the Apple Watch feature is very useful.
But it frequently fails, and the UI requires too many steps, even in the 'improved' version coming in watchOS 6.
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I think the point being, this worked just fine 15-20 years ago. People carried a phone that was also a perfectly functional walkie talkie...and it worked.
While things have changed a lot, the basic concept has not. And today we don't have a feature on our "phone" that we easily could have had on our "phone" 15-20 years ago.
I just love how they show features like this in marketing and then shelve it. AirPower being a classic example. It doesn't look great from an innovation point of view and I think Apple is slowly going back to its unstable roots. Find a way of doing it and then tell us about it
Who showed this feature? This was leaked and reported and has nothing to do with air power. And “Apple is going back to it’s unstable roots” is a little extreme. (But ymmv)
Seems like AirPower is not just a classic example, it’s your only example.
This really isn't anything new. Kids have been building LoRa walkie talkies with inexpensive Adafruit LoRa boards.
https://www.adafruit.com/?q=Lora
https://www.adafruit.com/?q=Lora
another chip to make this work would add would require 2mm more to the phone. The Jony effect still rules