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Apple Watch to Eventually Gain Satellite Connectivity Feature for SOS and Emergency Contacts
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Rescue missions are paid for or organized by the state or by NGOs, they are free, or covered by your insurance. Unless you are intentionally calling a for profit company for the job.
Civilian boats are legally required to comply when asked to detour for a rescue mission.
China's GPS equivalent, Beidou, supports 2-way short message communication during an emergency, it's built-in to every receiver chip. So, you can actually transmit your live location back to a relevant HQ and your emergency situation. You can also get weather alerts via the same channel. It's free too. Apple supports Beidou, but not this functionality.
I know this feature exists in a few high-end devices, one of my ex bosses (a keen sailor) had a Breitling watch with built in SOS calling 20 years ago, but even with today’s technology I assume it can’t be implemented with zero additional volume added to the device. In that case I really do hope that Apple creates another version of the AW specifically for people wanting this because I want the AW to slim down a bit rather than get fatter.
With all the rumours of a rugged version of the AW maybe that would be the one to put this hardware into because it’s presumably going to be a chunkier device anyway and people out hiking (or whatever) wearing the rugged watch are probably more likely to need SOS capabilities compared to people at dinner parties(*) wearing what they want to be as close to a dress watch as possible, i.e. thin and discrete.
(*) Then again, I have been to a few dinner parties in my time where I might have been tempted to use an SOS feature…
With all the rumours of a rugged version of the AW maybe that would be the one to put this hardware into because it’s presumably going to be a chunkier device anyway and people out hiking (or whatever) wearing the rugged watch are probably more likely to need SOS capabilities compared to people at dinner parties(*) wearing what they want to be as close to a dress watch as possible, i.e. thin and discrete.
(*) Then again, I have been to a few dinner parties in my time where I might have been tempted to use an SOS feature…
Will be a very useful feature. But most probably it will be available only in the US at launch.
As someone who lives out in the states where it gets up to 120F and they have to constantly send out to rescue those people who are "overly confident hikers", I would like to ask you where the money by the "state" is from?
I think those are the people's money that you are talking about. Which is why we have stupid hiker law. I'm not saying people should not be rescue, but there is a difference between if you go out to the sea and got hit with an unexpected storm vs if you know it's already 120F and you decided to go on a 10 miles hike with little to no water.
If the frequency required is say using what Iridium Communication is using, then I think you will be okay. Iridium devices are used most of the world already (they have a global coverage). So if it rides on the same frequency I think the necessary premission to operate is already in place.
So it won’t be in an Apple Watch anytime soon, since that is also much larger than an Apple Watch. At least wait until it’s in a Garmin Fenix before making predictions for the Apple Watch. The Fenix is larger and sits in a higher price tier than the Apple Watch, so logically miniaturization will be able to hit it first. Apple Watch will have to wait for the tech to both get smaller and cheaper…
Costs and who pays varies by state and country.
That said, these services have a monthly fee. If the provider wishes to, they could offer insurance as part of that fee. Garmin offers a separate insurance package people can opt for. If devices like these become ubiquitous, I could see the insurance becoming mandatory in some places.
Over the weekend my car overheated while towing a camp trailer home. Ended up stranded at a lovely reservoir in Central Utah that unfortunately did not have any cell service. However, an Amber Alert came through which was surprising. I've since learned that Emergency Services can send messages across the whole spectrum, regardless if you're a customer of the carrier signal. (https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/wireless-emergency-alerts-wea)
I would happily pay a small surcharge to be able to tap into a competitor carrier service tower in a situation like that if they have coverage where mine does not.
Having a Satellite option on phone/watch would be even better. I'm all for this, especially if it can just be a pay-on-demand feature.
(As for me, some passers-by stopped at the reservoir who did have cell service and I was able to call my dad to rescue us. Being stuck in the mountains with a gorgeous view with food and water and a bathroom and nature and entertainment for a few hours to wait for pick-up isn't the worst thing in the world)
I would happily pay a small surcharge to be able to tap into a competitor carrier service tower in a situation like that if they have coverage where mine does not.
Having a Satellite option on phone/watch would be even better. I'm all for this, especially if it can just be a pay-on-demand feature.
(As for me, some passers-by stopped at the reservoir who did have cell service and I was able to call my dad to rescue us. Being stuck in the mountains with a gorgeous view with food and water and a bathroom and nature and entertainment for a few hours to wait for pick-up isn't the worst thing in the world)
Thanks. I actually didn’t know you can buy insurance for these service. But that make sense. I suppose if I was traveling a lot I would buy into the insurance.
That‘s stupidity, you don’t have to save them.
I’m referring to skiing into an avalanche or boat hitting an iceberg.
No from a microwave engineering point of view, it’s possible to make it into an Apple Watch. You just have to use the micro-strip antennas instead of lumped component antennas.
I guess I'm not sure what you mean by "lumped component". No antenna is lumped element-- a lumped element is electrically small compared to wavelength and therefore can't be an antenna at all. I can't see what's inside the antenna bumps for the Go or the InReach, but I'd guess they're helicals to get directional gain-- which is why both models are always shown pointing at the sky.
Could you do that with a microstrip antenna? Yeah, kinda. Would it be efficient? Not terribly. The other limitation on the watch is power-- so any inefficiency in the antenna means more power required. Less directional antennas mean more power required. As far as I can tell, the only directional antennas in the phone are the UWB antennas. I don't think there are any in the watch.
What did you have in mind?
Excellent point. That watch weighs 3 times as much, and relies on land-based tracking. It also has an extendable antenna. I’m sure Apple will be adding that along with the stylus.
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So, a dedicated device that is 6 times bigger than a watch and does nothing else. Sounds like you agree this isn’t even close to happening.
Wasn't this rumor written about on MR a year ago? In any event, if something like this came to fruition, it could help save more lives, which is a good thing. I don't see this happening for several more years.
Last time it was the phone. Turned out that the media misunderstood how one of the frequency bands in some Qualcomm chip was used. So now the rumor mill went double or nothing on the watch.
There are two ways to do this, use the L band and utilize the watch band, or use Ka band and require an external attachment such as the charging cable assembly.
For SOS, I'd pick the former.
For iPhone and iPad, Apple can just use the Ka band with out any significant external attachment. Maybe a flip out bunny ear antenna.
Nah, people suggested that a big antenna was needed to do this SOS thing. This older Spot does it, and smaller devices can do it too. The Spot is about the size of a Smartphone.