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Apple's iPhone 14 Emergency SOS via Satellite Feature Saves Stranded Man in Alaska

redbeard331 said:
I remember that, a couple weeks before Apple announced the iPhone 14’s I stumbled upon the story of the missing German tourists here in Southern California. It’s pretty horrible, and was pretty sobering considering I’ve been to Death Valley several times and plan on going again soon (That’s where they disappeared).

When I saw the keynote and Apple said they will be bringing satellite calling to the iPhone 14’s I couldn’t help think of how something like this would have saved their lives. And next time I go to a place like that I’m bringing some extra battery packs as well to keep the phone charged just in case. Not only is there no cell coverage in Death Valley outside the area at the visitors center, there’s no service anywhere remotely near the park. The whole desert up there is extremely desolate and remote. I once got lost for a short while in Joshua Tree and night, and it’s terrifying once you realize you don’t know where you’re going and are lost.

The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans

This is the tale of what for me was a rather remarkable adventure. It was assembled on the basis of my personal recollection and experience, emails, GPS logs and some official documents. It represents solely the perspective and opinions of myself, in my more lucid moments. It is in no way...
www.otherhand.org www.otherhand.org
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I have extensively read up on this story, have been near where they died (near the Charles Manson hideout), and often travel offroad in Death Valley. The blue line is one of my GPS tracks, and the red marker waypoints are locations of discovered items and remains from the German Party. On the bottom left, east of Sourdough spring, is the Manson hideout. Death Valley is a unique and beautiful place, but also a bit creepy, like danger lurks for the unwary...

Screen Shot 2022-12-01 at 9.19.59 PM.png



The other Death Valley story that finally convinced me to get a Garmin inReach was this:

sierrawave.net

What Happened to the Tucson Couple Missing in April in Words of Survivor Emily Henkel

Finally, thanks to one of our readers, Kristine MacKenzie, who was so affected by the story of the missing couple from Tucson in Death Valley in April, that she
sierrawave.net sierrawave.net
 
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bmustaf said:
You cannot replace the baseband/cellular SoC with a software update, man.

The Pros come with the X65 that has the baseband and antenna design and hardware needed to do this, this isn't just a software trick...
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It’s not just the Pro, the lower 14 models have satellite SOS too.
 
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I travel a lot between British Columbia and Montana, as well as engage in many off grid activities. This feature is wonderful engineering. I’m glad Apple is still innovating and setting the bar for everyone else.
 
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BobSc said:
OMG. How very sad to read a comment like this. You know nothing of the circumstances. And arguing about people's preparedness is NOT what this thread is about. For whatever reason, he's stranded. It's done. He happens to have a new iphone and uses an incredible new tool from Apple to save his life. That's what this thread is about. It's about Apple and it's technology. It's not for so many to use any and every thread as an opportunity to spew your own personal agenda about anything and everything not pertinent to the thread.
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I’ve lived in the bush region of Alaska. I’ve known many who’ve spent their entire lives in bush Alaska, living completely off the road network. I’ve never known anyone to willy-nilly set out into the wilderness on a snowmachine without knowing what they are doing. This is many people’s primary mode of transport. Many people in the bush transit from village to village, or from village to a camp, or whatever, very routinely. I can almost guarantee you this dude’s forgotten more about driving a snowmachine in the wilderness than most people will even ever know.

Accidents happen. I hope you never need rescue or recovery, but that when you do, it’s available however it can be provided.
 
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Propine said:
Why did volunteers and not 911 came to save him?
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911 is a phone number you dial. Dispatchers who answer 911 calls dispatch whatever assistance is required. Often in rural areas that assistance is provided by highly trained professionals who happen to be volunteers. As a former 911 dispatcher in Alaska, I took calls covering an area of about 24,000 square miles. We had state troopers, a few city police departments, a few paid fire departments, a few volunteer fire departments, state wildlife officers, state forestry, volunteer search and rescue, all over the area, in dozens of agencies. Which agency we dispatched depended on the nature of the call and the exact location of the caller. At the time I worked there, we also had several highway roadside call boxes which people on the road could use to call for assistance. They were two-way radios, not phones, and predated the advent of mobile phones. By the time I worked there most people had mobile phones, but every now and again I took a call from the call box.
 
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JapanApple said:
Are people supposed to pay for emergency services when the SOS rescue team later? Apple hasn't outlined this
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Usually an ambulance ride or a helicopter ride will cost, but this is billed by the agency that responds. It’s not the dispatcher’s job to quote costs, which usually are determined by the distance transported, nor can they be expected to get into those sorts of things. Apple cannot know this information; there are literally thousands of organizations that could be contacted to be involved in a search and rescue effort.

If you don’t want to pay, don’t avail yourself of the ambulance and die, I suppose.
 
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JPSaltzman said:
.... only if you have an iPhone 14. What are the chances?

Sorry, but to me the "proper" thing to do would make this a software feature, and available to ALL iPhone users who were running OS 16. As it is....
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This is literally a whole new piece of radio hardware that exists inside the iPhone 14 and no earlier phones. It can’t be a software feature any more than updating the OS to provide a snack vending machine or a vacuum cleaner.
 
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iluvcrap2000 said:
"Stranded". He should have prepared going out there. Not Rely on the Phone. If the environment is Hostile he should have the gear needed to Survive. Make a Fire, shelter, have food ect.. Think People living there going out everyday Don't prepare for events? Bah.
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“People in ER should’ve been more careful”

You know emergency services exist even when you could’ve been more careful to avoid the emergency?
 
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JapanApple: My apologies. I may have misunderstood. The agencies that provide the actual search and rescue services and the transportation and the level of life support needed during that transportation all factor into any potential cost. Apple doesn’t have this information nor can they, it’s just too variable.
 
iluvcrap2000 said:
"Stranded". He should have prepared going out there. Not Rely on the Phone. If the environment is Hostile he should have the gear needed to Survive. Make a Fire, shelter, have food ect.. Think People living there going out everyday Don't prepare for events? Bah.
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Maybe he had all of those things, but if his snowmobile breaks down, car dies, horse collapses, a person still need a way out. Survival gear by definition helps you survive until help arrives. Sheesh.
 
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iluvcrap2000 said:
"Stranded". He should have prepared going out there. Not Rely on the Phone. If the environment is Hostile he should have the gear needed to Survive. Make a Fire, shelter, have food ect.. Think People living there going out everyday Don't prepare for events? Bah.
Click to expand...
Assuming this is even real, it’s not like it’s not easy to run out of all of the above. A fire and shelter with 2 days worth of food ain’t gonna save you from the snow. What are you gonna do? Melt it all while waiting for the next person to come along so you can eat them after you both run out of food? Or wait, just bring along a spare bobsled and a Siberian Husky wherever you go!
 
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well........Ronald C Schoedel III​

"JapanApple: My apologies. I may have misunderstood. The agencies that provide the actual search and rescue services and the transportation and the level of life support needed during that transportation all factor into any potential cost. Apple doesn’t have this information nor can they, it’s just too variable."​



(Semantics )
No, apple needs to make it clear. In the apple presentation in Sept, they outlined the service and future cost users (the satellite service.) But the rescue from obscure locations with no provider service was never explained ( user ). yes, it's life or death to one using the service so cost isn't important.
 
MacRumors said:
The feature is free to use for two years, and Apple has not yet provided detail on how much it will cost going forward.
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Imagine in two years someone who saw the commercial, bought the iPhone, doesn’t know it’s only free for two years and is stranded in the middle of nowhere freezing to death goes to use the Emergency SOS:

“Sorry, that will be $19.99.”

“Sorry, this purchase can’t be made because you are not connected to the internet.”

Dead.

—

Hopefully the way this would work is it will warn you that they’re going to charge you $19.99 to your Apple ID and let the SOS go through. You’d hope Apple would think of this, but they also didn’t thinking about roller coasters and skiing for crash alerts, so you never know. Everything is service to them, and therefore everything is a source of revenue.
 
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I am really glad that the stranded person was able to get help and kudos to Apple for developing that feature.

Where people here might disagree is this: I would have been even more impressed if Apple had collaborated with the public authorities and other manufacturers to make this available more widely.

Access to the emergency services on a multi-purpose device that most of us carry every day should not be restricted to a single manufacturer, nor should we have to duplicate the infrastructure behind it depending on whether you have an iPhone or a Google or Samsung or whatever device.

Still, good stuff!
 
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