is there proof of this? Sounds simple in theory, but in practice, can it be done?
I am sure Apple has thought of this 10 days to Sunday before announcing this feature...
Last edited:
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Bloomberg: Apple Working on Emergency Satellite Features for iPhones, 2021 Launch Unlikely
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I am sure Apple has thought of this 10 days to Sunday before announcing this feature...
Depends on the hashing algorithm, I guess. The one that people “found” is not the actual one that Apple will use. May not be easy to fool the neural hash. But the easiest way to disable it is just to turn off photo syncing. Presumably if you are a criminal you don’t need to synchronize your criminal files between your criminal devices.
Distress beacons and text messaging are two very different things. It is one thing to have satellites listening for distress beacons which contain little more than location information, it is quite another thing to provide RX and TX to and from satellites and phones. The link you provided is about monitoring for distress beacons, not providing two way comms.
Which has been my point all along! Read my other posts on this subject, such as post #50.
Again, a coup for Apple if that comes to being.
Last edited:
I'm okay with this. As long as you can turn it off. And it's good to have a couple of Cliff bars handy, especially if you're not quite prepared to eat little woodland creatures. Oh and maybe some water too. A healthy human can live for days without food, but can't make it more than 2 or 3 days without water.
Funny coincidence for me: I often find that I can get lost and found again with a first class plane ticket. I'm sure I could do it in coach too, but then I'd have to have people breathing all over me. 😬
Well, I don't care about Android phones. I don't trust anybody to do the right thing. They had women painting aircraft dials with radioactive paints at one time. It was pushed as being healthy...until many of the women started losing their hair and teeth, and dying miserable deaths.
And then there's Lenovo and Sony. Nobody would sell you a device with rootkit code on it, that's just crazy talk! And nobody is worried or concerned at all with Microsoft's Windows 10 telemetry. More fake news!
And the tobacco companies never EVER denied that their products were killing people. The US carmakers NEVER tried to claim that they didn't need seat-belts.
Oh no, we can trust EVERYTHING EVER RELEASED to consumers!
You have completely misunderstood the point here.
Nobody here is asking for a way to "block" Apple's abilities. My concern is false accusations based on false positive tests. You have nothing to be worried about.
Well, unless you are one day falsely accused of doing something bad because you have pictures on iCloud that look like something else entirely.
And if you don't believe me, just have a look at these photos that look completely different than they seem. Tell me now how your eye can be fooled but an algorithm would be perfect all the time without any false-positive results. Don't worry, they're safe for viewing in mixed company or at work.
Worrisome … in combination with your Apple Watch and its fall detection, you would just have 60 seconds not to trigger an emergency cascade … hiking somewhere is becoming really amazing … and who pays for false alarms? I mean these remote rescue operations are not coming cheap … helicopters and stuff … *)
*) Text might contain sarcasm
*) Text might contain sarcasm
You do on O2, I'm with EE and they promise the earth and give you very patchy coverage where I live, and still no 5G. The UK is so far behind its not even funny anymore, its just sad. 5G coverage here really is bad unless you move to a major city and then its not the milliwave flavour of 5G it's 800Mhz. EE also say they will get more than 50% of the population by 2023. I wont hold my breath as I bet that target will slip. Where I live wont get FTTP until 2026 either. That's the price for living in rural location that isn't profitable. Apple adding satellite abilities to an iPhone is something that wont happen outside the US for years, if ever. And Starlink gets blocked by pigeon poop in the UK as birds think the dishes are bird baths. I just hope the dish does not think its snow and try to warm it off afterwards, warmed bird poop is a smell I never want to experience!
Last edited:
You say they're not searching on device and then say "your devices compares a cryptographic hash of the photo". How is that not on device? That's all done on the device, using up CPU power, battery power, storage and RAM. Also, what about all the images someone might already have uploaded to iCloud? Are Apple just going to scan new images or will a freshly updated iOS 15 device trawl through all your photo library on your device checking every single image is kosher?
Indeed - if you are the unluckiest person to get lost in the UK you can only 'achieve' a maximum of 70 miles from 2 coasts. Even then you would find yourself in a village in Derbyshire that has 2 pubs to calm your nerves!
Well you can thank all those people who object to masts being erected for that. Literally thousands of mast planning applications never go through due to local objections to the planning permission. And those same idiots are usually the first to complain of having not mobile coverage. In regards to FTTP that's purely in the useless government and Open Reach / BY. Too many palms being handsomely greased for them to plan a proper national rollout. You need to ask your neighbours to pay towards FTTP then write letters to literally beg for the government to give you a voucher, to cover the majority of the cost of installation, and don't forget that's tax payers money, your money, that is used for other parts of the country to have FTTP for free.
Yes successive governments and incredibly greedy corporations have seriously held back U.K. communications I have to say.
My sisters family went to the Lake District the other week for holiday, they live near Southampton, they stayed in a hotel overnight on the way up cause it was a long trip? I laughed so hard.. remembering the U.K. is only about 600 miles in total length! And it's probably what 200 250 miles to the Lake District from where they are. You think of the US, Australia, the distances they travel. Yes we are a small island. They managed to make it back in one day though.
Because he literally said it would be in the 13 but it’s clearly not. Not saying they’re wrong-wrong but surely they’re not the iPhone prophet people hype them to be
You only turn it on as a last resort, when you run out of options, waiting to accept inevitable death.
As just one simple example...I'm reminded by ordinary people (tourists, not skilled hikers) who visit Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California, and from not being prepared bringing enough water die in 120 degree heat. There's little to no cellular service there. Having a robust built-in emergency notification system in your phone could save lives, there and countless other remote places where there is no cellular service.
Assuming the rumors are true (I believe they are), many people will purchase a new iPhone just for having that built-in feature. Apple had a nice 3% bump in the market yesterday, this *could* be why.
Last edited:
Oh, you'll pay. After you pony up for the subscription and it doesn't work, Apple will say you're holding it wrong and you need this $100 case (its more expensive because, LOOK! Lickable satellites!) to make it work.
This is the second "Antenna-gate" reference I've made this week. It holds up, and it's deserved....
It’s on device but ITS NOT A SEARCH.
And anything you already uploaded has been searched this whole time. Just like every other cloud provider has been doing this whole time. To comply with the law.
You are simply wrong and clearly don't know the full details.
other companies only monitor the content when i is uploaded to their servers (using software).(it's their servers, their responsibility)
Apple is going to perform these searches continuously on the user's device,flags them by the software already installed on device, then (Apple claims) if such content is uploaded to their servers, the software reports it for further inspection (to human side).
Apple claims if people disable iCloud photos, reporting won't go ahead.
but regardless of disabling iCloud,the search WILL CARRY ON ON DEVICE.(it just won't be reported according to Apple)
That's the huge difference and why so many privacy groups, security groups and such are very concerned about Apple's aggressive move and not others.
this is not a childish Android vs Apple fanboy debate,so if you want to act immature and ignore facts then I have nothing else to say to you.all these facts are out there,it's up to you to do your research.
I've been using iPhones since iPhone 4 buying the new model almost every year,and I've had few Android flagships as work phone too.I know the pros and cons of both.
privacy was the main reason I used iPhones for my personal use all these years.and now that's gone.
This is from Stratechery :
You are simply wrong and clearly don't know the full details.
other companies only monitor the content when i is uploaded to their servers (using software).(it's their servers, their responsibility)
Apple is going to perform these searches continuously on the user's device,flags them by the software already installed on device, then (Apple claims) if such content is uploaded to their servers, the software reports it for further inspection (to human side).
Apple claims if people disable iCloud photos, reporting won't go ahead.
but regardless of disabling iCloud,the search WILL CARRY ON ON DEVICE.(it just won't be reported according to Apple)
That's the huge difference and why so many privacy groups, security groups and such are very concerned about Apple's aggressive move and not others.
this is not a childish Android vs Apple fanboy debate,so if you want to act immature and ignore facts then I have nothing else to say to you.all these facts are out there,it's up to you to do your research.
I've been using iPhones since iPhone 4 buying the new model almost every year,and I've had few Android flagships as work phone too.I know the pros and cons of both.
privacy was the main reason I used iPhones for my personal use all these years.and now that's gone.
This is from Stratechery :
How is this relevant to the subject matter of this MacRumors story?
There are unfortunately lots of cell signal dead spots even on major interstates. I carried a SAT phone for years when riding my GoldWing all over this country "just in case". It was used just once when a rider went down. Made a difference for the rider.
Having an emergency capability in either Canada or Mexico would also be most useful.
Having an emergency capability in either Canada or Mexico would also be most useful.
I have been considering getting one of these sattelite communicator devices for emergency use when mountain biking or photographing in areas with no phone signal - having this technology embedded in my iPhone would be a great solution for me!
This seems like a very niche feature. Though when it is needed it will be very useful.