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iPhone 14 Users Get Free Emergency SOS via Satellite for Another Year
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yup, and I bought a 14 last year and now I bought a 15. does my old 14 stiil have sat service for the next owner ?
The answer is listed above: The software block would be removed by Apple, thus allowing you to sign up and access the satellite service immediately. I imagine a message would pop up saying, “Press confirm to turn on SOS and send your emergency message. Once your message is sent, Apple will charge your Apple ID $X for a 1-year subscription to SOS.”
This would be analogous to when you arrive at your hotel, at the airport, or on an airplane and try to use the internet immediately after connecting to the Wifi network. Internet access is blocked (even though your laptop, phone, or iPad has the necessary hardware) until you agree to terms of service, which often involves paying.
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Imagine having just crashed your car after sliding off into a ravine, waking up only to find your doors are wedged and you can't get out, you're dizzy and bleeding somewhere, not sure where, and you're in the middle of no where. You pickup your phone and try to connect, and you're prompted to run thru some enrollment screens asking you to confirm your card information and read something to acknowledge what, sorry hard to read because of the bleeding.. and only knowing they're supposed to hold their phone up aaaaaand they pass out. RIP. Sorry couldn't enter your billing information quickly enough.
I agree with you - I think the public relations disaster from only a single person dying needlessly could cost Apple more in reputational / brand damage than they would generate in revenue from offering a paid SOS service (there’s also the ethical quandary of denying someone a lifesaving service).
Apple should find a way to offer free SOS to everyone who owns an iPhone.
I am missing what entirely? I never said Apple should charge for the service nor that the complaints about the possibility of Apple doing so are necessarily unjustified.
Welcome to MacRumors, where a company with significant assets is expected to give services away “unless they want people to die”.
Eventually you just learn to tune it out.
That said, it would be a good PR move to give it away for free but in no way do I expect them to. It’s probably expensive as hell.
This part--
People aren't complaining about paying for a "free service" when it's clearly been marketed as a feature of the iPhone itself, a safety feature even.. Not like a Camera feature or something. And as I noted here, I'm only ½ retracting my opinion on all of this. Considering Apple's longstanding dedication to Safety & Privacy, one would assume something like this would continue to work after an arbitrary amount of time.
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Failure to plan doesn’t make Apple suddenly responsible for your loss.
If you fail to hold insurance, either car or medical and something happens, you assume that risk. Not the insurance company for making it “time consuming” to enroll when the worst happens — and end up canceling the policy right after it serves you.
Here in Illinois where I'm at, having Car Insurance is the law. Medical Insurance gets taken out of my pay check. Insurance Companies won't let you file a Claim for something if it happens when you DON'T have insurance and are trying to sign up.. We're not talking about insurance on the phone. This is a Safety Feature that's built into the phones that will be turned off. Most folks won't even know it's something they should/could/would pay for, and again, will most likely only find this out when they've crashed their car or become stranded somewhere. That's not a "Failure to Plan". I bet folks with an iPhone 14 Pro are probably assuming this will work for them on their vacation next Summer, but will it? Will they even know they have to plan for this and sign up (given Apple provides an option to do so)?
It seems to be a common trope that iPhone users somehow become babbling idiots when an argument needs to be made that a particular feature ought to be free / cheaper. When the iPhone first got Touch ID? Robbers are going to go around chopping our fingers off. When Face ID was introduced? Thieves can now magically replicate my face for the cost of a few dollars of materials gotten off amazon. When AirPods were released? They would be snatched out of users' ears or dropping onto train tracks left and right.
But somehow, you never see the same “concerns” being raised when the competition does it.
And now, users are apparently incapable of assessing their own risk and managing what may possibly be a subscription service in the future. Despite similar services already being available for some time already. Terrific.
Just admit you all want the service to be keep free indefinitely because you all don’t want to pay a single cent for it, similar to the ram debacle in the other thread. Nobody here cares two hoots about whether some imaginary fellow ends up in a dangerous situation in some imagined future and can’t SMS for help.
I don’t rely on mobile when I’m in the woods and still keep a Map in my car. In Sweden we do have very well marked trails. In US you have really famous routes like Appalachian Trail. In Sweden you can’t get such diversity of nature.
Three years with new phones would be nice, now that three year plans for phones are more common.
If and when the subscription lapses, that will be on the customer to set up payment. Telling Apple to “just make it free so they don’t have to worry” is just lazy. Ideally, Apple would warn users ahead of service expiration to add a payment method so there’s no lapse in service.
I’m not someone you can argue personal responsibility with. Many, many people would love to make their problems that of the company, especially if it means they can shrug liability for damages.
Yes, pure greed. They should do the honourable thing and follow Qualcomm’s lead:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...opy-of-apples-satellite-sos-after-ten-months/
I said people are complaining about the possibility of Apple charging for it in the future i.e., after the "free trial" period is over. They are not complaining that Apple is currently offering it for free.
Saying a built in feature meant to save lives is somehow related to "a common trope" where people "somehow become babbling idiots" is ultimately just a super crappy thing to say about anyone having to do with any topic at all. ALL of your comments should immediately be dismissed due to your apparent lack of common sense.
Ummmm, no. As I noted earlier in this thread, I have NO PROBLEM paying the maximum amount for the "Everything" option. I pay way too much money every month to have Apple Fitness+ go unused. But I pay because I want the iCloud storage space along with everything else. Including this as a SAFETY FEATURE with AppleCare+ or iCloud +++ or whatever, I'd pay... Just as I continue to. Don't tell me what I'd want to pay for. This is a ridiculous thing to say. I feel bad for you that you'd assume people are that crappy.
Don't even TRY to tell me or anyone else that this BUILT IN FEATURE doesn't save lives. It does. See here, here, and here for just some examples. And BOY am I glad Apple cares about things and we're not left for this to be decided by folks willing to say THIS to everyone. Help People? F U! Yeah, I'll stick with Apple on this and hope to help people rather than take your stupid response.
Hopefully! Instead of leaving it to the fine print.. This has already proven to save lives. No reason to just NOT still help save lives, right?
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Does this feature work with a cellular Apple Watch that does not have service activated ?
Considering the markets Apple likes I would guess that outside of the USA/Canada and Australia this service is borderline useless.
Still, quite interesting markets and more than enough to get business moving.
When Apple announced the SOS via Satellite Feature for iPhone 14, did they say it was a subscription service? I cant really remember, but it seemed to be marketed at the time as a feature that you get for purchasing the newest iPhone, not a service that you would have to pay for in the future. Thoughts?