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Emergency SOS via satellite

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Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#221

Post by ghostpepper »

MarkMarine wrote: post #141
alphakilo wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Echoing others, I don't think this will have a huge impact as iPhone SOS is a last resort for those who are unprepared Garmin inReach is a robust and rugged satellite communicator that out classes iPhone emergency SOS greatly - inreach doesn't require "tracking" the satellite as it has a stronger antenna - inreach is more waterproof, dust proof atd shock resistant (no touch screen) - inreach has higher battery life,…

I don’t see the market for a high end dive watch without air integration, but with the UX they have. The people that don’t care about AI dive with a perdix or tables, but basically require something you can operate with gloves on. The rest of them with the money for a nice watch really want AI.

"perdix or tables" those are starkly different options. do you know a lot of people who still dive with tables?

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#222

Post by swores »

dpkirchner wrote: post #171
swores wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Besides, even if this feature only saves a single life, seems worth it to me. Not that I think it will only save a single life, but if that really were the full extent of its benefit that of course it wouldn't be worth it - think of the millions Apple have spent on R&D plus the (presumably tiny but it adds up when selling millions of devices) extra cost per device - there are many ways that money could have been sp…

This seems somewhat contrarian -- what changes can Apple make to their iPhones that could save millions of lives?

That doesn't seem relevant to the question of whether it's worth spending a huge amount of money on saving a single life?

When I talked about spending money as a PR move I meant non-product related, the way companies donate to charities, or do charitable research, or hell they could've even invested in for-profit health startups that would have a higher expectation than saving a single life.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#223

Post by MarkMarine »

ghostpepper wrote: post #221
MarkMarine wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t see the market for a high end dive watch without air integration, but with the UX they have. The people that don’t care about AI dive with a perdix or tables, but basically require something you can operate with gloves on. The rest of them with the money for a nice watch really want AI.

"perdix or tables" those are starkly different options. do you know a lot of people who still dive with tables?

Yeah, like everyone that dives with GUE, I plan my dives and dive tables and a bottom timer.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#224

Post by blablabla123 »

Hippocrates wrote: post #207

Apple is building up a nice portfolio of life-saving features. Currently we have fall detection, a-fib detection, crash detection, satellite communication. These are all solid value-adds and differentiators from the competition. I'm not sure if they amount to a strong selling point for _everyone_ yet, but I'm sure that's where Apple is headed. I am extremely bullish on Apple's ability to measure health signals in the…

Yeah I was planning to buy no more Apple products but they do something really right with the Watch and the iPhone. If you've ever been in a situation where you need help it turns out it's on the practical side not so easy

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#225

Post by ghaff »

DMell wrote: post #206
ghaff wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's probably a difference between one-time purchases and committing to a subscription service (on a device that is also more expensive). If I did a lot of remote solo hiking, I'd probably feel I needed to spring for it, but I haven't as things stand.

>on a device that is also more expensive An InReach Mini costs roughly $300 while a Spot device costs less than $200. An iPhone 14 is $800.

More expensive than the avalanche probe, shovel, and beacon. I was responding to the following:

"You'd be shocked at the number of people who carry their beacon, probe, shovel, etc but not an InReach or Spot device."

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#226

Post by MarkMarine »

JadeNB wrote: post #155
amscanne wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parent comment is referring to the iPhone 14's ability to reach emergency services via a satellite network; this is indeed something special.

I was confused, because the parent comment says: > For Emergency services there is no “activate and pay later” because you don’t need to activate, and you don’t need to pay. If you have an iPhone 14 it’s supposed to just work if you’re calling 911. The Emergency SOS seems explicitly to require activation, and to have a cost (eventually): > The service will be included for free for two years starting at the time of ac…

It doesn’t require “activation, ” you try to call 911 and when you don’t have signal, the phone sends an emergency text message to the satellite network.

Just read up on the feature, if you’re curious.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#227

Post by sevenf0ur »

wstrange wrote: post #21

This is really going to eat into Garmin's Inreach market (ditto for Spot, Zoleo, etc). It says free for the first 2 years. I'm curious what the yearly cost will be after that, and how it will compare to an Inreach plan. On an ongoing basis, it's the subscription fees that really add up.

I have both an inReach and an iPhone 14. Haven't made a decision yet myself if I will keep it. Some pros for the inReach:

1. It's nice to have a backup. 2. The battery life on the inReach is upwards of a month and it's more rugged. 3. You can throw it in your pack, forget about it, and somehow it stills gets a signal. 3. Garmin has a dedicated communications center (IERCC) that has tons of experience coordinating with first responders. They will keep your emergency contacts updated about your rescue. Apple's system is less proven.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#228

Post by giobox »

ingalls wrote: post #201
COGlory wrote: post #123

I was just on the ground coordinating with 4 friends that got buried in 5+ foot of unexpected snow in the mountains (forecast said 1"-2" when they went up) for the rifle opener in Montana. I wound up getting sick so I stayed home (hilariously I was the only one who got an elk) but I sent them up with my InReach. All I can say is THANK GOD that I did, because it turned into over a week long effort to get them out. Two…

First off, super glad to hear your friends are out of the field safe. Want to address one point however: "The SOS button is very expensive. Extremely expensive" In my experience on multiple SAR teams (Search and Rescue), this is almost never the case in North America. Search and Rescue is one of the few services that is almost uniformly free [1]. Thousands and thousands of volunteer hours every year keep it that way.…

While this is great to know, the SOS button is still fundamentally potentially a completely open-ended liability if you haven't taken Garmin's 30 buck annual insurance option for it. Even with that, you are only capped at $50k to best of my knowledge. Your Utah example illustrates this.

In a real SOS situation the cost is likely immaterial, but I can absolutely understand why people would wait a bit longer than they should before pressing.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#229

Post by taylorbuley »

I was digging up and replacing a piece of my well-line, in the dark because that's always when my well line breaks, and my phone accidentally called the police through what must have been some serious jostling. The dispatch seemed understanding, and used the opportunity to verify that my phone connectivity was coming from where it said I was. Later that night, two sheriffs show up around midnight to make sure that everything was OK. It was the first time that I felt like my personal technology was really doing its own thing without me.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#230

Post by rtkwe »

Scoundreller wrote: post #204
rtkwe wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I've used that in the past on Android and it's been very sketchy. The app will seemingly let the map expire and if I don't remember to check every time I go up to the mountains where I need it I'll usually get stuck without a working up to date map. It also doesn't seem to hold that many POI locations so I'm stuck just navigating to the right town and hoping I get signal eventually to find the actual place I'm g…

The maps used to expire after 30 days, but is now 365 days. I agree: it’s arbitrary and unnecessary. It does background refresh but unsure how great it is. Right know my maps expire with different dates between July and November 2023, so I guess it’s keeping up to date enough.

Maybe it's better now I have haven't travelled much this year and after downloading the OSM data I haven't bothered with offline google maps because I have all the roads and more already.
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