191–200 of 479 posts
Interesting to see the hidden in the fine print at the end. Will they be selling a subscription to the service?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does InReach require a monthly cost? Alternatively, you can spend about $200 one time on a personal locator beacon that requires no ongoing costs. It can't do two-way communication but activating it sends out a specific frequency picked up by satellites and is the equivalent of calling 911. Rescuers will come to help you. All serious hikers and outdoor adventurers should carry a personal locator beacon.
Any personal locator beacon recommendations? It's one of those items that I could very much use during bike touring, hiking, and bikepacking... but I've never bought one because it seems like a very large cost for something I won't even test until it is a matter of life and death. Out of curiosity... is there any way to alert your local emergency department in advance of testing a beacon, so you can verify that it wo…
These devices require a new battery every few years and that service includes a test done by the manufacturer. There is also a self test button on the device which does not send a message to the satellites.
If you really feel the need to send test messages into space, they do support that but then you need a subscription (https://www.acrartex.com/406link/). At that point you may as well buy a different device which has 2 way messaging included in the subscription. PLB users generally do trust that their devices work the first time they're used for real, and this trust is backed up by a lot of real world use.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
yeah band 53 via the Qualcomm X65 modem you can pretty much tell what an iphone will be able to do based on what qualcomm is currently able to do
> LTE Band 53 is a part of the TDD (Time Division Duplex) LTE spectrum that requires only a single frequency band for both the uplink and downlink. LTE Band 53 has a frequency range from 2483.5 - 2495 MHz with a bandwidth of 11.5 MHz. From: https://www.everythingrf.com/tech-resources/lte-bands/lte-ba... Quite impressive they can receive that on the satellite with 1W (guess) of power and a not very directional antenna…
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/images/product/iphone/standar... - Shows the screen you'd see.
What sort of link does the phone use? 5G?
yeah band 53 via the Qualcomm X65 modem you can pretty much tell what an iphone will be able to do based on what qualcomm is currently able to do
Strictly speaking, if that were the case then the iPhone 13 would have been able to do it. [0]
The technology (Band 53/n53) and the timeline (end of 2022) are mentioned in the Sep 2022 SEC filing of the agreement between Globalsat and Apple. [1]
[0] https://www.semianalysis.com/p/no-the-iphone-13-does-not-hav...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have to point the phone at the sky for long periods of time AND track the sat position in the sky while you do it. It's probably some long spread spectrum approach (lots of processing gain), as well as I'm sure a bunch of other cool tricks/techniques.
Does anyone know how they track the position of the communication satellites? I assume they use GPS for the users position, the gyro and accelerometer for device orientation, and then periodically load and update the LEO sat paths on the device when they are connected. Or is the antenna able to estimate LEO position via a signal the LEO sats sends out?
Just need the x,y,z, compass and gps coordinates.
From the small print > The service will be included for free for two years starting at the time of activation of a new iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max. Which kind of implies it will be a pay for service after two years.
Much more likely they'll just add P2P messaging as a paid feature.
Groundbreaking? Hardly.
As someone who grew up in the era before mobile phones, it truly is strange to see devices that do roughly everything Captain Kirk's communicator could do. But in my lifetime, and available to average people.
I find it amusing that Star Trek didn't anticipate communicators or tricorders having a flashlight function like our phones do. When they need lights, they either carry special-purpose ones or shoot a rock with a phaser to make it glow. Generously, maybe someone did think of it, but it would have been too difficult to make a prop with a bright enough light source.
I can see the communicator on the chest being used as a flashlight with the powerful LED we have today.
But 90s TV show prop departments would probably have had one hell of a time trying to make that work, and practical, so instead they gave everybody futuristic looking flashlights aka "palm beacons" [0]
I think this would imply the path is very well beaten.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can do 1/3 with my iPhone already using the lidar and 3/3 with attachments.
I don't remember anyone using a tricoder saying, "hang on. i need to switch attachments to do the thing."
