Emergency SOS via satellite • Hacker News Board

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#91

Post by lotsofpulp » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 3:29 PM UTC

binarymax wrote: post #89

It's not clear whether this is for US/Canada customers, or if it only works in the vicinity of the US and Canada. If I'm a US customer but am stranded in the middle of Africa, will this work?

> Emergency SOS via satellite is available in the US and Canada starting today, November 15, and will come to France, Germany, Ireland, and the UK in December.

I take this to mean the service itself only works within the stated countries. I wonder if it would work in overseas US territories like Samoa.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#92

Post by vikR0001 » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 3:29 PM UTC

How can a little iPhone possibly have enough power to transmit data all the distance to a satellite?

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#93

Post by avian » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 3:29 PM UTC

braymundo wrote: post #16

tyingq wrote: post #4

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 bet Kirk's communicator couldn't even play games, so it's wilder. :)

If it did, Scotty would be working on an adtech backend, Bones would be researching ways to make games more addictive and humanity would never have left Earth.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#94

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 3:32 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #4

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.

[deleted]

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#95

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 3:32 PM UTC

tony_cannistra wrote: post #7

I'm glad to see that they at least talked to some IRL dispatchers for this press release, which hopefully suggests that they've been doing it all along. But really, I desperately hope that we can find a way to educate folks on the proper usage of technology like this (which, if you count things like the Garmin inReach and the Spot devices, has been available for a decade). They're undoubtedly life saving, but they al…

[deleted]

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#96

Post by dagmx » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 3:36 PM UTC

sschueller wrote: post #37

Quoted post unavailable.

I go on tons of casual-mid level hikes near a major Canadian city. It’s incredibly frequent to have areas with clear sky visibility and no cell service.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#97

Post by zikduruqe » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 3:36 PM UTC

vikR0001 wrote: post #92

How can a little iPhone possibly have enough power to transmit data all the distance to a satellite?

Space isn't that far away. It's only 60 miles.

I've communicated via LEO satellites using only 1 watt of power from an handheld radio.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#98

Post by goda90 » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 3:36 PM UTC

braymundo wrote: post #16

tyingq wrote: post #4

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 bet Kirk's communicator couldn't even play games, so it's wilder. :)

When watching sci-fi movies and TV, I often wonder what happened with the development of gaming, social media, and virtual reality in the timeline of the show. It seems like in most of the cases where they actually get mentioned in sci-fi, it's kind of dystopian.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#99

Post by bmicraft » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 3:37 PM UTC

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #26

Centrino wrote: post #5

The article doesn't mention which satellites or which satellite provider is used. But Apple invested $450 million in Globalstar. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/11/emergency-sos-via-sat...

I was really wondering what kind of satellite-based emergency SOS they were using -- mostly because I'd never heard of it until it was being shipped in a commercial product, which is something very rare to see. So basically, they have their own infrastructure for their own proprietary 911 service with global coverage? It's really amazing that we live in a world where we can have such infrastructure, but at the same t…

> So I guess all this infrastructure also allows Apple to pinpoint down any user worldwide -- even if they're off-grid.

Well, they could do that in the past - GPS works (almost) everywhere. They'd just have to wait with sending the data back.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#100

Post by nickcw » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 3:37 PM UTC

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.