With iPhone 14, Apple introduced Emergency SOS via Satellite, which lets users contact emergency services in places where there’s no…
Why does this feel like an ad
9to5 Mac is by virtue of the name very celebratory of Apple things.
Focus more on the tech saving people’s lives.
its saves nearly every month a person . before it was apple accident detection feature before that it was apple watch and so on .
Tech like this helps people in more subtle ways, too.
I bought an Apple Watch to monitor my heart rate because a symptom of something I was diagnosed with was it could cause it to speed up. When my doctor decided to take me off the meds that kept it lowered, it was only thanks to the data from my watch that she put me back on it - she didn’t believe me when I said my heart rate felt like it had started going too fast and I was running out of breath too easily after she took me off them (she pointed to blood test numbers as “proof” I didn’t need them anymore), then I pulled out my phone and pulled up the app that collated the data from my watch, and showed her the giant spike in numbers after she took me off the meds.
Then she went, “…ah,” and put me back on the heart meds. She wouldn’t have otherwise.
It’s a genuinely good feature, we’re going to continue seeing positive stories like this as more people use it in life threatening situations.
Because it is. Apple does this shit all time and it’s enfuriating. Especially considering Android offers exactly the same feature so there’s no “thanking” a brand when both major platforms do this. People just lap it up though.
I really was hoping that we won’t see these stupid ads here and they’re left on Reddit.
“emergency service personnels rescue people thanks to Radio” you will never see headlines like this
When Android does the same thing but the article calls out Apple specifically. It was a thing constantly on Reddit, but why wouldn’t we expect it here too? Fanboys of Apple are happy to peddle their wares everywhere.
his brother’s girlfriend’s cousin
Stories that start this way are always super credible.
I’d upgrade my iPhone just for this feature. Unfortunately, it’s not available yet where I live.
In my country, we have people missing in dessert on daily basis. Thankfully, many are found by volunteers with the help of last known location or by if sharing their trip plan before leaving.
This feature would save their lives.
The other option is to buy satellite phone which cost $300/mo just to keep it for emergencies.
Or you know, just get a dedicated gps device like Inreach for a a few hundred $ one time + gps plan as you need. I wouldn’t rely on my iPhone for truly expedition like situations you actually plan for.
It’s not the case people get lost or missing because they don’t have a gps.
They mostly do have a gps but either they get injured (falling in a well or between rocks) or their car breaks down / get stuck.
Yeah I didn’t mean gps as in navigation, Inreach is a dedicated satellite communicator. I meant I wouldn’t trust an iPhone for emergency communication if I plan to go somewhere extremely remote
The other option is to buy satellite phone which cost $300/mo just to keep it for emergencies.
No it’s not, there are other, much more affordable options, such as https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/837461/pn/010-06003-SU
I didn’t know such products existed. I don’t even think they’re available in the middle east.
The prices of satellite phone have came down lately to $1000 for the device and $60 per month for the service and call cost range between $5.5 to $8 a minute.
It’s operated by asia satellite co.
It’s not spying… actually it’s to send your location one time upon your request. And you need to manually aim your phone.
Id not be surprised if one time location send would take 3-5% of the battery as it’ll take 15-60 seconds to transmit you location.
The satellite is 1400km away so not your average 3km cellular tower.
I mean, the connection to the satellite is already barely powerful to send a few bytes of text.
As a 911 operator, I hate the SOS function and it has just gotten worse. Between this and the “car crash” detection, I spend 40% of my work day tracking down false alarms, often at the expense of using resources for actual emergencies. If I ever meet the person who decided to turn on the SOS function by default, I’m going to punch them squarely in the nose.
