chinacat
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AAPL Long since 2006
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Post by chinacat on Aug 28, 2021 5:36:37 GMT -8
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chinacat
Moderator
AAPL Long since 2006
Posts: 4,429
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Post by chinacat on Aug 29, 2021 5:42:45 GMT -8
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chinacat
Moderator
AAPL Long since 2006
Posts: 4,429
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Post by chinacat on Aug 29, 2021 18:25:03 GMT -8
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4aapl
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Post by 4aapl on Aug 29, 2021 21:36:33 GMT -8
Our connection does pretty well, and the places that it doesn't just makes you remember the times before cell phones, such as how you had to plan to meet someone at a specific time and place. Still, there's enough dark places in the backcountry here that for the Tahoe Rim Trail, crew leaders often have to have radios. And that does make more complexity, such as while band they are going to be on, having a backup one in case a boat launch area or ski resort is using that one, and knowing how to talk with emergency services with them (often Camino, which is real close to the big Caldor fire that is giving us smoke most days and making some people in South Lake Tahoe have to evacuate). And on a hike/run with the family a couple days ago, there was a ~1/2 mile dead spot on the 1.5 mile trail, which just make it tough to text my son (who was running) to have him tell my daughter to turn around when he passed her while heading back. Nothing earth shattering. But it would be useful. Likewise, my wife just did a hike on the John Muir Trail. Verizon didn't have service for most of it. AT&T did better, but still had big blank sections. Their friend had some satellite texting technology, but then she had to drop out. They went old school, and started passing notes to people going the other direction, asking them to text us (the families at home) when they could. Most roads do pretty well these days, though there are still a few dead zones around, like some miles here and there on 395 headed down through CA. National parks are often huge dead zones. Yosemite and Death Valley. I can't remember if Yellowstone was the same. It's just something that they have decided, that they don't need to support adding cell towers on their (our) land in order to support cell service. I understand, to a point. But having enough reception for emergencies would be helpful. We'll see what comes out. It doesn't seem to me like something that would come on all models, but I guess it all depends on cost, battery life, and size/weight, along with if they want to use it as a selling feature.
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Post by CdnPhoto on Aug 30, 2021 3:23:27 GMT -8
During a disaster, when the cell towers are out, this would be very handy. I have a friend who travels to some remote regions of the world to go fishing he carries a Sat Phone. This would replace that.
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4aapl
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Posts: 3,632
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Post by 4aapl on Aug 30, 2021 9:41:57 GMT -8
During a disaster, when the cell towers are out, this would be very handy. I have a friend who travels to some remote regions of the world to go fishing he carries a Sat Phone. This would replace that. I don't know the capacity of the satellite system. While at least some cell towers have good backup systems, even without damage they can get overloaded in an emergency. I would think the satellite system would have an ever harder time, if it went from nearly 0 to massive use during an emergency. Apple would think of this. An ideal way would be to allow basic texts for free, a low monthly cost (plan, similar to insurance, say a buck a month), or a relatively low instant monthly cost (no plan). But also allow normal satellite talk plans. Offhand this seems a bit of a stretch for this time around, similar to when rumors jumped up a few weeks before an iPhone announcement (7 or 8 maybe?) about the micro projectors. But we'll see.
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