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They really shouldn't be encouraging people to think of this as something that will help when lost in the wilderness (see the image on the page). There's a stro
by vosper 10y ago
They really shouldn't be encouraging people to think of this as something that will help when lost in the wilderness (see the image on the page). There's a strong possibility that there'll be no reception. That's a situation where you need an EPIRB-type rescue device.
- anon327 10y agoHow long does the phone run on these batteries? A much better solution would be something that recharges your existing phone. Solar or kinetic motion.
- Aelinsaar 10y agoI keep a charging "brick" in my car, and just top it up every month. In an emergency, I could charge my phone/tablet about a half dozen times. I figure that's a lot more useful to me in a genuine emergency I'm likely to experience, than this toy.
- Klinky 10y agoUp to 15 years is what they say. That is probably a very optimistic estimate, but I would not be surprised that it could do standby for a very long time on a single Lion AA cell, as there is no screen. Solar and kinetic charging are bulky and cumbersome. At this price point they would probably be shoddy and unreliable.
- anon327 10y ago> Solar and kinetic charging are bulky and cumbersome. At this price point they would probably be shoddy and unreliable. There are some portable solar panels that can charge up an iphone with a few hours. If you have that an external battery pack that should be sufficient - assuming you are somewhere with good seasonal sun coverage. There has been alot of advancements in kinetic charging. I mentioned in another post the Ampy Move device. Its basically an spare battery pack thats integrated with some new innovative kinetic energy generation tech that a team of Northwestern University PHD engineers developed. Very portable and they claim that an hour of activity (e.g., running / hiking) can generate 1 hour of smartphone use (they use the iphone 5c as the benchmark device). That's really good! They claim on their blog that by just shaking it for 10-15 minutes you can generate enough charge to power a dead iphone to ring up an uber. I imagine the same ideas apply for when you're out in the woods.
- Klinky 10y agoI tried a $20 solar USB battery pack combo device and it was pathetic. There are more expensive options that would probably work better. Not all emergencies are during the day or near powerful light sources. The Ampy Move is $100 and doesn't work. http://www.cnet.com/products/ampy-move/ http://www.cnet.com/products/ampy-move/
- bubuga 10y agoI don't know if you're a shill for the Ampy company, but you've dedicated yourself in this thread to paint a utterly unrealistic and false idea of the effectiveness of the Ampy Move gimmick. The device doesn't work for its intended purposes, apparently their makers bend over backwards to paint the product in a rosy picture, no one buys it, and a cheap dollar-store charger is more efficient and effective than the ampy gimmick.
- anon327 10y agoI'm just repeating what's on their website. You have no evidence that their device doesn't work. Thousands of Kickstarter backers, professional investors, and an entire team of engineers say otherwise. I don't know why people are downvoting me. Unlike other scandalous companies, this one is being led by an entire team of PHD engineers, not college dropouts.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoI was going to say this, having a phone is useless if you have not signal. There is some sort of "locator" feature which if it uses the satellite locater tech might be an ok combination beacon/phone thing. In the US at least every phone has to be able to dial 911 even if it doesn't have a plan (all it needs is a SIM card). Useful for having something in an emergency if you're on the road or some other place near cell service.
- robryk 10y ago> In the US at least every phone has to be able to dial 911 even if it doesn't have a plan (all it needs is a SIM card). I was under the impression that a SIM card is not required. Am I wrong?
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- enraged_camel 10y agoNo, you are correct. As long as you have reception, you can call 911. No SIM card required.
- kevin_nisbet 10y agoActually, the phone doesn't even need a sim card to make an emergency call. At least not in Canada, but I'm sure the US should be the same. If the phone is not connected to the network currently, it will do network hunting, and will be able to do an emergency attach to the first network it finds. This may also happen if your say out of coverage with your own provider, but can see signal from another provider, even if there isn't a roaming agreement. 911 get's interpreted by the phone in a special way, and the phone will flag the request as for emergency services when connecting to the network, so the network will treat it with priority. In theory, even if you can't be delivered a phone call, or the network is overloaded, emergency calls should still work, depending on exactly what the problem is of course. It's also something that at least here in Canada, get's tested fairly extensively, both on all the devices we sell, and the network equipment when deployed and each patch. * my views are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer.
- sakopov 10y agoAbsolutely agree. You want a satellite phone for true emergency situations in the wilderness. A good one will cost you around $500 and you just have to buy a temporary plan before your excursion. The sad thing is that this phone appears to be marketed as wilderness survival device but in all likelihood will do very little to get you out of backcountry without cell towers in the area.
- srdeveng 10y agoPlenty of Iridium VARs will rent you equipment; phones, SBD beacons, etc. for less. If you're truely going off the grid and want realtime coms available there is no alternative to Iridium. An EPIRB is great if you just want to be found.
- nateberkopec 10y agoI own a DeLorme inReach - ~$300 device with a ~$15/month plan. Runs on the Iridium network, unlike Spot's proprietary network. Also, inReach devices are duplex, and can send text messages to friends, family, and SAR teams.
- DanielDent 10y agoWhat makes Iridium's network less proprietary than Spot's network?
- srdeveng 10y agoSPOT uses Globalstar. Argument against Globalstar is that it is not a true polar to polar real-time solution like Iridium. Iridium is the only constellation where you will always find a bird overhead anywhere on the globe (with a ground station relay) Realistically, Iridium has occasional (~5min) signal gaps likely due to the aging constellation (based on my own use cases developing with a roof mounted antenna)
- Klinky 10y agoWhile probably better than relying on mobile towers, aren't satellite communications difficult with a dense forest canopy? Probably best that people be aware of the limits of their devices before heading out.
- anexprogrammer 10y agoIt's a phone for emergencies in built up areas. It strikes me as odd it's received so many awards. Then I learn it's offered on contract, OK only $25 a year, but peace of mind against what scenarios exactly? If you're on the edge of signal you'll lose data and voice then SMS last. Mainly because SMS is small enough to slip through in 1-5s intermittent connections. UK Emergency services and mountain rescue use SMS extensively, but backed up by other channels - radio, sat phone and what have you. So I could perhaps understand a cut-down text device, but voice? Hmmm. Even a 121.5 transceiver, cheap and AAA powered, would be a better idea.
- Klinky 10y agoThere have been events where power is lost for extended periods in developed areas. Hurricane Katrina would be a good example of people being trapped without basic services inside a major metro. Tornadoes, flooding, wildfires, and ice storms are other examples. A smartphone would last 1 - 2 days before going offline. Less if you used it actively. It might also get stolen.
- hga 10y agoTornadoes Speaking from very personal experience, as in I was living on a high spot in Joplin, MO right at the southern edge of the "zone of total destruction" when the 2011 tornado hit, one cell tower hit the stack of apartments to the east of me, and the other landed on part of the parking/access road area just to the west of me. ADDED: I forgot that the "before" picture I picked up (from the eeevil Daily Mail, this is one area where they excel), shows the original positions of the towers: http://www.ancell-ent.com/1715_Rex_Ave_127B_Joplin/images/ http://www.ancell-ent.com/1715_Rex_Ave_127B_Joplin/images/ From the perspective of the picture, east is up and a bit to the right, the towers fell up and more to the left (counterclockwise). But tornadoes have several saving graces, including that their path, even for an EF-5 monster like that one, is relatively narrow. As in I could walk beyond its effects, only a few blocks north, and while I can't remember if I had still had cell service while in my trashed apartment, I easily had it once I'd relocated to my mother's home ~15 block north of the path. 2 days later, I think it was, I was able to return, and by then AT&T? had a temporary cell tower running on a generator next to the spot of one of downed cell towers, using a point to point antenna to connect it to the rest of their network. This characteristic allows massive surging of resources to the affected area, e.g. as I left my apartment complex within 1-2 hours, fire trucks from 40 miles (Lamar, distance by road) and 21 miles (Quapaw tribe in Oklohoma, with which the city has a close relationship) were there and men were already suiting up to search the complex.
- sunshiney 10y agoAgreed! That said, I live rural and am a hop from primitive back country; have years of backpacking under my skirt. <lol> Decades ago, long before tech, I mastered a compass and topographic map -- and what you need with you when leaving for heaven-in-the-woods. I've never been lost. That's a skill, imho, that anyone going into back country needs to have. As I write this, I am remembering a friend who went solo elk hunting south of me, which a new emergency system. Around his evening fire, he leaned back on his pack, set it off, and the next thing he knew, he had helicopters hovering above, EMT-types hiking into his primitive site, and one very mad wife, who had raced out of her job to find him. Scared all the elk away... Recently, the strangest thing that happened to me was having a signal on a total wi-fi phone in a remote area while friend's verizon phone plan had no signal. This was an area where there were no houses ...just miles of land.
- art0rz 10y agoI've had WiFi signals in the middle of fields in Belgium and France while hiking, nothing around for miles except for a tree here and there, I check my phone and suddenly there's WiFi. I've seen two open hotspots with paywalls, too. I figured the closed ones must have been for some farm equipment or something, but couldn't find anything.
- Daniel_sk 10y agoWas it an Android phone? If yes, than that's one of the less known but not so rare bugs. Sometimes the WiFi network will be stuck in the "in range" state even though you are already too far away. It happened to me a few times (I could see my home network even though I was in a different country :-)). Trying to connect will fail. Switching Airplane mode on/off will fix it.
- art0rz 10y agoOn one occasion I checked if the network was still there when I walked back and it was.
- girvo 10y ago