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Apple has apparently used a very very high gain (i.e. highly directional) antenna. That's how they got around having that big external antenna found on competit

Apple has apparently used a very very high gain (i.e. highly directional) antenna. That's how they got around having that big external antenna found on competitive hand-helds. I quite like the idea of aiming it by hand using software as the guide.

vageli 4y ago
> Apple has apparently used a very very high gain (i.e. highly directional) antenna. That's how they got around having that big external antenna found on competitive hand-helds. > I quite like the idea of aiming it by hand using software as the guide. In the event of an emergency, fumbling with my phone to find service sounds like a nightmare.
- reaperducer 4y ago
  But it will probably reduce the number of casual pranksters. Also, difficult-to-use is better than zero connectivity, which is the current situation.
  - kylehotchkiss 4y ago
    The tens of thousands billed for a frivolous rescue request probably will stop the casual pranksters too, getting a helicopter out to wherever you're stuck isn't a free service. If you're really out in remote places often, you probably know this well enough to get rescue insurance.
    - ar_turnbull 4y ago
      Actually it depends. In Canada, many rescue services are free (North Shore Vancouver is a well known one here) as well as in the National Parks (the cost is essentially insurance paid for by the park pass fee) and many provincial parks. There is an argument that pay for rescue causes people to hesitate to call and that can lead to worse outcomes and/or more dangerous rescue scenarios.
      - happyopossum 4y ago
        There is also an argument that free rescues lead to reckless behavior and worse outcomes, because if the worst happens you can always get a chopper to pick you up….
    - JohnFen 4y ago
      In my state, the bill will be in the five or six figures -- but if you were legitimately in real danger, they will usually opt not to charge you. If you called them by mistake or as a prank, you'll pay.
      - GekkePrutser 4y ago
        And rescue insurance would not cover pranks either by the way. So be careful :)
- TillE 4y ago
  I don't know what the current state of the art is, but it sounds considerably easier to use than old satellite phones. Plus you don't have to lug around a satellite phone.
  - detaro 4y ago
    It sounds worse than current dedicated emergency beacons (which afaik usually are both satellite uplink and lower-frequency beacon), and I'd expect many/most people using them today will continue to carry them. But many people don't, and even if you do it is another fallback.
    - oceanplexian 4y ago
      I carry an InReach mini in my airplane when flying over wilderness areas. Unfortunately I don’t think I could trust the iPhone. With the Garmin you can press one button and it’ll send out an emergency beacon without having to aim it.
      - ar_turnbull 4y ago
        To be fair I barely trust my InReach either. Overcast days, canyons, and any kind of tree cover consistently result in delayed or failed messages. And even if they report as "sent" on the device sometimes the recipient doesn't get them. And for a dedicated device, the tracking feature is laughably bad with worse accuracy than my friend's watch. Better than nothing in case of emergency but the reliability leaves a lot to be desired.
        detaro 4y ago
        Are the messaging and emergency functions the same with those? For emergency beacons there is also a ~400Mhz frequency that is monitored independently (vs satellite communication at higher frequencies)
        GekkePrutser 4y ago
- dewey 4y ago
  > In the event of an emergency, fumbling with my phone to find service sounds like a nightmare. It doesn't have to be perfect, compared to the current alternative of 1) Having nothing to fumble around or 2) Be one of the few people with a full on expensive satellite phone I think it's a valuable addition. Similar to how Chase Jarvis said "the best camera is the one you always have with you", this is also the case for emergency equipment.
  - midasuni 4y ago
    The other option is 3) a satelite distress beacon, but most people don’t have them
- midasuni 4y ago
  If you’re in the middle of nowhere and have an emergency where seconds count, you’re dead anyway. This is the difference between rescue in 2 hours and 2 days (or even 2 weeks). Spending 5 minutes finding the transmitter isn’t a problem if you’re stuck with a broken leg. If you’re struggling to control critical bleeding or are doing CPR and are on your own (thus you can’t spend the 5 minutes finding a signal) then you’re screwed anyway.
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    In my state, emergency services point out that if you use an emergency locator such as a Garmin, you should expect that it may be a couple of days before rescue comes anyway. It depends on exactly where you are, of course.
    - midasuni 4y ago
      Matthew Power and his expedition had a proper kit, satellite phone, etc. They tried getting helicopter evacuation but even that took hours he didn’t have.
sbierwagen 4y ago
Those large external antennas are high gain. Gain is a function of antenna area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_(antenna)#Effective_area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_(antenna)#Effective_a... Apple's antenna can only be smaller if it's lower gain. I would bet they're making that tradeoff because they don't need as much bandwidth. (Emergency pings could be measured in dozens of bytes, let alone kilobytes or megabytes.)
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  The Aperture and Gain section of that article says that gain refers to the directivity of an antenna > antennas with large effective apertures are considered high-gain antennas (or beam antennas), which have relatively small angular beam widths.
- DesiLurker 4y ago
  I wonder if there could be a bluetooth (or connected) high gain antenna attachment for the new iphone they could sell as accessory.
  - Brusco_RF 4y ago
    None of the RF ports come out to a connector so no that couldnt really work. You CAN get high gain antennas for things like your WiFi router, it's my goto when an elderly relative complains about their wifi range. You can't actually increase power with an (inactive) antenna but you CAN change it's radiation pattern. The higher gain omnidirectional antennas just take a radiation pattern that looks like a sphere (0dB gain) and squashes it into a donut shape. So you get more range laterally around the antenna at the expense of less above and below it
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
oceanplexian 4y ago
Maybe Globalstar needs a big antenna, but Iridium doesn’t. I have a Garmin InReach with a 1 inch antenna and it works fine without any antenna pointing antics.
- turtlebits 4y ago
  I'd rather have no exposed antenna, no subscription fees and no separate device. For emergencies, having to point at the sky isn't a big deal.
  - dougmwne 4y ago
    But it IS a big deal! There’s been a lot of research into emergency UX. Basically, it needs to be dead simple or people die. In an emergency, people are usually panicked, injured or in shock. The tool needs to do its thing simply and effortlessly to cut through the panic and confusion of a real emergency. I have an avalanche transponder that is one big button because when you friend just got buried under 20 tons of snow and rocks, you have the leftover brain for one button. From the demo, I think Apple is very aware of this which is why they give you a series of canned prompts. They’ve probably already used up a significant cognitive load by having you point the phone for signal that having you type as well was considered dangerous.
    - ehzy 4y ago
      There's also the fact that canned prompts use dramatically less data.
  - omniglottal 4y ago
    Note SOS service is just free for 2 years.
- jsjohnst 4y ago
  > I have a Garmin InReach with a 1 inch antenna and it works fine Your definition of the word “fine” is apparently rather generous. Be in an actual emergency situation and the InReach is down right frustrating as hell, but “better than nothing”. I don’t have optimism for Apple’s offering either for the record.

vageli 4y ago

> Apple has apparently used a very very high gain (i.e. highly directional) antenna. That's how they got around having that big external antenna found on competitive hand-helds. > I quite like the idea of aiming it by hand using software as the guide. In the event of an emergency, fumbling with my phone to find service sounds like a nightmare.

reaperducer 4y ago
But it will probably reduce the number of casual pranksters. Also, difficult-to-use is better than zero connectivity, which is the current situation.
- kylehotchkiss 4y ago
  The tens of thousands billed for a frivolous rescue request probably will stop the casual pranksters too, getting a helicopter out to wherever you're stuck isn't a free service. If you're really out in remote places often, you probably know this well enough to get rescue insurance.
  - ar_turnbull 4y ago
    Actually it depends. In Canada, many rescue services are free (North Shore Vancouver is a well known one here) as well as in the National Parks (the cost is essentially insurance paid for by the park pass fee) and many provincial parks. There is an argument that pay for rescue causes people to hesitate to call and that can lead to worse outcomes and/or more dangerous rescue scenarios.
    - happyopossum 4y ago
      There is also an argument that free rescues lead to reckless behavior and worse outcomes, because if the worst happens you can always get a chopper to pick you up….
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    In my state, the bill will be in the five or six figures -- but if you were legitimately in real danger, they will usually opt not to charge you. If you called them by mistake or as a prank, you'll pay.
    - GekkePrutser 4y ago
      And rescue insurance would not cover pranks either by the way. So be careful :)
TillE 4y ago
I don't know what the current state of the art is, but it sounds considerably easier to use than old satellite phones. Plus you don't have to lug around a satellite phone.
- detaro 4y ago
  It sounds worse than current dedicated emergency beacons (which afaik usually are both satellite uplink and lower-frequency beacon), and I'd expect many/most people using them today will continue to carry them. But many people don't, and even if you do it is another fallback.
  - oceanplexian 4y ago
    I carry an InReach mini in my airplane when flying over wilderness areas. Unfortunately I don’t think I could trust the iPhone. With the Garmin you can press one button and it’ll send out an emergency beacon without having to aim it.
    - ar_turnbull 4y ago
      To be fair I barely trust my InReach either. Overcast days, canyons, and any kind of tree cover consistently result in delayed or failed messages. And even if they report as "sent" on the device sometimes the recipient doesn't get them. And for a dedicated device, the tracking feature is laughably bad with worse accuracy than my friend's watch. Better than nothing in case of emergency but the reliability leaves a lot to be desired.
      - detaro 4y ago
        Are the messaging and emergency functions the same with those? For emergency beacons there is also a ~400Mhz frequency that is monitored independently (vs satellite communication at higher frequencies)
        GekkePrutser 4y ago
dewey 4y ago
> In the event of an emergency, fumbling with my phone to find service sounds like a nightmare. It doesn't have to be perfect, compared to the current alternative of 1) Having nothing to fumble around or 2) Be one of the few people with a full on expensive satellite phone I think it's a valuable addition. Similar to how Chase Jarvis said "the best camera is the one you always have with you", this is also the case for emergency equipment.
- midasuni 4y ago
  The other option is 3) a satelite distress beacon, but most people don’t have them
midasuni 4y ago
If you’re in the middle of nowhere and have an emergency where seconds count, you’re dead anyway. This is the difference between rescue in 2 hours and 2 days (or even 2 weeks). Spending 5 minutes finding the transmitter isn’t a problem if you’re stuck with a broken leg. If you’re struggling to control critical bleeding or are doing CPR and are on your own (thus you can’t spend the 5 minutes finding a signal) then you’re screwed anyway.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  In my state, emergency services point out that if you use an emergency locator such as a Garmin, you should expect that it may be a couple of days before rescue comes anyway. It depends on exactly where you are, of course.
  - midasuni 4y ago
    Matthew Power and his expedition had a proper kit, satellite phone, etc. They tried getting helicopter evacuation but even that took hours he didn’t have.

sbierwagen 4y ago

Those large external antennas are high gain. Gain is a function of antenna area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_(antenna)#Effective_area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_(antenna)#Effective_a... Apple's antenna can only be smaller if it's lower gain. I would bet they're making that tradeoff because they don't need as much bandwidth. (Emergency pings could be measured in dozens of bytes, let alone kilobytes or megabytes.)

squeaky-clean 4y ago
The Aperture and Gain section of that article says that gain refers to the directivity of an antenna > antennas with large effective apertures are considered high-gain antennas (or beam antennas), which have relatively small angular beam widths.
DesiLurker 4y ago
I wonder if there could be a bluetooth (or connected) high gain antenna attachment for the new iphone they could sell as accessory.
- Brusco_RF 4y ago
  None of the RF ports come out to a connector so no that couldnt really work. You CAN get high gain antennas for things like your WiFi router, it's my goto when an elderly relative complains about their wifi range. You can't actually increase power with an (inactive) antenna but you CAN change it's radiation pattern. The higher gain omnidirectional antennas just take a radiation pattern that looks like a sphere (0dB gain) and squashes it into a donut shape. So you get more range laterally around the antenna at the expense of less above and below it
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

oceanplexian 4y ago

Maybe Globalstar needs a big antenna, but Iridium doesn’t. I have a Garmin InReach with a 1 inch antenna and it works fine without any antenna pointing antics.

turtlebits 4y ago
I'd rather have no exposed antenna, no subscription fees and no separate device. For emergencies, having to point at the sky isn't a big deal.
- dougmwne 4y ago
  But it IS a big deal! There’s been a lot of research into emergency UX. Basically, it needs to be dead simple or people die. In an emergency, people are usually panicked, injured or in shock. The tool needs to do its thing simply and effortlessly to cut through the panic and confusion of a real emergency. I have an avalanche transponder that is one big button because when you friend just got buried under 20 tons of snow and rocks, you have the leftover brain for one button. From the demo, I think Apple is very aware of this which is why they give you a series of canned prompts. They’ve probably already used up a significant cognitive load by having you point the phone for signal that having you type as well was considered dangerous.
  - ehzy 4y ago
    There's also the fact that canned prompts use dramatically less data.
- omniglottal 4y ago
  Note SOS service is just free for 2 years.
jsjohnst 4y ago
> I have a Garmin InReach with a 1 inch antenna and it works fine Your definition of the word “fine” is apparently rather generous. Be in an actual emergency situation and the InReach is down right frustrating as hell, but “better than nothing”. I don’t have optimism for Apple’s offering either for the record.