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GPS has always been available to get location information even offline. What you usually don't get at the user end is a map of where you are because maps apps d
by rtkwe 4y ago
GPS has always been available to get location information even offline. What you usually don't get at the user end is a map of where you are because maps apps don't cache or download automatically. I've installed OSMAnd+ and downloaded a lot of maps to avoid that and I wish Google Maps or Apple Maps made it easier to download a large swath like you can with OSM. (you can even download POI to still be able to do some searching for places if you don't have an actual address)
As for infrastructure I think Verizon is doing something similar with Starlink and there are multiple possible satellite constellations that could be connected too Apple is just the first to include what I think has to be a new radio or radio component.
- brookst 4y agoI believe it is T-Mobile and Starlink, though very early stage (just a press release[0] about "a vision to give customers a crucial additional layer of connectivity" that "aims to work" with existing phones, far as I can tell). And yes, the Apple announcement is just the productization of a feature in the Qualcomm X65[1]. But I think this is a case where the technical implementation is the easiest part; I would be surprised of other X65 adopters also delivered satellite comms, at least unless/until it's obvious it's driving phone purchasing decisions. [0] https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobile-takes-coverage-above-and-beyond-with-spacex https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobile-takes-cove... [1] https://9to5mac.com/2022/09/18/iphone-14-satellite-connectivity-qualcomm/ https://9to5mac.com/2022/09/18/iphone-14-satellite-connectiv...
- rtkwe 4y agoI think it depends massively on how much it costs the company to provide. If it's just a chip and a bit more software I think companies will include it. It's not clear from the press reports if the money Apple spent on building up base stations for this are just for them or if the satellite providers could use them for other companies phones.
- totalZero 4y agoKnowing Qualcomm, there's probably a major royalty cost involved. If Apple spends $450 million to enable the service [0], that's about $2 per phone sold in 2021 [1]. [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/10/apple-spending-450-million-with-globalstar-others-for-satellite-texting.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/10/apple-spending-450-million-w... [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-11/apple-expects-to-sustain-iphone-sales-in-2022-as-market-slows https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-11/apple-exp...
- lxgr 4y ago"Band n53" has been widely reported in the context of various iPhone satellite rumors, but I still believe that this was actually just bad reporting: Band n53 is essentially terrestrial LTE/5G usage of Globalstar's global spectrum rights in a band that was previously designated for ground-to-space usage. Whatever the iPhone 14 is using to talk to the Globalstar satellites, I'd be extremely surprised if it looked anything like LTE or 5G at the physical or logical layer. [1] https://investors.globalstar.com/news-releases/news-release-details/globalstars-band-n53-qualcomms-x65-modem https://investors.globalstar.com/news-releases/news-release-...
- drozycki 4y agoI remember reading that they are in fact using n53 2.4Ghz. Remember this is a fallback for areas without cell service, and a satellite signal is much weaker on the ground than any terrestrial signal.
- lxgr 4y agoGiven that it's a two-way service, and Globalstar satellites use the 2480-2500 MHz range for downlink transmissions, it must be using 2.4 GHz, yes. But my point is that this probably has very little to do with Globalstar's terrestrial band 53 efforts, other than possibly sharing some HF hardware in the new iPhones given that they support both that terrestrial LTE/5G band and satellite messaging.
- Scoundreller 4y ago> I wish Google Maps or Apple Maps made it easier to download a large swath like you can with OSM. Google Maps on iOS let’s you choose squares on the planet and download offline maps. Open the app, click your initial at the top right and you’ll see Offline Maps in the drop-down. Driving directions only though. But you can search for POIs and it will navigate you there. Or you can look at the maps/streets. I use it regularly in USA and Europe when I don’t have a data plan there. Or when I’m low/out of data in Canada because Canadian telecom sucks. Or when Rogers shits the bed. I also have Kiwix with full copies of Wikipedia (about 85gb) and a few other resources. And a small solar panel so when doomsday hits…
- rtkwe 4y agoYeah I've used that in the past on Android and it's been very sketchy. The app will seemingly let the map expire and if I don't remember to check every time I go up to the mountains where I need it I'll usually get stuck without a working up to date map. It also doesn't seem to hold that many POI locations so I'm stuck just navigating to the right town and hoping I get signal eventually to find the actual place I'm going. OSMAnd+ however just keeps the data even if it's older so I'll always have at least some street data.
- Scoundreller 4y agoThe maps used to expire after 30 days, but is now 365 days. I agree: it’s arbitrary and unnecessary. It does background refresh but unsure how great it is. Right know my maps expire with different dates between July and November 2023, so I guess it’s keeping up to date enough.
- rtkwe 4y agoMaybe it's better now I have haven't travelled much this year and after downloading the OSM data I haven't bothered with offline google maps because I have all the roads and more already.
- anthk 4y agoWith OSMAND you just dl provinces/states from a menu and it's done.