3 ms·
Ok, but having these emergency features on a regular phone, with free service (I think for two years when you buy a phone) is a game changer.
by johnwalkr 3y ago
Ok, but having these emergency features on a regular phone, with free service (I think for two years when you buy a phone) is a game changer.
- lxgr 3y agoI'm not denying that it's a very cool and useful feature! But it is, in the end, an almost prototypical Apple feature: Making something that's been technically possible, but mostly a niche feature, mass-market accessible. Again, very cool and I love having it on my phone, but I just wouldn't call it an Apple invention.
- renewiltord 3y agoI wouldn’t call it an iridium invention either. The military has been using satellites to send messages before Iridium.
- lxgr 3y agoDefinitely, but Iridium was the first constellation offering 100% global coverage using inter-satellite links, and as far as I know they also pioneered the "bulky cell phone" form factor (as opposed to briefcase- or backpack-sized terminals).
- renewiltord 3y agoYeah, some incremental improvements on existing technology for sure. Definitely worth that credit.
- lxgr 3y agoIt was an absolute marvel of technology for its time, in my view. I think they really were the first to do in-space inter-satellite routing. If you call one Iridium phone from another, the call will never touch any earth-side infrastructure (after call setup). And they've been the only ones doing that until Starlink recently launched inter-satellite links. All of that in 1998, when everybody else was still doing "bent-pipe" style satellite communications, and putting things into space was still prohibitively expensive!