Before the roaring brother broke the news to everyone, the iPhone 14 series may support the "satellite communication" function.
In simple terms, the iPhone can make emergency calls even in places that are not covered by the carrier's network, such as no man's land, mountains, deserts, etc.
Sounds great X, but it's not actually what you think it is. Bloomberg Mark Gurman believes that the next generation of iPhones is just developing two emergency-related functions:
One is to send an emergency message via satellite, code-named "Stewie", which can be sent through iMessage and SMS messages, and the emergency sms appears as gray bubbles, distinguished from the blue and green bubbles in normal times.
The second is to allow users to report critical situations such as aircraft crashes and fires, provide users with methods to report events in detail, and ask them about specific conditions, such as whether someone needs search and rescue services or specific conditions at the scene, and can also automatically send the user's location and personal information to the relevant departments through the "health" application, such as medical history, age, medication, height and weight.
In February, globalstar, a satellite communications company, announced a deal with an anonymous client to purchase 17 satellites to provide "ongoing satellite service," which Globalstar revealed had paid hundreds of millions of dollars. And this anonymous customer, most likely, is Apple.
At the same time, it was revealed that the new Apple Watch will also support satellite communication functions.
But even so, don't be under the illusion that your iPhone's signal will improve dramatically. As mentioned earlier, the current satellite communication function is only available in emergency situations, and the scope of use is also very limited due to the location of the satellite and local laws and regulations.
In addition, the speed of satellite communication is much slower than that of cellular networks, and even if it is open for use, it is impossible to achieve traditional functions such as browsing the web, watching videos, and brushing vibrato. Just look at what the current satellite phones look like:
Of course, Apple's ultimate goal is to deploy its own satellite array, like Musk's Starlink, to transmit data directly to the phone, but this plan may be realized many, many years later.
In case of emergency
Still very useful