Electronics

[gardenman]

I like watching Apple's presentations. Today they're showing off their new watches, earbuds, and phones. The way they rave about their new stuff and how vastly improved it is always has me wondering how bad their old stuff was. It's an interesting sales technique. Constantly dissing the stuff you raved about the previous year, while you rave about the new stuff is an interesting approach. 

[Kachina624]

I just heard a consumer report on TV that said the "guts" of cell phones has changed very little over the years.  I wonder what they've improved?

[Mz iMac]

It's good to know on my next Mount Everest mountain climbing, I can now SOS a satallite on an iPhone in case of an emergency.

[geezerette]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

I just heard a consumer report on TV that said the "guts" of cell phones has changed very little over the years.  I wonder what they've improved?

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Emojis. 😒

[gardenman]

The satellite thing seems a bit more complicated than I thought it would be. You have to constantly track the satellite for the time (several minutes) it takes to send the message. That's a bit clunkier than I thought it would be. I wonder how well it works in bad weather also. 

[On It]

I am excited about the satellite and the crash features. Traveling the remote areas of West Texas and New Mexico sometimes leaves us without cell reception.

[Mz iMac]

How does the "crash" feature know the difference between that & a dropped phone tumbling down stairs, cement sidewalk, etc.?

[Meowingkitty]

Just ordered a new watch and on Friday I will be ordering two new phones. One for me and one for hubby. That's my birthday and Christmas taken care of. Shopping is done.

[gardenman]

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@Mz iMac wrote:

How does the "crash" feature know the difference between that & a dropped phone tumbling down stairs, cement sidewalk, etc.?

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I would guess it combines GPS data showing travel speed and an accelerometer showing the g-force. If you just drop the phone you're unlikely to be traveling at thirty to eighty miles per hour when you drop it. If I was writing the software I'd look first at GPS data over a period of time, say the previous thirty seconds, and determine if the phone was moving above a certain speed, say thirty miles per hour before experiencing a high g-load. The combination would tell you if the phone was in a car and in an accident, or just dropped. It would also distinguish between the just dropping the phone in the moving car as if the car kept moving it could assume there wasn't an accident and the phone was just dropped in the moving car.

[Mz iMac]

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@Meowingkitty wrote:

Just ordered a new watch and on Friday I will be ordering two new phones. One for me and one for hubby. That's my birthday and Christmas taken care of. Shopping is done.

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@Meowingkitty