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Apple may probably launch Satellites to provide for Apple devices to directly communicate

RedRound2

I know the title is a little clickbaity, but it seems true and something Apple's been working on for a while

 

Source: https://ww.9to5mac.com/2019/12/20/apple-in-space/

 

Quote

Within 5 years, Apple could send data to your iPhone directly from the Earth’s atmosphere. At least, that appears to be its goal according to a new report from Bloomberg.

The company is said to be hiring software, hardware and aerospace engineers to find new methods of data transfer for the iPhone and its other fleet of consumer products.

 

The way the state of affairs is described in Bloomberg’s published story today is that Apple is interested in the domain, but doesn’t have a clear path forward yet. The company has supposedly set internal expectations such that meaningful results from the group are about five years away. Bloomberg notes that “work on the project is still early and could be abandoned”, but Tim Cook has seen satellites as a company priority.

Possible outcomes could include reducing the need for carrier relationships if Apple could beam information directly using a fleet of satellites in the sky. It may also have applications for Apple Maps initiatives.

 

So, this can go a couple of ways. I like the fact that Apple is the first one to use it for differentiating their services and it's only good news for Apple users. Stuff I can think over the top of my head includes, location tracking of a lost iPhone even if's switched off (just the new radio required turned on) or if data is off. 2FA without depending on ther internet or SMS (the latter one of which is extremely unsecure). And of course being independant of carriers and governments for critical periods of time where they can just be evil (like Internet shutdowns happening in some parts of India due to protests). And securing all networks that would've normally relied on carriers, which we all know have always been unsafe and not encrypted

 

On the flip side though, companies like Google and Amazon won't be far behind. And they don't have nearly as great trackrecord of privacy. And while Today most of our data is just spread between different major organization, one company, like Google having access to all our data is just a recipe for bad news, further down the line. And Google does tend to have their services work better due to extreme personalization they do to make consumers not care too much about privacy (like google assistant and alexa vs siri being the prime example).

 

So I don't know what to exactly think about this.

 

Anyway if Apple ends up scrapping this project (which I hope they won't because Apple ecosystem is quite amazing and they have a lot of potential with this and I trust them to do it in the right way), someone will eventually do it, so it's inevitable regardless

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Personally I feel more regulation of how we as a planet use up the very limited space around the planet. It is already becoming cramped and full of detritus in certain orbits and currently there is not an easy way to clear it up.

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Many companies either have their own satellite or rent bandwidth off commercial ones, not really news or a big deal.

 

Apple sending their own up is just like everyone else doing it.

 

Not sure how having your very own satellite is more secure, the data can be breached on various other ways or connection points.

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Sounds like an even more expensive alternative to eSIM

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Not gonna happen. Even Apple will be too expensive for Elon. They charge 1,000 dollars for a monitor stand. How much do you think they'll charge for a fucking satellite?

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apple are seriously trying to go for the most walled off walled garden ever. i fail to see how this is good for apple users

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10 minutes ago, Arika S said:

apple are seriously trying to go for the most walled off walled garden ever. i fail to see how this is good for apple users

What do you mean by walled garden? Are you talking about unable to load apps outside the app store? That's what the walled garden is. Just becuase Apple offers more service and ease of life using their devices, they're just improving their platform and more users are opting to stick with Apple. That's not walled garden. That's just one upping the competiton in ways other comapnies can't as easily do, due to their vertical integration of hardware and software.

 

So yes, it's great news for Apple users, because it means more benefits and features for us, until of course the competiton gets their act together and copies. Already in iOS 13, stuff like offline device tracking is something only Apple can realestically do right now

46 minutes ago, Lorant said:

Many companies either have their own satellite or rent bandwidth off commercial ones, not really news or a big deal.

That's for a whole other purpose. Non of those satellites are communication devices for millions and millions of devices

46 minutes ago, Lorant said:

Apple sending their own up is just like everyone else doing it.

 

Not sure how having your very own satellite is more secure, the data can be breached on various other ways or connection points.

Your analogy is like saying that Apple should just opt for AWS and Azure instead of using their own servers for all iOS and macOS related services, as it wouldn't make any difference.

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4 minutes ago, RedRound2 said:

What do you mean by walled garden? Are you talking about unable to load apps outside the app store? That's what the walled garden is. Just becuase Apple offers more service and ease of life using their devices, they're just improving their platform and more users are opting to stick with Apple. That's not walled garden. That's just one upping the competiton in ways other comapnies can't as easily do, due to their vertical integration of hardware and software.

 

So yes, it's great news for Apple users, because it means more benefits and features for us, until of course the competiton gets their act together and copies. Already in iOS 13, stuff like offline device tracking is something only Apple can realestically do right now

That's for a whole other purpose. Non of those satellites are communication devices for millions and millions of devices

Your analogy is like saying that Apple should just opt for AWS and Azure instead of using their own servers for all iOS and macOS related services, as it wouldn't make any difference.

Yep, that's what I am saying.  Apple doesn't have better security or components than anyone else.  Why not use what's there?  It's not like people are having issues not connecting or services are not working because not enough satellites.

 

Your comments about it being good for Apple don't hold water as their isn't a detriment to how things are currently.  It just kind of looks like Apple wants its own satellites just cuz.  Probably to charge more for things, cuz their infrastructure increased.  Like the lightning cable, charge more for something special that wasn't needed at all.

 

 

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I can see it now. Apple will be third to the low orbit satellite show yet will sue all of them for stealing their ideas. They will have been the first person to ever think of using low orbit satellites to provide internet connectivity!

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3 minutes ago, Lorant said:

Yep, that's what I am saying.  Apple doesn't have better security or components than anyone else.  Why not use what's there?  It's not like people are having issues not connecting or services are not working because not enough satellites.

Obviously it does make a difference. You're not dependant on someone else. Apple would get complete A-Z control on the way it's implemetned. Moreover a third party company wouldn't have access to all thei million and million of devices. Obviously, companies would all die to have the privledge of being the proxy to communicate with all Apple devices

3 minutes ago, Lorant said:

Your comments about it being good for Apple don't hold water as their isn't a detriment to how things are currently.  It just kind of looks like Apple wants its own satellites just cuz.  Probably to charge more for things, cuz their infrastructure increased.  Like the lightning cable, charge more for something special that wasn't needed at all.

And how does this become detreminetal to somebody else? All i can see is improving their feature set and capabilities of their devices. And lighning? In the days of MicroUSB lightning was definitely much better and needed. 

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