Apple is extending Emergency SOS via satellite for an additional free year for existing iPhone 14 users.
  • Deceptiveideas@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Imagine the PR if someone died because they didn’t/forgot to renew their satellite subscription 💀

  • opp0rtunist@alien.topBEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    This should stay free. Apple should swallow the cost.

    It’s one of those things fairly unique on iPhone and it would just be bad optics to say “oh, sorry. your phone will have this life-saving software disable if you don’t pay up”

    • Direct_Card3980@alien.topBEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      Yeah the first time someone dies because they haven’t paid their Apple subscription will look very bad.

      • JJsjsjsjssj@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        But plenty of people died before this was a thing, and plenty of people have died after they introduced it because they didn’t have the latest iPhone or because they have an Android. This is a non-argument. No one would take this headline seriously. How would it even come to be? Would journalists check every person that dies from that point on, and try and discover if they could have been subscribed to this service?

  • fourthords@alien.topBEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    I do a lot of driving, often in and through rural or remote areas, and knowing this is in my back pocket has been some great peace-of-mind for my wife and I. It’s the reason I upgraded to a 14 this year.

    However, I’d completely forgotten it was a free-for-a-limited-time thing. I’d’ve subscribed to it, if reminded that I’d needed to, but I appreciate the extra free time.

  • Nicenightforawalk01@alien.topBEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    I don’t think it’s something I would subscribe to after the free trial. I think Apple knows this as well, that’s why everyone is getting it free for another year.

    • Tim_Watson@alien.topBEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      I don’t think Apple is ever going to stop giving it out for free because it would cost them a lot more in bad press if just one person died.

      • IC-4-Lights@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        because it would cost them a lot more in bad press if just one person died.

        Then they should really just charge through the nose, but pay-per-use.

    • tiagojpg@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Amen to that, why would the average Joe get this as a separate subscription? They’re not giving us more GB in the plans, so at least give that to the public. I’m on an iPhone 11 but I support everyone else getting it.

      • rotates-potatoes@alien.topBEnglish
        0·
        10 months ago

        With Garmin you pay €19.99 for this per month

        With Garmin you pay ~$20/mo for a very different service. I use inreach to send and receive text messages to family when I’m offroading. I can send them locations I’m at, casual chats, and check in that I’m OK.

        I fully expect Apple to offer these same things soon, but for now inReach has a different value prop that’s a lot better.

        • Himiko_the_sun_queen@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          I’m keeping my inreach + subscription because it’s my redundancy in case my phone shits the bed.

          For the purpose of an emergency rescue out in the bush, I’d prefer something a lot more robust than a smartphone.

          The inreach is built like a tank and the battery just doesn’t die.