Hacker News Reader

Except this (currently) requires users to point their phone at a satellite so it can connect and transmit, with clear line of site of the sky. It seems it will be more likely something you'd do when you get to your "campsite" and want friends/family to know where you are located.

View on HN

edit: I didn't realize this will apparently be required due to the antenna design in the iPhone, seems very cumbersome, you can't easily see where the satellites are...

You don't really need to point it, at least with my inreach if its near the top of my pack and I'm not in a canyon or something I can get a message out.

> you can't easily see where the satellites are...

Which is why when you're using it they guide you on how to orient the phone (per their released info so far, we'll have actual user reports in a few weeks).

I look forward to whatever video game they create where you get the rescue points for holding your phone in the right orientation.

And if you don't, it presumably says "you're holding it wrong!"

Your in reach uses 1.6 GHz at 31.5 dBm for one of the bands and 2.4 GHz at 5 dBm for the other.

That's 1.412538 watts versus 0.003162 watts... hence why you can just leave it in your pack.

That limitation will have to be fixed before this accounts for 85% of a satellite network's capacity.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com