Hacker News Reader

Guessing, the Apple media team is being dispatched to Alaska to film a segment on this for future commercials or Apple event.

View on HN

They should, and if they don’t other people should. It’s a life saving feature using a device manage people already carry, and I don’t think many people are aware of it.

Top Gear did this, back when they were still on the BBC.

They dropped one presenter and a camera crew out of a helicopter around the top of a hill-climb OHV track in the Canadian wilderness, and had them activate an emergency beacon. The other two had to perform a rescue race in pickup trucks.

Overall, it was an entertaining ad.

Isn’t Top Gear still on the BBC? Or are you meaning the Top Gear with Clarkson? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear_(2002_TV_series)

Absolutely. Stand alone GPS transponders with satelite connections must be expensive too.

Having this as an extra layer of protection seems like a game changer.

Kinda pricey for the standalone, but not too bad. $300 for a starter Garmin. But you'll have about a $160 per year subscription. (I've had one for years--it's been invaluable peace of mind on solo trips.)

The Garmin uses Iridium; the iPhone is apparently Globalstar. So don't try using the iPhone at the poles. ;)

Great to see it coming to phones. Maybe Pixel will get on board.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com