Apple
The iPhone 14 has saved several lives this winter with some pretty impressive safety features that are worth noting as the U.S. continues to be battered with one of the worst winter storms in memory.
A tech news outlet reports that the iPhone 14’s SOS call which connects via satellite rather than through telecom towers saved a man in Alaska recently.
Traveling from Noorvik to Kotzebue by snow mobile, he became stranded without network coverage. Apple’s Emergency Response Center received his SOS call via satellite and connected his position to the Northwest Arctic Borough Search and Rescue Coordinator.
The GPS coordinates contained in the SOS led the volunteer rescuers right to him, and he went home unharmed.
Another safety feature has a two-fold benefit this winter—the Crash Detection Feature. An iPhone 14 or Apple watch has certain parameters of motion sensing that allows it to determine if the user has been in a collision.
The phone will automatically call 911 unless the user selects not to. This saved the lives of two passengers who plummeted off a canyon road in Angeles National Forest, California, before tumbling 300 feet to the canyon bottom. Alone and without cell service, Crash Detection alerted 911, while the passengers followed it up with an Emergency SOS.
As it turns out the phone is also capable of translating that motion data while the user is on the slopes.
Record numbers of 911 calls were being handled in mountain ski towns across America as skiers’ iPhones were placing calls from their pocket based on the considerable changes in speed and direction achieved by experienced skiers.
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Apple recommends turning the Crash Detection feature off before hitting the slopes, or you can remember to pull your phone out after a rapid braking and select not to place the call. In the case that you were, say, catapulted through the air to land disastrously, you might be grateful you left the feature on.
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