A new partnership between the satellite phone firm Iridium and chip giant Qualcomm will bring satellite connectivity to premium Android smartphones later in the year.It means that in places where there is no mobile coverage, handsets can connect with passing satellites to send and receive messages.
Qualcomm's chips are found in many Android-powered smartphones.
Apple announced a satellite feature for the iPhone 14 in September 2022.The service is currently only available for sending and receiving basic text messages in an emergency.
British smartphone maker Bullitt was the first to launch its own satellite service, beating Apple to the post. It is also for emergency use, and will be available in selected areas when first rolled out. The new partnership will make the same service accessible to millions more smartphone users, without tying them to a particular brand - but it will be down to the manufacturer to enable it.
Iridium is the original satellite phone system, sending its first satellite in to orbit in 1997. It completed a refresh of its network of 75 spacecraft in 2019. The satellites cover the entire globe and fly in low orbit, around 485 miles (780km) above the Earth, and groups of them can communicate with each other, passing data between them.
Qualcomm said that at first the new feature, called Snapdragon Satellite, will only be incorporated into its premium chips so is unlikely to appear in budget devices. But it will eventually be rolled out to tablets, laptops and even vehicles, and also become a service that is not restricted to emergency communication - although there is likely to be a fee for this.
Satellite connectivity is broadly considered to be the next frontier for mobile phones because it tackles the problem of "not-spots" - areas where there is no existing coverage. These tend to be more common in rural or remote places. It has already been successfully deployed to provide broadband coverage by services such as Elon Musk's Starlink.
Satellite broadband is fast and generally reliable, but more expensive than cable or fibre connections. Use of the the feature will be subject to local government regulations, as countries including India and China ban the use of satellite phones.
goog_1953122263In our recent explainer on electric vehicle charging, you might have noticed that we didn't mention wireless EV charging. Now common on smartphones, wireless charging works the same way on cars, just at higher power levels and with much bigger batteries.
But after some demos and news releases during the mid-teens, the technology seemed to fall off the radar. Behind the scenes, though, engineers were hashing out an industry standard, aided by industry consolidation along the way.
That's now final, and the first EVs with factory-fit wireless charging systems are starting to appear, albeit not here in the US just yet. But given its ease of use, even for drivers who can't imagine life beyond the gas pump, the potential for adoption seems good.
Ars got its first look at wireless car charging back in 2015. Back then, chip-maker Qualcomm was developing what it called Halo, which it was demonstrating at Formula E races by recharging the battery in a safety car, a BMW i8 plug-in hybrid.
It wasn't the only outfit developing wireless charging, however. In Massachusetts, an MIT spinoff called WiTricity started playing around with wireless car charging in 2010 after an investment by Toyota. READ MORE...
5G is the 5th generation mobile network. It is a new global wireless standard after 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. 5G enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices.
5G wireless technology is meant to deliver higher multi-Gbps peak data speeds, ultra low latency, more reliability, massive network capacity, increased availability, and a more uniform user experience to more users. Higher performance and improved efficiency empower new user experiences and connects new industries.
The previous generations of mobile networks are 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G.
First generation - 1G
1980s: 1G delivered analog voice.
Second generation - 2G
Early 1990s: 2G introduced digital voice (e.g. CDMA- Code Division Multiple Access).
Third generation - 3G
Early 2000s: 3G brought mobile data (e.g. CDMA2000).
Fourth generation - 4G LTE
2010s: 4G LTE ushered in the era of mobile broadband.
1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G all led to 5G, which is designed to provide more connectivity than was ever available before.
5G is a unified, more capable air interface. It has been designed with an extended capacity to enable next-generation user experiences, empower new deployment models and deliver new services.
With high speeds, superior reliability and negligible latency, 5G will expand the mobile ecosystem into new realms. 5G will impact every industry, making safer transportation, remote healthcare, precision agriculture, digitized logistics — and more — a reality. READ MORE...
