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iPhone 14 Sets the Stage for 2023’s Biggest Phone Trend

Everyone’s jumping on the idea of texting through orbiting satellites, but is it just a fad?

The next time you find yourself needing to send a text while stuck in the middle of nowhere, you may be able to look to the sky, where low-Earth satellites can help send an SOS, no matter what device you have.

Last year, Apple became the first tech company to offer new satellite texting capabilities to its devices, introducing it with the iPhone 14 as a system to call for help in emergencies. The idea is easy enough: Point your phone at the sky, line it up with a satellite passing overhead and send a text to authorities. You can even send GPS data too.

Now, other companies are poised to jump on board, making satellite texting a new frontier for the phone world.

«I think 2023 is certainly shaping up to be the year of mobile satellite connectivity,» said Avi Greengart, an analyst at research firm Techsponential. «Everyone’s doing it. Everyone is doing it differently.»

Sadly, it’s not as easy as adding a satellite texting app and an extra satellite radio to the phone. Low Earth-orbiting satellite systems cost money to run and maintain, just like cellular internet and phone systems do. Apple has said it’ll give iPhone owners free access to emergency services for two years after they buy their device, but it hasn’t said what happens after. Other satellite texting systems haven’t launched yet and seem likely to charge users for the privilege.

There’s no debate about whether this technology can be useful. We’ve already heard stories of people’s lives being saved because of it. The question is whether people are willing to pay for it. And if not, will satellite texting be just another fad, like 3D TV?

Currently, satellite tech on our phones is only for emergencies and only in expensive smartphones like Apple’s iPhone 14, which starts at $799. That makes the technology a nice-to-have feature that the broader population of phone owners won’t have access to for some time. Those that do may never end up in a dire situation without signal when the feature would come in handy — a group that IDC research director Nabila Popal counts herself among. «I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have cell service,» Popal said.

Given satellite texting’s niche use, Popal doesn’t believe having it will sway consumers into buying one phone over another. It will certainly appeal to backcountry hikers, desert drag racers and remote truckers who plan to head beyond cell networks. But, for everyone else, it’s not an important enough feature to rush out to buy.

Instead, it’s more like one more feather in the cap of modern smartphones, which have already bundled together so many other technologies we used to have to carry separately in our bags, like cameras and handheld video games.

The current state of satellite texting

Satellite phones have been around for decades, showing up in films as far back as Steven Seagal’s 1992 classic military thriller Under Siege whenever someone needs to make calls from the middle of the ocean. A satellite phone also played a critical role in getting people off dinosaur-infested island in 2001’s Jurassic Park III.

«Where’s the phone? Get the phone!» yells veteran dino survivor Alan Grant as it nearly slides off a boat and into a river during a Spinosaurus attack. (Spoilers, he grabs it at the last minute and is able to signal for help.)

The real-life versions aren’t as exciting, but they can be just as helpful. They use networks of dozens of satellites orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes or so to relay phone signals to the ground. The first of these systems was Iridium, which launched its service in 1998 and a dozen other satellite networks have survived by offering connectivity to frequent travelers, but the prospect became popular recently after Elon Musk’s rocket startup SpaceX borrowed the idea to surround the globe with internet coverage through its Starlink program.

You can still get satellite phone coverage by purchasing a bulky, nearly $900 feature phone and paying a premium of at least $50 for 5 minutes of call time for service from companies that own a private network of satellites. But phone makers are building in the capability to use those orbital networks to send emergency texts because smartphone radios have gotten good enough to communicate with satellites directly, instead of relying on a separate — and often large — antenna.

Phone radios have «gotten so good now that you can build satellite connectivity into a phone without needing an external antenna,» said Anshel Sag, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

Among mainstream smartphone makers, Apple was the first with its iPhone 14 line. The company partnered with GlobalStar, which has limited coverage of the US, Europe, Australia and limited parts of South America. Apple only activates this feature in a handful of countries in those continents, and it only works for emergency text messages made outside (it won’t reach deep within buildings), but the company pledged that new iPhone 14 owners get two years of service included when they buy the phone.

Earlier this month, Qualcomm revealed a new feature coming in Android phones that will let users send and receive text messages through satellites. It uses the Iridium network and Qualcomm says it will have global coverage, which is more than Apple’s services says.

The service, called Snapdragon Satellite, will only be for emergencies to start but will eventually be able to exchange messages socially and even use data, likely as part of a premium service. It’s not available yet and will come in phones launching in the second half of 2023 that use Qualcomm’s latest premium chips, though the company is leaving it up to phonemakers whether to have the service at all in their phones or if they should charge for the privilege. That leaves lots of unknowns.

And there are smaller players with their own niche devices, like Bullitt, which announced its Motorola-branded rugged phone powered by a MediaTek chipset at CES 2023 that will launch in the first quarter of 2023 for an undisclosed price tag. Bullitt promises two-way satellite texting through connectivity partner Skylo, which leases time on existing satellite constellations. Huawei actually launched its Mate 50 series of phones with satellite texting through China’s BeiDou satellite network a day ahead of Apple’s iPhone 14 debuted, though Huawei’s reach has diminished over the years.

More individual phones coming out with their own ideas of satellite texting will likely follow, and the big US carriers have all selected their own satellite partners to eventually offer mobile service beyond their networks’ edges, though none has a firm launch date yet.

Everyone’s in on the race because they can see the potential value of providing satellite safety nets as a service, analysts say. Apple could easily add it alongside its subscription services, like the $7 per month Apple TV Plus, $10 per month Apple Music Plus or $17 Apple One bundle. Carriers could use it to sweeten the deal for the priciest subscription plans, betting that the risk-averse among us are willing to pay extra for peace of mind. «It’s hard to overstate how important telling someone you’re out of gas in the middle of the Gobi Desert or Death Valley or the Adirondacks is,» Techsponential’s Greengart said.

Is it a bad thing to be the new phone trend?

Of course, the phone industry doesn’t have the best track record with new technologies. Analysts broadly consider the last couple years of transition to 5G wireless to have been a letdown, particularly because coverage has been spotty and speeds are sometimes as slow as the 4G LTE service we’ve had for years.

Satellite texting could be even more finicky than 5G was, particularly because it depends on the availability of satellites and the yet-untested strain of having many people relaying help requests through them.

Still, early signs seem promising. At CES 2023, Qualcomm took journalists outside Las Vegas to test its Snapdragon Satellite feature, and it worked. CNET phone editor Patrick Holland tested Apple’s Emergency SOS feature on his iPhone 14 and found that it worked — in fact, anyone can try it out without sending an emergency message thanks to a demo mode in the phone’s settings.

This seems like the next frontier — to use satellites to bolster mobile networks and keep people in contact. Even if most people will never have the misfortune to need it, the feature still acts as a safety net, helping the more adventurous phone users who wander beyond cell towers or disaster survivors after mobile networks fail.

Some iPhone 14 owners have reportedly been saved already thanks to the feature, including one man stranded when traveling by snow machine in Alaska above the Arctic Circle. In another case, a couple tumbled down into a deep canyon in a Los Angeles forest and used an iPhone to send for help. In less than 30 minutes, they were rescued. Without the iPhone’s satellite texting feature, emergency services wouldn’t have been contacted, and «nobody would have known to look for them,» Los Angeles County Sheriff Sgt. John Gilbert told The Los Angeles Times.

We’ve come a long way from needing to buy big, clunky satellite phones if we want to venture safely beyond the range of cell networks. Pretty soon, many smartphones will be able to call for help, whether you’ve taken a wrong turn in the wilderness or been attacked by dinosaurs on a remote island that you should have just stayed away from.

Technologies

You’ll Soon Be Able to Buy Walmart Products Through ChatGPT

OpenAI’s chatbot already connects to Etsy and Shopify. Now you can buy bananas too.

OpenAI and Walmart will soon offer shopping via AI through ChatGPT, the retail giant said in a press release on Tuesday.

While using ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout feature, customers can buy groceries, electronics or other essentials within the chatbot interface. 

Walmart has its own AI assistant in its app named Sparky. With Sparky, customers can ask questions about products and get summaries of reviews to find the best item. 


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«For many years now, e-commerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses. That is about to change,» Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement. «There is a native AI experience coming that is multi-media, personalized and contextual. We are running towards that more enjoyable and convenient future with Sparky and through partnerships including this important step with OpenAI.»

When asked for comment, Walmart referred to its press release. Walmart also said it wouldn’t discuss the financial terms of the agreement at this time.

«We’re excited to partner with Walmart to make everyday purchases a little simpler. It’s just one way AI will help people every day under our work together,» OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a press release.

OpenAI referred to Walmart’s press release when asked for comment. 

The latest deal with Walmart comes as OpenAI tries to make ChatGPT an all-in-one shopping experience. AI chatbots are increasingly being used as vehicles for online shopping. They can synthesize reviews from across the internet and give people direct answers to shopping questions. Already, ChatGPT connects with Etsy and Shopify with its Instant Checkout feature, allowing people to buy directly. OpenAI also added more shopping features in ChatGPT Search earlier this year

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)  

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Technologies

OpenAI Will Loosen ChatGPT’s Mental Health Guardrails and Allow Erotica for Adult Users

Sam Altman said the company will ease limits for adults after rolling out age verification.

ChatGPT is treading cautiously right now, but the chatbot may become more risqué by the end of the year.

In recent weeks, the generative AI chatbot has been operating under somewhat stringent limitations, as OpenAI tried to address concerns that it was not handling sensitive mental health issues well. But CEO Sam Altman said in a post on X Tuesday that the company would ease some of those restrictions because it’s «been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues.»

Though Altman didn’t elaborate on what tools are being used to address the problem, OpenAI recently announced new parental controls in ChatGPT. 

CNET reached out to OpenAI for details, but the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Other changes are also expected. Altman said the company could allow «erotica» for verified adult users as it implements an «age-gating» system, or age-restricted content, in December. The mature content is part of the company’s «treat adult users like adults» principle, Altman said. 

Altman’s post also announced a new version of ChatGPT in the next few weeks, with a personality that behaves more like the company’s GPT-4o model. Chatbot users had complained after the company replaced 4o with the impersonal GPT-5 earlier this year, saying the new version lacked the engaging and fun personality of previous chatbot models. 

«If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing),» Altman wrote.


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After OpenAI was sued by parents who alleged ChatGPT contributed to their teen son’s suicide, the company imposed an array of new restrictions and changes, including parental controls, alerts for risky behavior and a teen-friendly version of the chatbot. In the summer, OpenAI implemented break reminders that encourage people to occasionally stop chatting with the bot. 

On Tuesday, the company also announced the creation of a council of experts on AI and well-being, including some with expertise in psychology and human behavior. 

This comes as lawmakers and regulators are ringing the alarm on the risks AI tools pose to people, especially children. On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed new restrictions on AI companion chatbots into law. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into several AI companies, including OpenAI. 

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 15 #591

Here are hints — and the answers — for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 15, No. 591.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.


Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one, once you understand the theme. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Going up?

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Not an escalator, but…

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

  • ROTATE, LOBE, NOPE, RATS, STAR, SAME, LOSE, VOTE, BUTTE, SAMS, BAMS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

  • ALARM, OPEN, CLOSE, LOBBY, GROUND, BASEMENT

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is ELEVATORBUTTONS. To find it, look for the E that’s three letters to the right on the bottom row, and wind straight up, and then straight down.

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