We put AirTags in road cases/Pelican flight cases packed with AV/IT equipment. Pelican makes a stick-on AirTag holder that works well.

We’ve found the AirTags work just as well as LTE/4G GPS trackers —- with no-ongoing costs, better battery life (we get 6-9 months on the AirTags, 4-6 weeks on the GPS trackers), and AirTags are 1/5 the cost of an LTE tracker.

This product would work well for us.

I'd love to see my Tesla use Starlink LTE.

Whatever local provider my Tesla connects to doesn't have great reception. The onboard streaming music often cuts in and out.

Starlink Direct-to-Cell isn't normal LTE service. It has low bandwidth, which limits it to messages, voice, and slow data. It is basically 2G or a satellite phone. It would not be enough for streaming music.

Starlink is only allowing text messaging for now. They are going to offer data but haven't announced how much.

to be clear - it does have like up to 10megabit per satellite, you could totally stream low quality netflix off this service. the tricky part is having to share it with thousands of people (or around 50km area, to be specific), meaning you're metered to super slow 2g-like service.

this is also a noteworthy nuance because you can video call with emergency services using this satellite connection. that's a pretty rare and exceptional circumstance so they clearly allow you to saturate a lot of the bandwidth for that purpose

still super cool technology. 10mbit is like 9000 texts per second, so even in the most dense areas like Manhattan with 1.3 million people in 50 square km, if everyone texts 40 times a day, starlink still has 10x more bandwidth than that. granted people text more during the day, but it'd still be fine for text-only without media.

It does, however, seem like the perfect medium for collecting telemetry on vehicles, so Tesla will now have a great means of tracking their vehicles locations at all times.

It already has good tracking because most people aren't living in the middle of nowhere with no cell coverage. They're not worried about you going off the grid the 1 or 2 times a year you go camping in yellowstone or whatever. If you're punching in your destination using the built-in navigation (there's no carplay/android auto), they'll know where you're going even without cell coverage.

More power won't help you here, I think: Since this uses regular terrestrial LTE bands and modems, you wouldn't be allowed to use any more in the uplink than a regular phone (i.e. 250 or so mW EIRP).

I could see in-car based Starlink usage in the Ka band, though – the Starlink Mini terminal definitely fits the form factor and power envelope.

Okay maybe not more watts, but the same power can be made more directional with a phased array or something I'd assume? (I am not an EE)

EDIT: Oh, I see. EIRP already accounts for directionality and is measured where the antenna gain is highest. Never mind then!

My colleagues and I put the work line on an eSIM so we can turn the work “phone” off completely with a toggle in the Settings app.

(If anyone from Apple is reading this, would be great to be able to schedule DND on a eSIM line.)

Should be able to do that through shortcuts and automation?

Here someone disables it entirely, but should be able to do something less intense than that too:

https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/16hoo4h/automati...

Or is the issue that there is no way to set DND on a particular SIM on the front end?

Weirdly -- I seem to remember seeing a lot of ,€“ on my old Macintosh ~25 years ago. I think this could be intentional reminder of the "old days", and not a mistake.

Understatement is a hallmark of the Kiwi culture. “This is not OK” is also a very stern telling off from your mum or school teacher.

I used to work with a delivery route planning system that had 24:00 as midnight on one day, and 00:00 was midnight on the following day — the same “instant” but on two different days.

I forget the reasoning, but I remember it being described to me as both necessary and a reasonably common construct.

Smoother surfaces, less friction, less wear, increased longevity.

So generally a better engine. Why aren't all that way?

Cost

I drive a 2018 Hyundai IONIQ EV. The forward radar is hit-and-miss in heavy rain: the car will often barrel quite happily into stopped traffic when it’s raining hard, requiring a stomp on the brake pedal.

Just a couple weeks ago I was driving on the motorway around 4am, no other traffic for miles, and the forward collision alert sounded and the car slammed on the brakes for ~quarter of a second and then released as if nothing had happened and we merrily resumed our journey. Having the brakes slam on at a smidge over 100 km/h gave me a sore shoulder and quite the rush of adrenaline, quite the rush at 4am!

So yes. The radar does have a mind of its own.

Now imagine that in the snow, when going around a corner on a cliff.

Welcome to Canada 11 months of the year, with wolves waiting at the bottom of the ravine, as you crawl, injured, out of your car.

And no, wolves will not be appeased with either maple syrup or poutine, trust me I know, I've tried.

Friend of a friend works the satellite trucks for onsite broadcasting at sports events. He told me once that he phones the satellite operators and they coordinate to make sure the beams are aligned as tightly as possible to reduce the power loading on the satellite. I’m guessing there’s probably a similar constraint here — I don’t think (pure conjecture) it’s feasible to have a tonne of iPhones (and let’s be honest, they’re everywhere) hanging off satellites.

It’s true! They’re teaching kids at the local school how to build AI to help assist with their grammar and arithmetic!