{"id":32567,"date":"2021-05-27T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=32567"},"modified":"2021-05-21T14:49:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T18:49:00","slug":"why-dont-smartphones-have-plb-capability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/27\/why-dont-smartphones-have-plb-capability\/","title":{"rendered":"Why don&#8217;t smartphones have PLB capability?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A friend was recently involved in a helicopter rescue effort described in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kansascity.com\/news\/nation-world\/national\/article251558843.html\">&#8220;\u2018Not knowing is so hard.\u2019 Hiker rescued after 5 days without food in California forest&#8221;<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>A hiker was rescued from a canyon in a California forest after going missing for five days without food and little water, officials said.<\/p><p>George \u201cDave\u201d Null, 58, went missing in the Angeles National Forest May 15, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department. It took a massive search effort, involving at least five agencies, to find him, the sheriff\u2019s department said.<\/p><p>Null was spotted at creek base Wednesday evening while a helicopter crew searched Bear Creek in the canyon east of Triple Rock, according to the Montrose Search and Rescue Team.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This made me wonder why smartphones don&#8217;t have a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Emergency_position-indicating_radiobeacon\">personal locator beacon<\/a> capability. Coronapanic has proven that there is no limit to our risk-aversion. Why wouldn&#8217;t we engineer slightly thicker phones with a fold-out antenna and a guaranteed dedicated power reserve that can be used as a PLB when we&#8217;ve gotten lost, e.g., on the way to or from the vaccine booster clinic or the P100 mask store?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The obvious disadvantage of this approach is that the phone becomes slightly bulkier and heavier. But if we&#8217;re willing to wear masks all the time and take <a href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/13\/facebook-fact-check\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"31585\">non-FDA-approved vaccines<\/a> why aren&#8217;t we willing to carry a slightly heavier phone if it could save just one life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/15\/smoke-alarm-with-wireless-access-point-for-hotels\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"32245\">Smoke alarm with wireless access point for hotels?<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A friend was recently involved in a helicopter rescue effort described in &#8220;\u2018Not knowing is so hard.\u2019 Hiker rescued after 5 days without food in California forest&#8221;: A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-engineering"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why don&#039;t smartphones have PLB capability? 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