<p>Went to a festival over the weekend - no connection at all, on the last day in the morning it started pouring, and it’s unclear when it will end. We’re sitting in the tent, and we need to figure out what to do next. And then I remember: the iPhone now has a satellite mode.</p>
<p>I open it up - indeed, I can send iMessages via satellite. WhatsApp and Telegram don’t work, but iMessage goes through. I wrote, asked for the weather forecast, got the info I needed, and made a decision. Previously, I would have used a Garmin - a separate gadget costing hundreds of dollars plus a subscription. But now it’s just part of the phone.</p>
<p>Apple has done its magic again - turning a niche expensive thing into a basic function.</p>
<p>I should write a bot that can receive such SMS and handle similar requests automatically.</p>
<p>Interestingly, sometimes it says to wait, the satellite has moved away, and the next one will be in 8 minutes, and sometimes it asks to turn the phone in one direction or another with a cool interface animation.</p>