Apple is hawking features that seem to be increasingly geared toward emergency prep, in a world where disasters are more frequent.
On Wednesday, Apple invited reporters and analysts to its annual iPhone launch event in Cupertino, California, the first in-person gathering after a years-long hiatus caused by the global pandemic. The event, held at the company’s sparkling Apple Park campus, came amid a historic heatwave in California — the day before, dangerous weather conditions threatened to topple the state’s aging energy grid.
The unsettling circumstances provided a fitting backdrop for Apple’s announcements, which historically have seemed trivial in the face of climate change and an ongoing public health crisis. But the new features Apple is hawking seem to be increasingly geared toward emergency prep, in a world where disasters are more frequent.
One of the new marquee features for the iPhone is “Emergency SOS via Satellite,” which lets people ping satellites with distress signals when they are outside of cellular or wi-fi coverage. The feature also streamlines an emergency call, letting people tap on various emergency scenarios instead of explaining them by voice to human operators.
