This could be a game changer. Direct Starlink/Cellular smartphones.

[QuarterSwede]

I have some close friends in Asheville, and they dislike Musk as much today as a month ago. They like Starlink, and being where they live on the north side of town in the mountains, it's their only option, but they still hate Elon.

One can dislike the head of a company and still like the company. There is more to SpaceX than Elon.

I don't personally care if this works out or not as I carry an inReach when backpacking, but sure, why not.

Can confirm. FiL has Starlink because it’s quite literally the only viable option where he lives in north east Washington state (one of Starlink’s first beta areas as the connectivity is zero even for cell networks). I can’t stand Elon and refuse to buy a Tesla but Starlink’s usefulness in safety up there can’t be ignored. It’s a life saver for people in the middle of nowhere.

 

[TPadden]

I can’t stand Elon and refuse to buy a Tesla but Starlink’s usefulness in safety up there can’t be ignored. It’s a life saver for people in the middle of nowhere.

... a lot like Walmart.

 

[trusso]

I kind of figured you hated Elon Musk, I suppose in their day you would have hated Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla.

Way to set up a straw-man that isn't remotely true.

Ask the people in North West NC, and South West GA what they think of Elon. He has SpaceX engineers installing Starlink systems everywhere, he is not charging anything for it and they have free service until things recover.

He's not charging the end-users for it, but he's charging the federal government. Which is understandable, but don't make Elon out to be any sort of philanthropist. He couldn't care less.

 

[msackey]

Personally, I devoutly hope that it isn't approved.

Heh. Elon doesn’t need his ego stroked any more. He need to just go away

 

[JasonMacRumorn]

AST SpaceMobile is another company in this space, I think they are partnered with Verizon and AT&T.

 

[BotchQue]

Has it bothered anyone else that most of us hold a small device against our skulls with enough EMF power to communicate with a transceiver on yonder mountain, much less a satellite in orbit? Radiation increasing the chance of cancer and all…

Hell it still bothers me when my dentist presses a device the size of a Barbeque thermometer against my cheek to x-ray my teeth; at least they’re not marching me off to a different room with a machine that weighs more than my truck, draping my loins with a lead-lined apron, and running down the hall to press the shutter button…

 

[kevcube]

I think they’re will be a third mobile OS. X or Tesla phone. Elon had dinner with the Samsung CEO a month ago. There’s rumours that the phone will run a super app X. Like in china, believe everything runs on a we chat app. Also running star link for connectivity, I read a month or two ago that it may be mobile ready by October.

there's no room and no reason for a third competitor in the mobile OS space. android and ios are very mature, and X is an app, not an OS.

Telegram is much closer to being an "everything app" of the west, including apps and payments, but still people mostly aren't interested. I respect Elon's creations, but Durov is my billionaire of choice.

on-topic of satellite comms, yeah things have been heading this way since apple's integrated satellite SOS. The phones that spaceX is testing their t-mobile satellite connectivity on are iphones. I think eventually we will have phones capable of connecting to starlink satellites.

 

[heretiq]

I kind of figured you hated Elon Musk, I suppose in their day you would have hated Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla. Ask the people in North West NC, and South West GA what they think of Elon. He has SpaceX engineers installing Starlink systems everywhere, he is not charging anything for it and they have free service until things recover.

I used to respect Elon Musk until he convinced me that his chronic immaturity and poor impulse control more than offset his intelligence. Trusting a person like this to be a responsible steward of critical infrastructure is risky at best and likely to be disastrous.

 

[heretiq]

I bet you before he bought twitter or started speaking out against the establishment he was your idol.

No he's hardly my role model, but if you can't appreciate a brilliant, but flawed mind, then too bad for you.

I liked Elon before he bought twitter and destroyed it by amplifying hate, bigotry, misogyny and the interests of one political perspective over others while also revealing himself as racist, immature and too impulsive to be trusted. Believing this exceptionally tribal person is capable of ensuring the safety of the general public is an example of flawed judgment.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

I liked Elon before he bought twitter and destroyed it by amplifying hate, bigotry, and misogyny while also revealing himself as racist, immature and too impulsive to be trusted.

I’m personally much more petty and simply detest him for promising the public to fix traffic in Los Angeles and Vegas with his underground HyperLoop car transportation system, and the promised HyperLoop high speed “trains” that would be faster and safer than air travel.

Not only the Vegas HyperLoop useless and embarrassing, and the HyperLoop high speed “trains” project completely failed and abandoned.

Think about the millions spent on having his Boring company drill tunnels. And still the Vagas Loop is nothing but a narrow, single lane pipe for Teslas to drive through.

Why Elon didn’t cancel the project instead of actually finishing and putting his logos on the tech and safety embarrassment that is the Vegas Loop is beyond me.

What makes it even worse is Elon never addressing any of the HyperLoop projects with even an inch of honesty.
That HyperLoop is a full, 100% failure that couldn’t be further from the promised outcome that Musk had all the media and public getting hyped about for years.

I don’t trust a person who’s as dishonest as Elon has been about HyperLoop.

He has just quietly walked away and acts like it never happened, or how vac trains have been attempted (and failed) long before HyperLoop, and that he never had any new tech that was going to make it happen this time.

And the exact same thing is true for SpaceX -Don’t tell people we’re traveling to Mars and colonizing it “next year” or within 10 years. You’re not. Nobody is.

-As much as SpaceX is accomplishing, humans traveling to Mars is not happening now or in 10 years.

It’s all lies and Elon doesn’t care as long as it keeps the investors throwing money his way.

 

[cjsuk]

Consolidating my thoughts on some of the other posts in here, it’s a bit sad when the thousands of engineers and scientists behind companies are cast aside and credit given to the CXO and founders. While they might have the vision, the staff make it happen.

 

[H2SO4]

I kind of figured you hated Elon Musk, I suppose in their day you would have hated Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla. Ask the people in North West NC, and South West GA what they think of Elon. He has SpaceX engineers installing Starlink systems everywhere, he is not charging anything for it and they have free service until things recover.

I know precious little about the lives of Edison and Tesla except for their impact upon technology.
I think the difference is that whilst Elon too has an impact on tech, but that he's just such an ass hat along the way.
It's not about one particular person getting too much power, it's about THAT particular abhorrent person getting too much power.

 

[cjsuk]

I know precious little about the lives of Edison and Tesla except for their impact upon technology.
I think the difference is that whilst Elon too has an impact on tech, but that he's just such an ass hat along the way.
It's not about one particular person getting too much power, it's about THAT particular abhorrent person getting too much power.

I don't think he really has an actual impact on tech past perception. At best there is the possible reduction of commercial cost to LEO but even that has dubious private finances based around the peripheral mars crack smoking. Most of his enterprises have been a complete bust piled on top of SEC violating market manipulation or still have dubious commercial viability or political concerns to this day. It's not a good foundation for a business.

This shows in the Invesco QQQ ETF for example. Based on the other top holdings he's a terrible performer.

 

[H2SO4]

I don't think he really has an actual impact on tech past perception. At best there is the possible reduction of commercial cost to LEO but even that has dubious private finances based around the peripheral mars crack smoking. Most of his enterprises have been a complete bust piled on top of SEC violating market manipulation or still have dubious commercial viability or political concerns to this day. It's not a good foundation for a business.

This shows in the Invesco QQQ ETF for example. Based on the other top holdings he's a terrible performer.

View attachment 2433588

In that case, Elon has little impact on tech, and that he's just such an ass hat along the way.
Incredible that the guy has such an influence in the world.

 

[Matz]

In light of the disaster in North West North Carolina and South West Georgia were all communications was cut off save for Amateur radio operators or those with iPhones with their emergency satellite texting. The death toll is at least 500 souls and reports I am hearing via my Amateur radio contacts in the area say it is likely to go over a 1000. Elon Musk is in testing with T-Mobile a Direct Starlink system. The FCC has given Starlink and T-Mobile an authorization to test it. If I can get a iPhone/iPad with a direct satellite connection it would be a no brainer in Wyoming were there are countless square miles with zero cellular service. I experienced this when my 14 Pro Max informed me that it had enabled satcom texting because it had no cellular signal.

Having spent a fair amount of time in areas without cellular coverage, I think this makes sense to explore, particularly in disasters such as that caused by Helene.

Oddly enough, my GF and I were camping in western North Carolina last week, at Stone Mountain State Park. A gorgeous place with abysmal cell service. Fortunately we left and headed home the morning before the storm truly hit. Even then the rain was at some points becoming torrential. A frog strangler, as we say here in the South.

Frankly, I'm dismayed at some of the vitriol expressed here. For some reason, this level of "discourse" has become acceptable in some circles. Could we dial it back a bit? This is supposed to be a thread about a technological approach to a very real problem.

 

[ItWasNotMe]

Goodbye astronomy, hello manned spacecraft eventually hitting one of the myriad of satellites...

 

[heretiq]

I’m personally much more petty and simply detest him for promising the public to fix traffic in Los Angeles and Vegas with his underground HyperLoop car transportation system, and the promised HyperLoop high speed “trains” that would be faster and safer than air travel.

Not only the Vegas HyperLoop useless and embarrassing, and the HyperLoop high speed “trains” project completely failed and abandoned.

Think about the millions spent on having his Boring company drill tunnels. And still the Vagas Loop is nothing but a narrow, single lane pipe for Teslas to drive through.

Why Elon didn’t cancel the project instead of actually finishing and putting his logos on the tech and safety embarrassment that is the Vegas Loop is beyond me.

What makes it even worse is Elon never addressing any of the HyperLoop projects with even an inch of honesty.
That HyperLoop is a full, 100% failure that couldn’t be further from the promised outcome that Musk had all the media and public getting hyped about for years.

I don’t trust a person who’s as dishonest as Elon has been about HyperLoop.

He has just quietly walked away and acts like it never happened, or how vac trains have been attempted (and failed) long before HyperLoop, and that he never had any new tech that was going to make it happen this time.

And the exact same thing is true for SpaceX -Don’t tell people we’re traveling to Mars and colonizing it “next year” or within 10 years. You’re not. Nobody is.

-As much as SpaceX is accomplishing, humans traveling to Mars is not happening now or in 10 years.

It’s all lies and Elon doesn’t care as long as it keeps the investors throwing money his way.

I wouldn’t call this petty. It’s pointed and spot on rationale for why Musk is not trustworthy. 🏅

 

[msackey]

Has it bothered anyone else that most of us hold a small device against our skulls with enough EMF power to communicate with a transceiver on yonder mountain, much less a satellite in orbit? Radiation increasing the chance of cancer and all…

It doesn’t bother me because it is not ionizing radiation like xray or gamma rays.

There’s radiation everywhere. Radio waves are radiation. The sunlight is radiation. Some harmful. Some not.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Having the ability to use Starlink on phones for emergencies? Great. Make it a kind of way to access 911 or other emergency responders. But having people depend on it for all of their phone connectivity? Musk has already shown his willingness to turn off the service in different locations based on his whims, people don't need that. And they don't need to constantly be worried that a single unreliable person has control over whether they can communicate or not.

If it were run like a normal business that would be better. I don't worry that the CEO of T-Mobile might wake up on the wrong side of bed one day and turn off my service because he's angry at the state I live in. With Musk wanting to remind people constantly that we can only have his nice things if we're nice to him, he's not personally suited to control the on-off switch for communications infrastructure. People would need some assurance that such service would be run for all its customers like any other cell service, and with Musk's pettiness we can't have that.

 

[cjsuk]

In that case, Elon has little impact on tech, and that he's just such an ass hat along the way.
Incredible that the guy has such an influence in the world.

The biggest risk of technology is usually humans, not the technology itself.

 

[Zwhaler]

Personally, I devoutly hope that it isn't approved.

Cool, so let’s hold back humanity because you have an impersonal beef with someone you’ll never meet.

 

[Howard2k]

I have a sneaking hunch that if this service is approved the ground based ISP's are going to sue big time.

Even in the United States you need a reason to sue someone. What would the "ground based ISPs" be suing for?

 

[icanhazmac]

If y'all you are truly just lamenting a single persons power and/or influence over society then maybe spread your disdain around a little bit? These visceral responses and personal attacks never accompany a Bezos, Zuckerberg or Gates article. I would argue that all three carry far more influence and power than Elon does and they do far worse with it. I won't hold my breath though, these types of posts seem to be pointed in only one direction. If power is wielded in the other direction, blind eyes are turned.

I'm all for a Starlink trial if it can save lives. It is not my area of expertise but I don't hear of other companies jumping to try and solve the problem.

I regards to SpaceX, complain all you want, but SpaceX is not a monopoly, there are others... like Boeing, oooops, maybe a bad example. At least SpaceX is getting the job done. Boeing should abandon all new projects and spend about 3-5 years cleaning up their many messes.

 

[Wando64]

These visceral responses and personal attacks never accompany a Bezos, Zuckerberg or Gates article. I would argue that all three carry far more influence and power than Elon does and they do far worse with it.

I don’t think anyone would argue that Zuckerberg influence and intentions are any more benign than Musk’s. I am not sure why you are even mentioning Bezos, but… whatever. As for Gates, oh my goodness, how dares he trying to reduce poverty, improve health and education for billions of people. How dares he.

 

[icanhazmac]

While one could argue that powerful figures have always influenced politics, the reality is that no one before has held such unprecedented power and control over both the masses and governments.

See your post above. I challenge your statement that Elon Musk holds "unprecedented power and control over both the masses and governments". Several people, like the ones I mentioned, have far more power and influence.

I mention Bezos because he too wields unprecedented power does he not? That is what you are supposedly railing against isn't it? Between Amazon's control over everyday shopping, AWS's control over the internets backend and owning one of the most influential newspapers in the country I'd say his power far outweighs Elon's. If you believe posts here on MR, X is nothing. While we are at it, why doesn't anyone personally attack Sundar Pichai? Does he not wield unprecedented power and influence? Alphabet has an absolute stranglehold on internet advertising via Google and video content via YouTube. Or Tim Cook, like anyone else relying on Chinese manufacturing, he is responsible for untold suffering of the workers assembling his products.

I mentioned several people in the same general field of technology that wield unprecedented power yet somehow don't garner the same level of hate even though everyone I mentioned, IMHO, wields far more power and influence. Power and influence is the thing y'all are railing against... right?

It’s not about his political affiliation—whether red, blue, green, or yellow.

I would argue that Elon doesn't wield near the power people attribute to him. I wonder then, why the visceral, personal attacks? I find it hypocritical to attack only one of the many guilty of having "unprecedented power" while also claiming it has nothing to do with the quote above.