As with any smartphone product being marketed for use in wilderness environments, a note of caution is necessary.<p>Rescue services have seen an increasing number of life-threatening situations caused by the unwise use of smartphones. Phones aren't sufficiently rugged and often lack user-replaceable batteries, so cannot be relied upon as a navigation tool or as a means of emergency communication.<p>If you're considering buying a product like this, think again. An FRS radio and a Garmin Etrex cost about the same, but are vastly better suited to the task. They are drop resistant, waterproof and will run on ordinary AA batteries.<p>If you are in a remote area, always carry a magnetic compass and paper map and ensure that you have the skills required to use them. Consider carrying distress flares, a signal mirror or a SPOT beacon.<p><a href="https://www.thebmc.co.uk/smartphone-apps-handle-with-care" rel="nofollow">https://www.thebmc.co.uk/smartphone-apps-handle-with-care</a><p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-33801741" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-3380...</a>
It transmits via some sub-1ghz free spectrum bands, which travel a good distance and have decent structure penetration. <a href="https://beartooth.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/216797018-What-frequencies-does-Beartooth-cover-" rel="nofollow">https://beartooth.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/216797018-Wh...</a><p>This is why unlicensed spectrum bands are great; they allow for stuff like this to be built without a billion dollar spectrum price tag.
Just don't see a value prop to make this feasible. I go to festivals, skiing, camping with friends 2-3 times a year.<p>At a festival, cell service is fine. Camelback with gatorade/water mix is the crucial piece of equipment. Just keep an eye on it, as random people will try to drink from your straw.<p>For casual skiing we set times/places to meet up in case we get separated. Again, cell phones work fine on most mountains. Don't want to throw this bulky, expensive (not water/shock proof?) thing in a plastic bag in my pocket. If I'm going back country, go with a buddy. Keep an avalanche kit (shovel, beacon, air tube) in the backpack and bring a $30 pair of 6 mile, 2-way, replaceable battery, shock/waterproof radios.<p>Camping, the point is to get away from constant communication and leave the phone off, in the car. Again, bring the actual radios if you're going in deep.<p>Smartphones are great for day-to-day life and work, but I feel like half the point of the vacation is being able to untether.
Is there a bluetooth device for making your phone a walkie talkie for CB radio or marine VHF radio?<p>I have wanted that for some time as I think having radio tm for survival over some propriety thing beneficial for emergencies.<p>An example would be something like this <a href="https://www.cobra.com/products/professional/29-ltd-bt" rel="nofollow">https://www.cobra.com/products/professional/29-ltd-bt</a><p>But I want a smaller form factor to throw in a hiking pack and VHF support as well.
I've got a Gotenna and it's basically works as advertized and I'm pretty happy with it.<p><a href="http://www.gotenna.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.gotenna.com/</a>
The problem with any mesh network is adoption, and unless this uses some sort of high range communications, I don't see how it'd work well on the given example of "ski slope".<p>I wish they had more specs, less videos.<p>edit: ah, never mind (thanks linksbro)
I can see a chicken-egg problem here. Without enough users (probably millions), this device is useless. If the device is useless now, it makes no sense to purchase it. The pricing doesn't help either: $249! (and $399 after pre-sale).<p>Assuming 10 million a good number to kickstart this thing and make it useful in many locations, they'll need to make a few <i>billion</i> dollars sales in the next couple years.
Fact is that most people going into the wildness are dependent on the park to make sure they won't get lost. Learning how to not get lost and how to figure out where you are takes effort, time, and experience; I've seen people with the right tools and knowledge panic and disregard all logic when they realize they're lost. Smart phones, setup correctly on the other hand take zero time to learn to use, and are very very good at showing people where they are regardless of panic. I personally wish more people knew how to use a smart phone in the wild, more so than anything else; in part, because knowing this and using the phone in a blind drop test would help them value spending the time to learn more ways of staying found.
On first load, all I see is the blatant "look at this person's butt in tight jeans while they insert a phone into their pocket" video clip. Drove me right off. Do we really need that sort of thing to promote a wireless device in this day and age?
Why do companies insist on disabling the youtube controls when embedding. I want to turn the volume down but I have to copy the URL and watch on youtube instead.
In the "Ultralight" backpacking community, I don't see something like this taking off.<p>I remember watching a video the other day of a guy talking about his gear for the AT and he went so far as to cut his toothbrush down and even talked about drilling holes in the remaining handle to further cut down on weight.
I've had trouble with phone at low temperatures before, even when carried inside my parka, and inside a lifeproof case. Modern smartphones are not made to withstand life threatening temperatures for any length of time.<p>That said, something like this would be better than nothing.
The answers I looked for;<p>On average you can expect a range of 2 miles<p>We have designed Beartooth to last for a whole 4-day camping trip, music festival, or skiing weekend with our typical messaging usage (3000 mAh battery)<p>Each user must have their own Beartooth device connected to their phone.
I hope this isn't too off topic, but is there anything similar but for networked devices? For example, something for IOT devices to talk to each other minus the internet.
Does the device constantly broadcast something so you can see when people are in range? Can this be turned off? What if I don't want to announce everyone where I am? (yeah, it probably doesn't send GPS constantly, but constant radio signals are pretty easy to triangulate). I would just want to broadcast a message and then all devices within range should pick it up and see if they can decrypt it (i.e. was it meant for them)
The websute us outright lying. It claims that it would connect to nearby beartooth users when you do not have a signal. As I do not see the beartooth device using cables, it must use a signal anyways.