Sat phone ...Messaging

Looks pretty cool. I'm glad more competition is entering the market to contend with Garmin and Spot.
 
I agree with @Jackson - more competition in this space is needed.

I love my Garmin inReach mini, but there are plenty of areas it could be improved.
Just briefly looking at their site, I couldn't tell if there's any new innovation or lowered
cost that the SatPaq is bringing to the table.
 
Yeah, there seem to be a bunch of new entries to the market, which will hopefully make things cheaper and more affordable in the long term... but I haven't noticed any of them being much cheaper/better at this point than the incumbents.
 
I agree with @Jackson - more competition in this space is needed.

I love my Garmin inReach mini, but there are plenty of areas it could be improved.
Just briefly looking at their site, I couldn't tell if there's any new innovation or lowered
cost that the SatPaq is bringing to the table.
Looks like it's something that uses your existing phone....
 
It appears to be messaging only? No tracking capabilities, etc.

I like the no subscription fact, but the tracking capabilities of my inReach Mini help out a great deal. In fact, my last hike I tried out Gaia for tracking and my phone was nearly dead after the six hours or so. The inReach is much better in that regards. In canyon country where it's easy to mistake a fork, the tracking capabilities are even more important IMO.

Nonetheless, the more the merrier, and the cheaper for the consumer.
 
To me, this looks like a competitor to the Bivystick. I think that smartphone attachments are probably the way of the future, as opposed to standalone devices like the InReach. Just seems like a lot of duplicate hardware, given that nearly everybody in the first world carries a smartphone anyhow.
 
It appears to be messaging only? No tracking capabilities, etc.

I like the no subscription fact, but the tracking capabilities of my inReach Mini help out a great deal. In fact, my last hike I tried out Gaia for tracking and my phone was nearly dead after the six hours or so. The inReach is much better in that regards. In canyon country where it's easy to mistake a fork, the tracking capabilities are even more important IMO.

Nonetheless, the more the merrier, and the cheaper for the consumer.
For tracking maps are way cheaper
 
Or download a nd print a lot.....
 
In fact, my last hike I tried out Gaia for tracking and my phone was nearly dead after the six hours or so. The inReach is much better in that regards. In canyon country where it's easy to mistake a fork, the tracking capabilities are even more important IMO.

@ImNotDedYet - Was your phone in "off-plane" mode during Gaia tracking? Or was this on a super cold day, where the phones are almost useless? That's the biggest problem with the phones during winter hiking, the batteries poop out in freezing weather.

Usually during temperatures way above freezing I can easily track the entire route for 8-10 hours and take loads of photos all day and still have battery left (iPhone11). If I don't track the route continuously, but just mark some way points at critical canyon forks & way points for pictographs/ruins, plus take photos all day, then I still have 1/2 battery with Gaia running/open all day in the background. Obviously I close out all other apps. We have the Garmin Mini for 2-way mgs. We love Gaia and also extensively use all the various super cool maps layers. It's worth every penny IMO :)
 
To me, this looks like a competitor to the Bivystick. I think that smartphone attachments are probably the way of the future, as opposed to standalone devices like the InReach. Just seems like a lot of duplicate hardware, given that nearly everybody in the first world carries a smartphone anyhow.
gotta say I've come to really love a smartphone in the backcountry. switch it into airplane mode or power it down as soon as the truck is turned off, and then use it for reading books at night, checking position or marking points occasionally using OSMand, take pics, use the flashlight if headlamp is dead or inconvenient, maybe even listen to tunes while cooking dinner if I feel like it.
 
To me, this looks like a competitor to the Bivystick. I think that smartphone attachments are probably the way of the future, as opposed to standalone devices like the InReach. Just seems like a lot of duplicate hardware, given that nearly everybody in the first world carries a smartphone anyhow.
I don't have a smartphone cause they're smarter than I am, for reals.
 
gotta say I've come to really love a smartphone in the backcountry. switch it into airplane mode or power it down as soon as the truck is turned off, and then use it for reading books at night, checking position or marking points occasionally using OSMand, take pics, use the flashlight if headlamp is dead or inconvenient, maybe even listen to tunes while cooking dinner if I feel like it.
I'm borderline a product of the digital generation, and I'm honestly not a huge fan of having my phone in the backcountry. It's definitely useful, as you mentioned, but just as an aesthetic preference, I prefer my backcountry experience to be analog. I first got a smartphone in 2013 in preparation for the AT. It got wet and died during a tropical storm in Massachusetts, and I went back to a "dumb phone" until 2016 or 2017. Perhaps I should put "bring a nice camera and leave the phone at home" on my to-do list for 2021!
 
Perhaps I should put "bring a nice camera and leave the phone at home" on my to-do list for 2021!
I like the idea of doing that a lot and am tempted by it. I can't bring myself to do it though because my phone takes really good pictures and is smaller and lighter than probably most good cameras, and it hooks up to my InReach and makes using the InReach significantly easier. Both of those are pretty much non-negotiable since I like taking pictures and my wife likes to get periodic information on whether I am alive and well. Haha.
 
I like the idea of doing that a lot and am tempted by it. I can't bring myself to do it though because my phone takes really good pictures and is smaller and lighter than probably most good cameras, and it hooks up to my InReach and makes using the InReach significantly easier. Both of those are pretty much non-negotiable since I like taking pictures and my wife likes to get periodic information on whether I am alive and well. Haha.
Perhaps if you go on a trip together, you can accidentally leave the phone at home. Oops! :D
 

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