Is this possible? Apple wanted to turn the iPhone into a Walkie-Talkie

Communication devices via radio, or Walkie-Talkie, these devices are still used until now, despite the terrible technical development and the spread of mobile devices, but some institutions do not dispense with communication via the radio, and the reason is that it does not depend on a service provider or the necessity of having communication towers. Radio networks over distances may be small, but at no additional cost, even in unpopulated locations.

Also, now there are Walkie-Talkie devices that allow people to chat without having to dial a phone number or even call a cellular network, and it seems that Apple was working on a Walkie-Talkie-like feature on its iPhone devices.

According to reports issued by The Information website, Apple is working with Intel on a new feature that will allow iPhone users to communicate with each other without the need for a Wi-Fi or communications network. The project is known by Apple as OGRS, while Intel is known as Project Shrek and the matter is completely far from the application Walkie-Talkie on Apple Watch, which must be used to connect to the Internet, and also not like many applications that can convert the iPhone device to a wireless connection or Walkie-Talkie by connecting to one of the available networks, but Apple wants a feature to convert the iPhone to a real Walkie-Talkie device that is not affected by the networks or private signal Service provider.

The Information site indicates that the project that Apple was working on, would have created an independent link between iPhone devices over long distances and allowed iPhone users close to each other to communicate with each other easily, especially in remote and remote areas that are not covered by cellular networks. Apple has frozen the project after suffering a heavy blow as Robin Caballero left Apple without reason earlier this year, and Caballero is the chief executive of hardware engineering and has been working on building modems within Apple.

Reports say that the project will initially be focused on messages and text chat between iPhone users, and then the technology can be developed to include voice communications, and the new technology would work on Intel's cellular modems and would reach the 900 mega-hertz range of the radio spectrum and this range is used. In areas such as oil and gas.

According to The Information website, one of the people familiar with the project said that this technology could come in future iPhones, and that Apple is still interested in this type of technology, and this can be seen in the patents that it called OGRS, which is the same as the name of the project. Connecting one device to another device via radio waves without connecting to any cellular network.

Companies have Walkie-Talkie technology

There are other companies that have been working for some time on communication technology without a network and over radio waves, such as goTenna, which provides a device that can communicate with your smartphone and allow it to communicate with phones and others in areas that do not have a cellular network.

You can buy two of this device, you and your friend, and it will allow you to communicate via text messages for a distance of 4 km without the need for a network, you can buy this device via Amazon is priced at $ 179.

Mike Trelander, CEO of the wireless research company, believes that the ability to communicate between devices without the need to pass through a network is integrated into the standards of the current generation of cellular networks, known as LTE, in addition to the fifth generation 5G networks.

And do not forget that Apple in iOS 13 will use the feature to find your phone even if it is not connected to the Internet, by using Mesh technology, which will use other phones near your phone to create a network and identify the location of your phone.

Source:

theinformation