ApplePoor

Garmin's InReach certainly is not free, in my experience.......

The Motorola device details may shed light on the true cost of ownership later this year for this device. Never a free lunch....

As an avid Apple user since 1990, I currently have an iPhone 14 Pro Max (1TB) and an Ultra Watch. In addition, I have a 2020 MI MBAir (64GB and 1TB SDSD), a 2021 14" MBPro Max (64GB and 4TB SSD), 2021 M1 11" iPad (2TB) and a Mac Studio Ultra (128GB & 8TB SSD). I am keeping my 2019 16" MBPro (64GB and 8 TB SSD) to run older equipment. My file server is a 2019 Intel top model mini with 64GB and 2 TB SSD. My wife gets last year's. iPhone and has iWatch S7 and several laptops. We have something from almost every Apple product category. 

We find the Apple environment perfect for us and several of her daughters who get the trickle down iPhones.

With all the chatter about M2 vs M3 processors, I will await the M3 releases before buying. that hardware. I will acquire the top model iPhone this fall but perhaps will pass on replacing my current iWatch ULTRA (if they can still be sold....).

The catch will be the CPU in the iPhone. The lower two 2023 models use last years chips as of this model year (2023). So in theory, next year's lower tier priced models will have this year's TOP cpu. That could mean the port may have the USB-C shape but be limited to lightning speeds. The top price tier models new CPU could have the necessary support for the speeds of USB-C 4.

I am not sure if the details of the speeds of transfer are in the new rule, just the physical shape of the connector. I am not sure if this year's top CPU would be USB-C 4 compatible.

Tune in late fall 2023 for the real answers to these and other questions.

There are many who do not appreciate the fact that the Apple store does a pretty good job policing malignant software and keeping it out of the Apple App Store. That service requires a serious number of employees to keep the system working well. 

I guess in the near future we should scrub our iPhone of all person information and revert back to the black plastic phones I had in the 60s (there some colors available too). If one paid extra, they could have a keypad, otherwise there was the rotary dial. There was no computer on board as the central switch building routed calls to your number over a dedicated twisted pair. Of course a pair of alligator clips could be used to tap into the line anywhere along the route of the wires from central station to your home and monitor the call. 

Many conveniently forget that Googles founder sat on the Board of Directors at Apple. He used that as a basis for informations to start Google by passing all of the R&D expense and was able to get first hand knowledge of all of Apple's plans.

Google's business plan is monetizing you the customer to the fullest extent possible. 

We make a choice of which stuff we buy. I chose Apple equipment since 1990 because the equipment is their product, not my personal information.

I believe the charge cable will have to have a male USB-C plug to use USB-C wall warts. The ear phone cases would have to have a female USB-C power inlet. Things that have no internal charge opening connection point but use wireless power from a source  (ie the power pucks for Apple's watches) should continue as is.