Your next iPhone could save your life — even without a cell signal

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Will it become a new standard?

Find My iPhone
(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Apple may save your life one day — even if you are using an Android phone. That's if the industry adopts its newly patented “emergency beacon” standard.

Apple Insider found the patent #20200015169 in the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s public record under the title "Enhanced Emergency Beacon Sending Procedure" as applicable to “mobile electronic devices may take the form of smart phones or tablets that a user typically carries."

Here’s one example described in the patent. 

Lastly, the patent describes how the device will also be able to give sound or haptic feedback to the user, indicating that the mode has activated and it’s transmitting the distress signal to whoever can receive it.

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Jesus Diaz
Jesus Diaz

Jesus Diaz founded the new Sploid for Gawker Media after seven years working at Gizmodo, where he helmed the lost-in-a-bar iPhone 4 story and wrote old angry man rants, among other things. He's a creative director, screenwriter, and producer at The Magic Sauce, and currently writes for Fast Company and Tom's Guide.