iPHONE
it’s something that hasn’t really found a
home in the consumer market. In 2019,
Apple released the iPhone 11 series
and included a custom chip dubbed
the U1. During the introduction, Apple
talked up the amazing properties of
the U1, and how it could be used to
not only track the location of objects
with amazing precision, but even has
the ability to point you in the right
direction towards them.
But almost a year and a half later,
U1 remains a technology without
much of an application. Yes, it’s built
in to AirDrop to show you which other
devices are closest, but that only works
with other U1-enabled iPhones and
it’s more of a proof of concept than an
actual feature to tout. Other than that,
there’s really not much there – yet.
With a few U1-enabled technologies
waiting in the wings, 2021 finally be
the breakout year for this technology.WITH OR WITHOUT U1
Through last year, Apple seemed
to believe strongly enough in the
future potential of the U1 that it kept
building it into its products. Not only
do the iPhone 11’s successors in the
iPhone 12 line have a U1 chip, but
both the Apple Watch Series 6 and the
HomePod mini, released last autumn,
include it as well.In introducing those devices, Apple
didn’t spend a lot of time talking about
what it might use those chips for, aside
from one quick example: a replacement
for the Handoff feature that lets you
transfer audio from your iPhone to
your HomePod just by holding it
nearby. The current version of this
feature uses another technology, NFC
(the same used for Apple Pay), but it’s
touchy and unreliable. The U1 version
is supposedly superior, but when the
initial iOS 14 release rolled around,
it hadn’t made the cut. Only now has
the update that does include it reached
beta, so it may still be weeks or a
month away.
But the real proof of Apple’s
commitment to ultra-wideband will be
if it continues to include the U1 in its
other products. Last autumn’s iPad Air
update didn’t include the technology,
but it’s expected that an iPad Pro
refresh will happen this spring; it will
be telling if it includes the U1, given
that last year’s meagre update didn’t.
(Or likewise telling if it doesn’t.)
By the same token, Apple’s latest
M1 Macs, built around Apple’s custom
silicon, don’t sport ultra-wideband
either – it’s unclear whether the
company thinks it simply wouldn’t
be useful on those devices, whether
it’s being saved for a future update,