Everywhere Connected

The world is flat. Finally. DeLorme inReach satellite communicator is a real breakthrough communication device. Not because it works anywhere on the Planet, talking directly to the Iridium satellite network. Not because it is an affordable, rugged, waterproof, GPS+satcom device with good battery life. But because it does not require a monthly fee (well, it does, but the fee is $3...). And because a decent monthly fee ($65) gives UNLIMITED two-way messages and tracking / location pings.

It landed in my hands two days ago, so it is hard to fully judge it, but the first impressions are really, really good. The device itself is far from being an iPhone 6 or the next generation Samsung galaxy: it is thick, the screen is small, the GUI is awful, but it seems to be able to deliver in the three key areas:

1. It is satellite based, so works where the cellular services do not. And it knows no borders / roaming.
2. It works very well with a companion smartphone app via Bluetooth. The app mostly serves as a high definition map display. After the initial checks, I am happy to report, the quality of the provided topographic maps is good. You need storage (but hey, my 32GB Galaxy Note equipped with a 128GB Sandisk microSD card has a couple of GB left). And you need to pre-load the required map areas before setting up for a trip, but I like the resolution and accuracy.
3. The battery life seems to be very good: I had it sitting on my window for a day and it has gone down to 84%, so the advertised 4-day life with 10-minite tracking updates via satellite is not a stretch. And you can recharge via micro-USB. Of course :).

On top of the basic features you can link it to Twitter (I did) and Facebook (I did not, as I do not use Facebook) and you are able to send email to any address via the satellite network and the message includes a link to the location on a map.

DeLorme seems to finally recognize many people need unlimited (time / space / volume) communications from time to time. I would never buy a satellite communicator if the transfer was capped or if it required a multi-month contract with full monthly fees. But spending $65 one or two months a year to be connected in some potentially extreme conditions is very reasonable. I think this may be one of the most successful products in DeLorme's portfolio.