The most common use of UWB is Apple’s AirTag tracker. CNET
UWB — short for ultra-wideband — is a low-energy, short-range radio technology that’s been around for decades (it was called “pulse radio” for a while).
UWB utilizes ultra-fast signal pulses (up to over a billion per second) broadcast over a wide area of the radio spectrum (500MHz to several gigahertz). This avoids the interference problems that plague other technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
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Until recently, UWB was primarily limited to military and medical applications.
But that is changing.
It was possible that UWB could replace Wi-Fi (which never happened) and that Apple was planning to use UWB instead of Bluetooth to communicate with AirPods, but UWB The feature that made it mainstream is accuracy. discover.
Apple has built UWB support into many of its devices over the past few years, including the U1 chip. iPhone 11 or newer, Series 6 or newer Apple Watch, homepod mini, Second generation AirPods Proand of course, air tag.
If you’re using AirTags (and if you’re an iPhone user, I’m sure you should), you’re using UWB to find your misplaced keys or pets.
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The low-energy aspect of UWB is Button battery lasts 1 year in tagthe precision search feature lets you narrow your search for lost possessions from hundreds of feet to inches.
Not only is it more accurate than GPS, it works indoors as well as outdoors.
Everything works in Apple’s ecosystem.
Hmmm… just a minute.
There is one exception here and that is the latest generation. iPhone SEFor some strange reason Apple didn’t include UWB support here. A bit of an oversight, if you ask me, but I hope the next generation iPhone SE changes that.
review: Apple iPhone SE (2022): You won’t find a better smartphone at this price
But what about Android users?
This is where things get more patchwork.
Of the millions of Android devices released each month, very few support UWB.
So far this is a very short list.
Oh, and to make things even more confusing, among all Samsung devices listed as supporting UWB, Currently only the S21+ and S21 Ultra actually workI believe Samsung will enable it for other devices at some point.
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yeah i know, weird.
Samsung has its own AirTags. Galaxy SmartTag+but unless you own one of the Samsung smartphones that support UWB, you’re out of luck.
more annoying.
Now tags are one thing. You can use them or leave them alone, but UWB is gaining traction in other areas.
One of their uses is as a digital “key” for your home or car. Imagine the convenience of walking to your car or front door and being able to detect your proximity and automatically unlock it.
Now, if you’re an iPhone owner, and you’ve bought a new handset in the last few years, and that iPhone wasn’t an iPhone SE, that’s great.
But for Android users, things get even more complicated.
Not only do you need to check if your smartphone supports UWB, you also need to check. how to turn on If so.
My guess is that things will improve in the next few years, but UWB could be a long time coming. budget android device.