IPad Pro and iPhone SE 2 have no advanced AirDrop: Apple forgot about U1?

Soon after Apple revealed the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, one of the main innovations of the smartphone was discovered, and this is not Wi-Fi 6 support or dual camera. It was the U1 chip, about which nothing was said at the presentation. This chip is needed for spatial orientation, allowing the iPhone to pinpoint the location of other Apple devices - for AirTag, and so that you can transfer the file via AirDrop simply by pointing to another device. It would seem that here they are - innovations and cool features, but Apple seems to have decided to suspend the introduction of the new chip.

Apple forgot about the existence of the U1 chip?

As the analysis of the new iPad Pro by iFixit masters showed, the tablet does not have the same U1 chip as in the iPhone 11, which is needed for AirTag and advanced AirDrop to work. Already strange, because this is not some kind of budget iPad, but a top-end device in the maximum configuration. But maybe U1 is not, because it's an iPad?

Some thought so, but there is no information that the iPhone SE 2020 has a U1 chip either. In the iPhone, which this year will be almost the most popular, the price will play its decisive role. From this we can conclude that Apple temporarily froze the development of AirTag and the new AirDrop feature: there is no mention of this in iOS bets either. Does this mean that the function will be distributed only in the iPhone 12?

What is AirTag?

Yes, it seems. And in vain, I was waiting for the appearance of AirTag, although such technologies are banned in most countries and in Russia. Maybe that’s why Apple temporarily curtailed development. It is unlikely that Cupertino completely abandoned this project, a lot of money was invested in it, and one company from Zelenograd got rich in general by selling Apple’s AirTag trademark.

In general, the idea is cool - imagine that an AirTag is attached to the dog’s collar and the dog is lost. Make a request to "Locator" - and get an answer with the location, which can be seen on the map. And approaching the specified location, you can use augmented reality to see the desired object.

The picture from the Apple patent is just about the dog

By the way, U1 chips can interact with each other only at a small distance, hardly much exceeding 10 meters. And their ability to send information about their location to Apple is generally a mystery. Apple's documentation says that in order to find a device with U1 inside, a request with a device identifier is sent to Apple. There, all devices with U1 will regularly send very accurate information about their location, in encrypted form. The encryption is carried out by an unknown key by Apple; Apple does not know where the requested object is located - only the requestor can decrypt the location of the object. So everything is safe, but no one knows how it will work in practice.

Why do I need a U1 chip in iPhone

Oh well with this tracking, it would be cool to get the new AirDrop feature on iPhone and iPad. Just imagine - you need to send a couple of photos, you just select them, direct the iPhone to another, and the pictures immediately appear on the second device. Magic? Nearly. For someone on new iPhones (where there is U1) this thing already works, in Russia and many other countries Apple has disabled the U1 chip. The reason why the U1 chip does not work for Russian users is not a system error, as you might think, and not a misuse. When this happens, the activation of the component is not very clear.

The U1 chip uses Ultra Wideband technology. It calculates how long a signal took to reach another device and then go back. Also, the Ultra Wideband device using directional antennas is able to determine not only the distance, but also the direction of the signal. So without it, advanced AirDrop will not work, that is, without U1.

It would be cool to get advanced AirDrop on all new devices

In the future, Ultra Wideband will be able to find application in augmented reality applications, indoor navigation and smart home. It is enough to imagine an audio system located throughout the house that controls the volume, turns the speakers on and off, tracking where the user is right now.

But all this - then. In the next six months, Apple, apparently, has no plans to launch such functions, otherwise the new iPad Pro and iPhone SE 2020 would have a U1 chip.