SPOT does have a couple new things out now, including the cell interface. The main thing about SPOT is the satellite based messaging. If you can look UP, you can send out.

This last weekend would be a perfect example of how handy one would be. Some buddies and I went to breakfast, then we all headed to the fairgrounds to an antique car swap meet. I found a very nice straight rust-free door for my '67 truck for $35, so now my repaint can go ahead without dumping 8 hours of time/labor into the big dent that's there now. Afterwards, one friend headed off to pick up some Harley parts from a paint shop, and after changing vehicles from the truck to the Jeep, the rest of us went to a gun show.

After the gun perusing, we ended up driving to the opposite end of this area to do some off-roading. I mentioned the gun show before we left the house, so had we disappeared due to wrecking the Jeep or whatever, the search would've started some 40 miles in the opposite direction. Nobody would've guessed where we went. We ended up Jeeping in canyons in the Wallula Gap area by the Columbia river. Forget cell phones out there. Maybe after a thousand foot climb up to a basalt ridge you might get a cell signal. And your climb will be at about a 60 degree angle over rip-rap rock.

Other places we've been that have not even a hint of cell phone signal is Hells Canyon, lots of places in the national forests of WA and OR, etc. At the very least, my series of okay/check in messages are handy to track our route later. Most of the time, there's not even USFS roads on the map. And if the Jeep crashed down a canyon or the like, (As in not being conscious to push any buttons on the SPOT) the suddenly ending check-ins and/or last known position from the otherwise long line of them would narrow the search down to probably within 2 or 3 miles of where we bought the farm. (or less)

That same idea would've been great for the guy in "127 Hours'' too.

A) People on your SPOT list would notice the series of okay messages suddenly quit, so the search wouldn't have to wait for days of absence from work to begin.
B) You're not going to be too far away from the last position report. (Down at the bottom of the cliff you fell off of, etc.)
C) Rescuers can see the trend of your direction of travel from the position reports. Had he left an electronic breadcrumb trail, the track line would've pointed right at that slot canyon where he cut off his arm.