Let me try to clarify current status and past history, and offer some hopeful news- but bear in mid that I'm not an Atomic employee, just reasonably close to this part of the process.
First, it was never Atomic's plan to - as most manufacturers do- charge extra for download capability, but to integrate that capability with the battery charging connector. As I've said here before, our recommendation as the Cobalt developers/ designers was that Atomic not try to provide download software at all, but simply make the interface available as open source, and let third party developers (of which there are many, both free and commercial) allow the Cobalt to interface with their dive log software. Atomic would provide the hardware capability and let those in the business of developing desktop software (which we are not) provide the dive log software. There is no inherent reason that any "Brand XX" computer should require "BrandXX" download software. As I understand, Atomic is pretty unique in choosing to cooperate with open source/ third party developers, and I think they deserve credit for taking that step. It's something no major manufacturers have done to my knowledge- though their communications have been reverse engineered with some effort. We have been working with Nick from MacDive, and MacDive currently supports the Cobalt. It's my understanding that other third party applications will soon, or do now. Atomic has committed to making a free Mac application available.
But before product release, Atomic decided that they wanted to provide a free "Atomic" branded dive log software as well as supporting open source. That may be a decision they regret at this point.
The manuals obviously had to be printed well before the Cobalt was released- which as many of you recall (and we recall painfully) was a good six months behind the original plan. The manual says to go to the Atomic Website because that's where they were planning to distribute the software.
For reasons I don't understand, the developer they contracted with for Windows got the package 95% done on schedule, and then failed to deliver for six months. Unfortunately, the firmware update capability was integrated with the Atomic desktop software for Windows (it's a separate application for the Mac). So the delay in the desktop software for Windows has meant a delay in releasing the firmware update as well.
We are saying the firmware update is required to download dives, because if one has set very high sample rates, or has very long dives, there is a potential conflict with the desktop software. But to answer a question above, nothing is the firmware is a fix for any safety problems- there are enhancements to the interface, a few new capabilities, and some things "under the hood". There is a fix for a rare problem that could be extremely irritating, but not a safety issue.
Now, the hopeful news. I have received this weekend what I hope will be the final Windows software, with the few minor fixes we needed- we're checking now. If it looks good, then both it and a firmware update should be posted soon. I know I've said that before- but I hope this time it's real.
Ron