Apple Watch Ultra 2

[stuartv]

Tell you what…

I can admit I'm a fanboi, if you can admit you're a hater.

Fanbois always see someone with objective critiques as having hate.

I have an iPhone and 2 iPads (after owning Android phones and tablets for years) - because they are the best tools in their class.

I had a Macbook Pro Retina as my daily driver for years. I eventually gave it to my parents and bought a new Windows laptop - because it is better - at least for all the things I do, which is writing software for a living and also doing a lot of photo editing and some video editing.

I'm not a hater OR a fanboi. But, as with extremists in every facet of life, being in the middle and objective always looks like hate from the extremist point of view.

 

[stuartv]

I'll admit one thing.

I am curious about this product because I have been holding out for years for the tech to really come along before buying a dive computer.

There's one more feature I want to see but the tech just isn't there yet. Scuba earbuds. If I could listen to some tunes while diving, that would be outstanding. I figure these smart watches already let you control your music, why not allow that function at depth?

You can do that, but it would be separate from your dive computer.

Unfortunately, the best solution I know of is a waterproof MP3 player that is out of production. But, if you are patient and keep your eyes peeled, you can find one on the used market.

I have one instructor friend that has one of those players and some underwater headphones and she has tunes playing all during her dives.

Or, supposedly, you can put a smartphone in a Divevolk case and play music (or movies) and actually hear it without headphones. I'm sure all the divers around you would LOVE that... LOL!

 

[lexvil]

If they added AI and didn’t have a subscription dive program I would have one.

 

[berndo]

Fanbois always see someone with objective critiques as having hate.

So very true ... iSlaves really don't like to hear that though.

 

[berndo]

Do Shartwater fanbois feel personally attacked when people don't love their stuff?

If I posted that it took about 7 weeks and a few hundered dollars for them to fix my hardly used petrel... the bois would lose their minds.
This experience still wasn't enough for me to switch to a gimmicky smart watch though .

 

[stuartv]

If they added AI and didn’t have a subscription dive program I would have one.

If they added MH8A AI, no subscription, and no arbitrary depth limit, then me, too.

I'm still curious about the depth limit. What I've read is still a bit ambiguous, in my mind.

If you go deeper than 130 (or 140 - whatever it is), then it stops showing you what? No more depth/time? Or it just stops showing NDL?

And then once you come back shallower than 130, it starts showing you the full info again?

And now the REAL question: Once you ascend back above 130, is the NDL info it shows based on the time and depth you really went to? Or does it not factor in any of the time you spent deeper than 130?

If it doesn't factor in that time, then what it is showing after you ascend above 130 is simply wrong. Dangerously wrong. I doubt that is how it works.

I suspect that it does factor in the time below 130 and the actual depth you went to. In which case, it is simply refusing to show you what it does "know" internally. And that is just stupid. If it's still tracking your inert gas tissue loading and NDL, then what is the reason to not let you see it until you ascend back above 130'?

Or, maybe(?) once you ascend back above 130 it never goes back to showing you your NDL info? In which case, well who WOULDN'T want a dive computer that quits working as soon as you ascend 1 foot to deep, right at the limits of recreational diving? And by "quits working", I mean stops showing you NDL for the rest of the dive.

And if you do exceed NDL, what does it actually show you? Every other recreational computer with which I am familiar will go into deco mode. They will tell you where to stop and for how long, to get you out of the water safely. Does the AWU do that?

 

[Wibble]

If I posted that it took about 7 weeks and a few hundered dollars for them to fix my hardly used petrel... the bois would lose their minds.
This expeprience still wasn't enough for me to switch to a gimmicky smart watch though .

Where did you end up sending it to be repaired?

My Nerd depth sensor was fixed within a week and didn't cost a fortune.

If they added MH8A AI, no subscription, and no arbitrary depth limit, then me, too.

I'm still curious about the depth limit. What I've read is still a bit ambiguous, in my mind.

If you go deeper than 130 (or 140 - whatever it is), then it stops showing you what? No more depth/time? Or it just stops showing NDL?

And then once you come back shallower than 130, it starts showing you the full info again?

And now the REAL question: Once you ascend back above 130, is the NDL info it shows based on the time and depth you really went to? Or does it not factor in any of the time you spent deeper than 130?

If it doesn't factor in that time, then what it is showing after you ascend above 130 is simply wrong. Dangerously wrong. I doubt that is how it works.

I suspect that it does factor in the time below 130 and the actual depth you went to. In which case, it is simply refusing to show you what it does "know" internally. And that is just stupid. If it's still tracking your inert gas tissue loading and NDL, then what is the reason to not let you see it until you ascend back above 130'?

Or, maybe(?) once you ascend back above 130 it never goes back to showing you your NDL info? In which case, well who WOULDN'T want a dive computer that quits working as soon as you ascend 1 foot to deep, right at the limits of recreational diving? And by "quits working", I mean stops showing you NDL for the rest of the dive.

And if you do exceed NDL, what does it actually show you? Every other recreational computer with which I am familiar will go into deco mode. They will tell you where to stop and for how long, to get you out of the water safely. Does the AWU do that?

AIUI it's an Apple restriction on the software / API. Obvs. if you descend below the arbitrary depth then any algorithm you have monitoring depth would be somewhat inaccurate, so it would be prudent for the dive computer application developer to spit the dummy (pacifier?).

 

[stuartv]

AIUI it's an Apple restriction on the software / API. Obvs. if you descend below the arbitrary depth then any algorithm you have monitoring depth would be somewhat inaccurate, so it would be prudent for the dive computer application developer to spit the dummy (pacifier?).

But IS that obvious? Just because it stops displaying info below an arbitrary depth does not mean that the software doesn't still track the depth and time internally.

 

[jborg]

The behaviour is quite well-documented now I think.

- If you descend past 130ft/40m (but not past 144ft/44m) you get a "too deep" warning, but internally it continues tracking tissue saturation, and when you return above 130ft/40m you get back full functionality.

- If you descend past 144ft/44m the depth sensor is no longer reporting a depth, just "beyond max depth", so the app can't track tissue saturation any more. When you ascend back above 130ft/40m all you have is gauge mode, because it no longer has accurate data for all of the dive.

This correlates with the slightly rawer data recorded in the health app (no need for Oceanic+ etc), where it will record depth down to 144ft/44m and just say for anything deeper.

 

[berndo]

- If you descend past 130ft/40m (but not past 144ft/44m) you get a "too deep" warning, but internally it continues tracking tissue saturation, and when you return above 130ft/40m you get back full functionality.

- If you descend past 144ft/44m the depth sensor is no longer reporting a depth, just "beyond max depth", so the app can't track tissue saturation any more. When you ascend back above 130ft/40m all you have is gauge mode, because it no longer has accurate data for all of the dive.

Wow, that sucks... I guess that settles it. It's not a real dive computer. Shouldn't be seen as a real dive computer at least.