Apple Watch Ultra — what dive software is in the works?

[jborg]

This keeps getting discussed. I don't think there's any controversy about the limit being in software - it absolutely is, for all the reasons mentioned. However, opinions differ on what the underlying hardware might support if the software limit were removed or increased. My guess is "not much more than the current limit" for reasons I've detailed in all the other AWU sensor threads; other people think it's 100m+. Nobody outside the AWU team at Apple could tell us for sure, today. (I'm really hoping/waiting for someone to do a thorough teardown with x-rays and everything, but so far it's not forthcoming.)

 

[OrcasC205]

I have put in a request for the entitlement to access the CMWaterSubmersionManager class as part of my existing App. If successful, I will make it a simple data logger for people to record their dive while using another dive computer. Frankly, I don't want to get into the business of my software being used as the primary source of decompression data for people diving, but it will be interesting to see how Apple responds.

 

[KenGordon]

I have put in a request for the entitlement to access the CMWaterSubmersionManager class as part of my existing App. If successful, I will make it a simple data logger for people to record their dive while using another dive computer. Frankly, I don't want to get into the business of my software being used as the primary source of decompression data for people diving, but it will be interesting to see how Apple responds.

I have had no reply after a couple of weeks. I have all the deco code done years ago as an exercise in understanding how GF works. I am not sure if what they are doing is altogether sensible as choosing “blessed” developers seems like a way to be responsible for blessing developers who have bugs.

 

[Wibble]

Wonder how long their exclusivity deal runs for. Was in Apple’s benefit to have the Oceanic dive application available at the Ultra's launch to kick start the Ultra's go-anywhere credentials.

A year? Then Apple will release the entitlements??

 

[Belzelbub]

Wonder how long their exclusivity deal runs for. Was in Apple’s benefit to have the Oceanic dive application available at the Ultra's launch to kick start the Ultra's go-anywhere credentials.

Could be interesting when/if another dive app is released. Could actually be messy if you have two dive apps downloaded. Both would need to track dive data regardless of whether active or not. Currently my understanding of Oceanic+ is that it doesn't actually start doing that until the dive is initiated and fit for diving is confirmed.

 

[jborg]

Why would more than one app need to be involved? I would expect only one to be active, the one that's in front when the dive is started, or configured as the app to start when a dive begins. (The other one might be able to import the dive into its log book after the fact, from the recorded HealthKit data on the watch, though.)

 

[Belzelbub]

Why would more than one app need to be involved? I would expect only one to be active, the one that's in front when the dive is started, or configured as the app to start when a dive begins. (The other one might be able to import the dive into its log book after the fact, from the recorded HealthKit data on the watch, though.)

Mainly to retain dive history. I'm not sure why anyone would do this, but it could be possible. If you did dive 1 with Oceanic+, then used a different dive app on dive 2. In order for either to be accurate, both apps would need access to the history of both dives.

From reports of Oceanic+ not starting a dive (at least not logging) until the wearer confirms the dive should start, I'm not sure it's utilizing data from HealthKit that occurred before the confirmation.

 

[jborg]

Right, yeah, it most likely doesn't, and I don't expect future apps would do it either in order to calculate current tissue saturation -- I just think it could possibly be used to populate the log after the fact. If there were multiple possible dive computer apps I don't think you could switch between them during a dive series and maintain correct tissue saturation in both/all of them like you imagine.

 

[kimh]

there are various places in the system that could be considered "software", all with various likelihoods of being addressed in the future.

Thanks for breaking down the various software levels/abstractions. I searched for CMWaterSubmersionManager just to see what chatter there might be online, and there was actually very little. But it was interesting how matter of fact the developer documentation was. It certainly looks like they expect to see a lot of 3rd-party activity. You have to wonder about how difficult it will be to get the OS entitlements from Apple, though. Not looking good so far, I guess.

 

[Wibble]

When you request the entitlement to the dive-related data, does Apple ask you for a "reason" for requesting this?

Thinking that they might analyse the amount of interest and reasoning.

On the other hand, makes sense for Oceanic to have an exclusivity period -- after all Apple are getting their new dive functionality beta tested with a single company.