New Apple Watch is a dive computer

[greeniguana]

Life insurance provider: Jim, I see that you exceeded your depth rating and NDL last week. We're going to be canceling your policy. Have a great day!
Jim: my watch band broke and my buddy picked it up for me. It was a backup computer and I didn't exceed NDL on my shearwater.
Life Insurance: I said good day sir!

Life insurance: But how did you drop your watch half a mile back into a cave???

 

[drohn]

Longest civil on-topic thread I've seen in a long time. If only it weren't due to Apple.

Oh maybe I can change that. ;p

Rumors say that Googles' Pixel watch comes with "50 meters of water resistance" at probably have the price.

Google Pixel Watch: Specs, $349+, Wear OS 3, and everything we know so far

Google officially announced its first smartwatch at I/O 2022 in May, but only provided a “first look” ahead of the...

9to5google.com

So??

 

[vondo]

I’ve heard that about OceanLog. Curious, though. You mention MacDive, which is for Mac only. When I got my VT4.1, the software for Windows was indeed OceanLog, however for Mac, DiverLog+ was recommended. That program wasn’t absolute trash.

Yeah, thanks for the reminder. I used to be on Windows (linux mostly, windows when needed). I made the switch about 10 years ago.

 

[vondo]

Waterproofing bone conduction headphones is easy enough, and the ability to transmit a signal a few feet through the water is common. Combining the two is where it runs into trouble. Not technically, but financially.

That's almost certainly not true. Yes, we can transmit data through the water but at a very slow rate. Enough for your pressure transmitter to communicate a number every few seconds, but not nearly enough to reach the megabit or so needed to provide decent audio quality.

Water is a great absorber of the frequencies used for data transmission; that's why a microwave works so well, all the energy gets absorbed into the water right away. Data transmission uses the same sort of frequencies.

 

[vondo]

In response to people saying that anyone can just make a dive app for this Apple watch: I was under the impression that Apple has their system locked down and if they don't want you to make an app because it interferes with their own app/partner apps, they'll just reject your app submission.

Given the partnership with oceanic (and cashing in on subscription fees), I don't see them letting any Tom dick and Harry make a dive app.

I don't believe that's true. Apple has guideline about quality of the code that they accept and you aren't allowed to bypass their payment scheme for subscriptions, but I'm not aware of anything they have rejected because it competes with their own apps. You can download Chrome pr DuckDuckGo bypassing their default search engine. And they get a payout from Google to make that the default search in the stock web browser. That payment dwarfs any revenue they will ever see from the Oceanic subscription model.

 

[doctormike]

That's almost certainly not true. Yes, we can transmit data through the water but at a very slow rate. Enough for your pressure transmitter to communicate a number every few seconds, but not nearly enough to reach the megabit or so needed to provide decent audio quality.

Water is a great absorber of the frequencies used for data transmission; that's why a microwave works so well, all the energy gets absorbed into the water right away. Data transmission uses the same sort of frequencies.

Thanks! Interesting. I wonder how the sound would be if you just played it on the watch speaker? I mean, maybe not audiophile quality, but enough for an audiobook while on deco, right? Sound travels well in water, right?

Maybe some sort of whale song ID program..! See, once the tech is there, people come up with all sorts of applications...

 

[vondo]

Oh maybe I can change that. ;p

Rumors say that Googles' Pixel watch comes with "50 meters of water resistance" at probably have the price.

Google Pixel Watch: Specs, $349+, Wear OS 3, and everything we know so far

Google officially announced its first smartwatch at I/O 2022 in May, but only provided a “first look” ahead of the...

9to5google.com

So??

That's more or less the specs and price of the $400 Apple Watch which will, I'm sure, be the biggest seller unless the $250 AW sells even better.

Make no mistake, Apple isn't going to be alone in this space for long. Google and/or Samsung are going to also make "extreme sport" watches and will include pressure and temperature sensors. They will also line up partners to produce the official dive computer app. Customers will have more choice putting even more pressure on the market for recreational dive computers.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

How the Oceanic+ App Will Help Grow the Dive Industry - DiveNewswire

The new Oceanic+ app, available on the App store in fall 2022, will turn the Apple Watch Ultra, the same watch millions of outdoor enthusiasts will wear every day, into an innovative dive computer. Apple is an iconic, global and cross-generational brand that is now driving its dedicated consumer...

www.divenewswire.com

 

[Taako]

In response to people saying that anyone can just make a dive app for this Apple watch: I was under the impression that Apple has their system locked down and if they don't want you to make an app because it interferes with their own app/partner apps, they'll just reject your app submission.

Given the partnership with oceanic (and cashing in on subscription fees), I don't see them letting any Tom dick and Harry make a dive app.

The ambient pressure sensor is available to any developer:
Apple Developer Documentation

Any developer can make a dive app, Buhlmann is open source and fairly easy to implement, there are a few dozen implementations already on github.

There will be free dive apps using a variety of open source models.

The partnership with oceanic was just to have a launch vehicle for the dive functionality, oceanic benefits by being first to market, and apple benefits by keeping it a secret with only a single trusted vendor in the space.

 

[kelemvor]

I don't believe that's true. Apple has guideline about quality of the code that they accept and you aren't allowed to bypass their payment scheme for subscriptions, but I'm not aware of anything they have rejected because it competes with their own apps. You can download Chrome pr DuckDuckGo bypassing their default search engine. And they get a payout from Google to make that the default search in the stock web browser. That payment dwarfs any revenue they will ever see from the Oceanic subscription model.

Unfortunately, it is. It's one of the points of contention in the US antitrust hearings against Apple and others. Australia is a bit further along in antitrust actions against Apple for that practice.

Google does the same type of ****, as do a few others.