New Apple Watch is a dive computer

[Marie13]

Since Oceanic has been developing and selling dive computers for some times, I wonder what it took to put the functions of a dive computer into an app.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

Since Oceanic has been developing and selling dive computers for some times, I wonder what it took to put the functions of a dive computer into an app.

$$$$

 

[Joneill]

Sure, a different business model. Maybe Oceanic will make money, maybe they won't. Up to the market to decide.

But you really can't equate the two. All software isn't the same, otherwise I wouldn't be paying over $4,000 a year for my office billing and scheduling software, for one provider.

Divelog is a dive log. It records your dives. If it fails, you lose your record of your dives.

It isn't dive computer software that tracks your N2 loading in real time based on inputs from a mechanical device while underwater, and helps you avoid injury or death. It's a different thing.

Understood - but the Buhlmann algorithms are well understood and not new so nothing really breakthrough here. Time will tell if the market accepts, but I’m not a fan of a subscription model for something like this.

 

[Joneill]

$$$$

More like $$ as they probably use low cost offshore coders.

 

[hazmat]

I always download my dives, and sync them with MacDive on my phone. I really love it. I spend time writing up notes about what I saw and what I did. I love going back and reading those notes later. I love having all of my dives with me on my phone so that if a question comes up in conversation about a past dive or an old dive site, I have it all there.

I do that because I really like doing it. It enhances my enjoyment of diving. I find it fun. I find it pleasurable.

You know, like a fetish.

Same. I do unix and database admin for a living. I'm a data whore. I love to log everything I to repetitively. I also have a log of every run I've done and pretty much every unique beer I've had.

 

[vondo]

I guess a one-time purchase of Oceanic+ would also make sense, but I'm not surprised at all that Oceanic is finding a way to make money off of this since all they're providing in this case is the software.

If you look at where apps are going, people really are gravitating towards the free+subscription model vs. the pay up front model. Apps that have a up front purchase prices don't attract many people. So if you don't like this, you can blame the companies that do it, or you can more accurately blame your fellow customers.

 

[Joneill]

Correct. But it’s logging software, not an app that will turn your Apple Watch into a dive computer.

That doesn’t mean it’s that much less complex in terms of coding - just the impact to the end user if it fails.

Maybe Oceanic is charging this way to cover costs of potential liability if someone gets injured due to an issue with their app?

 

[doctormike]

MacDive needs to be purchased, as well. $25 for desktop and I think $10 for iPhone.

Let me tell you how AWESOME the developer of MacDive is (Nick Shore). I bought it for $25 several years ago. MANY times I have emailed Nick and gotten a reply or a patch within minutes. When I switched laptops, I couldn't figure out how to transfer the license, but since I was so happy with the support, I just bought it again.

Within minutes, Nick emailed me and reminded me that I had bought it in the past and so I didn't need a new license.

 

[doctormike]

Understood - but the Buhlmann algorithms are well understood and not new so nothing really breakthrough here. Time will tell if the market accepts, but I’m not a fan of a subscription model for something like this.

Right, that really is unprecedented in the world of dive computers. But this is arguably the first mass market general purpose computer that you can download third party DC software into and dive with, so it's sort of uncharted territory...

Of course, we have been arguing for 36 pages about something that isn't even available yet!

 

[vondo]

Let me tell you how AWESOME the developer of MacDive is (Nick Shore). I bought it for $25 several years ago. MANY times I have emailed Nick and gotten a reply or a patch within minutes. When I switched laptops, I couldn't figure out how to transfer the license, but since I was so happy with the support, I just bought it again.

Within minutes, Nick emailed me and reminded me that I had bought it in the past and so I didn't need a new license.

Seconded. I haven't emailed him more than a few times, but it's always great support. I think the last request I made was "I want to cut and paste GPS coordinates from Lightroom into MacDive and have them accepted" (yes, I'm one of those data-fetishists). Two days later it was in a release.