WiseWear Chapter 11 bankruptcy blamed on Apple's decision to deactivate Apple Watch diagno...

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 29
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member
    How odd that WiseWear bought Reserve Strap AFTER port charging was disabled (making Reserve Straps product and IP useless). 
  • Reply 22 of 29
    Anyone remember that back in the original iMac (Bondi Blue), the “Revision A” original hardware had something called a “mezzanine slot” slated for future expansion possibilities… which disappeared completely from “Rev. B” hardware and onward?

    At the time Formac had built a SCSI connector board, and Micro Communications made a graphics card for it—both of which were effectively killed off when the Rev. A was superseded. Source: Macworld, https://www.macworld.com/article/1014902/imacboards.html

    unrelated: I loved my Bondi Rev. A (which I’d had maxed out to a whopping 384MB RAM!)…
  • Reply 23 of 29
    larryjw said:
    Unfortunate business decision. It’s called risk, and they didn’t evaluate the risk accurately. 

    No pejorative comments are appropriate about this company or Apple. Wisewear made a bet, too large a bet, and lost. 

    Apple undoubtedly had something in mind when these ports were developed. It remains to be seen what they have in mind and even whether the ports will continue to exist. 

    Smart money is waiting for Apple to issue documents detailing support for the hardware, then designing the hell out of it. 
    Delete the bit about "No pejorative comments are appropriate about this company or Apple." and everyone hear will agree with you.  There is taking a calculated risk and there is betting everything on an unlikely outcome.  The latter--which is exactly what they did--is stupid and irresponsible.  If they misled investors about the risks involved, it could also be illegal.  Perhaps investors will be suing them soon.
    netmage
  • Reply 24 of 29
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    Anyone remember that back in the original iMac (Bondi Blue), the “Revision A” original hardware had something called a “mezzanine slot” slated for future expansion possibilities… which disappeared completely from “Rev. B” hardware and onward?

    At the time Formac had built a SCSI connector board, and Micro Communications made a graphics card for it—both of which were effectively killed off when the Rev. A was superseded. Source: Macworld, https://www.macworld.com/article/1014902/imacboards.html

    unrelated: I loved my Bondi Rev. A (which I’d had maxed out to a whopping 384MB RAM!)…
    Yup. I sure do. But the big difference here is that Apple never disabled the mezzanine slot on those original iMacs to thwart it's use.
  • Reply 25 of 29
    vannygeevannygee Posts: 61member
    For me, this raises a bigger question: 
    Why is this port there and what is it used for (or, will it be used for)?
    Time for new smart bands to arrive!! Monitoring hydration levels, alcohol in sweat to disable drunk driving, the future is here!!
  • Reply 26 of 29
    lowededwookielowededwookie Posts: 1,143member
    But, even just an external battery could be a great enhancement to the watch because, one of the major complaints is that marathoners can't use it because the battery can't last through a marathon.

    They can if they have it setup right. I turned off raise to wake because as a motorcycle postie it would be constantly triggered by turning the throttle. I can easily get a day and a half to a charge with just that turned off.

    Be a bit different with Workouts I guess but even they don’t need the heart rate constantly running.
  • Reply 27 of 29
    My guess is that the decision to turn off the port charging feature was made precisely because companies like this were considering accessories using it.  Apple might or might not have decided that there will come a time when the port is usable by third parties, but that time is not now, and turning the port off prevents a bad user experience when someone's accessory stops working because Apple decides that they want to use that port for something different.
  • Reply 28 of 29
    maltzmaltz Posts: 453member
    Shaky business plan based on an undocumented feature. Dick move by Apple. There are no good guys here...
    mac_128
  • Reply 29 of 29
    mac_128 said:
    MplsP said:
    Can’t really call them a parasite, but unless there’s a specific contract,  Apple can change its products however it sees fit. It’s not unlike a company that designed products for the 30 pin connector only to have Apple change to the lighting port. 
    Yes, Apple can remove a port from a future product or change it. The distinction here, is they changed the product after the customer bought it. Imagine the outcry if Apple turned off the headphone jack on all existing Lightning-equipped phones after they removed the headphone jack from the iPhone 7? Granted the headphone jack was an advertised feature, and the "diagnostic port" wasn't. Nevertheless, the idea is the same -- Apple changed the hardware after you bought it, advertised or not.

    That to me is the important part of this story. I couldn't care less if a startup business model was trashed after Apple removed a port on a future product; but altering a product after the customer owns it, really redefines "ownership" for modern times, and speaks more to customers rights than Apple's here.
    There are several differences between this case and the analogy you present.

    The biggest one, is that :

    - the headphone jack was an advertised feature of the product, that Apple touted as a feature
    - the diagnostic port was never an advertised feature, there was no documentation on how to access it, and Apple barely, if at all acknowledged its existence

    The theory is that the port is used during the repair of devices - ie it has an internal to Apple function only, and there is no guarantee that its design is reliable, or even safe, outside those private use-cases. (eg there may not be an appropriate level of electrical isolation or voltage regulation on the port for it to be opened up to 3rd party use, but its fine being used with a particular apple designed test rig in the repair centre)

    This is not a new concept - Apple TV has a USB port that has no function outside of repair diagnostics, various models of Mac have had undocumented expansion slots and ports back to at leas the Bondi Blue iMac.




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