Chrisxr2 Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 How long have we waited for this?? No odometer, not even close to the features of the ninebot app, really disappointed. Thought the beta would be way improved upon, especially as they say working on the best app they can, don't want to throw an app to the world that's crap like the ninebot one. I appreciate the effort the developer had put in but we have been waiting for this app for a very long time and there is almost 0 functionality compared to others out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirGeraint Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Wow! That's an awful lot of information to cram on such a small screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Hmm, well based on the fact that (a) Solowheel does not have in-house app development, and (b) no app until a fan came along and offered to help...I am guessing that the firmware on the wheel was developed with almost no consideration for a potential companion app, and therefore has an extremely limited API over bluetooth which literally only supports battery % and a speed measurement.I'm sure at the time they were just trying to get the firmware out the door so they could ship a product. Unfortunately, if I'm right that means the app physically cannot provide any more functionality than this unless the wheel itself gets a firmware update. And based on what I've heard of solowheel so far, it seems firmware updates cannot be done via the app, only at the factory (this is not surprising since that can be a tricky feature to implement on the firmware side, and if they weren't thinking about an app at the time there is no reason they would have implemented this capability). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrisxr2 Posted October 20, 2015 Author Share Posted October 20, 2015 Sound words kevin, but a bit silly of them to say they don't want to offer a scrap app like the ninebot which is full of functionality and the come out with what they have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 There's two opposing schools of thought in product development: "do a few things well", vs. "add as many features as possible". A great example of this was when iPhone first came out - it did very few things compared to Windows Mobile (a whole PC in your pocket!), but did it really well in a user friendly and attractive package.My guess is that Solowheel is of the 'minimalist' school of thought, and when referring to the other apps as 'crap' they are probably talking about how they just jammed a bunch of features together in an ugly way with no thought for good UI design.Unfortunately, there is also such a thing as being too minimalist so that it doesn't provide needed functionality However I'm not sure if this is so much because they have the intention of not providing features, or because they are limited by their original design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmethvin Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 Well I'd have some sympathy here. Inventist is in the unfortunate position of being the only US-based EUC company, so it has to be paranoid about the way US consumer products are sold, marketed, and litigated. I think that's why they've been so conservative.Having an app that can read the speed, odometer, or battery level from the bot is one thing. Having one that can update firmware or change settings is a lot more risky. The Ninebot fiasco showed us that. If that had happened to Inventist there's a good chance it would have resulted in a class action lawsuit.To me that's another case for open source firmware. If someone installs custom firmware or uses undocumented/unsupported features (like removing speed limits) it's their responsibility to know what it does and they can't hold the manufacturer responsible. But that way you get to appeal to both hobbyists who want to tinker and the consumers who want something reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrisxr2 Posted October 22, 2015 Author Share Posted October 22, 2015 But dmethvin, it does not have an odometer, or the option to have the speed in miles per hour, its been in development for probably 6 months now, i have pointed inventist back to here via Facebook as at least one member has offered to help improve and develop the app, whilst i hear what you are saying qwith regards being US based etc they are also far and away the most expensive and for this extra expense we get, ............. Nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmethvin Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 But dmethvin, it does not have an odometer, or the option to have the speed in miles per hour, its been in development for probably 6 months now, i have pointed inventist back to here via Facebook as at least one member has offered to help improve and develop the app, whilst i hear what you are saying qwith regards being US based etc they are also far and away the most expensive and for this extra expense we get, ............. Nothing.You're getting something for the extra money such as improved build quality, better support, safety, and someone to sue if things go wrong. I don't think we (the early adopters who are willing to take risks) see the value in most of those.It seems like Inventist should follow the Tesla model, which means all the fancy features like an app would make their buyers more likely to pay a higher price. But if you've seen the news about Tesla in the past week it seems that even they have a lot of problems maintaining a device that's full of software. At least they get paid a huge premium for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esaj Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 But if you've seen the news about Tesla in the past week it seems that even they have a lot of problems maintaining a device that's full of software. At least they get paid a huge premium for it.I thought Tesla is currently selling the cars at a slight loss (few thousand per car)? http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/10/us-teslamotors-cash-insight-idUSKCN0QE0DC20150810 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmethvin Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 I knew they were burning money, but I think that is due to the cost of setting up their charging network across the country. That article sounds like they are taking the company's total operating loss and dividing by the number of cars to get the $4,000 per car. Tesla has always been planning to start with the top-end products and work down to more affordable ones once they had established their brand with buyers. So most likely a lot of the money they are spending now is development costs that are amortized over each unit they sell. If you look at it that way, they are technically losing money on every car, but the actual cost of materials are probably a lot lower than the sale price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Clegg Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 I can't even get anything to work in that app with my xtreme. I can connect via bluetooth, but the batter level and speed stay at 0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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