Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 247 posts

Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?

#21

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

larsrc wrote: post #6

The real question is why do toothbrushes need apps in the first place?

(Hypothetical made-up example:) "Dental" chewing gum companies would pay $$$ for info on peoples' brushing habits crossed with demographics and geographical data: if the data shows that there's a particular city or county where people brush their teeth 25-50% less than the general population then there's a good bet they should increase their ad-spend in that area, because (let's say) people who don't brush their teeth are more ameneable to buying dental-gum to offset the damage of not brushing.

Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?

#22

Post by arghwhat »

maccard wrote: post #10
MBCook wrote: post #5

So it’s all just stupidly big PDFs used as images of the different models? Not what I was expecting. I was expecting it to be more like the Colgate app mentioned later in thread.

That’s insane. They should absolutely, 100% be pulled on demand.

They should just be made properly - a properly made PDF is less than a megabyte, and model pictures should be just hundreds of KB.

Takes a lot of models and instructions to burn hundreds of megs that way.

Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?

#23

Post by throw101010 »

larsrc wrote: post #6

The real question is why do toothbrushes need apps in the first place?

To collect as much customer data as possible, to (hopefully) anonymize it and bundle it to sell them to data brokers and extract more money from their customer base...

All of it with their "consent" (you installed the app and likely accepted their ToS/PIvacy Policy), under the pretense of providing them a service like counting the time/frequency of your interaction with the product or reminding you to use it (something you would already do anyways, maybe less accurately, if you are a functioning adult).

Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?

#25

Post by gibbitz »

jjeaff wrote: post #19
larsrc wrote: post #6

The real question is why do toothbrushes need apps in the first place?

the one reason I have used the app is for my kids. it plays animations while they brush and keeps stats and let's them pick avatar colors and stuff as rewards.

So the animations are probably all embedded mpegs because what would a toothbrush company want to manage a CDN for...

Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?

#26

Post by Beijinger »

larsrc wrote: post #6

The real question is why do toothbrushes need apps in the first place?

Because it's cool man!

BTW, I stayed over at a friend's place one time, and he donated me a new electric tooth brush. How can people even use this? I found it extremely hurtful on my teeth. I would not use it if you paid me.

Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?

#27

Post by sharpshadow »

mrguyorama wrote: post #7

>The only other nodes that jump out is the `Comino.bundle` (15 MB), which has files like `20class_seqlen26_6p5h_20200302-095627_comino_android_production` Guessing these are some sort of model weights Fuck you. A "toothbrush app" which shouldn't exist in the first place CANNOT justify AI anything. What an indictment of our entire industry, nobody stopped this at any point. Nobody said "no we can't justify doing this…

Let’s say everytime you ask your GPT about liquor, get drunk and don’t brush teeth your dental GPT reports that and next time when you search for liquor you get a nice reminder to brush later with fitting dental advertisement.

Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?

#29

Post by diebeforei485 »

larsrc wrote: post #6

The real question is why do toothbrushes need apps in the first place?

They show you if you have spent sufficient time on the front, top, and back of each tooth. Electric toothbrushes are used differently than manual brushes (you don't move them back and forth).

Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?

#30

Post by RIMR »

Every health company out there has an app that connects their devices, but make one for a toothbrush and people freak out like this is the first time we've ever let an app measure something health-related.

Y'all will back smart watches that know all your vitals, and pendants that listen to everything you say, but log how frequently and thoroughly you brush your teeth, and suddenly there's an outrage.

As for why they are 300MB? It sounds like it was just poorly packaged assets. That's stupid, but also not a big deal.

Post reply on HN