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

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

#81

Post by uhtred »

barbazoo wrote: post #59
eagerpace wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To collect data so they can do marketing and advertising to customers.

How does that work here? Say I have that toothbrush, the app, and say I had to sign up to use it. What they know is how long the toothbrush is on. How are they going to monetize that data?

What permissions does the app ask for? Most likely location for some bullshit Bluetooth feature, and no doubt they request other permissions like contacts and media so you can share with friends that you clean your teeth.

Hey, now oral b know where you are all the time, who you know etc

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

#82

Post by maccard »

lowtech8 wrote: post #41
eagerpace wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To collect data so they can do marketing and advertising to customers.

And charge them more, maybe sell some of their personal data too

To who?

Say I have an app with 1M downloads. Who do I sell 1M email addresses and the fact they've bought a toothbrush to?

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

#83

Post by nabla9 »

zyberzero wrote: post #65
0x0 wrote: post #64

The Oral-B app was fun a few years ago when it was fairly lightweight, showed an up-to-date current world events news feed, while logging data into apple health and encouraging a brushing streak. Then they rewrote the entire app and it lost almost all of those features. I never opened the app once after the first run after the upgrade. Really makes me wish for an iOS app store that would allow installing older versio…

The protocol has already been reverse engineered. I’m using Home Assistant with bluetooth and it picks up one of my neighbour’s Oral-B toothbrush…

Can you reprogram or remote update the toothbrush?

I mean, if it has vibration or sound, you might be able make it talk or play music.

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

#84

Post by lloeki »

layer8 wrote: post #62
FredPret wrote: post #58

I bought an electric toothbrush from Walmart for $6.99 probably 5 years ago. It takes Oral-B brush heads and AA batteries. It's not capable of using an app. Who know being a tech guy would make me love as-simple-as-possible "retro" devices.

That’s every other tech guy. It’s a common effect.

> I work in IT, which is the reason our house has:

- mechanical locks

- mechanical windows

- routers using OpenWRT

- no smart home crap

- no Alexa/Google Assistant/...

- no internet connected thermostats

>> Tech Enthusiasts: Everything in my house is wired to the Internet of Things! I control it all from my smartphone! My smart-house is bluetooth enabled and I can give it voice commands via alexa! I love the future!

>> Programmers / Engineers: The most recent piece of technology I own is a printer from 2004 and I keep a loaded gun ready to shoot it if it ever makes an unexpected noise.

- https://imgur.com/6wbgy2L

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

#85

Post by uhtred »

beejiu wrote: post #45
pif wrote: post #11

My question is: why do an Oral-B app and a Colgate app even exist?

The same reason they now have a toothbrush with AI. Because they are in a race to continuously re-invent the toothbrush every year to create new USPs, create new marketing angles and keep sales high.

A toothbrush with AI is the funniest thing I've read today, thank you.

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

#86

Post by johndough »

barbazoo wrote: post #59
eagerpace wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To collect data so they can do marketing and advertising to customers.

How does that work here? Say I have that toothbrush, the app, and say I had to sign up to use it. What they know is how long the toothbrush is on. How are they going to monetize that data?

> What they know is how long the toothbrush is on. How are they going to monetize that data?

"We noticed that brushing takes you X seconds longer than usual. Do you want to buy new bristles for your tooth brush?"

"We noticed you haven't used our tooth brush in a while. Do you want to buy our new tooth brush?"

"We noticed that you started brushing your teeth earlier than usual. This probably means that you started a new job and can afford our new deluxe premium tooth brush."

"We noticed that you brush your teeth later than usual. That probably means that you met with someone who you can recommend our amazing tooth brush to."

"We noticed that your tooth brushing times are all over the place, so you probably had a child. Buy our new baby tooth brush."

And that is just from the time you brush your teeth. However, the app also collections "Health and fitness and Device or other IDs" according to the app description:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pg.oralb.o...

That means that Oral B can link that data with the data harvested from other apps or data brokers, so they probably know everything about you. Health data seems especially creepy to me. I wonder if it is possible to measure the effectiveness of an advertisement from the heart rate data. At least they can definitely tell if you brush longer after seeing their latest Oral B add on TV/YouTube/some website.

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

#87

Post by GaggiX »

renewiltord wrote: post #34
notamy wrote: post #24

https://xcancel.com/emergetools/status/1828490449881047401

This is the worst Twitter proxy I've ever seen. It's got one of those idiotic "wait x seconds to view this page" and then a "reload the page". It's like a spam interstitial you get when you're trying to view illegal streams. I can't believe anyone not affiliated with it would post it. Awful tool.

At least you don't need to create an account to see the thread.

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

#88

Post by settsu »

I know this is probably going to land with a thud in this venue, but as a counterpoint to the predictable "why do toothbrushes need an app?!", it should at least be acknowledged that these apps might be the first and only place someone could learn of good oral hygiene.

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

#89

Post by NeoTar »

uhtred wrote: post #85
beejiu wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same reason they now have a toothbrush with AI. Because they are in a race to continuously re-invent the toothbrush every year to create new USPs, create new marketing angles and keep sales high.

A toothbrush with AI is the funniest thing I've read today, thank you.

I have seen products reported about on YouTube that used ‘ai’ to mean a timer.
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