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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..?

#161

Post by jakelsaunders94 »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #132
jakelsaunders94 wrote: post #51

Possibly a controversial opinion here but… who cares? I don’t mean this in a snarky way. If you’re an app developer you’ve got limited development time like everyone else. Most phones have at least 128gb internal memory and the app is downloaded over WiFi. I just don’t see this as a constraint. Sure you could have a CDN and lazy load but then the app doesn’t work without internet. Just dump it all on the device.

> who cares? Some people have limited storage space remaining on their device. Some people have slow Internet, or capped Internet.

Limited storage space is a valid argument I guess, though with music / everything streaming these days I’ve always struggled to see how you’d fill up a 128gb phone. And I’ve obviously got no data to support this but i suspect the cross number of people downloading the Oral B toothbrush app on 4G internet out and about would be low. Feels like the number of people in developing countries buying an app-enabled toothbrush would be similar.

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

#162

Post by kelnos »

onion2k wrote: post #146
kelnos wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't read as I'm on a no-Twitter diet, so I'm not sure exactly which app they're referring to, but my Oral-B toothbrush has an app that tracks brushing habits over Bluetooth. I decided when I bought it that I would never ever ever install that app or make use of these features (it's tooth-brushing , for crying out loud), and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. I'm sure the company just wants to collect d…

Aren't you buying a toothbrush with a bunch of features you'll never use though? Why not just buy a less fully-featured privacy respecting toothbrush? (Something is up with the world when you're thinking about toothbrushes that respect your privacy. It's like something out of a Douglas Adams book.)

Sure, but pretty much my only considerations were the quality of brushing, cost of new brushes, and general reliability. The one I thought was best and in-budget just happened to have these anti-features too, which fortunately I don't have to use.

It wasn't worth it to me to spend more time on it to see if I could find something without the connected crap.

(And I do wonder if the connected crap makes the device cheaper, since they're hoping to make money on selling user data.)

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

#164

Post by maest »

winternett wrote: post #105
eagerpace wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The extra code might there to determine your spending habits across other apps and your bank balance and then to determine where you're located so that it can provide information on regional affluence so they can price toothpaste & brushes higher in strategic regions... That's just an example guess, but the bloat is there for a purpose... I'm pretty sure the app gets updated on intervals too, just like so many others…

I suggest reading the posted link, it's quite informative and saves you from having to make assumptions.

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

#165

Post by andrewinardeer »

johndough wrote: post #86
barbazoo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 n…

I'm surprised they haven't gone down the route of TaaS (Toothbrush as a Service), where they sell a crippled device, and for a monthly fee of a few dollars, it will unlock a premium 'Ultra Fast Brush Speed' a la Tesla.

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

#166

Post by JohnBooty »

ragnese wrote: post #124
winternett wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The extra code might there to determine your spending habits across other apps and your bank balance and then to determine where you're located so that it can provide information on regional affluence so they can price toothpaste & brushes higher in strategic regions... That's just an example guess, but the bloat is there for a purpose... I'm pretty sure the app gets updated on intervals too, just like so many others…

To be fair, all of that tracking and data collection would still never add up to some 100MB. It's more likely that they have extremely unoptimized assets (images, icons, fonts, time zone data, sounds, etc) and/or are using one of these janky "frameworks" that let you slap together a half-baked "native" app in a few hours by translating your poorly-written JavaScript into poorly-written native code.

This is undoubtedly true. It might be doing nefarious things, but it was definitely not written with efficiency in mind.

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

#167

Post by JasserInicide »

kelnos wrote: post #138
barbazoo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I can think of a few things at least: * Collect data on brushing frequency and thoroughness, and sell that data to dental insurance companies. Perhaps not even anonymized, so they can raise your premiums if you don't brush as often or as well as they'd like. * Nag you to buy brush replacements after a certain amount of time or certain number of uses. * Use dark patterns to trick you into giving access to other, unrel…

so they can raise your premiums if you don't brush as often or as well as they'd like.

Shit's already fucking happening with car insurance. Install their app to reduce your premium! It's only a matter of time before it's the other way around.

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

#169

Post by leipert »

dyauspitr wrote: post #113
eloisant wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app can tell you which teeth are correctly cleaned (i.e. you spend enough time on it) and which teeth you forgot or went too fast. Personally I just used it once and ended up removing it, but I can see some people using it to ensure their brushing is efficient. Anyway, it's completely optional, you can just use the brush ignoring the existence of the app.

That’s actually kind of cool. That’s exactly the sort of feedback that gets me to do things correctly. Detailed feedback has enabled me to consistently work out, wake up early and eat healthy. They’ve helped me keep those good habits going for 4 years now. I’m the kind of guy these apps are built for.

If you don’t mind me asking, how do you keep track of eating healthy?

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

#170

Post by tqi »

kelnos wrote: post #145
tqi wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dental insurance isn't really insurance, in the usual sense[1]. [1] https://www.vox.com/23901293/dentist-delta-dental-insurance-...

Most regular medical insurance isn't really insurance, in the usual sense. "Classical" insurance only pays out when something goes wrong, in defined amounts based on what's gone wrong. And while certainly insurers like to find ways not to pay out when you report a claim, there are usually far fewer gotchas with things like auto insurance, home insurance, event insurance, etc., than there is for medical insurance, whe…

That's not the point. From the article:

“When you look at the dental insurance model, it doesn’t protect the patient from financial risk. It’s the opposite,” said Marko Vujicic, chief economist and vice president of the Health Policy Institute at the American Dental Association. “Once the benefit runs out, the $1,400 or whatever it is, all of that financial burden is on the patient. So it protects the insurer, they’re limited on their exposure.”

In other words, there is no real benefit to offering a "good brusher" discounts.

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