My question is: why do an Oral-B app and a Colgate app even exist?
The same reason your smartwatch and bathroom scale has an app: People want to log and track their health data.
Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?
31–40 of 247 posts
Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?
#32So 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.
Why? Is it not okay to ship them directly?
Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?
#33My question is: why do an Oral-B app and a Colgate app even exist?
to log how well you're brushing your teeth, so it can advise you on how to brush your teeth better, so you can have better teeth and not have to see the dentist. it's a late stage technology thing. I wasn't born with an innate ability to know how to brush my teeth or how to shave (my electric razor also has an app), I had to learn how. If the devices I use can tell that I'm using them wrong, and there's a better way…
I'm not familiar with the apps, how does it measure and improve your dental health?
Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?
#34https://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.
Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?
#35The 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 teet…
It’s not about data on your teeth, it’s data about your device and network… you can grab all sorts of interesting data on your spending and habits by scanning bluetooth, local network etc. as well as sending up your ip and geolocation every few minutes.
That’s the really valuable stuff. The app’s purported aim is simply to get it installed onto your mobile device.
Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?
#36More embarrassing than the size itself is that it is supposedly required to change the mode of the toothbrush. I truly do not think this should be allowed, but I’m not sure how to approach enforcing it.
Well, challenge number one is having a consumer protection agency that's legally empowered to pull products that are defective by design from the market. Second challenge is precisely defining what is and is not allowed, but given the sheer number of stupid things that a business could conceivably do to fuck with their customers, I'm willing to give such an agency a fair amount of latitude to evaluate things and make decisions, so long as the decisions are based on a good set of core principles. (E.g., "functionality that can be implemented without a companion app must not require a companion app".)
Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?
#37https://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.
Every other one is dead. I'm guessing wildly here but maybe there's a reason they need to limit visitors.
Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
to log how well you're brushing your teeth, so it can advise you on how to brush your teeth better, so you can have better teeth and not have to see the dentist. it's a late stage technology thing. I wasn't born with an innate ability to know how to brush my teeth or how to shave (my electric razor also has an app), I had to learn how. If the devices I use can tell that I'm using them wrong, and there's a better way…
I'm not familiar with the apps, how does it measure and improve your dental health?
The idea is to help focus brushing on specific teeth or quadrants, and it uses Bluetooth to know when the brush is on or off. Maybe it signals when you push too hard and the brush pauses for a second as well.
To my knowledge it does not know where you are in your mouth when brushing (positioning via accelerometer/gyroscope), so a synchronized start would likely give similar results.
Re: Why is the Oral-B iOS app almost 300 MB? And why is Colgate's app even bigger..?
#39My question is: why do an Oral-B app and a Colgate app even exist?
to log how well you're brushing your teeth, so it can advise you on how to brush your teeth better, so you can have better teeth and not have to see the dentist. it's a late stage technology thing. I wasn't born with an innate ability to know how to brush my teeth or how to shave (my electric razor also has an app), I had to learn how. If the devices I use can tell that I'm using them wrong, and there's a better way…
Except brushing is just one piece of an overall oral health. Flossing is another thing. Then you got your diet which plays a great role in your teeth health. How would one tracking app know all of this?