I just spent four days on a live aboard in the North Andaman (Thailand) with an Apple Watch Ultra and the Oceanic+ iPhone app. I had a Zoop Novo with me for comparison and backup. I used the pair for both Enriched Air and Air dives. I had the Watch set to the most conservative setting (PPO2 1.40 and GF 70/85).
Although the Oceanic+ software performed basic functions well, I have a few quibbles:
• The GPS location feature is somewhat useless if you don't have Internet. There is, AFAIK, no way to download maps in advance. So, at the end of the dive you are (usually) presented with entry and exit points on a blank screen with no indication as to scale or location (coordinates?). At the price they're charging to rent this app they ought to offer pre-dive map downloads. Other apps (GPS Tracks and WorkOutDoors to name a couple) offer this feature. The storage required for reasonably high resolution maps is quite small. When you do finally get Internet the dive location is kind of messed up. I think this is an Apple Maps problem. For example, dives at Koh Tachai Pinnacle were shown as starting and ending on dry land on Tachai island. Not exactly confidence inspiring.
• The GPS location feature often fails to display entry/exit points at all; even when you have entered and surfaced with clear skies and what should be a clean view of several GPS satellites. When this happens you just get a plain white "map" with no error message or other indication as to what went wrong.
• Sometimes my wife has difficulty clearing her ears and hangs around two meters. When I realize this, I ascend, slowly, to her location (like a good buddy) and wait for her to resume her descent. For reasons not clear to me when I resumed my descent (at 2 or 3 meters) the app went through the "I'm fit and Ready to Dive" routine again. As a result this single dive was recorded as two dives; the first one very short and the second starting at 2 to 3 meters. The Zoom Novo recorded the entire dive as one, as it should. Oceanic needs a more reasonable dive transition time/depth or a user setting for the same.
• The app, as far as I could see, does not display surface interval in the log book.
• The log book has no place to record beginning and ending tank pressure except in the Notes section which seems kind of lame.
During dives the Watch and the Novo were quite close including no deco time. The Novo is much more conservative with No Fly time. When I boarded the plane in Phuket the Watch said it was OK to fly, but the Novo wanted five more hours.
After I got home I used the AWU2UDDF app to export Health Kit data from the Watch to UDDF files which I then imported into Subsurface. This worked well although it is a bit tedious to have to export each dive separately. Since the Oceanic app only exports date, time, depth and temperature to Health Kit, you don't get any other logbook info that you may have entered.
Will I rent this app again? Not really sure. When actually diving, I really like the display, notifications (including sounds and hepatics) that the Watch offers. On the other hand, exporting data (to Subsurface, which I've used for years) is quite tedious. Easier to use the Zoop Novo.
Although the Oceanic+ software performed basic functions well, I have a few quibbles:
• The GPS location feature is somewhat useless if you don't have Internet. There is, AFAIK, no way to download maps in advance. So, at the end of the dive you are (usually) presented with entry and exit points on a blank screen with no indication as to scale or location (coordinates?). At the price they're charging to rent this app they ought to offer pre-dive map downloads. Other apps (GPS Tracks and WorkOutDoors to name a couple) offer this feature. The storage required for reasonably high resolution maps is quite small. When you do finally get Internet the dive location is kind of messed up. I think this is an Apple Maps problem. For example, dives at Koh Tachai Pinnacle were shown as starting and ending on dry land on Tachai island. Not exactly confidence inspiring.
• The GPS location feature often fails to display entry/exit points at all; even when you have entered and surfaced with clear skies and what should be a clean view of several GPS satellites. When this happens you just get a plain white "map" with no error message or other indication as to what went wrong.
• Sometimes my wife has difficulty clearing her ears and hangs around two meters. When I realize this, I ascend, slowly, to her location (like a good buddy) and wait for her to resume her descent. For reasons not clear to me when I resumed my descent (at 2 or 3 meters) the app went through the "I'm fit and Ready to Dive" routine again. As a result this single dive was recorded as two dives; the first one very short and the second starting at 2 to 3 meters. The Zoom Novo recorded the entire dive as one, as it should. Oceanic needs a more reasonable dive transition time/depth or a user setting for the same.
• The app, as far as I could see, does not display surface interval in the log book.
• The log book has no place to record beginning and ending tank pressure except in the Notes section which seems kind of lame.
During dives the Watch and the Novo were quite close including no deco time. The Novo is much more conservative with No Fly time. When I boarded the plane in Phuket the Watch said it was OK to fly, but the Novo wanted five more hours.
After I got home I used the AWU2UDDF app to export Health Kit data from the Watch to UDDF files which I then imported into Subsurface. This worked well although it is a bit tedious to have to export each dive separately. Since the Oceanic app only exports date, time, depth and temperature to Health Kit, you don't get any other logbook info that you may have entered.
Will I rent this app again? Not really sure. When actually diving, I really like the display, notifications (including sounds and hepatics) that the Watch offers. On the other hand, exporting data (to Subsurface, which I've used for years) is quite tedious. Easier to use the Zoop Novo.
