The current betas (watch and iOS), along with the new beta of Xcode are extremely buggy this year. Xcode 15 is currently crashing for me every time I make a new file. And my iOS app was crashing on phones, despite working fine on the simulator for a few weeks. That one only cleared yesterday.
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Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features
- Thread starter cfc
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I agree. I probably should have waited until at least the 5th beta this year. It's looking like one of those years where the software isn't ready but Apple will release it anyway because the timing of hardware is (understandably) far more important to them. I am not looking forward to this Autumn!
One of the problems for me is that I am constrained to use SwiftUI features from 2 years ago, because otherwise I would need to drop support for the series 3 watch, which only runs watchOS 8. For some reason Apple were still selling the series 3 this time last year, so I don't want to drop support for it so soon.
However SwiftUI was very limited 2 years ago. It has been very frustrating trying to work around the limitations when I can see that the newer version of SwiftUI for watchOS 9 does not have them.
The AW3 continuing to sell until October last year really screwed developers. That watch should've been dropped a couple of years ago.
Definitely. I think a lot of articles were written to that effect. The knock on effects of that decision are still screwing us two years on. The SwiftUI rewrite of WOD would have been so much easier if they had dropped it back then. Not only because I could have used the newer SwiftUI, but also because I would not have had to rewrite all the screen layouts for the 38mm and 42mm devices.
Usually Apple are good about making new versions of its operating systems available for older hardware, but the series 3 was so underpowered that if you bought one new from Apple 11 months ago then its operating system would have been out of date and unable to be updated just a few days later.
I don't think it is possible to have a single codebase that uses SwiftUI for one version of watchOS and the old storyboard approach for the older version. It would be a bit of a hack and also a pain to maintain both versions, even if just for a year until I feel able to drop support for the series 3.
I am also worried because this version will not work on series 1 and 2, but I cannot stop owners of those devices downloading the app. Even if watchOS prevents the watch app being installed, users may still install the iOS app on their phone and then there is a potential inconsistency.
Sonos does have 2 different apps, too.
Not because of the iOS limitation but because of the version of the OS on their hardware (S1 / S2).
But sonos of course has a lot more software engineers for programming their apps.
The trouble with 2 apps is that people running the new app (whichever that is) would need to pay again, which isn't really fair.
Unfortunately not. The app doesn't track anything at all about users so I can only tell from the amount of support questions that I get from series 3 users, which is very few.
I must admit that if it is necessary then I will drop support for the series 3 if I can't get the app working on watchOS 10 without doing so. But I really don't want to do that.
Perhaps … make a new “WorkOutLite” app that’s a fork of the current production code? Either make it free or charge the smallest possible amount. In the future, it gets the bare minimum of updates necessary to keep it on life support for the oldest devices you’re realistically able to support. New features only come when they’re trivial for you to implement.
Then WorkOutDoors can be focussed only on new features for new watches running the latest OS calling the latest APIs.
As a practical matter … I would strongly expect that those most interested in new features from WOD would also have watches with new features — and those with old or budget watches are already used to not being able to do all the nifty new things that new watches can.
And, of course, be upfront with the version split: you don’t have the developer-hours to make new features work on old watches, but you don’t want to simply lock out those with old watches. So you give them the best you can (which is, of course, amazing!) but without letting the perfect become the enemy of the good.
In the vague future, I can imagine the two versions taking on lives of their own, with the Lite version becoming more streamlined, with fewer features but more targeted to novices and those who don’t want to have to turn all the knobs and flip all the switches while the full version continues the same trajectory you’ve kept it on. But that certainly requires more time than you have today.
b&
Thanks for the idea but unfortunately even the barest minimum of coding to keep an app running can be lots of work. For example supporting watchOS 10 is looking like far more work than I expected. So I don't like the thought of needing to do that every year for a lite app that is not making me any money and will probably lure people away from the full featured version.
Also the maps cost me money for every tile that is downloaded, so a free version would lose me money and a cheap version may only just break even. As it is the longer that people use the app for then the less money I make. Other apps have subscriptions to cover such ongoing costs, but I want to avoid that (I guess I am not very good at business!
)And the hardest part of all would be the extra support work generated by lots of users paying little or no money. A lite app would get many more downloads and the number of support questions tends to be proportional to the number of downloads.
Thanks anyway for the suggestion. It would be a good idea in a lot of situations but unfortunately not for WOD.
Ah, well. If I ever find that winning lottery ticket on the sidewalk, I’ll at least pay for the map tiles, and hopefully give you a payroll to hire a few developers.
b&
i look forward to the tip button in this app. I’ve almost certainly used too many tiles for my original payment and would like to pay again.
I haven't heard of transfer problems with watchOS 10, but they can happen at any time. They are usually either fixed by rebooting both devices or by simply waiting a while in case another app is transferring data.
I ran into an issue (not with WOD per se) when I got a new replacement 13 Pro on my insurance. My Apple Watch paired and set up just fine, but I couldn't transfer any 3rd party apps to the AW. I tried unpairing and re-pairing 6 times yesterday, but to no avail. Then a poster elsewhere on MR said he had the same problem and fixed the issue by deleting the apps and download them again. This seems to have fixed the issue for me as well, but I don't want to delete WOD and loose all my data. (I already lost them on the watch as I deleted it and re-paired it).
Is there any way to save and re-import the data to the app on the phone?
Is there any way to save and re-import the data to the app on the phone?
You can copy the data in the app to a computer, and then copy it back later by using Apple's File Sharing mechanism:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201301 (Windows)
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210598 (MacOS)
It is a good idea to backup the data occasionally anyway.
Did quite a few runs with WOD lately and see no difference in accuracy to the runs I recorded with Apple Training app.
I am using an AW7 with no iPhone nearby.
Had wonky tracks in the past (think it was watchOS 7) when I enabled LTE on my AW (an AW5 then).
Just in case: you are not on the beta of watchOS 10?
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Your app is very cheap for the amazing features it offers. I would not be concerned about that, especially if you justify the price for the new app with new features that the old app lacks