any news about new firmware?

isazi

@sunter usually I test a new firmware version or two every week. I know people believe that development at Suunto is slow, but it is not.

Bogdan1921

@isazi thanks, glad to hear

usainzg

@sunter Is there any way to become a firmware/software beta tester?

usainzg

This post is deleted!

Egika

@usainzg said:

@sunter Is there any way to become a firmware/software beta tester?

the external testers are selected by Suunto.
They are trying to achieve some diversity in the team. So if you are for example female you would have a good chance, as of today the majority of the tester base is male
You can just write to Suunto and apply. But to my knowledge, they are currently not looking for many more testers.

And at the same time you need to know that test firmware can totally ruin your data and watch sometimes. It is not like beta testing the new iOS. In early stages it usually is far from super stable and safe…

snow*

@Egika said:

And at the same time you need to know that test firmware can totally ruin your data and watch sometimes. It is not like beta testing the new iOS. In early stages it usually is far from super stable and safe…

out of curiosity, do you use your own watch, or does Suunto provide you with one?

André Faria

@isazi said:

@sunter usually I test a new firmware version or two every week. I know people believe that development at Suunto is slow, but it is not.

Hello @isazi , honest question , if you allow me, since I know zero about dev and firmware testing.
Is there like any “technique” that makes the firmware only come out so spaced in time?
What are the theorical advantages versus more frequent releases/hotfixes?

elbee

@André-Faria said:

@isazi said:

@sunter usually I test a new firmware version or two every week. I know people believe that development at Suunto is slow, but it is not.

Hello @isazi , honest question , if you allow me, since I know zero about dev and firmware testing.
Is there like any “technique” that makes the firmware only come out so spaced in time?
What are the theorical advantages versus more frequent releases/hotfixes?

It’s just what a software development company chooses.

You are either very agile and every small change is pushed to production automatically and instantly. This is mainly done by companies that like to react very quickly and have everything in their own hands. (Larger) webshops are examples of companies who do this.

On the other hand, you have companies that provide software for many other companies. Those other companies have to plan the tests and acceptance of the new version in their own organisation. For example, Microsoft works this way with a planned release of bugfixes on a fixed date in the months and announced larger updates.

And there are companies that are none of the above. Mostly smaller companies, like smartwatch manufacturers. They neither are that agile so they can push updates very frequently, nor are they very open to announce or have regular fixed dates for releases.

Sure, you don’t want to push (untested) firmwares to your users 3 times a day, because developers made an opsie, But it would be great if there was a smaller update every months, so users don’t have to wait so long for bugfixes.

isazi

@André-Faria what @elbee said, it is not much of a technical reason, it is just a decision to release a firmware 3-4 times a year. As mentioned, software company (where software is the product) release software more often, while hardware companies have lesser releases.

André Faria

@elbee @isazi thank you for the explanation! good to know!
Not sure if allowed to go that offtopic, or if you have a word/opinion/experience, but how AI changed firmware dev/testing/etc? Although it still does a lot of mistakes, I would say, it should be night and day difference no? to release/make/test new features/bug fixing?

Egika

@snow said:

@Egika said:

And at the same time you need to know that test firmware can totally ruin your data and watch sometimes. It is not like beta testing the new iOS. In early stages it usually is far from super stable and safe…

out of curiosity, do you use your own watch, or does Suunto provide you with one?

both.
Suunto of course provides testers with test watches for new models. Not only the software needs testing, but the hardware as well.
At the same time most users have their own private watches as well (sometimes on production firmware).

isazi

@André-Faria I do not work at Suunto, I guess they use LLMs there, but I have no idea how and how much.

André Faria

@isazi said:

@André-Faria I do not work at Suunto, I guess they use LLMs there, but I have no idea how and how much.

I was asking in general, not suunto specified

isazi

@André-Faria at my institute we use LLMs, I am not a huge fan, but there are ways in which they can help developers. It is still early days though, IMHO, and we will see what the real effect is in few years from now.