any news about new firmware?

jjorgemoura

This is UTMB week, main race (UTMB) has started 2 hours ago. Suunto is a main sponsor of UTMB World Series and Finals. No way Suunto will release a new version this week. At all.
In my opinion, we should have news/new version(s) in the next 2 to 3 weeks.

André Faria

Just a wild guess, but if the rumors are right and the Race 3/3S/Run 2 are around the corner maybe the firmware will be after the launch of those…

jjorgemoura

Run 2 is basically confirmed. If more, we will get a Race 2 S.
Race 2 was launched 1 year ago almost to the day (I think was during UTMB week or the week after).
I can’t see Suunto producing new watches every year. Not even Apple do it (ok, yes they do it but it’s essentially the same watch for 3/4 years, the “new” watch is basically a cadence that they opted in and now is hard to change, same applies to the iPhone).
Personally I don’t see the hardware evolving at a pace that requires new models every year. Also, they are huge cost compared with software (needing to sell “old” models, deal with excess inventory, industrial design, manufacturing, etc).
As I said, and I might be wrong, I don’t think we will see any Race 3 this year.

Squirrel

@jjorgemoura said:

Run 2 is basically confirmed. If more, we will get a Race 2 S

Posted yesterday
https://forum.suunto.com/post/196330

Tony Monteiro

@elbee I think we all hope having a new firmware just to stop the battery drain…
For functionnality, the Race is not anymore a priority for suunto. And the Race is a good watch for this price.
So, just pray for a battery fix

elbee

@Tony-Monteiro said:

@elbee I think we all hope having a new firmware just to stop the battery drain…
For functionnality, the Race is not anymore a priority for suunto. And the Race is a good watch for this price.
So, just pray for a battery fix

I don’t pray for the battery fix (I think I can mitigate that problem)

I pray for the bluetooth connection lost fix. But, als we all know, praying doesn’t solve anything. Suunto isn’t working on a fix. (And neither for the battery problem. They actually think it doesn’t exist).

And there are some other minor bugs te be fixed. But I don’t need any new functionality. From the last update, the more fine grained alarm settings where welcome. Trackmode is useless (and I train on a track at my athletics club every week).

But I’m definitely not eager to install a new firmware for my race s (if there will be any) given the large number of people complaining about reboots and crashes after the latest firmware of the race 2/vertical 2.

nikosathinaios

@elbee
I just want to see new features or possible improvements for the existing ones. I think that Suunto race (1st gen) is a great watch but, only a part of its capabilities has been enabled.

Bogdan1921

My concern it that not to much effort is being invested for this watch. With all rumours regarding the new watches and Race 2 it’s hard to believe but let’s see…

isazi

@Bogdan1921 I can assure you I am running the latest firmware on the Race, and Suunto will not waste money on developing this firmware if was not planning to release it. Now, I cannot say when it will be released (or even if, you never know, Suunto may go bankrupt tomorrow or a new pandemic will force the developers to stay at home or whatever possible), but I have it on a watch, and I used it last week.

sunter

@isazi How long have you had this new firmware on your watch, and could you share a few more details about its features or performance?

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?