Ambit Apps showdown!

freeheeler · 12 Dec 2021, 20:47

@titus_fromnewtown
…I’m not sure if it helps when you drop posts about your frustration in several threads… we all knew that some restrictions for Ambit were coming when Suunto announced the shutdown of Movescount over 2 years ago. For my impression Suunto gave Ambit users the chance to still use the Ambits with reasonable function.
The Ambit apps were very unique for Suunto and I think no other brand had ever offered something similar.

pavel.samokha · 12 Dec 2021, 21:56

@titus_fromnewtown While I understand your frustration, I want to clarify a couple of things.

This is a community forum, not official channel to contact Suunto. If you want to contact the company you shall do that via suunto.com contacts.

I’m trying to help here, but that’s not my job. I’m not making any decisions. And I’m quite limited on what I can comment. When I think that I can comment - I do that.

There is no intention to deprive you of any function of your watch. I believe every single person inside Suunto would be happy if you could use your Ambits functions the best way. But implementing that requires a lot of resources and time. The tremendous amount of work was done to implement Ambits support in Suunto App and SuuntoLink.

Disclaimer: Everything said is my personal opinion. It can be wrong.

margusl · 12 Dec 2021, 22:46

@freeheeler said in Ambit Apps showdown!:

we all knew that some restrictions for Ambit were coming when Suunto announced the shutdown of Movescount over 2 years ago. For my impression Suunto gave Ambit users the chance to still use the Ambits with reasonable function.

Are you sure you know what’s that current fuzz is about? Latest Suuntolink still allows to use apps, but only those that weren’t private few months before details about Suuntolink4 + apps were released to public, once the knowledge was out it was too late to change those privacy settings. And up to that date it made perfect sense to keep apps private as public ones are locked for editing.
Another story is about private accounts - those can’t change app privacy settings from private anyway before turning whole account into public.

titus_fromnewtown · 13 Dec 2021, 18:34

@pavel-samokha, thanks for the reply, and for the relay if you do so
Also, sorry for the way I expressed my frustration. I did’nt know this is not a Suunto official forum…

Anyway, my personnal opinion remains that shutting down a functionnality of the watch is a regression, almost a programed obsolescence.
And I believe that providing an app editor to the users would have been an easy task for Suunto. But well…

titus_fromnewtown · 13 Dec 2021, 21:05

FYI : I wrote the following to suunto.

Hi… I cannot find anywhere else to ask this question : I’m an Ambit 3 user. With the latest releast of SuuntoLink IO lost the ability to update/edit/modify my private apps… which I’m extremely disapointed.
Could you PLEASE upvote to your development TEAMS that we need a solution to be able to keep use our PRIVATE apps ?
At least, provide us a COMPILER so we can edit the binaries of our apps, and add them in the .json file that is easily accessible in the SuuntoLinck package (i’m under Mac OS X).
Please keep me informed.

titus_fromnewtown · 14 Dec 2021, 16:00

So far, no answer from Suunto…
Let’s wait a bit, but the more I’m thinking about the topic, the more I’m convinced that it is an easy task for suunto to provide us the compiler (which IS available, as it was necessarily incorporated somewhere between movescount/moveslink/suuntolink), and to write a light “procedure” to explain us how to add to the JSON file our own private Ambit/Traverse apps.

This way, those of us who are expert enough in programing would retrieve this essential Ambit/Travers function.

@suunto-admin ?

Equuleus · 23 Dec 2021, 20:02

@titus_fromnewtown I wonder have you played with simple editing of the json file, to see how Suunto Link likes it and to know that the apps are self contained there? I’m interested at looking at this myself.

Also, being late to the party maybe someone could enlighten me and summarise the distinction between “Private” and “Public” apps, and why this is a factor for Suunto Link.

wakarimasen · 31 Dec 2021, 10:29

Hello Folks,
Is it still possible to create apps for an Ambit 3 Peak?

margusl · 31 Dec 2021, 13:13

@wakarimasen said in Ambit Apps showdown!:

Hello Folks,
Is it still possible to create apps for an Ambit 3 Peak?

By saying “no” I’d be lying, but …

you are not supposed to
to sync those directly to your watch you would need an older Suuntolink v3.x (v 4 does not connect to Movescount)
after 10th of January (closing date for Movescount) you can only use latest Suuntolink and apps that are loaded into watch can be used as long as you don’t delete those (well… kind of) and number of active apps in the watch is limited; to be able to use your own apps after that date you would need to find a way to export those from Movescount and import into Suuntolink.

So is it possible? Sure - https://forum.suunto.com/topic/7343/suuntolink-4/19
Is it worth it? If one needs to ask then probably not, for me it was quite fun procrastination project

wakarimasen · 31 Dec 2021, 13:44

@margusl said in Ambit Apps showdown!:

https://forum.suunto.com/topic/7343/suuntolink-4/19

Crap - my ambit is in the post… and I already update Suuntolink to version 4.05 on my MAC

margusl · 31 Dec 2021, 14:13

@wakarimasen , doesn’t matter in a long run. With old Suuntolink testing out apps and app changes on your watch would be faster, now you just have to trust the emulator built into Movescount app editor.

( though you can get one older from waybackmachine, not sure if its too old or if you can extract & run it on mac without messing up your current Suuntolink installation, I personally would not try to install it, just extract and find executable - https://web.archive.org/web/20210501000000*/suuntolink.static.movescount.com/Suuntolink_installer.dmg )

Janfi · 31 Dec 2021, 15:50

@margusl So if I understand correctly, we cannot use anymore https://www.ambitintervals.com/ because we need to modify the apps for each different workout.

So, there is another technical solution to use structured workout as the Ambit series was sold for ? Or after removing Movescount Mobile App, then personal apps we definitely lose this function without any workaround ?

margusl · 31 Dec 2021, 17:10

@janfi ,
for few more days it’s (technically) still possible to create apps, export apps from Movescount and use those instead / in addition to the list in Suuntolink, so if you think it’s worth generating 5…10…20… predefined intervals, it might work for you. And to be clear, one should probably not attempt this and there’s no support

Also check https://forum.suunto.com/post/97155 , @sebchastang’s take on using settings as interval parameters is quite neat and I believe those apps are now included in Suuntolink app bundle too.

BTW, I have few ideas regarding original A3P workouts… If you (or anyone else) had some of those set up in old Movescount app, you can drop me a line through chat. While I might not have too much time to spare before Movescount closes, I’d still like to collect few sample Workouts. They still exist out there trapped in the cloud and wait for their time, even though Movescount app was closed ages ago

wakarimasen · 3 Jan 2022, 22:08

The more I read about the Ambit 3 Peak, the more I like it. I love my S9B but some of the text is quite small and hard to read - especially given some of the colours used. I have the feeling that the Ambit might be a little more legible, being ‘black and white’

titus_fromnewtown · 5 Jan 2022, 19:47

@equuleus Hi, sorry, I was in vacation.
I tried to edit the app by changing the json file, but it is not possible this way, in the Json the app is code is compilated into a binary file, which is purely unreadable.
I asked if suunto could provide us the compiler, but still no answer.

titus_fromnewtown · 5 Jan 2022, 19:54

@wakarimasen Ambit WAS a beautiful product… but suunto just removed 50% of the essence of it : the apps. Without beeing able to edit your apps, you cannot use the Ambit as the perfect multisport watch. It is now just a basic watch with display customization & basic guidance feature. Super disappointing.

sartoric · 5 Jan 2022, 20:38

@titus_fromnewtown said in Ambit Apps showdown!:

you cannot use the Ambit as the perfect multisport watch. It is now just a basic watch with display customization

Really ?
Are we talking about ambit 3 ?

wakarimasen · 5 Jan 2022, 20:40

@titus_fromnewtown It arrived today and so far I like it a lot. Just from a legibility perspective, it knocks spots off the S9B - at least to my tired old eyes. Looking forward to trying more over the next few days…I’m wearing it now!

titus_fromnewtown · 5 Jan 2022, 20:45

@sartoric said in Ambit Apps showdown!:

Really ?
Are we talking about ambit 3 ?

Well, I’m very upset that Suunto removed the private apps edition possibility. With this feature the Ambit3 was THE PERFECT watch (from my point of view) with ability to create an infinity of apps for complex interval training, or golf, of swimming… and I widely used it.
Without, it is back to a quite “basic” watch.
It remains an excellent device, but 50% of the beauty of the product has been removed, from my PoV.

A Former User · 1 Jun 2022, 08:26

@titus_fromnewtown I feel your disappointment, but if I think what were the premises before the release of SL4… well, it could have been even worse. I have recently upgraded my A1 with an A3P and I am very satisfied and happy to keep doing the same things I did. I want to believe that Suunto has made a great effort to listen to user feedback.