I just installed Windows XP on my Intel iMac. I am using Bootcamp right now. It is a bit of a pain to have to reboot to change operating systems but I prefer to keep Windows “fenced in” on it’s own partition. So last night I installed the new program for the Animas 2020 pump. I expected it to be a well-polished, elaborate application, but it seems like it was written over the course of a weekend. Lifescan has been stubborn as well. Because their programs rank among the most unsophisticated installed on my computer, it’s hard to believe these companies don’t just spend a few hours to write Mac versions.
Both Animas and Lifescan don’t support Vista, let alone OS X. The Animas software is truly pathetic. There is no word on when they’ll support the infrared device on Vista (no drivers yet0.
Yeah, I definitely feel what you’re saying Kevin :-\ You’d think after all these years some Mac support would have made its way in by now. We’re working on seeing if we can come up with a solution to make it easy to upload from your meters and pumps.
The most shameful of all is Medtronic’s Carelink. Who on earth in this day and age comes up with the idea of making something you can only access from the world’s most unstable browser - i.e. IE! No one had ever been able to give me a good reason for it working the way it does either.
Kevin,
I could reply that in general developing software is a risky business. If you very few people use your software then you will have to revenue to put into developing a new and better version. I could say that developing software for a specific disease that affects 7 out of 1000 people is even more risky ( smaller user base ) with even smaller revenues. Then I could say that developing software for all of the possible operating systems on the market can drain programming resources. The return on the investment declines as we narrow the scope of potential customers.
But in the end, I think it sucks that my Mac can’t use most of my medical devices with the software that came with the device. As Mac users we get spoiled by the pretty but useful interface and the incredible stability.
I can’t agree more. I’m browing right now using the wonderful Firefox. I keep IE 7 on the PC just to access Carelink. IE 7 is odd, MS has seemingly copied a lot of features from Firebox.
I hope the companies begin to pay attention to the increasing bigger market that Apple is capturing. I have made the decision that I will not be switching to MS Vista. My next computer will be an Apple.
Khurt,
I am not an unreasonable person and I agree with what you are saying. My point is that I choose glucometers based on their sophistication, not on simplicity. I also like to think my pump ranks somewhere near the top in innovation. Like I mentioned earlier, the Windows versions of software for these items could have been written over the course of a weekend. I would withhold my comment if it appeared as if any dent were put in the budget for software. I am no computer programmer however when we switched programs to track undeliverable packages at UPS, it literally took 1 weekend to write, and looked halfway professional! All IT personnel were shocked when it actually worked. I certainly am not asking these companies to go out on a limb because I choose the less popular OS, but if Johnson & Johnson chooses to provide the most modest applications for their healthcare products, how hard would it really be to produce it for Mac?
Judging by my own experiences (and leaving Macintosh out) with Accu-Chek, Onetouch, Animas, and taking into account Caro’s above statement, I just don’t see how these companies don’t take this more seriously.
Kevin
Khurt…
lets not forget that these companies are in the business of selling pumps and test strips, not software. I dont think it would be very hard for them to find the resources to adapt these programs for a mac.
Hey Kevin, yay for us Mac users - hell I want an i-Meter that syncs with my i-Phone and uploads to my MacBook Pro and uses Leopard! Now why can’t good ol Steve Jobs come out with one of those? I think these companies are missing a big market with us Mac users. I use Parallels as my emulator software but am looking at the new thingy soon - not Boot Camp, but VM FUSION - that’s really supposed to ROCK (or so sez my I.T. guys). So you might look into one of the other’s - but I agree with you - these medical companies just need to step up & make a Mac version.
Both VMware Fusion and Parallels work great. Depending on what you want to do, one is slightly better then the other. Parallels has better graphics capabilitys, but Fusion seems to work a bit smoother.
I hate that nobody really supports my Macs. I know that nobody is going to help me out on the linux/unix side, but you would think they would spend a week and peice something together for OSX.
Yep yep I agree. Or at least those that require IE use could write a version that would work in Firefox? I mean it can’t be that difficult.
In the mean time, I run Parallels on my MacBook Pro. I just make sure I do all browsing other than absolute Windows required browsing on the Mac side of things. I’ve yet to come up with a virus, spyware etc that way. Parallels works
wonderfully.
~Kelly
We’re Mac users so we have to be inventive and creative. We also have to swallow our pride once in awhile and go to the darkside to get things done.
These companies are not software companies and I’m surprised any of them provide any software at all. I hardly think it would take ‘a few hours’ to develop Mac software that will download data from our meters/pumps/CGMS and convert the numbers into nifty and useful reports. I bit the bullet and bought a copy of Windows XP.
I use Bootcamp, the Dexcom software for my CGMS and the Carelink software to get data from my meter and pump. I Downloaded the free NeoOffice to Windows to generate the Dexcom Reports. The Carelink reports are PDF (uneditable unless you hack and crack them). I save the reports on my Windows partition then open the Dexom reports with Pages, open the Carelink reports in Acrobat on my Mac.
HealthEngage, BTW, has never worked for me - on two MacBooks and two cables I’ve never been able to get it to successfully donwload data from my meter.
Terry
I just stumbled across a software program for tracking blood sugar readings etc (not sure if it’s pump friendly or not), and
guess what??? It works for both Win AND Mac users! I know nothing about it other than reading the spec line. I just had to comment on it.
Check it out if you’d like. 
I have a shelf dedicated to useless Lifescan and Minimed software that I have used only a handful of times. I’ve worked with software developers before, and its pretty apparent that the teams developing these products are small and poorly funded, and that there is very little updating occurring. I bet it’s mostly outsourced and no one “owns” the software. I have a Mac and a PC side by side on my desk for just that reason.
Hi !
This is problem with this companies… They don’t make in any way usable software, but this isn’t the stop. Problem is that they don’t allow anyone other to make it. I talked with several companies that produce meters to get their communication protocol (so we can support their hardware in our software - I am making diabetes management software package) and I am affraid that they are not interested. One would thing that they would give this information freely so that users could use some alternative software to get data from meters… Out of about 9 companies I contacted I got reply from 5 I think. Out of this 5 only one sent me their protocol documentation, 3 of remaining 4 said that they won’t give it out, and 1 sent me negotiator so that we could talk… Theoretically they could use Java which is supported under all OSes, Serial Communication api is little bit problematic, since it must be implemented for each platform separately, but at this time some versions exists for most of them. As I said I am making diabetes management software, which is running on Java platform, and Serial api we use supports biggest OSes out there (win, win-x64, vista is under win, linux, mac, Solaris). Oh and software is free… but support for meter must be implemented for each meter separately which means a lot of work… At this time I am only developer on project actively developing it, so you can image it takes time… First meters that will be supported will be Ascensia ones, since I own two of them.
Andy
YES. I am sooo with you!!! I have an Animas 2020 too, They keep telling me they are working on Mac software. I also have a Dexcom 7 CGMS… no Mac version, no release date for a Mac version. (sigh) I love my Mac. I think I’m gonna have to go hook up my HUGE OLD desktop from college just to load my diabetes software on. Stupid stupid stupid.
You can try a Windows emulator or Virtual Machine and not have to dual boot. Have a look at http://www.kju-app.org/kju/ (which is free) or http://www.codeweavers.com/ (which is $60, but has a 30 day free trial). Hope this helps!
Hi everybody !
I just wanted to let you know that software I am working on, had a release (first public)… Software is in java, so it should work with mac at least I hope so… I haven’t done any special testing on mac though. It’s currently just basic stuff, data entries, carb counting. We added Meter Tool to this release, but it has only support for Ascensia meters so far, we plan on add more by next release… Also we plan on add some basic support for Pumps and CGMS.
So take a look.
http://ggc.sourceforge.net/