Xiaomi

Learning to Look Down Rather Than Up with Tech and Climbing

All climbers are familiar with this. You’re on a climb or a via ferrata and you look up but you don’t see what to do so you feel stuck. As a result you try one hold, and then another, and then a third and eventually you stop. That’s when you remember to look down. If you look down you see that there is a foot hold 10 to thirty centimetres higher that will give you the extra reach that will allow you to climb onwards.

Playing with Xiaomi Smart Band 9 and a Fairphone 4

Yesterday I went on a bike ride with a Xiaomi Smart Band 9 and a Fairphone 4. I wanted to see two things. The first was to see if the GPS track would be accurate for the entire ride, as well as how much battery power would be squandered in the process. I was happy with the result. After a two hour bike ride I had depleted about 20 percent of the battery since I unplugged that phone in the morning.

Apple Watch SE Versus Others

People will always ask me why I wear two watches and the answer is now “because one is a smart watch and the other is for sports, and people accept that quite easily. The reasons I used to give are no longer needed. I learned how to keep a short answer convenient, and easy to accept. I saw an article today that said that people prefer the Series 8 and 9 to the Apple Watch SE and the Ultra.

Trying to Like the Xiaomi Smart Band 8

Most people will automatically get an Apple watch because it can track fitness and do other things. Others may go for a Garmin watch, a Suunto or a Fitbit but if they do then this is for step counting, run tracking, cycling and more. For 30 CHF, at the time I’m writing this blog post you can get the Xiaomi Smart Band 8. It’s cheap, it’s affordable, but it’s mediocre.

Playing with the Xiaomi Band 7

I have had the Xiaomi Band 7 for a while but I didn’t wear it properly until the start of the new year. As a silly concept I thought that I would try to wear it for the entire year and so far I have kept to that resolution. Sometimes it’s worth trying the cheapest device that you can find to see how it differs from the flagships by Suunto, Garmin and Apple.