Category: Tech

Amazfit Bip 3 Smart Watch

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About a week before Thanksgiving I was chatting with my bestie and she was telling me about the Fitbit she wanted to get her mother. At that point I realized I had been thinking how I wanted an Apple Watch.

My biggest concern, however, other than the price, was whether I could handle the size/weight of one since I never wear watches, or any jewelry for that matter. Other than the Apple store, you cannot try a watch on before purchasing it which to me is kinda crazy. I remember as a teenager going to Service Merchandise and trying on watches. I bought one that had a face that detached and went on different color bands. It was the coolest thing in my mind. But I digress…

Fast forward to November 30th and I saw through a deal site I frequent that Walmart was selling the Amazfit Bip 3 smart watch for $35 on an extended Black Friday sale (normally $50). I did a little reading up on it and in addition to the fitness stuff, learned it receives phone notifications, weather updates, etc. so I decided to order it. I figured it would be a cheap way to test whether I can handle wearing a watch after all these years.

The wait was difficult as the watch wasn’t due to be delivered until December 12th. Side note: If that delivery time frame was supposed to get me on board to keep my Walmart+ subscription after the free trial, they should think again. It got updated to the 8th but then delayed and was ultimately delivered on the 9th.

First impressions

I really like how they designed the box. Even opening it was easy and didn’t cause any damage to it. Everything was laid out inside nicely.

Amazfit BIP 3 box

Pull tab to open box

Inside the box

The battery was at 42%, so after letting it warm up to room temperature and briefly trying it on, I charged it. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get to 100%.

It was simple to set up. There’s a QR code in the little instruction booklet which when scanned takes you to where you download the app. Then you follow the instructions in the app to pair it to the phone. You can also mess with settings and whatnot.

Now that I’ve been wearing it daily for 12 days, I’ll break down the pros and cons:

Pros

» Lightweight (33gm) & comfortable despite the large 44mm case

» Exceptional battery life. I haven’t had to charge it since the initial charge & the battery is currently at 30%

» Seems to track steps accurately, although it lags behind and doesn’t do it in real time

» Can buy 3rd party bands to customize the look of your watch

» Price is very good for an introductory smart watch, especially for someone who doesn’t need all the bells and whistles

Cons

» Doesn’t seem to track sleep accurately; thinks any time I’m in bed I’m also asleep

» Doesn’t render notifications accurately so sometimes they’re missing pertinent info

» Watch face isn’t interactive, only informative

» You can only have two watch faces stored in the watch at a time, and one of those is a default that cannot be deleted. So basically you cannot easily switch watch faces as it’s a multi-step process in the app where you have to delete the face, then download and install the one you want

» Current weather often stops displaying until you go into the app to re-sync the watch; otherwise it just shows you the predicted high & low for the day

» Allows you to control what’s playing on your phone (such as music or podcasts) but lacks the 15 second skip ahead feature for podcasts (which I use frequently to skip over ads)

Conclusion

Instead of satiating my desire for an Apple Watch, owning this watch has only increased it. Not that it was a total failure – it made me realize I could handle wearing a watch all day (although I do take it off when showering & at night for a break since the sleep tracking sucks anyway).

Craving A New Camera

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Over the past 3-4 years I’ve rarely picked up my DSLR camera. I kinda lost my passion for photography and defaulted to using my iPhone to take photos. It actually does a great job for closeups and wide angle shots, but where if falls short is wildlife photography. You need an actual camera with a long telephoto lens for that.

With my growing interest in birding this year, I’m feeling unfulfilled with my camera equipment. My DSRL is 14 years old and my newest/largest telephoto lens is 7 years old and not the best piece of glass. I think it’s time to upgrade to something more robust. Cameras have come a long way and I’ve been drooling over the idea of having more than 9 auto-focus points. The newer Canons have an animal tracking feature that would really be helpful as well.

Here’s the problem – I don’t even know whether I should stick to DSLR or go for the newer mirrorless cameras which are quieter, but go through batteries far quicker. The shutter on my current camera scares the hummingbirds so a mirrorless camera is tempting, but I’d need to buy an adapter if I want to still make use of my current lenses. That’s assuming I stick with Canon and don’t move to an entirely different system. It also doesn’t solve the issue that I want a better telephoto lens anyway.

On top of that, there are too many choices! Canon’s site alone lists too many camera bodies and even when comparing them I’m having a hard time figuring out the differences that would matter to me. I’ve been perusing DP Review but it’s not been helping much. Information overload!

Another problem is I don’t want to spend a lot of money. The older I get, the harder it is to spend money. Which is ironic, because thanks to saving & investing, we have more money now than we did back when I was buying $1000+ cameras every few years. To get the kind of shots I crave, I’d probably have to spend $4000 between a camera body, high quality telephoto lens (the ones I’m interested in are in the $2000 range), and a better tripod. I could save money buying used, but even then I’d still be looking at $1000 or more depending on the lens.

Another drawback besides money is the big lenses are heavy! Like 4 lbs before you even add the camera. It can get annoying real quick.

I feel like I’m at an impasse here. I’d like to visit a camera shop to take a look at inventory in person, and speak to an expert who might be able to steer me in the right direction, but the local ones have very limited hours. I wish they were open on the weekends since Joe is at work during the week. One shop in particular even lets you rent cameras and lenses, and while it’s not cheap, it could potentially save me money if I were to find out I didn’t like something before investing in it.

Internet Issues, Barn Owls & Pool Parties

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Friday (9/17) we woke up and our internet was down. I don’t know if I wrote about it, but a few months ago after our Comcast contract expired, and they wouldn’t give us another deal, we switched our internet service to T-Mobile. It worked pretty well, although not quite as fast, but for $50 per month (no added taxes or fees), we figured it was worth trying out.

When Joe called T-Mobile they really couldn’t do much to help other than offer to send out a new device, aka trashcan (nicknamed as such by the T-Mobile internet community on Reddit). T-Mobile Trash Can

The problem? They estimated it would be a week. Unacceptable! Joe warned them that he’d be cancelling if it took that long and they called his bluff, so he immediately contacted Comcast and sure enough, we were able to get 200 MBS for $50/month for the next 12 months, so we signed up. We have our own router and modem so it was all done online, although Joe did have to chat with someone for them to do something on the account to get it to actually work, but we were up within a half hour.

A manager at T-Mobile called around that time to say they were expediting the device but Joe explained we were cancelling and not to bother. T-Mobile ended up giving us a $25 credit for our trouble anyway, and I guess they couldn’t stop the shipment because UPS is saying we’re getting something from them today. I guess we’ll have two devices to send back to them now.

If only Comcast had given us a better rate months ago, we would have stayed with them.

I feel like T-Mobile needs to do more work on their device/service before it’s a viable alternative to cable internet. Just like with their failed T-Vision streaming cable service, which they never invested in because the user interface sucked, they are rolling stuff out that is inferior to their competitors and consumers are paying the price in frustration. It could just be a coincidence, or Apple TV being particular, but we could never watch Ted Lasso on Fridays (the night new episodes are released) under T-Mobile because halfway through an episode it would lock up and crash the Roku. We tried it Friday on Comcast and had no such issues. I think it’s still partly Apple, since none of the other streaming services ever give us issues, but it’s also T-Mobile for being too slow as well. Perhaps in a few years it will be different. I hope so, since there are a lot of rural customers who would benefit from 5G internet and we personally do not like giving our money to Comcast.

Saturday (9/18) we decided to check out the local plant nursery’s open house. Not before stopping at White Castle for breakfast, however. I got a sausage slider, but also wanted to try the chicken and waffles slider based on the description on their website:

White Castle - Expectation

Imagine my surprise/disappointment when what I got was this:

White Castle - Reality

So of course I had to go online and air my grievance with them. We’ll see whether they reply back.

White Castle Feedback 20210920 - 2

(I contacted Meijer well over a month ago to complain about the quality of their broccoli and cheese stuffed chicken (the broccoli is really hard/sharp recently) and they never bothered to acknowledge it, so hopefully White Castle is more responsive).

Barn Owl (the nursery) wasn’t too crowded when we first arrived, so we ate our breakfast in the car and then took a look around. They had a whole building of just bird houses and bird food! I ended up getting this cute hummingbird palm feeder.

Hummingbird Palm Feeder

I doubt I’ll get any birds to feed directly from my hand this year, but maybe next year when I’m planning on putting everything up in April. As it stands now, we’re already seeing fewer visitors to the feeder as they start their migration south. *sad*

They had live owls on display which was really cool!

Yesterday (9/19) we decided to check out the community garage sale at the nearby park. They also had a car show and craft fair going on at the same time so we figured there would be a lot to see. Not so much. Joe wasn’t very thrilled with the cars, there were hardly any craft booths, and only a few garage sale booths. With the amount of cars parked in the area you would have thought more was going on than there was. Oktoberfest in a tent further back is going on right now too, but that doesn’t open until noon and we were there just after 10 am. Needless to say, we were back at home by 10:30.

At one of the booths the owner trapped me in an impromptu demonstration of her product and forced me to take a business card. I can appreciate people wanting to sell their creations, but I really think they should ask you first. I didn’t want to be rude by walking away, so it was very uncomfortable, not to mention a waste of her time since I wasn’t interested.

A good thing came of our little excursion, though! On our way back to the car we ran into our friend D who was walking over (she lives a few blocks away from the park) to check things out and she invited us to come over for a swim later. I enthusiastically agreed knowing it was due to be very hot that day and I have been wanting to go swimming one more time before it gets too cold to do so. We went home to do some light cleaning, ran to the store to grab some snacks to bring over, and took a shower. After getting everything packed up and ready to go I went to use the bathroom and BAM, the time of the month said “SUPRISE, I’M HERE!” It couldn’t have waited just a few more hours, right?

We still had fun hanging out with our friend, but I was only able to deep my feet into the pool. She made us some cheeseburgers and we lounged on her awesome patio furniture under a big tent away from the blazing sun. It really made a difference since my weather app said it was 85 and felt like 95 yet we were very comfortable.

We interrupt this entry to display pics of our friend’s two dogs who love getting pets, particularly the all brown one.

Dog 1

Dog 2

D’s ex, a guy we used to all go to Bingo with back when they were dating, hit her up later on since he was also at the nearby park, and she invited him to stop by, so we ended our afternoon chatting with him before taking off around 6 pm so we could walk Wookie before sunset.

Speaking of, she was so unbelievably excited when we go home she was literally vibrating and panting a lot. She’s been fine being left alone for hours but this was perhaps just a bit too long for her liking (5 hours). Usually she’ll sleep when we’re gone which is what she did most of the time since I checked in our her once in awhile via the cameras. About an hour before we came home I noticed her pacing around the house, however.

New Computer & Phone Update, Plus Health Stuff

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So, I do love my new gadgets, although they aren’t getting as much use as they would if I was feeling better. The iPhone 11 camera is pretty good even in low light and surprisingly, I don’t miss the home button at all. I like swiping up to leave an app, which I just found out my iPad does too even though it has a home button. As far as the new computer is concerned, I got an SSD drive which makes bootup soooo much faster than my old computer. Even Chrome loads quickly with my pinned tabs so it takes the frustration out of having to turn on the computer to do certain things which is nice. I just can’t spend time on either the phone or computer because every damn thing aggravates my muscles. It’s like I’m literally falling apart.

I started with a new physical therapist yesterday and she was the first person who hasn’t dismissed the idea that my tinnitus could be aggravated by my tight muscles. She is also a TMJ specialist and showed me how irritated that muscle is in my mouth. OMG I’m in pain today from my exercises and my ears and more aggravating but I’m so hoping this is only temporary. I really need to find a way to get back on track health wise. I cannot live like this indefinitely!

New Computer & iPhone

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I’m getting a new Dell computer (ordered it today) and iPhone (will order it this week) and I don’t give a shit. Normally I’d be so excited but I feel like total garbage and to me they are just necessities at this point as they are both getting really slow. The computer is nine years old and my iPhone 6 is five years old.

The original plan was to get the latest/greatest iPhone in anticipation of a spring 2020 trip to Disney World since I really really want to experience the Flower & Garden show at EPCOT in person. That’s no longer happening. So instead of getting the iPhone 11 Pro I will probably just get the regular iPhone 11 that’s almost half the price. What the hell can I really photograph when I’m a recluse anyway?

I feel worse and worse each day. I am experiencing more pain throughout my body so either the EBV is real and is attacking me, I have Lyme disease, or I really do have Fibromyalgia and it has decided to kick in now. I tend to get a bit achy overall every winter but NOTHING like THIS. Plus the ear stuff is just ridiculous. The left ear flutters to weird noises and the right one puts a phantom noise on top of any fan/motor related noise. Never in a bazillion years did I think ears could do such crazy and horribly annoying and anxiety-inducing things. I did my best yesterday to ignore the weirdness but today the second I woke up I was incredibly anxious and I don’t even know why (possibly hormones). I pushed myself and went out to a total of FOUR stores but it was really hard because the noise in them was so overwhelming to me. It’s like my central nervous system is completely broken and everything is irritating it. It makes me so sad that I have no control over it.

I am so frustrated and depressed that I can no longer even keep up with housework due to the pain and fatigue. I like keeping a clean and organized house and in my eyes it now looks like hell (even though most people probably wouldn’t think that at all). Joe has been doing almost everything now which is unfair since I’m the one not working. And because of the neck and shoulder pain I have to limit my device time so I really have nothing to do most of the time. So I’m bored and in pain and every day feels way too long. I would sleep more IF I could sleep but then I get the head pain which is getting worse already even though I had trigger point injections less than a week ago. Can’t I catch a break?

I still can’t wrap my head around what is happening to me and how terrible it is living inside this now broken body. I was used to having issues come and go and even have some things last awhile but this is nothing like anything I’ve ever experienced and I really don’t know how I’m supposed to adapt if it doesn’t ever get any better. I haven’t given up the pursuit of answers, of course, but damn if I’m not feeling hopeless after seven months of increasing pain and auditory issues. I can NEVER relax or feel comfortable these days. I miss that so much. I miss my old life and the old me. I am praying for a miracle at this point.