Is it possible to build a little circuit with 2 usb C ports and 2 resistors as a bridge? Of course, you loose a bit of comfort.

This problem seems prevalent on cheaper devices. When I buy a device and discover it has this problem I always return it. I've seen it on the Hypervolt Go 2 (which I returned and replaced with a Theragun Mini) and on the Hitachi Magic Wand Micro (which I replaced with a Dame Dip).

Like the post mentions, I think this happens because the devices are missing two resistors that are needed to indicate, when connected via a USB-C to USB-C cable to a charging brick, that the device wants 5V power. Resistors are cheap and I think the only reason they get dropped is carelessness.

The whole point of USB-C is that you can charge any device with any power supply.

This is insanely common.

I have about 6 devices with this problem, and I consider it unforgivable.

Not only did you not include USBC charging, you went out of your way to trick me and lie and pretend you did. I would have preferred just using micro usb at that point.

Powkiddy committed fraud and said the RGB30 can charge from USB-C, but they lied, it can only charge from USB A to C cables. Using it is a massive pain because I have to get adapters I shouldn't need. I'll never buy anything from them ever again.

This was exactly my complaint when the USB C standards were coming in - having a universal connector means nothing I you need a specific cable and/or power supply to charge it. You might say it’s not spec compliant and that’s fine - but it’s still a USB C port. We’d all be better off if they had just kept it as micro usb because at least then I’d _know_ I need a different cable for it

Would it be possible to build some kind of adapter or C-to-C cable that just contains the missing resistors? (And also probably would have to block any USB PD communication, in case you plug in any device that actually does try to use PD. So the goal would be that the charger always sees a 5V requesting device without PD support while the device always sees a "dumb" 5V charger - regardless of what capabilities the device and charger really have)

It would still suck to have to use a special cable for charging, but at least it's better than not being able to use any modern charger.

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Why is it so hard for americans to accept that china makes great tech without coping about "le CCP spyware!" - it seems so absurd, like why would the CCP want to know the heart rate of the type of guy who buys a 16 pound smartwatch? Why dont americans create 16 pound smartwatches?

If you'd read my blog post, you'd see that it functions just fine without access to those permissions.

You're also welcome to disassemble the APK to show where it is sending data to.

But, as I say, it works just find with an Open Source alternative if you prefer that.

Just like any other Apple Watch. Don’t see the difference between them and CCP (probably because I’m not American)

This device seems to be supported by gadgetbridge (nightly), so that should at least take care of your privacy concern: https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/wearables/moyoung/

Sounds like any Samsung or Google watch

>"Let me guess, it asks from your smartphone access to your location, contacts, calendar..."

Let me try to translate: I do not know fuck all about what it really asks but will let sinophobia and hypocrisy out in full colors regardless

> Let me guess, it asks from your smartphone access to your location, contacts, calendar, SMS archive, email, medical records and political views

Like every app made by a US corporation does?

And before someone cries "whataboutism", I'm genuinely curious why as someone who isn't Chinese, and has no intention of visiting China, I should be more worried about the CPC than the CIA.

Implying all US electronics don't ask from your smartphone access to your location, contacts, calendar, SMS archive, email, medical records and political views and attitude towards the US and Israel and then does some shady syncs with .com servers "just to keep you data safe in case a meteor hits you"... x)

I'm not an American.

I'd trust the CCP a million times more than Google or Apple.

I think the mistake is seeing the beer to watch ratio and assuming that beers are hard to afford now. One primary reason beer in a pub is expensive is because of cost of labor scaling badly in the pub but extremely well for the watch. It's Baumol Cost Disease. The beer only costs more because the other work the pub staff is doing could be more productive now elsewhere. So in the end of the day, unless you are an alcoholic, you can likely afford more beers just because everything else has gotten so much cheaper.

One caveat I want to call out though is of course the skyrocketing housing cost which also impact rent (or opportunity cost of they own) for the pub and thus the beer price as well. This is where I really don't understand how NIMBYs continue to get their way.

I heard it summarised recently as:

In the past goods were expensive; living was cheap. Now goods are cheap; living is expensive.

The battery is the single reason why I got the Amazfit. I use as a dumb health tracker and occasional GPS running. It easily lasts 4 weeks on a single charge. That's one less proprietary charging cable to bring on a trip.

I used to have a bip and loved it. The big thing was battery life and always on screen. It used a reflective LCD screen to do it. No newer amazefits use them.

I’ve since moved to using COROS watches. Not as cheap but really good. Always screen, weeks of battery. Even GPS functions are efficient . Recently did 11 hr hike with GPS and only used about 23% battery.

You can recharge Garmin watches the same way. I've had to do it a few times.

I had an Amazfit too a while back. Decent watch for the price, but battery life absolutely tanked after a year of use. Went from lasting days to lasting hours after one year.

I like Amazfit because it can fully function without sending any data whatsoever to a server. I can export data from the app very easily.

I have one too and I swear by it, but let's face it - it's not £16. But thanks for the tip about the cable!

Those proprietary cables are terrible.

USB (abc, micro etc) are everywhere. Any house, hotel, office, glove box, has some lying around.

But when I forgot my Fitbit charger, I couldn't get one anywhere. The only option was a large electronics store where I could buy an entire new Fitbit. I didn't shove out €200 just to get hold of a charging cable.

The EU should quickly impose rules on waterproof chargers like they did with USB chargers. It will settle worldwide just as fast as the USB enforced standard.

Apple just put in a more capable processor, wifi and cellular, a brighter display and more sensors. They are just consuming the entire battery over a day because it is not such a big deal for customers.

WTF Apple watches cost $450? You can't even run a text editor on it! What are people buying?

I was also a happy Garmin Instinct Solar user. It is until after two years it started to turn off whenever it vibrates. I disabled vibrations, but it's reduced to an expensive step counter now.

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I am surprised they can break even with such a product. Considering 25% of the cost go to selling/fulfillment/etc., maybe 8 Pounds for the BOM (?) they might earn 3-4 Pounds per item sold. To offset the cost of development (maybe 20-30 man years at 20k USD for Chinese engineers), would imply the want to sell at least 100.000 units just to break even. Is there enough market for this?

All numbers spit-balled.

What I've learnt from BigClive on YouTube is don't buy anything that plugs into the wall.

If it's low voltage then you should be fine. I'd still be wary of large lithium ion batteries, though.

Why not the software itself? https://github.com/google/pebble

Or the whole stack: https://open-smartwatch.github.io/

You may like Pinetime smartwatch, which is cheap and runs free software.

As I mention in the post, there's an integrated rubber lug which protects the port.

As I say in the post:

> You can always uninstall the app once done setting it up.

So no need to rely on 3rd party servers.

I also mention that you can use GadgetBridge if you want to store your own data locally.

I use LED on my phone as a torch more often than I use it as a camera flash.

I think they "just" meant "set OLED screen to full brightness white", which is the kind of app my cheap Amazfit has too. And I can say from experience that that is still really useful, because OLED screens are pretty darn bright.

In the case of Amazfit (which I presume is similar here) you can set it up to turn on when long-pressing the dial, it can switch between white and red light by turning the dial, and it takes a few seconds to reach full brightness instead of just switching on. Meaning you have a chance to change it to red without waking everyone up in the middle of a camping trip.

If you use an iphone, get a regular Apple Watch with a metal link strap.

Look into hybrid smart watches. Withings are fairly good, but there are a handful of alternatives. They're watches that use mechanical hands like a normal watch, but also include smart components like health tracking and notifications and things.

They tend to be less powerful than other smart watches (in particular, you won't be able to download arbitrary apps to the watch or deeply configure it), and if you want a dedicated health tracker, you're probably better off with a minimalist Fitbit or something similar, but I really like them. They strike a nice balance between providing me with useful things, and still looking like a decent looking watch.

The main companies in this space are Withings and Garmin.

This might sound like an odd approach, but buying a small and cheap band (Xiaomi or Amazfit, even last or yesteryear's model) and try it for a while can be great.

You'll get decent tracking and alert management if that's what you're into. I won't be top notch but 95% there, and it will last for a week or two on a single charge instead of dying everyday .

Then after a week or two you'll know if you really cared about these numbers, how it helps you or not, and how you feel about the form factor.

Mine if off in a drawer most of the time and I get it out once every few weeks when hiking, but there is no sunk cost for something this cheap, and now I know I wouldn't have kept wearing something more advanced either.

Look at Amazfit. Oh, they market to folks who like squares too, but not only. Many of their more classically proportioned models take standard straps, and in several months of use I've found the Balance so delightful as to decide to stock a couple of spares; it's been reliable thus far, but I'm hard on a watch. (It has to keep up!) The customizability and programmability also can't be beat; the experience obviously takes heavy DX notes from Apple, but without almost all the overhead. And I get compliments!

Garmin is my typical recommendation for decent fitness watches with good battery life. The venue and vivoactive have bright high res screens with raise to wake or always on (with a big battery life hit). There are also things like the lily or the vivomove.

The straps are usually standard watch straps and easily changed.

Withings makes smartwatches that do not scream Apple Watch

This company which was reviewed in the article has a ton of smartwatches. This is the URL - https://www.colmi.info/ Pick what you like and then search for the same model on Aliexpress. You will usually find most of their models between $10 and $30.

Try on the smaller versions (sometimes called "women's" versions), a few mms less make a huge difference.

Many smartwatches are simply too large, compared to regular watches.

The straps on this one are replaceable if you'd rather have one made cloth or metal etc.

But, yeah, no denying it is a chunky monkey.

It sounds like fitness tracker bands or the rings would be a better fit for you

If you are interested in monitoring not the screen maybe a ring would be a better fit?

Fossil?

The post mentions it does sleep tracking

There's a category which is unbelievable it doesn't have as much popularity on open protocols/oss support which is a killer feature for these kind of wearables: glucose levels tracking with reverse engineered vendor lock-ins (think of Abbott sensors, etc).

You can use this with GadgetBridge if you're concerned about your privacy.

Given the small amount of memory and its inability to run 3rd party code, I'd be staggered if this could be used as a vector for anything. What's it going to do, spam ignorable BLE messages?

I’ve never understood the value proposition of a smart watch for that reason. It seems mostly a fantasy thing based on having been conditioned by movies all their lives. Even the primary use case as a fitness tracker does not make any real sense; because as a beginner through novice, you don’t need to track minute details, it’s about simply getting to a consistent habit, and as an advanced person, you get nothing more from what a watch can track than you would from simply performing your routine and maybe timing yourself and journaling, which has its own separate benefits that are lost with a “smart watch”.

Given all the negatives (to users, not to the corporations you become a harvested product to), it simply does not make sense to have a smart watch, aka a tracking bracelet.

Pinetime is decent: https://pine64.org/devices/pinetime/

You're in luck! https://banglejs.com/

Not only the smart watch, but a hundred other gadgets including a toothbrush. Presumably this process involves bringing a USB hub onto the bus, or else the bus is not the main point here. I think it's like I want to be able to charge my watch on the bus if I feel like it.

Why do you charge your phone on the bus? You've never left the house and realised you're running low on battery?

Sorry son, I didn't mean for you to find out this way. Xoxoxo

Order the stuff from china instead of paying your local distributor a convenience tax.

You can have it cheap or fast.

Xiaomi mi bands used to cost the same and were much better

I have a Garmin Instinct 2 Solar. The Solar feature is more of a gimmick, unless youre out in the sun the whole day for weeks it doesnt really make a difference.

But it doesnt matter much, the battery lasts 3 weeks. Its a great watch if you like the old-style digital watch screens

Just a week? I have a USB smartwatch with a 1 year battery life, the Timex Data Link USB.

You can also use a "dumb" watch that has 10 years battery life.

Xiaomi mi band's 10 battery lasts a week with all the functions enabled at the most expensive setting