Tag: Apple

Is Xiaomi's new smartwatch worth the €99 price tag?

Recently, I reviewed the Amazfit Band 5, a capable little fitness band at an affordable price. Today, I have the Amazfit Bip U, another fitness band from Huami with a larger display and a slightly higher price.DesignThe Amazfit Bip U uses a similar design to the Apple Watch with a square 1.43-inch display. While I’m not a big fan of square watch displays, it is highly effective, giving you plenty of screen real estate to view all the information that matters to you.I found the display to be bright, colorful, and easy to read. At the same time, the Bip U was extremely lightweight and comfortable to wear. All in all, as far as a fitness tracker goes, it does a fantastic job of being comfortable and providing a large display for viewing information. It also has a 5 ATM water-resistant rating making it possible to wear in the pool for tracking swimming.Plus, there’s a button on the side that can be used to turn on the screen or quickly open up the exercise tracking. That’s something I wish the smaller Amazfit Band 5 also had.User ExperienceThe Bip U is able to monitor your heart rate, blood oxygen level, stress level, steps, 60+ exercises, calories burned, and track your sleeping. Out of all of those, it monitors your heart rate and stress levels 24 hours a day, and automatically tracks your steps or when you’re sleeping.It appears the only measurements you have to manually initiate are exercise tracking and the blood oxygen readings. I wish it automatically tracked your blood oxygen levels throughout the day, but that’s only a minor complaint considering everything else it does.Additionally, the Bip U can show you the weather, control music playback on your phone, and view notifications. However, the notification support is rather limited only showing a few words and not allowing for any interaction such as replying or dismissing it from your phone.When using the Amazfit Band 5, I had to manually enable a lot of the 24-hour tracking of all of this data. I didn’t have to do that with the Bip U and I assume that’s because the app was already set up from my previous review of the Band 5. Just be aware that you may have to go in and manually enable all of this on yours, including toggling on app notifications and which apps you want to be notified by.Now that it’s tracking all this information, you’re going to need a way to view it. The large 1.43-inch display is perfect for showing you all of your stats, and there is a wide selection of watch faces to choose from, nearly 50 in the store. I settled on one called Sports Rainbow which is reminiscent of the Apple Watch and gives you a nice overview of most of your data.You can get an even better look at your data by using the Zepp app which you’ll need to set up the watch.AppI had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Zepp app in the Amazfit Band 5 review. This was mostly because it was a huge pain to set everything up. The app isn’t organized all that well and some of the English translation is a little off.However, with everything already set up from the Band 5, using the Zepp app this time around was a lot more pleasurable. That’s because after you get everything set up, you mostly stick to the main page for checking your stats.When that’s all you’re using the app for it works great. It’s easy to check your most vital stats, tapping on them gives you a more in-depth look, and additional useful information. This is a big reason I loved the Zepp app, for the way it presents your health data and the insight it provides about the information.Battery LifeHuami rates the Amazfit Bip U for up to nine-days of usage off a single charge. In my experience, I was getting closer to 5-6 days after a single charge.Surely, it’s possible to get nine days of usage off a single charge, but if you’re like me, then you want to enable all the sensors and get full use out of the watch. If that’s the case, you’ll be charging it up once a week to keep it running.Final ThoughtsThe Amazfit Bip U is an impressive little fitness band. It lacks the Alexa integration of the Band 5 I reviewed, but the larger display makes it much nicer to use. When comparing it to the Wear OS watch I typically use, I only found myself missing two main features, the always-on display and better notification support.If you’re not interested in having an always-on display or being able to read more of your notifications and reply to them, then the Bip U would be a fantastic choice. It is a device that helps bridge the gap between basic fitness bands and a full-blown smartwatch at a price that’s more than reasonable.Right now you can pick the Bip U up for $60 on Amazon or on sale for $50 from the Amazfit website.Buy from Amazon Buy from Amazfit

Apple isn’t the only competition in town when it comes to wireless headphones. Other companies like Tronsmart has been making them for years. The brand is now set to do it again with the Apollo Q10 headphones.Hybrid Active Noise CancellationThe biggest selling point of this new entry for Tronsmart is the active noise cancellation. This has five mics that are filtering 35dB of noise. With this technology, you should be able to enjoy your music and phone calls with a much richer experience.The ANC features present you with three separate modes to enjoy your mood music and calls. You have full active cancellation where the mic array blocks out the entire 35-decibels of outside noise. If that’s a little much, you can turn it to Music mode that switches to passive noise cancellation with the physical design of headphones. Last, you can actually have the microphones feed outside noise in Ambient mode.Tronsmart has paired this with an impressive 40mm driver system. This should give the Apollo Q10 headphones a great listening experience.Touch Controls and Impressive BatteryNew headphones wouldn’t be complete these days without controls. Tronsmart has included a capacitive area on the outside of the Apollo Q10 cups to help interact with your playback. You can switch ANC modes, answer calls, change tracks, and control the volume.Another compelling bullet point is that Tronsmart estimates the Apollo Q10 headphones will get a whopping 100 hours of audio. While we will reserve judgment for our full review, this is a massive endurance for wireless headphones.New AppTo round it out, Tronsmart has developed a new app to customize your experience further with the Apollo Q10. This app will manage software updates for the headphones and allow you to have a more granular equalizer to help tweak the audio to your perfection.Available NowThe new Tronsmart Apollo Q10 is fully available for purchase today 12/31. While other new wireless headphones will cost you more than $100, and some hundreds more than that, Tronsmart is setting a new trend with the Apollo Q10 only costing $60.

Let’s say you’re someone looking to launch a new career or to enhance the one you already have. Perhaps you’re an IT graduate who feels as though a little certification could improve your chances for that first big job interview. Maybe you’re looking to polish things up before asking the boss for a raise. Or, it could be that you’re just looking to take advantage of the pandemic and make better use of your time.For a limited time you can use promo code HOLIDAY20 and receive an additional 20% discount!If you’re looking to get anywhere in 2021, you’ll need to have a good understanding of how data works and how it can be used. When it comes to data, Excel is one of the first places to start.If you’re ready to get certification in Excel or expand your horizons, look no further than the Complete Excel Excellence Bundle.The Complete Excel Excellence Bundle includes eight courses, more than 47 hours of instruction, and nearly 430 tutorials in how to improve your knowledge and skills by way of Microsoft Excel.The training lays out all the critical areas covered in Microsoft’s official Excel certification exams, meaning you’ll be versed in all important topics and tools. We’re talking charts, graphs, pivot tables, functions, macros, and more. You’ll have no problem acing Excel tests and show your current or prospective employers that you’re the real deal.This hyper-specialized Excel certification training is currently just $5 per course, but you have to order before the offer ends. The Complete Excel Excellence Bundle comes with lifetime access, so you need not worry about taking advantage of these courses within a limited time frame.The Complete Excel Excellence Bundle is valued at nearly $700, but we’re offering it to our readers for just $39.99 (96% off). It’s literally pennies on the dollar. Hurry, this incredible offer won’t last forever!Best SellersEarn Credits!For every $25 you spend in the AG Deals Store you get $1 credit added to your account. And, if you refer the deal via social media or an email that results in a purchase, you’ll earn $10 credit in your account.First Time Buying?If this is your first time buying, you are also eligible for 10% discount! Just be sure to subscribe for email updates.Free StuffNot looking to spend any money today? No worries. You can still visit the AndroidGuys section for freebies and pick something anyhow.