05-03-2021, 09:41 AM
This might be kind of a rant, I just wanted to share.
So, I have been in the market for a fitness/smartwatch for a long time. A couple weeks ago, I gave up on waiting on the pinetime and bought a cheap one with good reviews on amazon, the Amazfit band5 or something like that.
Once it arrived, I turned it on and it wouldn't do anything. Opening the instructions, I discovered this thing is essentially a brick until you do the following:
-Bluetooth pair it with your iPhone or Android device.
-Install the Zepp app on this device
-Make a profile there so Zepp knows your name/age/birthday/weight/height and way more than I was comfortable giving.
-check for updates.
Only after all that was I able to use the darn thing. I felt kind of violated just trying to set this thing up. It works nice, battery life is amazing, but I don't trust it.
After using this data miner for about three days, The Pinetime was announced as ready for purchase! I immediately sat down at my PC and bought it, and it just arrived yesterday.To compare initial setup to the Amazfit band 5, I had to do the following for the Pinetime:
-research and find instructions to update firmware
-install GadgetBridge from the F-Droid app store
-pair Pinetime with my android phone
-go to the Infinitime github page and download the latest *DFU.zip file onto my phone
-just trying to open the zip folder from a file manager, Gadgetbridge knew what to do with it.
-try and fail to upload the firmware file to the pinetime about 6 times (connection drops for everything, including my phone screen going to sleep)
-profit.
Initial setup was way harder, and the user interface is not as pretty but I don't feel dirty trying to use it.
I now have a smartwatch that doesn't obviously mine my data for a 3rd party, and it actually does more. when paired to my phone, the previous watch would only work with big names (Spotify) for music streaming. This thing doesn't care what app I use for music, it worked just fine. Time will tell for accuracy of things like the pedometer though. had a busy weekend, but I intend to do some comparisons over the next few days.
So, I have been in the market for a fitness/smartwatch for a long time. A couple weeks ago, I gave up on waiting on the pinetime and bought a cheap one with good reviews on amazon, the Amazfit band5 or something like that.
Once it arrived, I turned it on and it wouldn't do anything. Opening the instructions, I discovered this thing is essentially a brick until you do the following:
-Bluetooth pair it with your iPhone or Android device.
-Install the Zepp app on this device
-Make a profile there so Zepp knows your name/age/birthday/weight/height and way more than I was comfortable giving.
-check for updates.
Only after all that was I able to use the darn thing. I felt kind of violated just trying to set this thing up. It works nice, battery life is amazing, but I don't trust it.
After using this data miner for about three days, The Pinetime was announced as ready for purchase! I immediately sat down at my PC and bought it, and it just arrived yesterday.To compare initial setup to the Amazfit band 5, I had to do the following for the Pinetime:
-research and find instructions to update firmware
-install GadgetBridge from the F-Droid app store
-pair Pinetime with my android phone
-go to the Infinitime github page and download the latest *DFU.zip file onto my phone
-just trying to open the zip folder from a file manager, Gadgetbridge knew what to do with it.
-try and fail to upload the firmware file to the pinetime about 6 times (connection drops for everything, including my phone screen going to sleep)
-profit.
Initial setup was way harder, and the user interface is not as pretty but I don't feel dirty trying to use it.
I now have a smartwatch that doesn't obviously mine my data for a 3rd party, and it actually does more. when paired to my phone, the previous watch would only work with big names (Spotify) for music streaming. This thing doesn't care what app I use for music, it worked just fine. Time will tell for accuracy of things like the pedometer though. had a busy weekend, but I intend to do some comparisons over the next few days.