There was roughly a period of time that I was an Apple person.
It started with an iPod in the mid 2000s, followed by an iPhone – I remember PapaScott showing off his iPhone at a WEBMU event and I had to have one. So I eventually got one. Then I bought a MacBook, followed by a MacBook Pro.
However, at some point I started to become irritated with Apple’s service – or rather, shitty service. My MacBook Pro needed attention, but it was impossible to get an appointment in Berlin and then I was informed that it would take 8-12 working days after I turned in my computer before they could start working on it.
That’s an eternity for a freelancer – or, indeed, anybody.
So my computer became a ThinkPad running Windows.
My iPhone remained an SE; none of the newer models were compelling.
Then the battery started to die – so while in Las Vegas last year, I went to the Apple Store to get the battery replaced. The woman tried to talk me out of it, giving me strategies to extend battery life. I didn’t fall for her bullshit, but paid $49 to replace the battery.
An hour later, I had a newly refurbished SE because the clips holding my battery in had broken.
That was good, but the attempt to restore my iPhone failed badly and all my data was some how locked up behind a passcode that I did not know – the phone they gave me had not been updated to the most recent version of the OS, so I actually had to update it after I got it, after I had attempted to restore my old phone on to the new phone.
Bleh.
This left me irritated, so when I got back to Berlin, I asked a techie friend what phone I should buy and I ended up buying the Huawei P-30 Pro. This was a year ago, today: May 9th.
At least that’s when my phone starts recording my footsteps – it is a bit unclear to me how this worked because I know that I bought the phone after work, yet I managed to get 11,177 steps in on May 9th? That seems unlikely. But I guess I did.
The phone is a good companion: I’ve essentially stopped carrying any other camera because the phone’s camera is excellent. It does phone work, it does music work, it does podcast work, and it does camera work.
It also tracks my steps – which, quite frankly, has probably saved my sanity.
Before the phone, I was not necessarily the most active person – yet I started trying to keep its goal of 10,000 steps each day. I’ve done so every day since September 11, 2019 – so a decent streak and one that I’ve kept going throughout the Covid-19 crisis.
Honestly, going out each morning for a walk at 6 in the morning has kept me sane: its roughly 90 minutes of walking (actually more like 80, but depends on my speed) – 90 minutes to get fresh air, see the world, and listen to podcasts.
I’d struggled to make it out for a walk before Covid-19: New Year’s Day was quite the struggle, but I did it – but now the 5:30 alarm keeps me going (and puts me in bed quite early).
I also appreciate the phone’s excellent battery life – far better than I ever experienced with my iPhone SE; new or aged – this despite the fact that I run white noise off of my phone all night, every night.
One of the funniest things about this phone is that I visited a good friend whose kid asked “ist das ein Huawei P-30 Pro?” — he figured it out from across the room.
During the Covid-19 crisis, I am going to try and make a point of writing a blog post about an object in my home.
We’ll see how long this lasts.
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