Migrating from the iPhone 8 Plus to the iPhone SE (2020)

Byrichard
Reading Time: 3 minutes

I went from the iPhone SE to the iPhone 8 plus to the iPhone SE (2020) because the 2016 iPhone was an excellent low budget iphone that did everything you needed, in a small package. I switched to the iPhone 8 Plus purely to use the bigger phone screen with a drone. If you can see what you’re doing then a big screen is worthwhile. Eventually I crashed the drone and the need for such a large screen degraded, and that’s why I eventually settled for the iPhone SE(2020).

Crosscall Core S4 – Good for hiking, climbing, via ferrata etc.

At first I considered a feature phone as a backup phone so I got the Crosscall Core S4 because I was curious to see whether a feature phone could replace a smartphone for twitter, facebook, web browsing and more. It can’t. KaiOS should go for text only website displays but it doesn’t. It is slow and clunky. The one good thing is that you can drop it in a puddle and not worry about a thing.

Low End Androids

I was then tempted by cheap android solutions for 200 CHF but the issue with these is that they’re usually low end android phones that are slow, laggy, and give the same experience of a feature phone, but without the small screen but with added fragility.

Fairphone

I then considered Fairphone, and with its price point it is close to the iPhone, but with a deal-breaker flaw for me. A big screen. The problem with big screen phones is that they’re heavy, bulky and annoying to cycle or run with. They are also hard to hold and use with one hand. I also worry that with Fairphone the OS, camera and general user experience will be mediocre.

The Car

Although idiotic one of the reasons for which I decided to stick with iOS is that the car plays well with car play and when I tried to play with Android’s equivalent I had no luck. If you can’t use your phone for in-car navigation then the car’s software version costs about 300 CHF per map or more. For that price, it’s worth sticking with iOS for now.

Context

We are now in 2022 and mobile phones have reached a plateau in terms of features, apps and more. Now it is a question of iterative changes rather than revolutionary changes. As I wrote this blog post I read the specs for the SE and the 8Plus and they are practically the same phone, except for the processors. In light of this buying a 1200 CHF phone will not give you a huge advantage over a cheaper phone. The SE and 8 plus are similar, but the SE is small and light.

For around 500 Francs you can get the iphone SE, whereas for the flaship iPhone 13 Max, with better specs you’d be paying two to three times more, for something that could drop out of your pocket and break. I’d rather spend 1300 CHF on a laptop or camera, than on a phone.

The Advantages

Small phones are easy to hold, easy to carry, fit into most pockets and they’re light. The phone ways 60 grams less, but when you consider the difference that a case would make then the difference can be more than a hundred grams. When you consider that you carry your phone everywhere all day long, it’s worth having something small and light.

And Finally

This isn’t meant to be a phone review. This is a demonstration of the thought process that you may go through before choosing a new phone. It isn’t simply a matter of getting the flagship device, or the cheapest device, or the smallest device. It’s about finding the device that fills the niche that you want to fill at that moment in time. At this moment in time I needed a new phone with a healthy battery and a smaller size. KaiOS doesn’t fill that need, and I don’t trust cheap androids to fill a niche. That I could not automatically use android’s car features with ease, sealed the decision. This was a thought-out decision, rather than an impulse purchase.

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Of Raclette and Goulash

Byrichard

One day I prepared Raclette and whtin a few days I prepared Goulash. I find the contrast between the two recipes amusing. One takes 15-20 minutes to prepare because of the need to cook potatoes for that long, and the other takes half an hour to prepare and then another hour or two to cook. One is just cheese, pepper and bread, the other is bread, pepper, tomatoes, potatoes, meat, paprika and more.


I googled Goulash on Wikipedia. It’s interesting that originally goulash was made from meat that was dried in the sun before being stored in animal stomachs. When it was time for that food to be eaten it was rehydrated. The practice of dehydrating food, before travelling by horse, foot or other means is an old habit of humans. Thru-hikers are not the first to do this. Neither are the various militaries.


Its origin traces back to the 9th century to stews eaten by Hungarian shepherds.[6] At that time, the cooked and flavored meat was dried with the help of the sun and packed into bags produced from sheep’s stomachs, needing only water to make it into a meal

Goulash: Wikipedia


I walked one of my older routes today. It’s a nice walk but the problem with dangerous car driving persists. Instead of driving at a speed that would be polite and respectful when crossing a pedestrian they drive at the speed limit. This makes me feel unsafe. Society likes to say that we shouldn’t walk along roads, but if you want to get from village to village there are not that many options, especially during a pandemic where couples and groups walk side by side.


I stopped walking those routes because I was tired of feeling endangered during every walk. It is also for this reason that I cycle less. Breaking an arm also helped, and being in the middle of a pandemic. These are conducive to keeping some habits rather than others.


Weekly Most Used Water Bottles


This week I used the Sig Shield One and Camelbak eddy+ a lot. I took the Sigg Original with me on daily walks. The 600ml eddy+ is the most practical bottle out of the three. You can drink from it while doing something else. It takes little to no focus. The Shield one is a close second. The Sigg Original requires more concentration because the top needs to be unscrewed and screwed back on for every drink. Another problem is that half a litre of water is not like half a litre of coke. You can drink half a litre of water in a few seconds, but you sip coke.


I like going for daily walks with the 600ml Eddy+ or the Sigg Original 500ml. Every village has a fountain, so if you run low on water you can easily refill. My favourite is the 600ml Eddy+ for now. It is the easiest to use clean, and carry. I didn’t “need” to buy the other two bottles but pandemic curiousity, when you see things online, rather than in person, got the better of me.


All of the containers I bought are now easier to clean. One is made of steel so cleaning is easy, a second just goes in the dishwasher so I don’t even think about it, and the third has a wide mouth opening that makes cleaning and inspecting it easy.


I still think I need two 1L water bottles for summer hikes, when we’re out of pandemic, and reverting to normal life again.

A blog of interest and walking

Byrichard

When I started reading Made in England by Gentlemen the blog was about technology but over the past few months the subject of the blog has changed. It’s now a blog about walking, and it’s not just any walk. They had decided to spend several months walking the Continental Divide trail and blogging the entire trip.

What I’ve enjoyed are the images and some of the comments. It’s a picture adventure of beautiful lanscapes. It’s just two friends who walk, occasionaly teamed up by a GF or a brother and father before continuing on the journey.

It’s something I’d like to do. Every day I walk for an hour or two, covering about 12 kilometers. It’s nothing in contrast but it’s an important part of my daily routine. It’s been part of my daily routine for years now, since the IB. I love the solitude of the walk. It’s a moment where you’re in your thoughts and the only distraction is the music or podcast you’re listening to. It’s a moment when day dreams and dreams form and where other ideas come to an end.

It’s a point of refreshing the mind.

It’s also about pleasure and endurance. When you start walking every day walking jsut two or three kilometers could seem tiring, then 5-6. Eventually as you get more and more used to the walk you’re taking so the loop gets bigger and the more you need that walk. It’s one of those enjoyable things.

In London I missed not having kilometers of paths to walk down. In London I would walk through central London from one part to another and I’d get to know the whole city. I’d get to see places and how they were linked. I often joked with friends that when you’re in London you should get to a tube station and walk away from it for as long as you’re not tired. Once you’re tired find the next tube station, get back to somewhere you know and travel in another direction.

After living for years in a place you get to know every street and every corner. Every place has a memory and you might even burst out laughing… well not quite. It would look strange. It’s familiarity. It’s that thing that the main character in L’auberge Espagnole talks about when he’s fresh into the city. “at first all the streets are unknown and resemble each other but at the end ever one of them has memories”. that’s when you’ve lived in a place long enough.

Do many of you walk far? Do you walk fast? Is the walk part of something you do everyday?

Trevolution Ultralight Daypack – Thoughts After a Few Uses

Byrichard

If you want a bag that isn’t a bag until you need it to be a bag then the Trevolution Ultralight Daypack is a great option. I like that it folds into its bag and that it’s easy to have with you at all times. What I don’t like about the version I have is that it’s too flimsy for daily use and the top opening is not practical. It requires both hands to open and close the main compartment.


I don’t like its feel on my back during daily walks. All the wait shifts to the wrong place and the straps feel flimsy when used for one and a half to two hour daily walks. It is not for that niche.


The niches that it does fill:


  • A shopping bag for carrying your shopping to the car, instead of using plastic or paper bags
  • A book carrier, if like me you start a walk, see a lending library and pick up a book or two, but don’t want to carry them home in your hands
  • A spare bag, in the car, for when you drop into shops where you’re not allowed to go in with a bag. Decathlon in Paris, or Mediamarkt for example. (I write this more as a joke than as a serious comment).
  • Travel by plane or train. I like to travel with just a twenty five litre bag, which is great for the trip, but a pain to walk around with in a city. Having a small bag is great, because you don’t need to empty the main bag.
  • Museums and other cultural locations: In the past I have been to events where I am told that I need to check in my bag if I want to enter. I usually don’t want to. With this bag you can fold it away, into it’s carrying pouch and then you’re fine.
  • Conferences and events: It fits in your pocket, and if you pick things up you don’t need to pick up yet another tote bag.


For at least two or three years I used a stoke Bike 10 litre bag. I used it so often, for daily walks to the shops, my daily one and a half hour walks, and more, that the zip eventually gave in. Small bags are great because you can use them for a rain coat, water and external battery to charge the phone.


Conclusion


This is a backup or secondary bag. It is good to keep in the car, in the pocket of a traveling bag or a coat pocket. It is good for occasional use. If you want a bag that you can use for two hours a day on a daily basis then a proper bag is better. If I could I would swap it for the version with a zip, rather than the cord to store helmets or other bulkier items. The one with a zip is 9 CHF more. There is a Sea To Summit variant.

Playing With Migros SubitoGo

Playing With Migros SubitoGo

Byrichard

Yesterday I tried playing with Migros SubitoGo and the experience was good. You scan the QR code for the shop as you enter and then you scan the products that you want to buy. I kept them in my hands until I got to the checkout counters.


Passabene


With Passabene you shop, you scan your products, and then you go to the cash machine, scan the shopping list to the device, and it charges you. It’s quite conventional and sometimes it asks for a double check from a cashier.


Subito Go


With the Subito Go app you can scan what you’re buying, put it in your bag and then choose to pay, and you can pay for what you bought, from anywhere in the store, if you are so inclined, via Twint and more.


A Strange Feeling


It feels strange to pick things up, scan them, pick up more things, scan them, and then to pay directly from your phone, without using any shop device. In future I can walk into a shop, scan what I want to buy, put it in my bag, pay for it and walk out without stopping, at the checkout, without a cashier seeing me motion that I am paying.


A System of Trust


This works for one simple reason. Societal trust. If and when a society behaves morally then people can be trusted to walk into a shop, pick things up, and pay for them, before leaving. I read about this type of shopping in Switzerland but I had not played with it in Switzerland yet. Now that I have, I like it.


Phone Batteries


The SubitoGo app is within the Migros app. It uses the phone’s camera to scan products. It works well but it’s better to use it with a well charged battery. It used about 8 percent for 27 minutes on my phone.


The Moral Side


People do not like self-checkout and other such tech because they feel that it removes jobs from shops. I don’t think that it does, because shelves still need to be stacked. Instead of being stuck in one place shop workers are constantly walking around and filling shelves.


I often see that the people standing by self-checkout machines are having conversations with friends. They interrupt the conversation, if someone needs assistance, but the rest of the time they chat, like bar staff in bars, on a quiet day.


Some jobs are fun. I think that sitting at a cash register, on a quiet day, without customers is boring. On such days I am sure that they prefer self-checkout, where they are there in case of a problem.

Holidays Break Streaks

Holidays Break Streaks

Byrichard

Today is a rainy day so I have less of interest to write about. The rain fell this morning. It continued until this afternoon. Rain is an excuse not to go for a daily walk. It is an opportunity for a rest day.


Yesterday my 770 plus day streak on Duolingo was broken because I was too distracted to take a lesson. I wanted to break that streak. I didn’t want to break it intentionally. I wanted it to be by accident. I accomplished that goal. Now I am free to reset and work on creating a new routine that is better suited to the new goals. The focus will be web development, whether JSON-LD, JS, WordPress, or more.


I am currently reading Cow Pie Water. The book was written either as a series of blog posts or journal entries and transports you along their PCT hike. Many of the posts are short and to the point. If you have a blog and want to turn it into a book then use this as inspiration. Use a proofreader . It feels as if they simply cut their journal/blog from online, to e-book or book.


The advantage of writing, rather than vlogs or podcasts, is that you can read it in your own time, and with less engagement, You can read five minutes a day, but a podcast or video five minutes a day would be time consuming and ineffectice People lose focus. My reading backlog is growing.


Every so often I see that I am not the only one calling for a shift from social media back to blogging. This is positive. Blogging is chronological, and the community is smaller. Adverts, marketing and algorithms do not try brainwash you to become a tool. We reconnect as individuals. We are no longer a follower, we are individuals, especially if we are active within the groups.


Blue sky is re-emerging now.


I sat that I broke my Duolingo habit. I didn’t. I replaced it, over time, with the habit of writing a blog post every single day for months now. this is an acceptable switch.

A nice day for a ride

Byrichard

A road between green trees.


When the weather is good and there is no wind it makes sense to go for a bike ride. The roads were quiet for the most part but a few cars still passed too close and too fast. The challenge is to find the quietest, least dangerous route.


I am still looking for a route where I never feel in danger. For now I find routes where I am comfortable, for the most part.

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