Modern smartwatches are tiny and they do a lot. As a consequence, their battery life is generally poor. The industry's attempts to fix this are either to replace the charging standard every year hoping to find something magical, or to lock you in to a walled-garden on proprietary nonsense.

I want to recharge my watch while I'm riding the bus. That means plugging one end of a USB-C cable into the seat and the other into my wrist. That's how I recharge my phone, eReader, laptop, headphones, toothbrush, and a hundred other gadgets. Why should a watch be any different?

So I bought the only smartwatch I could find with a USB-C port. The Colmi P80 - on offer at £16. It bills itself as "The world's first type-c smart watch".

To be clear, I wasn't expecting this to be a good smartwatch. Anything you buy from AliExpress for the cost of a couple of pints is bound to be a bit crap. What I wanted to know is whether USB-C charging of watches is viable.

What I discovered is that, yes, USB-C charging works even on a relatively small watch. Oh, and that this is a surprisingly decent bit of kit - especially given its price. Let's dive in!

Video Walkthrough

If you'd rather watch and listen than read a blog post, please enjoy this shonky video:

What Works?

It tells the time accurately!

You can set it up without using the app (more on that later). It Bluetooth paired to my phone without a problem - and without PIN entry. I could make and receive calls from the watch - and the voice quality was adequate.

Tilting the watch up made the display come on! I wasn't expecting that, to be honest.

The jog-dial button works. Good for scrolling and clicking.

Swiping on the screen to navigate works with pretty good accuracy.

Vibration notifications were strong enough to be noticeable.

There were a bunch of simple games and apps on there - including 2048 - which all ran fine.

The built in torch (!) was bright and useful.

And, yes, it charged via USB-C!

Charging Speed and Battery Life

It claims a 0-100 in 90 minutes which seemed broadly accurate.

It came with a short USB-C to C lead which was charge-only, no data. I plugged it until fully charged, then wore it continuously. After 24 hours of use, even with all my fiddling, that battery was at 80%.

After four days, it still had 40% left - I'd been using it for exercise, sleep tracking, a couple of phone calls, and using the torch at night. After 5 days, I finally got the "low battery" warning when I hit 20%. I reckon, with moderate usage, you'd squeeze a week out of it. Sticking the brightness up, keeping the screen on longer, and playing music through its tiny speaker are also going to drag the battery life down.

My USB-C Power Meter said it charged at 5V .16A, that's around 0.8W. Slow, but it only has a small 280mAh battery. Bluetooth Low Energy is, unsurprisingly, pretty energy efficient! Heart monitoring and motion detection is also a low-power activity. There's no power-guzzling GPS or cellular connection - so the power requirements are pretty modest.

The rubber flap keeps the port safe, although does feel a little flimsy. If you have a chunky cable, it might interfere with the cover a little.

Update after 2 weeks of use: Over about 9 days, the battery went from 100% to 20% - that was using it for a few exercise sessions, getting notifications, and continual heart-rate monitoring. Once the battery got bellow 20%, it wouldn't let me start new exercise monitoring or other activities. So you should easily be able to get a week of useful use out of this.

Power Delivery

This does not work with PD chargers. If you plug this in to the same power-brick as your laptop, it will not charge. Based on the three that I tried, PD chargers will not negotiate down to 1W levels.

If you have a charging adapter with multiple outputs, the regular USB-C ones will charge this just fine. All the USB-A to C chargers worked fine.

Heart Monitoring

Much like my friend Neil and his smartring from the same manufacturer, I've not benchmarked the accuracy of the heart-rate monitoring. When I exercise, it goes up. When I relax, it goes down.

It pegged my resting heart rate at about 65BPM, which in line with other devices. While walking on my treadmill, it went up to 100.

My SpO₂ was measured as 99% which, again, was as expected. I held my breath for as long as possible and it dropped to 95%.

Within the app, you can set a "Heart Rate Warning" and various other detection settings.

Sleep Monitoring

I wore it at night. There's a "sleep mode" setting which stops the screen coming on, but you have to dive into a sub-menu to turn it on.

The watch showed this reasonably accurate screen:

The data are also sent to the app:

What's Annoying?

Given that this is a £16 watch, it hasn't exactly been "Designed by Apple in California". There are limitations and weird little niggles but, surprisingly, not too many.

First up, the brains of the watch is the JL7012 - which is a deliberately underpowered chip. It can do Bluetooth comms and drives the screen reasonably well. You're not going to be flinging billions of pixels around in 3D. The animation of all the interactions is a little jerky - obviously not 60FPS but just slow enough to be slightly annoying.

You can't tap the screen to turn it on; you have to click the side button or rotate your wrist. The raise to wake works, but takes a second or two to register. Weirdly, the scroll wheel works in most UI elements, but it doesn't for changing dates and times - so it is a bit of a slog to manually scroll through them on screen.

There no online manual available. All the other Colmi products have a manual available. Similarly, there's no firmware updates listed - although the app does claim to be able to update the firmware.

The USB-C port is for charging only - you can't get data off it via cable. You cannot use the watch while charging - once plugged in it will show a few messages about keeping the device clean. If you set it to use "nightstand" mode, plugging in will show the time and battery level - but you can't interact with any of the functions.

Directions - no maps, GPS, or even a basic compass. You cannot add any apps to this - what you get is what you get.

Connectivity - Bluetooth only. No WiFi and no cellular. This can't make emergency calls unless you're connected to Bluetooth.

Multiple alarms can be set - but you can't choose their ringtone.

You can add some "favourites" to the main screen, swipe across to get them. Sadly the options are pretty limited. For example, you can't put alarms or the calculator there. For those, you've got to dive into the main menu.

The screen brightness is manually controlled - no clever adaptive technology here. It can go bright enough to see in the blazing sunshine, although the dimmest setting is still a bit bright for night use.

There's no NFC - so you can't use this to pay for things. You can't even use it as an NFC business card - although you can send it QR codes to display, which is a handy alternative.

All that might sound bad but please remember that this is a sub £20 watch; it isn't competing with something costing ten times as much. The fact that it does all these things at all is pretty impressive!

Some of the functionality isn't available unless you pair it with the supplied app.

App

It is a given that all hardware apps are fundamentally a bit rubbish. The Colmi Fit app is basically fine. It isn't very polished but does everything it needs to do. You can get away without using the app completely for most things.

If you want updated weather, stocks, or prayer times - you'll need it to be paired to the app. Annoyingly, things like world clock also need a connection to be set up. Similarly, things like menstrual tracking need a connection (although, please note the privacy implications).

Annoyingly, despite it being basic Bluetooth functionality, music controls don't work without the app nor does the ability to show contact information.

Notifications other than calls also require the app. You'll need to give it permission to read all your notifications, but you can set it only to forward ones from specific apps. I didn't bother to set that up.

There are several built-in watch faces which can be changed by rolling the knob. Only one of the built-in faces is customisable:

What surprised me was just how many watch faces were available to download:

Sadly, I don't think it is possible to add your own designs, and none of them let you fiddle with what's displayed.

Many of the settings - like how long the screen should stay on for - are only available in the app. Even thought the app can get your location, you have to manually tell it what city you're in for an accurate weather forecast.

There were a few things I couldn't get working. The "AI Voice Assistant" is, I assume, just streaming audio back to your phone. As I don't have an assistant app, it didn't do anything. I'm not a Muslim, so I can't tell if the prayer times are accurate. The stress monitoring is a bit opaque - I don't know what precisely it measures. I don't have a menstrual cycle for it to track. I didn't investigate the SOS settings either:

Oh, and you can also tell it to remind you to drink water.

Finally, the app will show a notification showing your goals.

The app works well even if you deny it all the permissions it asks for but, obviously, some bits won't work unless they have access to your phone book, location, gallery, etc. You can always uninstall the app once done setting it up.

Exercise Mode

There are a bunch of different exercise modes on the watch - I'm not sporty enough to tell you what the difference is between all of them.

The app has some basic fitness stuff and will track your jogging locations.

Buried in the watch menu are your historic stats, but you'll need the app to export them.

Step detection is, like most watches, based on arm-swinging. So it wasn't terribly accurate when I was on my standing desk treadmill, but was acceptably accurate when going outside. It showed roughly the same amount of steps as the Pixel Watch 3.

You have to manually activate exercise mode if you want to quickly look up your heart-rate, steps, times, etc.

Instruction Manual

The leaflet in the box is the standard multi-lingual affair. Here's a quick scan of the English version. That'll show you some of what this watch is capable of.

Other Interesting Features

I got the cheapest strap possible - but it looks like it uses standard fittings if you want something more luxurious.

The 240x296 screen is bright and colourful - a basic screen protector is included in the box.

There's a built in LED which acts as a torch - which is only useful if you wear it on the left wrist.

The "Flappy Bird" clone is a bit crap, but 2048 and space invaders are reasonable time-wasters.

There's a camera shutter app if you want to use it as a remote control.

It claims to be IP67 waterproof, but warns not to immerse it in water or use it in steamy environments. It seemed to be splash resistant, but I didn't take it swimming or showering.

Security

There is none. There's no password lock on the screen and there's no Bluetooth PIN.

To be fair, there's nothing much you can do with the watch if you stole it. OK, you could make some phone calls if you were within range and get people's contact details. But there's no payment information stored. A thief might get your exercise and menstrual data, but it isn't a treasure trove of information.

Once it is paired to your device, it doesn't advertise itself via Bluetooth. If it is disconnected, it only broadcasts its availability when the screen is on. There's no pairing PIN.

OEM

The manufacturer appears to be Mo Young - they make the watch and the app.

They have some detail about the watch platform but not much.

Open Source and GadgetBridge

The device uses the MOYOUNG-V2 protocol. I was able to pair it with GadgetBridge by pretending it was a Colmi V79. Most of the functionality worked - I was able to see heart rate, steps, change some settings etc. I've requested GadgetBridge support which should make it possible to get notifications etc.

Update! GadgetBridge can now send notifications!The notifications can be read and deleted, they can't be replied to.

There are a few open source apps to create new watch faces and then upload watch faces to the device. But I wasn't able to get them working.

Disassembly

Update! There's a discussion on opening the device

smallsolar

@smallsolar@techhub.social

Like many people inspired by @Edent @blog I got a #colmiP80 but I'm not a watch person so for science I opened it up.

https://git.solarcene.community/smallsolar/Colmi_P80_Smart_Watch/src/branch/main/images

So - its not meant to be opened up, the back plate is glued in place, I heated it for a little while but then realised that its likely got a lipo sitting behind it so in the end just resorted to brute prying open. While initially I was able to partially open the lid any more and the small ribbon cables started to tear.

The good news is despite the heart beat sensor, the roller wheel and some other sensor now being fully detached the device does still turn on (sort of).

What I can see though are some interesting IC (well one) and also lots of nice test pads.

I can also see as predicted that the usb-c port is just 5v and GND.

In a bit I'll solder in the test points and see what I can find...

If you are interested there are some discussions on my IRC server (88.202.151.14 port 6668)

2025-08-22, 08:50 0 boosts 1 favorites

There are also some great photos of inside the watch.

What's Next?

My last smartwatch was the fairly crappy eInk Watchy which recharged with micro-USB, I only used it for a few weeks before getting bored of it. The last time I seriously tried to use a smart watch was a decade ago and I hated it.

Perhaps I'm just not a watch person? This is a cheap and useful way to get started. After a few days of use, I'm beginning to get used to it. It'll be more useful once I configure the notifications I get, I suspect.

Should I Buy One?

That's up to you, champ. I'm not your real dad and I'm not trying to take his place. But I'm here for you if you need me.

Anyway, as discussed in a previous post, this little device shows that it is possible to make a smartwatch that uses USB-C. It isn't the most powerful or customisable watch. It can't compete with a £200+ Apple or Android watch - but it is surprisingly capable.

The S23 are £50, which is a reasonable price compared to AirPods, and expensive compared to bargain basement earbuds. So what do these have going for them?

•  The charging case shows the battery level of each bud
•  You get a few different sized tips for the earbuds.

But, on the flipside…

•  Lack of Qi / Wireless charging of the case.
•  Charging display flashes constantly.
•  Touch controls are a nightmare.

*sigh* Let's talk about controls. If your phone is in your pocket, you want an easy way to change the volume, play/pause, skip tracks, and summon your digital assistant.

On the Pixel Buds you can tap, hold, and swipe for those controls on either ear. On these, not so much. You need to remember a precise sequence of taps if you want to do anything.

Oh, you also need to remember which ear to use. Here's the list of controls.

• Tap once
  • Either ear: Play / Pause
  • Either ear: Answer / Hang-up call
• Tap twice
  • Left ear: Previous Track
  • Right ear: Next Track
• Tap three times
  • Left ear: Volume Down
  • Right ear: Volume Up
• Hold 2 seconds
  • Launch assistant.
  • Reject call.
• Hold 3 seconds
  • Left ear: Turn off left headphone
  • Right ear: Turn off right headphone

Yup! There's no way to switch both off with one gesture. And if you hold down for Siri for too long, you one of your buds switches off. And if you're too slow with your volume changes, the track either pauses or skips. It really is frustrating to use.

Volume control worked, as did play/pause. I couldn't get double-tapping to skip track to work on Android or Linux.

Charging

The buds recharge inside a case. It takes a standard USB-C cable - albeit only at 5V. It also seems to discharge into the headphones disturbingly rapidly.

You do get to see how charged each side is, which is helpful. But, when charging, the display on the case flashes constantly which is a bit annoying.

There's no wireless charging in the case, no rapid charging, or anything like that.

Audio

They claim that codec support includes LDAC - but my Android only showed AAC or SBC for audio. My other headphones will work with LDAC, so I don't think my phone is the problem.

Audio playback quality was fine. Voice quality was a little muffled.

Their Amazon advert claims "Active Noise Cancellation" but I couldn't find any evidence of that. There was certainly no way to turn it on or off. The snug fit of the rubber tips did keep our a fair bit of noise though.

Linux

They paired just fine with Linux - showing as both a headset (with microphone) and headphones.

The only codecs it advertised were:

You can read about the difference between the codecs - they're all basically fine for listening to music, but none are LDAC.

Verdict

I can't really recommend these. The sound quality is good - although not as advertised. A range of tips means they fit well enough and won't fall out while you're exercising. Voice quality is adequate.

But the interface is so frustrating.

The touch-target on the headphones is fairly small, so it is pretty easy to miss it entirely. If you miss one of your triple-taps it becomes a double-tap, which might not be what you want at all.

You have to remember a bewildering array of taps - and they differ between ears.

There's a horrible tinny voice to announce when a device is paired or the buds are powered off. It sounds cheap and nasty.

If you're prepared to memorise and put up with the interface, I'd still say they were overpriced.

But now, under pressure from Apple's incredible Find My network, Google has started rolling out a similar service to modern Android phones. In theory it should be much better; Android has a higher market share than iOS in most parts of the world I'm interested in visiting. But Apple's monoculture means they can quickly roll out the network to a much higher range of devices than Google.

The Pebblebee "Universal" range works with both Apple and Android's networks. But, crucially, not at the same time. You can reset the device and swap it between your iPhone and Galaxy - but it won't connect to both networks simultaneously.

Hey, remember when Google and Apple collaborated so that Covid tracing apps were interoperable no matter the device? Good times, man! But, y'know, this is just for protecting property, not life. So we'll give them a pass…

This is what the Pebblebee Clip looks like.

It's a fairly unobtrusive small disk. Clip it to a thing with the included clip, hide it in the lining, glue it to a device. The logo is a clickable button which is used for pairing the device, resetting, and checking the battery.

It also comes with a ridiculously short USB-C-to-C cable which can only be used for charging.

Dump it and grab a longer cable from your big box of cables. Total e-Waste, shouldn't have been included.

When you tell the app to make the PebbleBee identify itself, you're rewarded with this display of loud beeps and disco lasers.

The lights are bright and the sound is piercing - especially considering its size. It fits neatly in a hand and is small enough to tuck away in a pocket.

But what's it like to use?

Pros

• USB-C rechargable. No more faffing about trying to find a new battery. No e-Waste. No worrying if it'll last an entire trip. Shove it into to any USB power source and you're good to go.
• Loud beeper. One of the main reasons I got this was that it (reportedly) has the loudest speaker on the market. I can't compare it to others but it is certainly good enough for hearing in a crowded train carriage.
• Lights. The sides light up - handy for giving you a visual cue as to where it is.
• Small, light, and includes a keyring connector.
• You can share trackers between accounts. My wife and I each have a suitcase. We don't just want to know where our own bag is - we both want to know where both bags are.

Cons

The downsides of the device are minimal - depending on your use case.

• Not waterproof. Certainly water resistant - but the USB-C socket is an ingress point for fluids.
• No Ultra Wide Band. That means you don't get a precise direction when looking for something - just the distance. UWB isn't supported on Google's "Find My Device" network right now, so this isn't a great loss.
• No wireless charging.
• Cost. Even in bulk, with a discount, they were £25 each.

Security

Anyone who finds your tracker can factory reset it. I can't help but feel there should be a way to prevent that. But, to be honest, if a thief has found your token they can just throw it away or destroy it.

Firmware updates aren't available in the Google Find My app. So you'll need to use Pebblebee's own app.

The USB-C port is for power only. They don't show up as a device when connected to a computer.

Testing

I wasn't able to connect to the PebbleBee using GrapheneOS - one of the downsides of using a hyper-secure version of Android.

I used a separate phone, but couldn't get the device to pair. I kept getting this message:

I had to go to Setting → Google → Devices → Scan for nearby devices. Only then could I add it to Find My Device.

The FMD service lets you share devices with another Google account. Perfect for families and loved ones! When I tried to use it, I got this error message on the GrapheneOS phone.

That's probably a GrapheneOS issue. But it is dissapointing these sorts of things aren't standardised and baked into the OS.

In terms of tracking - a bit crap. In Gatwick airport - a pretty busy destination - they stayed tracked for a bit after we dropped off our bags. But in less busy destinations, they never pinged the network. They claim a 150m range which ought to several times better than an AirTag. But without a critical mass of Android users opted-in to the network, it is pointless.

Privacy

I'm a bit of a privacy nut. There's no doubt that these can be used to stalk people - but the Find My app is supposed to alert you if it detect a tag following you.

Is having Google and Apple know where all your stuff is a good thing? Well, probably not. But if it is a choice between seeing where a thief has taken my laptop bag and a multinational knowing what train I took, I guess I'm surprisingly OK with it.

Yes, it is a Devil's Bargain. Location is useful for surveillance (be it advertising or police) but it is also useful for personal security. It isn't nice living in a Panopticon but it also isn't nice to lose your expensive possessions.

Verdict

From a tech point of view - they sort of work! BLE is now an established technology and is well supported on all modern phones. Google's "Find My" app is basic, but works at tracking your devices when they're near you. The device is loud, bright, and is quickly recharged.

If you have a phone that support it, they're a reasonable device. At £25 each, they are optimistically priced. Especially given the coverage issues.

And that's the crux of the issue. As of yet, the network simply isn't as expansive as the Apple version. Apple have the ability to push out a service to millions of users, Google don't. While there are more Android users (certainly in my part of the world) there isn't a mechanism to bootstrap this network.

Back in the day when Google was ambitious, they would have stuck sensors all around the country or ran a massive campaign encouraging people to get involved or launched a cool API or given out a million trackers as freebies. But Google is now a timid and cautious shadow of its former self. Everyone in tech half-expects the Find My Device network to join the Google Graveyard like so many other interesting projects.

So, for now, these are great if you're within a few hundred metres of them. And they're barely adequate under any other circumstances.

Unboxing

Bone Conducting??!

Yup! Rather than sticking speakers in your ears, these literally rattle the bones in your head to produce sound. It takes a little getting used to, but is rather pleasant. I also find it more comfortable than traditional in-ear products.

It also means you can easily hear your surroundings. Perfect if you're jogging or cycling. The one down side is that they do leak a fair bit of noise. So don't wear them on the bus, please!

Waterproof?

Yup! With a claimed IP68 rating, these can handle more than just a splash of water - you can go swimming with them.

Well, OK, I don't have a swimming pool at home (😢) but I do have a shower! So I stuck them on, tuned in to "Singin' in the Rain" and had a good scrub. No, you can't see a video of that. Trust me, you don't want to! Anyway, the audio quality drowned out the sound of the shower.

I know what you're thinking - if you're swimming won't that put you outside the range of Bluetooth? Yes. But these headphones hold a little secret. A built-in 32GB MP3 player!

Formats

The headset came preloaded with a few FLAC and MP3 files. I also copied across some M4A (AAC) files and they also worked. Sadly, it didn't play OGG or Opus. If there are any more exotic file formats you'd like me to try, stick a request in the comments box.

The 'phones played my music without skips, blips, or artefacts. Generally good sonic reproduction all round.

Charging and file transfer

In order to keep the unit as hermetically sealed as possible, there's no USB port. Instead there's a pogo-ping layout which uses magnets to ensure you connect it in the right orientation.

It's an elegant solution to the problem of stopping water getting inside your gadget. But I'm not a huge fan of proprietary cables. Both transfer and charging speeds are fine. And the layout isn't hideously complicated if you want to wire up your own. But I don't want to carry another cable around with me.

Tech Specs and Linux Info

The Bluetooth connection from the headphones was HD AAC - so no ultrahigh quality APT-X or LDAC etc. But that's not what these cans are for. You are not going to experience sonic perfection while swimming The English Channel. Instead you get decent quality audio bouncing straight into your skull.

The NFC chip was detected by my phone - after waving the headset around for a bit. Personally, I think it's easier to just use traditional Bluetooth pairing.

The headphones worked perfectly with Linux. When plugged into USB these show up as 4c4a:4155 Jieli Technology USB Composite Device. It's a bog-standard USB drive so you can just copy your banging choons onto there. No weird software needed.

They paired over Bluetooth and music streamed just fine. On video calls, people were able to hear my voice and I heard theirs. So, job done!

Verdict

Hmmm... There's no doubt these are impressive headphones - for £140 they ought to be! Let's take a look at the good, and the bad:

Good

• Excellent sound. Considering these are using bone conduction, the sound is phenomenal. Everything is crisp and clear.
• Waterproof! I used them in the shower and they didn't electrocute my head!
• MP3 player. 32GB of space is pretty generous, and there's also support for FLAC if you're feeling fancy.
• Good range of earplug accessories if you want to drown out the world.
• Battery life as expected. Lasted all the way through my exercise routines.
• Works with Linux without a faff. Not always a given, so nice to see.

Bad

I don't think the lack of OGG / Opus is a show stopper. And I can't complain about the lack of HD Bluetooth. There's no equaliser - so you might find it a bit heavy on the bass - but you can tune that on your phone.

However, I'm really not a fan of the magnetic USB cable.

All of my gadgets are USB-C. My phone, eReader, thermal printer, VR Headset. I don't want a proprietary cable to lose. The supplied cable has alignment magnets which are pretty nifty. Data speeds are basically fine for drag-and-drop. And the pogo-pin connector is pretty rugged, slim, and ingress proof.

I can't be too hard on this. While Qi charging might have made sense, it doesn't do data transfer. And USB-C is relatively chunky and needs a rubber cap to prevent water getting in.

Replacement cables are a couple of quid from AliExpress or about a tenner direct

If you can live with a separate cable, it's an absolutely great gadget. I'm looking forward to swimming with it on holiday.

Discount!

You can get a 15% discount with promo code Terence.

The usual solution in Google Meet, Zoom, and MS Teams is to manually tell the app to use Bluetooth for speakers but a separate mic for input. In my experience, that never works with Teams. It forces HFP even if you choose a different input source. Or it cocks-up the sound somehow.

So here's how to fix it on Windows 11.

Open "Settings" and click on "Bluetooth & devices" and select "Devices":

Then scroll down and click on "More devices and printer settings":

Right-click on your Bluetooth headset and select "Properties":

Open the "Services" tab and un-tick "Hands-free Telephony":

Hit the "OK" button to save your changes.

When you next use Teams, select your Bluetooth headset as the speaker and your laptop's mic as the input. You'll have beautifully clear sound while listening to Barry from accounts talk about this quarter's EBITDA.

Constraints: The plane WiFi is ruinously expensive. The in-seat messaging service isn't private. We both have Android phones.

Preferences: Open Source. Secure. Easy to use.

Solution: Use Bluetooth messaging app Briar.

The Good

The app was pretty easy to set up. Enter a username and password. Grant it the permissions it needs. Then add a contact. Briar lets you send messages via the Internet or, if you're on the same WiFi network, directly to each other. There's an extra setting for Bluetooth which isn't turned on by default. So we switched off its Internet and WiFi access, enabled Bluetooth and...

It just worked.

We scanned each other's QR codes and, after a few seconds of automatic pairing, we were able to send messages. Text, emoji, pictures, all sent quickly over Bluetooth.

That was fine when we were sat next to each other on a sofa. It even worked across different floors of our house. But how would it fair in the slightly less forgiving radio environment of a transatlantic flight?

Again, it just worked. We were at 30,000 feet, in a metal tube filled with WiFi and Bluetooth signals - and screaming babies - and messages zapped back and forth without delay.

The Bad

Bluetooth, at its best, can do about 100 metres. BLE5 about 400m. That's good enough in a domestic setting. But in a crowded area with lots of watery-humans soaking up the 2.4GHz waves, it quickly diminishes. Similarly, in a crowded environment there are likely to be lots of radio signals interfering with your transmission.

So it works, but you need to be relatively close to each other.

If you go out of range of each other, it can take a while to reestablish the connection.

Animated GIFs didn't work. They sent, but were received as a JPG. No memes! Boooo! I've raised a bug on their issue tracker.

There are a bunch of things I didn't need - like forums and blog posts. There's no discovery in the app, so I couldn't find any to see how they work.

After one phone performed an OS update, the Bluetooth connection needed to be re-established. A bit of a faff, but not a show stopper.

The Ugly

Briar isn't the prettiest pig in the pen. I'd go so far as to say it is spartan. Apps like Berty look beautiful and have tried to make their app more conventional.

Because Briar doesn't use Google's push notification service, it requires an icon to stay in your notification area. This is a constraint of Android, but does make things look rather cluttered.

It is a little confusing how things work with accounts. I think it is tied to your phone, so if you change device you have to re-authorise with all your contacts. That might be a necessary privacy trade-off.

Final Thoughts

I am not skilled enough to audit all of Briar's privacy and security claims. Other people seem satisfied with them. I'm not planning on doing anything with the app which requires total secrecy against powerful malicious actors. I just wanted to exchange messages with my wife when we were in proximity but had no Internet connection.

On that level, Briar works. Direct point-to-point messaging is feasible with Bluetooth. And I think that's great!

Download Briar

First impressions

Not great. None of the buttons are labelled, so it's surprisingly hard to figure out how to turn it on and start pairing. It isn't either of the two large, prominent buttons, but one one off the smaller, flush buttons. No, not that one, the other one. *sigh* It announces that it has turned on - in a prim English accent - but doesn't say whether it is in pairing mode or not. Frustrating. When the power is off, hold down the power button for longer than you realise to initiate pairing.

It paired quickly with my phone - which recognised that it supported the aptX codec.

The headphones are pretty noisy - you can hear the electronics squeal in the right ear as the circuits try to connect to Bluetooth. It's unpleasant and distracting. Once pairing is complete it quietens down a bit. Moderate volume music drowns it out. But during periods of silence there's still a faint hum and a bit of occasional electronic chatter.

Frankly, I expect better from an expensive pair of cans.

There's a slider button which raises and lowers the volume. It makes a bit of an annoying "bloop" noise with any interaction. Pushing it in activates ⏯

I couldn't work out how to turn on the noise cancelling until I found the manual online.

The biggest button "Hook" is dedicated for... launching Microsoft Teams 🙄

It's an on-ear set. Which for people with big flappy ears like me is slightly uncomfortable for long periods of time as they press your ears flat.

Call quality

Outstanding! Honestly one of the clearest voice calls that I've experienced. I don't know what witchcraft is in the speakers - but over a 3G voice connection the sound quality was like the person was in the room. The boom mic tucks away neatly on the right headphone and you can flip it down when needed. When flipped up it automatically muted.

People I spoke to reported decent sound from my voice.

Music quality

Again - fantastic. It has great stereo separation, phases test were fine. I tend to use this video to test headphones:

Volume control and ⏯ worked as expected. On Android the next and previous tracks also worked.

As mentioned earlier, during quiet passages there is a bit of hum and electronic interference - especially on the right side.

Noise cancelling

Very weird. Rather than a dedicated button or switch. you have to remember that one of the multifunction buttons has to be tapped exactly twice in order to toggle it. No, not that button, the other one. There are no voice prompts - so you'll have no idea if you've triggered it or not. It certainly does something to the sound - dimming it a little. It doesn't cancel out human voices - which is weird. I would have though that was its primary purpose.

But it doesn't feel like proper noise cancellation. I think you're better off running a white-noise app to drown out sounds.

Interface

Atrocious! Multiple buttons each with different functions if you press, hold, double-, or triple-tap them. It's impossible to remember what they do. They all feel pretty similar under the finger - so good luck doing anything more basic than changing the volume.

Software

The desktop software is an obnoxiously bad Electron app - it forces itself to launch on start up and tries to wrap itself into your system. Software is Mac and Windows only - so Linux users will need to borrow a machine if they want to update the headphone firmware.

Although, that said, my Mac failed to detect the headphones in the app - so who knows whether there are any interesting updates.

Misc

Works while charging - which is nice. Lots of Bluetooth headphones switch off when charging via USB.

There's no 3.5mm jack, so you can't use these as wired headphones or share their sound with another user. I couldn't find a way to use the USB-C cable to route audio either.

It connected to two devices simultaneously - a laptop and phone. The voice prompts refer to them as "phone one" and "phone two" which is a bit odd.

Linux

The headphones paired to Linux first time. Audio quality was great. The ⏯ worked - so was able to control YouTube, VLC, Spotify, etc. It was also possible to swap it from A2DP (high quality stereo) to HSP (Headset Profile) - the mic worked just fine.

There's a Linux / PulseAudio limitation which means you can't have high quality audio at the same time as using the mic. I tend to use an external mic anyway.

When connected via USB-C to a Linux machine, the lsusb shows a hub:

0a12:4010 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd

and connected to that:

1395:0180 Sennheiser Communications EPOS ADAPT 560

The separate Bluetooth dongles shows up as:

1395:0382 Sennheiser Communications EPOS BTD 800

You can set Linux to disable the headset profile if you don't need it.

Verdict

It has great sound, if you can overlook the hum during quiet passages. It has some extremely poor design flaws. You won't be able to remember what all the buttons do - and you will find it frustrating to get it set up.

As basic headphones go, they're great. I'm just shocked they go for £200 - you can get better ones for a quarter of the price. But I guess the Sennheiser logo doesn't come cheap!

They works flawlessly on Linux. The boom mic is great for making/taking calls.

Finally, they're foldable - although you might want to use the included hard-case to prevent any damage.

They're designed so you can hear your surroundings. If you're outside exercising, it's useful to hear cars creeping up on you. If you're on a conference call, being able to hear the doorbell ringing is essential.

These are super-lightweight. Once on, it's easy to forget you're wearing them. They're a discreet colour - rather than the garish dayglo sports headphones usually are

Like most modern Bluetooth devices, they're dead easy to pair with your laptop or phone. They connect quickly and the battery life seems excellent. They worked without a hitch on Linux.

Sound reproduction was excellent. Perfect stereo separation, no noticeable hiss on quiet passages, and a decent amount of volume.

Because it is open ear, there is a fair bit of sound leakage - so please don't wear them on a crowded bus or train.

The open nature also means you sacrifice bass. It's there, but not very thumpy.

Similarly, the maximum volume isn't excessive. But that's kinda the point - you want to be able to hear what's going on around you.

There's only one button - push to play, hold to toggle power state. You can't skip tracks, or do anything fancy. But then, you should be concentrating on your running, not fiddling with your headset.

Sadly, they're micro-USB. By now, I'd expect these to be USB-C. £24 from Amazon

You do get a little water-resistant flap for covering the port.

Verdict

These are great headphones for when you need to hear what's going on around you. Excellent for exercising outside and really good for endless conference calls.

£24 from Amazon

Update! They broke after a few months.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

Three months of constant video calls have killed my little headphones!
shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/07/r…
Time to replace? Or should I try taping it back together? pic.x.com/cbb4xboyar

---

This is the Phomemo M02 Pro. If you remember the late, lamented Little Printer you'll immediately understand the appeal. Connect your phone to it, and immediately print out text, graphics, drawings, rules, Tweets, the weather, ANYTHING!

It uses thermal paper, so there's no ink to run out and no expensive refills. Phomemo sell their own paper in a range of colours and styles - but it looks like it will take any suitably sized 53mm roll. It came with sticker paper - so you can stick your doodles wherever the mood strikes.

For normal users, it requires an app. I know what you're thinking, Shenzen apps are usually dire. But this one is pretty good! It was quick to connect on Android and it is also cutesie.

One thing to note - the app has 5* reviews and most of them look like they are fake. Lots of identical messages and effusive comments. There's no need for this astroturf - the app is decent. It connected first time and I was printing out pretty much instantly. Third party apps are available and they seem to work, but need some configuring.

The printing quality is great for a device this size. It's about 300dpi - but you need to take care not to make the text too small though. There's a serrated edge to make it easy to tear off what you print.

It only prints pure black and white, so images need to be dithered before printing. The quality is good - given the size.

It prints quickly. Really handy if you want to print off name badges, or quick custom stickers.

It's USB-C chargeable - and comes with a USB-A to -C cable, which is 30cm long. It has an in-built battery. Using the app you can set how long it stays on for. Overall, it's a cute and useful device and prints really quickly.

Security

There is none. If it is powered on, any Bluetooth device can connect to it and print. This is a feature, not a bug. You can set the printer to automatically switch off after a few minutes - but pressing the prominent power button turns it on again.

The device will only connect to one Bluetooth device at a time. So make sure your phone or laptop is connected at all times!

Cost

Depending on the whims of Amazon, it's between £65 - £90. Thermal paper refills are pretty cheap, especially if you buy 3rd party or in bulk.

This review unit was supplied by NiceRebate.

Linux details

As well as charging via USB-C, it also presents as a USB printer: 0493:8760 MAG Technology Co., Ltd M110-Label Printer

I wasn't able to configure properly - I spoke to Phomemo and they do not provide Linux support.

I could connect to it via Bluetooth - I configured the printer via Bluetooth as per this tutorial. Essentially finding the MAC address and adding the printer as bluetooth://0012345678/.

But what printer driver to choose? Generic Dot Matrix produced line-feeds but no content.

I tried using the ZJ-58 drivers - but that didn't work.

If anyone has any suggestions - please let me know!

Geeky details

usb-devices info:

T:  Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=02 Cnt=02 Dev#= 11 Spd=12  MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=ef(misc ) Sub=02 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0493 ProdID=8760 Rev=02.00
S:  Manufacturer=STMicroelectronics
S:  Product=M110-Label Printer 
S:  SerialNumber=M110-Label Printer 
C:  #Ifs= 3 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr=100mA
I:  If#=0x0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=07(print) Sub=01 Prot=02 Driver=usblp
I:  If#=0x1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=02(commc) Sub=02 Prot=01 Driver=(none)
I:  If#=0x2 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=0a(data ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=(none)

Here's the verbose lsusb readout:

Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device
  bDeviceSubClass         2 
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  idVendor           0x0493 MAG Technology Co., Ltd
  idProduct          0x8760 
  bcdDevice            2.00
  iManufacturer           1 STMicroelectronics
  iProduct                2 M110-Label Printer 
  iSerial                 3 M110-Label Printer 
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength       0x006a
    bNumInterfaces          3
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0xc0
      Self Powered
    MaxPower              100mA
    Interface Association:
      bLength                 8
      bDescriptorType        11
      bFirstInterface         0
      bInterfaceCount         1
      bFunctionClass          7 Printer
      bFunctionSubClass       1 Printer
      bFunctionProtocol       2 Bidirectional
      iFunction               0 
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           2
      bInterfaceClass         7 Printer
      bInterfaceSubClass      1 Printer
      bInterfaceProtocol      2 Bidirectional
      iInterface              0 
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x03  EP 3 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               0
    Interface Association:
      bLength                 8
      bDescriptorType        11
      bFirstInterface         1
      bInterfaceCount         2
      bFunctionClass          2 Communications
      bFunctionSubClass       2 Abstract (modem)
      bFunctionProtocol       1 AT-commands (v.25ter)
      iFunction               1 STMicroelectronics
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        1
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           1
      bInterfaceClass         2 Communications
      bInterfaceSubClass      2 Abstract (modem)
      bInterfaceProtocol      1 AT-commands (v.25ter)
      iInterface              0 
      CDC Header:
        bcdCDC               1.10
      CDC Call Management:
        bmCapabilities       0x00
        bDataInterface          1
      CDC ACM:
        bmCapabilities       0x02
          line coding and serial state
      CDC Union:
        bMasterInterface        0
        bSlaveInterface         1 
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x82  EP 2 IN
        bmAttributes            3
          Transfer Type            Interrupt
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0008  1x 8 bytes
        bInterval             255
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        2
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           2
      bInterfaceClass        10 CDC Data
      bInterfaceSubClass      0 
      bInterfaceProtocol      0 
      iInterface              0 
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x05  EP 5 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x84  EP 4 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               0

lpinfo -v shows it as direct usb://Unknown/Printer?serial=M110-Label%20Printer%20

I spent some time with one group discussing the privacy implications of what they had built.

Thesis

By monitoring nearby Bluetooth devices, we can tell who has come in to contact with an infectious person.

We can warn people that they may have been exposed, and request that they seek treatment.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

Replying to @edentTheory time! These students think they can passively collect Bluetooth MAC addresses.
If a person is infected with a communicable disease, they send their own address to the cloud.
If you've been within X distance for Y minutes, you'll get an alert. But won't know who from. pic.x.com/GD4ZJiKY4B

---

Background

Every Bluetooth device has a unique identifier called a MAC address. This ID is a 48 bit serial number in EUI-48 format.

For example: AB:CD:EF:12:34:56

The first 6 bytes of the MAC tell you the manufacturer of the device. These are public records, so you can easily see that a device near to you is, for example, an iPhone or if it is made by Cisco.

Searching

There are loads of apps which will show you every Bluetooth device your phone can see. You can see the signal strength of that device which roughly correlates to distance.

You can also see the name of the device. It might be generic - "Bose Headphones" or it may be specific "Jo Smith's iPhone 7".

Use

Imagine you had a similar app running continuously on your phone. It would record the Bluetooth MAC of any device which was close to you for more than, say, 15 minutes.

If, later, it was revealed that the owner of a device was infectious - you could be alerted. The hospital could upload the patient's phone's MAC onto a server. Then the server would alert people who had been close to that person while they were infectious.

Privacy

There are a few ways this sort of system could work. Let's ignore (!) privacy for now.

1. Upload a list of everyone you've seen to a central database. Or...
2. Send everyone the MAC of an infectious person.

Neither of these are great, are they? I don't feel comfortable sharing a list of my contacts to a central agency. That feels like a gross invasion of privacy.

Similarly, we don't want to send everyone in the world an easily-identifiable MAC which could expose the identity of a patient.

K-Anonymity

Enter the magical mathematics of K-Anonymity. Here's a brief and incomplete explanation:

1. We identify an infected person and request their MAC address.
2. The server splits the MAC into two pieces.
3. The server send everyone the first piece.
4. If your phone has seen the first piece, send the second piece to the server.
   • You may have seen multiple devices with the first piece, so send all of the relevant 2nd pieces.
5. If your 2nd piece matches the one on the server, you may be infected and will be alerted.

There are all sorts of other privacy-protecting things we could do...

• Your phone could send random / misleading data back to the server in response to any query. That would prevent a central agency tracking individuals.
• Rather than two equal halves, the server could send the first quarter, and your device could respond with the last quarter.
• The data could be one-way hashed before sending in either direction.

Is this sufficiently private?

The whole range of 48 bits can be stored in 256TB. More storage than you have at home - but easily within the range of a well-financed organisation.

In reality, the address space is much less because not all addresses have been issued.

Using this system, how easy would it be to build up a database of everyone you have spent time with?

An open-source app could be audited to make sure that it wasn't recording and transmitting anything it shouldn't. But what's to stop the server going on a fishing expedition and continually pinging your phone with pieces of a MAC?

How do you ensure that people only install the official app and not something which steals personal information?

Is the central database of infected people's MACs a target for hackers? How could it be secured?

Are some MAC addresses so unique that even the first few bits are enough to reliably de-anonymise someone?

Is this politically acceptable?

And here's the kicker. Would you install tracking software on your phone? What if Facebook quietly switched on this feature? What about GDPR? What about...

I politely remind you that this was an idea born out of a 24 hour hackathon, by a small group of students. To my knowledge - this isn't something being developed for use.

But this sort of app could be built easily. And - if not designed correctly - it could be a privacy disaster.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

#LazyWeb can anyone find me some Bluetooth headphones which recharge via USB-C.

All the C ones I've found are wired.

---

Anker, through its sub-brand SoundCore - have released the "Life Q10" headphones. They're usually about £45 - but Amazon had an instant coupon which took them down to £33. Bargain!

They're exactly what I want in over-ear headphones. They're large enough for my flappy ears, USB-C charging, and an optional aux port. They fold down for storage. And they're cheap!

What you get

A bog standard USB-A to USB-C cable, about 60cm long. A 100cm long phono cable. And a brief manual. There's no carrying case.

What works

Everything! Pared instantly with my Android phone. Clear crisp music. The "Bass Up" function is terrifyingly thumpy. The volume goes loud without too much distortion. Even at a quiet volume, things are legible.

Bluetooth controls are instant to respond - play, pause, track skip, and volume. I don't use a voice assistant - but it apparently supports that. USB-C charging is stupidly fast. Promising 5 hours listening for 5 minutes of charging. The manual indicates that it will fully charge in 2 hours - giving you a ridiculous 60 hours of listening.

The battery came partly charged, and a few minutes of power gave it a substantial boost according to the Bluetooth battery monitor. I've not managed to listen to 60 minutes of music on it, but a good couple of hours of podcasts has only dropped the battery a few percentage points.

Call audio quality was fine. Even on an HD voice call, you're still limited to a fairly low bandwidth connection.

The cans are tight enough not to let out too much sound, but loose enough to be comfortable on a long conference call. There's no noise-cancellation, but outside noises don't intrude once the volume is up.

They play a daft little tune when you turn them on or off. It also speaks the battery level which is useful.

If you plug in the 3.5mm aux cable, you can use them as passive headphones. You don't need to power them on. In fact, the power button is disabled while the cable is plugged in.

But, it's not all sunshine and roses. For under £50 you can't expect miracles.

Bugs

Here's a list of the minor annoyances I've found.

Press the bass-boost button once, and a posh English voice says "Bass up". But press it again and a tinny American voice says "Normal". Indicates a lack of testing and quality assurance.

There's a slight background hiss. You'll only notice it when the music has stopped. It doesn't interfere with your listening - and is no worse than other devices.

Can't play while charging. This was a weird one, they charge quickly enough for it not to be a major concern.

Doesn't do USB Audio. The C port is just for charging. To be fair, it doesn’t claim otherwise.

The box says "High-Res Audio" - that's, politely, an exaggeration. It supports the AAC codec. There's no aptX or lossless codecs. It's better than the bare minimum SBC, but that's about it. Listen to the music, not the headphones right?

Firmware upgrades

Rather prominently, the Amazon listing says "This product is not currently compatible with iPhone 11 series, but is being upgraded."

lsusb doesn't show anything. I would have expected something to show up for firmware updates. Sadly, the SoundCore website lists no firmware updates for anything.

Which leads us on to the last problem: the Q10 doesn't exist.

There's nothing on the SoundCore pages about it. Nothing on Anker. The headphones physically exist - but they seem completely unsupported by the manufacturer. That's not a huge problem, I guess. But a bit odd.

Verdict

I bought these because they were the only reasonably priced headphones to support USB-C charging. Now my phone, eReader, games console, and laptop all take the same charger.

For forty-odd quid, these are stunning. Great sound quality, comfortable, long lasting. Only marred by weird support decisions by Anker / SoundCore.

Buy the Q10 now on Amazon UK.

But all of the Bluetooth headphones that I can find are charged via Micro USB. Which is bloody annoying! I want to charge my phone, laptop, camera, games console, and headphones from the same charger.

Even looking at the wholesalers on Ali Express - there are plenty of wired USB-C headphones, but an absolute dearth of wireless ones.

What gives? Do people with ultra-modern phones really want to carry around multiple charging cables? Are all the manufacturers waiting for a critical mass of phones before they change?

Perhaps they're all moving to Qi - the wireless charging standard? Nope! I would have though there would be some - literally all I can find is the £300 Parrot Zika cans.

To be fair, Qi is slow and does require a larger surface area than most earbuds will provide. Hmmm... I wonder if the physical size of the USB-C connector makes manufacturers reluctant to adopt it?

Back in 2009 I successfully switched to Micro USB for all my gadgets. It looks like this decade's switch is going to take a bit longer than expected...!

Well, it has been a dozen years and no one has released my killer idea, so I'm setting it free.

It's simple. A set of Bluetooth headphones with a built in display to show off album artwork. Here's a quick mock-up:

Original photo by Thomas Hawk

The nearest that I've seen to it is these cheap headphones which have a fairly dull LCD status screen:

Or, these monstrosities, with an LED graphics equaliser display.

There's nothing technically unfeasible about this idea. Bluetooth's AVCRP 1.6 specification supports Cover Art. If you've ever paired your phone to your car and seen artwork on the dashboard - you'll have seen this in action.

The three big drawbacks are...

1. Weight. Headphone wearers want them to be as light as possible. Will a screen on each ear add significantly to the weight and bulk? Not to mention the heavier batteries needed because...
2. Battery life. Charging headphones is boring. We're still waiting for colour e-Ink to reach critical mass. Is the benefit of displaying what you're listening to worth the reduction in listening time. And, for that matter...
3. Privacy and approachability. Do you want everyone to know about your terrible taste in pop music? Do you want people to talk to you when you're wearing headphones?

Right - who wants to create a Kickstarter for these awesome concept cans?

As I said in the review, the only downside is that it has a non-replaceable battery. I'm not sure I want to buy one for £20 and then throw it away after 12 months of use.

A few of you asked how tightly sealed the unit is - so I'm going to take one apart and show you its guts!

Warning!

Opening your Chipolo will almost certainly void your warranty, it will degrade its waterproof rating, and you risk breaking it entirely. Proceed with caution!

Opening it Up

There's a thin seam running around the outside of the Chipolo Plus.

A thin screwdriver can get between the cracks.

You'll need to go all the way around the casing in order to get it open. You will almost certainly crack and break the casing.

Battery

Once the top is off, we can see the battery

It's a fairly standard CR2032 - although it is tightly wedged in there. The original Chipolo uses the similar CR2025.

Parts

The plastic casing comes apart very easily from the electronics. We can see the three clips which need to be cracked in order to open the piece.

On the underside is a small foil disc which acts as the speaker, there's a button in the middle for interacting with the unit.

Chips

What's powering this unit?

The main SoC is the Nordic nRF51822. The smaller chip is the PAM8904 which controls the speaker.

Thoughts

The original Chipolo is a little fragile - but I'm not convinced that making the Plus unit sealed is a good idea. It feels wasteful to have a completely disposable unit.

It is possible to replace the battery, but you have to destroy most of the outer casing in order to do so. A slip of sticky-tape should be enough to seal it back up again - at the cost of aesthetics!

Manufacturers have to become more environmentally responsible when designing these gadgets.

Buy

You can buy a Chipolo using my referral link http://ssqt.co/NEvh for £20 - or £62 for a pack of 4.

Let's get one thing out of the way first, this is not the Amazon Echo! It's about the same size, shape, and design - but it has a very different purpose

What's it for?

This is a big Bluetooth speaker with integrated LEDs and microphone.

At a basic level, you pair your phone with it and the Realsound acts as a speaker and microphone - so you can hold telephone conversations with it.

But that's only the half of it. Dotted all around the speakers are a variety of multicolour LEDs.

When you play music through it, you get your own little disco show!

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

Hashtag This Is Not The Amazon Echo!

Rather enjoying this review unit I've been sent.
amzn.to/2dp2nwl pic.x.com/8p7wqfuooq

---

Let's see it in action!

There are six different LED patterns you can choose from. Here we go!

Music by the inimitable SoloBassSteve (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Walkthrough

At the top of the unit are some touch sensitive buttons. Play/Pause, Next, Previous, Volume Up and Down, and the LED pattern select. The buttons don't seem to have any switches behind them, no clicking involved, just a quick tap and they react.

At the bottom of the unit, around the back, there's a micro USB socket. This is only used for power - you can't route audio through it. There is, however, a 3.5mm headphone jack - so you can plug in an aux cord and play directly from your phone.

There's a power toggle, and a small LED to tell you if the unit is charging. In the box you get a USB lead - but no plug - and a 3.5mm audio cable.

Quality

Let's be honest, this isn't going to replace your surround sound system. But it will comfortably fill a room with music. Take it outside and it performs beautifully. The sound emanates from all around, so you can leave it in the middle of a group of people and all enjoy the music.

Bluetooth range was acceptable. Obviously that will depend on your environment but I was able to wander around the house without any severe interuptions.

Audio quality was great - even at full volume I didn't experience any clipping. Voices were clear and stereo separation was good - the left speaker is at the bottom and the right at the top, phasing was also correct. Bass gave a good impression considering the size. Overall, a very competent speaker.

Playback Time

I fully charged the speakers - which only took a couple of hours - then set it to work. After 5 hours of music playback - and a couple of conference calls - the speaker was still going strong.

That's pretty damned impressive! It's thanks to its 3600mAh battery - that's larger than most modern smartphones'.

Phone Calls

For voice the performance is mixed. Sound quality is great. As a speaker phone the volume is great with no distortion. It's a little weird watching the LEDs bouncing around while people talk, but makes boring conference calls a bit more entertaining.

A few people said that the microphone volume was a little low, others didn't seem to notice it. Much like with an speakerphone, you'll need a fairly quiet environment to get the most out of it.

Teardown!

It wouldn't be an @edent review without ripping it open! Well, despite the dire warnings, where do we start? This is a splashproof unit with no obvious seams. Aha! The screws are under the rubber feet.

The glue is reasonably strong, so you'll need a good grip in order to peel it away. The screws are recessed, but not too deeply.

You can also see some test points which are exposed.

The top is a little tight to take off, underneath is the Bluetooth control unit.

The flipside of the controller shows us the BT antenna and other gubbins.

I'm not terribly happy about how well soldered the speaker wires are. Look a little fragile to me - but it's unlikely they'll come to any damage in a sealed unit.

The microphone is at the top. It's a standard condenser unit, I suspect the muffled sound is caused primarily by being behind a slightly too small aperture.

The next step is to remove the plastic backing strip. Do not peel this off or you will break it. Instead, slide it up gently.

This reveals three more screws for us to play with.

With the screws undone, we can begin to lift up the covering and see the LEDs on the inside:

And that's about as far as it is possible to go without removing some of the wiring. In order to get at the guts, you'd need to either unsolder or cut some wires. Not the sort of surgery I'm happy performing on a demo unit!

I'm sure with a little hardware hacking, it would be possible to make those LEDs play pong - but let's leave that for another day!

Buy It!

The Oittm Realsound Bluetooth Speaker is £50 from Amazon UK. It's an excellent kitchen speaker. Leave it plugged in, on a shelf somewhere, and enjoy music whenever you're in the room.

If you're interested in sponsoring my blog, please see my rate card.

There's a lot of technology packed in for £19.99.

• Bluetooth 4.1 - compatible with Android and iPhone.
• cVc noise cancellation - for improved call quality.
• A physically tiny 70 mAh battery - good for around 3-6 hours of use. I found it fully charged in around 2 hours.
• Flat cable which feels rubber coated and is sweat-proof.
• All this weighs just 16.5 grams.

So, what's inside this compact box?

A short USB charging lead, basic instruction manual, and a little carrying bag. Here's a closer look at the headphones and accessories.

There are three sizes of ear-buds and in-ear-clips. All stretchy rubber and fairly easy to change over.

The left headphone has a micro-USB socket hidden behind a rubber flap.

The right has the microphone, volume controls (which double as track-skip controls), and at the top an answer button (which doubles as power and pairing).

The right also contains a small multi-colour LED - red for charging and blue for all other functions.

Usability

Bluetooth is always a little tricky to connect - but the Oittm plays instructions through its speakers. Hold down the power button and it'll say "Power on" and then "Pairing" - so you always know what's going on with the unit.

Pairing was automatic with Android - it really is one click connect. Ubuntu was similarly easy to set up (once I upgraded BlueMan).

Holding down the volume keys acts as a track skip, and the "phone" buttons answers and hangs up calls as needed.

The headphones happily pair with as many devices as you have - just remember to switch off your phone's Bluetooth before attempting to connect them to another device.

Sound Quality

Despite what the audiophiles tell you, Bluetooth is perfectly capable of streaming high-fidelity audio. You're probably not going to use the RE-E01 as your reference listening set - but for commuting or exercising, they're just right.

Stereo separation is perfect, and even at high volume there's little evidence of distortion. Bass is decent although not exactly earth shattering, but the adjustable ear buds block most external noise. Once you crank up the volume there is some sound leakage - so be considerate when on public transport.

Voice quality is good. You may need to adjust the angle in your ear to get the best sound - but the noise cancellation works well and filters out background noise with surprising effectiveness.

One downside, on the review sample I was sent, the right earphone would occasionally cut out. This appears to be a random factory defect, and they are shipping me a replacement set. A quick thwack to the side of my head and the sound came back. I was curious as to what was causing the problems - well, there's only one thing for it...

Let's take a look inside!

When I get a new bit of kit, I simply cannot resist cracking it open to see what its guts look like.

There are no screws involved - a spludger or small screwdriver should easily find a purchase in the seam just by the power button.

What do we see?

The "multi-function" LED is, of course, separate LEDs (two at the top, red and blue). The microphone (bottom left) is connected to the main board by wires. Fairly standard push buttons protected with a little foam. But what's the main chip in the middle?

Aha! It is the CSR8635. Good to know that this delivers exactly what's promised on the packaging. You'll see some cheap headphones substitute chips with inferior quality sound.

The CSR8635 provides (PDF)

• Wideband Audio for voice - should make for improved phone call quality.
• MP3, AAC, and SBC codec support - for native audio decoding.
• 96kHz DAC - for improved audio quality
• AVRCP 1.4 - so can be controlled by all Bluetooth capable phones.
• Battery indicator - this is apparently only available in iOS, I couldn't find any way to see it in Android. Oh well!

Let's quickly flip the circuit board over.

Nothing remarkable. The wires are a little on the thin side - they're not intended to for you to fiddle with. The loose circuit appears to be inside the speaker itself. It is trapped behind a little blob of glue in a sealed plastic unit. Judging from the way the sound sometimes cuts out and is brought back with a little pressure applied to the speaker, I suspect a slightly damaged wire or loose contact.

The left ear-bud only contains the battery and charging circuitry.

A neat package. Easy to pull apart and put back together should you feel the need.

Verdict

The Oittm Bluetooth Headphones are £19.99. At that price range you'll find hundreds of headphones on Amazon. The Oittm are ridiculously lightweight - you'll barely know you're wearing them and they can be chucked in your handbag or pocket without taking up significant space.

The flat cable makes for a surprisingly good anti-tangle device. The lurid green colour is distinct without being obnoxious.

The in-ear hooks help keep everything in place. As long as you choose the right size, you can run and jump as much as you like without them dislodging.

One caveat - the pair that I received had a fault which caused the right speaker to occasionally cut out. LOPOO UK offered to replace them extremely quickly. These sorts of intermittent issues are tricky to spot by retailers, so I can't be too harsh on them.

You can buy the Oittm Bluetooth Headphones on Amazon.

This is a non-exhaustive history, mostly drawing from my industry experience and drawers full of old phones!

Firstly (although not chronologically) special mention must go to… The original iPhone! Yup, in Infinite Loop's infinite wisdom, the very first iPhone had a recessed headphone socket which made it incompatible with virtually every headphone on the market. I'm sure there were incredibly compelling technical reasons for this decision, and was in no way influenced by Apple's fanatical desire to sell as many overpriced accessories as possible…

Nokia's POP port

For the longest time, Nokia smart phones used the POP port.

It was a mix of USB data, power, and audio - depending on which phone and cable you had.

Around the time of the N95, Nokia moved to allowing regular headphone jacks and standard USB sockets for data transfer. Power was still (mostly) via their proprietary barrel connector.

Oh, and a special mention to the Nokia N-Gage which had this abomination as its headphone cable.

Sony Ericsson's Connector

Ah, the FastPort. Unloved by all who used it. Fragile and expensive.

By Barbu doru CC BY-SA 3.0

The connector was stackable - meaning you could charge the phone while using the headphone port. Wonder if the new iPhone will look that cool?

Oh, there was also a subtly different variant which I think was incompatible.

BlackBerry's 2.5mm headset

Along with many other manufacturers, RIM's Blackberry used a 2.5mm headphone jack. That was pretty much their standard since the original phone-based Blackberry.

I'm trying to figure out when they switched to the 3.5mm jack. 2007's 8800 still had the 2.5mm jack as did 2009's 8350i

Curiously, 2008's Blackberry Storm had a 3.5mm headphone jack. I worked on the product when I was at Vodafone. I remember the switch of the headphone port causing lots of arguments about whether businesses would be prepared to buy new accessories and car kits. Although, by that time, the world was firmly in the grip of Bluetooth everywhere.

Samsung's many connectors.

As late as 2009, Samsung was pushing its 20-pin connector. This, of course, is not to be confused with Samsung's 18-pin connector.

Nor should you mistake it for their 10-pin connector.

Nor any of their bewildering array of other connectors.

HTC's Android extUSB

The very first Android phones - the HTC Dream and the HTC Magic - originally had no headphone socket!

There was a USB socket on the bottom into which an adapter could be fitted.

Crazily enough, the phone has a proprietary headphone jack, proving once and for all that HTC doesn't like you Endgadget 2009-02-17

The port was called extUSB and was backwards compatible with the then-standard micro-USB port.

This followed the same pattern as HTC's previous Windows Mobile devices. Routing everything through a single port makes a certain kind of sense. Fewer components, more space on the board, less chance of water getting in.

But you run into the problem of needing passthrough cables (as above) or relying on proprietary connectors.

…and so it goes…

Losing the headphone port on a phone isn't the end of the world. Yes, it's another gadget to charge - but fewer wires to break. Audio quality is unaffected. Battery life of your phone may take a small hit, but not too drastically.

Bluetooth headphones are cheap - with basic ones being just over a fiver Of course, you can spend stupid money on branded ones. £200 to you, buddy.

Or, for under a tenner, you can buy a Bluetooth adapter which will work with your existing headphones. See my 2010 review of the Jabra Clipper.

This is all a long-winded process to remove every port from the phone.

• Bluetooth for audio.
• WiFi for data.
• Bluetooth for peripherals.
• Qi for wireless charging.

Can it be done? Easily. Will customers buy it? Ah, that remains to be seen. Personally, I'm looking forward to doing away with a tangled mess of incompatible cables,

If I've missed out your favourite proprietary smartphone audio connector - please do let me know in the comments.

A couple of months ago I was giving a talk in Romania - the organisers had set up a technology expo showing off some great local start-ups.

One which caught my eye was TinTag.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

Tintag is pretty clever. BLE beacon but has built in Qi recharging. Very useful. thetintag.com
#DevTalks pic.x.com/sjizdew274

---

I've previously reviewed the Chipolo - which is a similar beacon/tracker. So I thought I'd give this one a go.

At the airport last week, I put the Chipolo on my luggage and was able to detect when it came onto the baggage carousel. I used the buzzer to quickly locate my bag. These BLE beacons work with any modern smartphone and are quickly becoming indispensable.

So, how does TinTag stack up against Chipolo?

Pros

• Blinken Lights!
• No need to create an account.
• Buzzer.
• Waterproof.
• Sturdy.
• Wireless Charging.

Cons

• Cost is €29 / £22 + shipping. That's €5 more than the Chipolo. Although you do get the charging pad and USB cable.
• Lanyard hole is a little small.
• 4 month battery life which requires an overnight charge.
• Yet another app to install!
• No open source API that I could find.

Verdict

I think I prefer the TinTag to the Chipolo.

Yes, the TinTag is slightly larger - but it is sturdier and recharges using the same pad I use for my phone. Flashing LEDs are nice, and you don't need to register on the website to get all the functionality.

The app isn't brilliant - and I suspect BLE tracker support will eventually be built in to Android - but it does the job.

It's too big for a wallet or phone - but the perfect size for luggage, handbags, coats, and larger pets.

The TinTag is available to buy now.

For years I was a devotee of the Microsoft 4000 Keyboard. It's a big old beast - and that's its main drawback; it's just too large to carry around. It could also do with an integrated USB hub if it's going to take up one of my precious laptop ports.

So I moved to Microsoft's wireless model - the Sculpt Desktop. It's a delightful bit of kit. Just about small enough for me to carry around. Only two real drawbacks - it takes AAA batteries rather than being rechargeable, and it doesn't use Bluetooth.

Yup, it requires a proprietary dongle from Microsoft which is hideously insecure. Oh, and if you lose the tiny dongle, you need to buy an entirely new keyboard!

It's also too fragile for a normal laptop bag...

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

My Tweets may make less sense than usual today... pic.x.com/2gvopjpr10

---

One of the keys got knocked off in my bag.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

Replying to @edentTried to transplant the mechanism from the "Insert" key to my broken "L". Didn't work 😢
Any help @MicrosoftUK? pic.x.com/6olzxm7iwa

---

*sigh*

Last week, an unexpected present dropped through my letterbox. Some kindly anonymous soul bought me a gift from my Amazon wishlist - a brand new Goldtouch Go!2 Mobile Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard.

OMG!

It's an ergonomic, adjustable, Bluetooth keyboard. (Geeky lanyard via Jenny Wren Creates.)

Watch it fold!

The Good

• Bluetooth. Works perfectly with Linux and Android alike. No dongle needed. Uses a random passcode to pair.
• Has a Mac mode for those people who like their @ key in the wrong place.
• Micro-USB rechargable. Battery life seems good - and it takes the same charging cable as all my other kit.
• Ubuntu shows the battery level remaining as part of the power menu.
• The right size to rest on top of a MacBook Pro *without* interfering with the in-built keyboard.
• Adjustable. Good range of vertical and horizontal movement.
• Extra function keys work in Linux (Calculator, Home, Volume, etc)
• Excellent range of "extra" keys - Print Screen, Home, End, etc.
• Solid feel. Even when typing away with the keyboard raised, there's very little flex in it.
• Pairs with Ubuntu before the login screen - so you can type in your password using the keyboard.
• UK spec - so has the £ and € keys where you'd expect them.
• Rubber grips on the bottom - keyboard doesn't shift even when you're hammering it.
• It folds away to protect the keys!

The Bad

I'm going to be really nitpicky here.

• No backlit keys. Understandable on a battery powered device - but I think I would be prepared to lose on battery life (or take a larger device) to make typing in the dark easier.
• Bit of a faff to set up and put away. Much like a Brompton bike - you have to remember which bits to pull at in which order. You have to lift the lever to release the hinge mechanism. Pull the Unlock switch if you want to fold or unfold the keyboard. Flick the power switch. I think the pairing and power buttons could be on the other side - but that's a personal preference.
• I could stand to have a little more horizontal movement.
• I'm sure the joining cable is tough - but it looks a little exposed and fragile.
• Slightly odd key placement. Print screen is easy to hit accidentally. Just as with any new keyboard, it takes a little time to learn.
• No wrist rest. So extended periods of typing may be a little uncomfortable.
• Caps Lock light is a little dim. Yeah... I'm stretching here!

Honestly, there's not a lot to criticise here. The keys have a decent level of travel, it's quiet, easy to configure, and looks awesome!

The Ugly

I think it is a gorgeous bit of kit. Once you've learned how to type on it and what position works best for you, it feels great to type on. The only fly in the ointment? The price.

Brace yourselves.

£170!

Youch! That's the cost of a cheap laptop or tablet.

I'm conflicted here. I'm hugely grateful to the anonymous patron who bought this for me - I had been vacillating as to whether to get it - but I can't help wondering if it provides value for money.

There is nothing like this on the market. No cheap Alibaba clones, no fast followers - this is unique.

It is the best damned ergonomic Bluetooth keyboard - if only by the virtue of being the only one!

If you take your hands' health seriously, and can't stand laptop keyboards, I highly recommend it. Goldtouch have made a great product and my fingers thank them.

The Chipolo is a multi-purpose Bluetooth Low Energy tag. It's like a high-tech version of one of those things which you attach to your keyring which will beep when whistled at.

As the box says, it will work up to 60 meters away. It'll beep when you lose it, and it can make your phone beep if someone moves it out of range - handy if someone is stealing your wallet. What's not mentioned on the box is the fact that it has a temperature sensor. No, I've no idea why either.

The contents of the box are sparse, but functional. Two batteries, a keyring, and a basic instruction leaflet.

Let's take a look at how it is set up and used.

The Chipolo Android app gets poor reviews, but the Chipolo team are very responsive and working hard on improving it. I found that the app crashed a couple of times and didn't seem particularly intuitive. It performs its basic tasks well enough - showing me how far away the beacon was and making it beep when triggered.

Cost

The base cost of the Chipolo is €25 each - plus €9 shipping! That feels like quite a hefty price - especially considering that generic BLE finder tags cost around €10 delivered on AliExpress.

If you buy a 9 pack, the Chipolos work out at €22.22 each. A reasonable discount, but they're not a cheap.

Update! You can get 20% off the price using my referral link.

Open Source

There are a couple of 3rd party Open Source packages, one for NODE-Red and an older one for NodeJS.

The only Open Source provided by Chipolo themselves seems to be for translating their website.

Final Thoughts

The Chipolo is quite a cool device. If you're constantly losing your keys or wallet, I can see how useful it could be. They also suggest that the tracker could be attacked to a pet's collar. But given how fragile the device is, the lack of range, and the fact it is not waterproof, it's hard to see it as a practical choice.

For the price, I'd have expected a much more robust device. It does feel like it will fall apart quite easily.

There are some rather "forced" features. I doubt anyone is going to shake the Chipolo to take a selfie - but it does show that it could work as a motion sensor alarm. I also struggle to see the use of the temperature sensor.

Theoretically, if you lose your Chipolo then other users' phones can sense it and automagically tell you where it is. Frankly that's going to rely on a critical mass of users which just isn't here yet.

It works and, providing the 6 months battery life prediction is accurate, should be a useful addition to my growing stash of gadgets.

You can buy branded Chipolo smart tags direct from the manufacturer.

You can get 20% off the price using my referral link