Gemini and Bip. A marriage made in ... China.

I bought an Amazfit Bip to go with my new Gemini PDA. The Amazfit displays all the notifications from the Gemini (including who's calling) without having to open the Gemini or take it out of a pocket or bag. Other reasons for choosing the Amazfit include its exceptional battery life, easy to read display and very low cost (about US$60). After a couple of months (it arrived before the Gemini) the Amazfit Bip isn't disappointing.

As a reference, my last watch was a Samsung Gear S2. Before that, a Ticwatch and before that a Pebble Steel 2 and an original Pebble. Functionally, the Amazfit Bip is most like a Pebble 2 watch though, from a few feet, it looks like an Apple watch until you notice that the crown (button) is in the middle of the right side rather than displaced toward the top.

Like the Pebble, the screen is a low-resolution reflective colour display covered with Corning Gorilla Glass. The screen is the main reason the Bip has such a good battery life. Expect to use about 3% of battery a day, without GPS tracking or heartrate monitoring. Be aware though that loading any of the custom watch faces from the phone app will severely increase battery consumption; even when that face isn't active on the watch (don't ask me why; I don't know). Unlike a lot of expensive watches, the display is perfectly readable in bright sunlight and has a good back-light for darker situations.

If you are more of an active type, the watch supports activity tracking for running, walking, cycling and treadmill. Activity tracking will use the GPS (except treadmill) and will monitor your heart rate. Stats will be synchronised with the phone app. I am not a sporty person, but I am getting older and trying to avoid 'death by rocking chair' - the Bip is ideal for measuring and prompting for this basic fitness level and beyond.

As well as activity tracking and notifications, the Bip shows weather, alarm, timer, and stopwatch. It is also exceptionally light at only 32g. If you are worried about the light, polycarbonate, construction then consider that you can get more than five Amazfit Bips for the price of one Apple watch. My Bip is two month's old now and there isn't a mark on it but, at US$60, it's very replaceable.

Gemini has landed

After months of waiting, my Gemini finally left the production-line and landed on my desk.

I think that, like many others, when I first heard about the Gemini my thoughts ran along the lines of, "great, now I can write on a phone without losing half the screen, wrestling with swipe input, and having autocorrect get me into trouble." Well, after forty-eight hours with the Gemini, that is exactly what I have found, but also that there is something more significant going on - a sort of paradigm shift in how I think about and use my new 'phone'.

I thought that the Gemini was a phone with a keyboard. I was wrong; it is a mini-laptop that also acts as a phone and message centre. That might sound like semantics, but it actually points to a paradigm shift in thinking and use. The Gemini is not just a phone replacement; it can replace both phone and laptop when away from home base. The operative word is 'can' because It depends on how you work and what your work entails.

For a few years, I have attempted to use mainly 'cloud' based tools so that I could pretty much work anywhere, on any device that was available. Typically I would use a desktop, one of two laptops (small and large) and a phone. The Gemini is managing to replace both of my laptops and my phone. Which means that I  use a desktop (mainly photography and graphic design) and the Gemini - nothing else is necessary; the Gemini and the desktop cover all the bases.

This is big. It reduces my reliance on so many separate devices and the Gemini is sufficiently capable that I have even found myself using it to write when sitting in front of the desktop - simply because I am doing something else on the desktop screen - the Gemini and its keyboard are that good. Yes, I am only forty-eight hours in and the Gemini still has to prove its reliability but, once that is confirmed, I'll probably be moving a couple of laptops along to a new home.

Read about the Gemini here and here.