Armband /Wristband for smartphone for less than RM4 at Tesco Ipoh

This armband is actually very good for light running exercise. When I first bought it, I thought it did not look good as an armband near my shoulders and thought it would be junk but lately I have used it as a wristband and it works great.

I downloaded the Accupedo pedometer app for Android and also a Screen off app but I think the fact that my Winds Mobile smartphone has intelligent awaken also helps.

It was selling at an offer price  for less than RM4 at Tesco on Saturday which I think  is a very low price for it.  Its original price is around RM15.

It seems it can also  be used as an additional support for knee braces so it is very handy.

It can cause issues if you use it for a long time as a wristband so for longer distances it is probably  better to use it as an armband near the shoulders. So far it looks better as a wristband than an armband - I don't know maybe blue just isn't the right colour for an armband.

It appears as an armband, it looks better with sleeveless shirts. It's a strange thing but it seems to be the case.

Smartphone battery dropped very quickly from around 50% to close to 0%

 My smartphone battery level seems to have dropped very quickly from around 50% to close to 0%  quite a few times so I went back to the sales vendor. He told me to charge the phone for 8 hours. I am not really sure if this applies to Li batteries but I  remembered that for the older handphone batteries, I needed to charge them for 8 hours. Anyway I charged mine for around 5 hours. I also installed Avira antivirus. It detected and removed a malware. After that it seems like the issue has not  occurred - at least not as  dramatically as before.

Running Program

I have increased my running program to 30 minutes a  day.  Anlene Gold milk powder  recommends 30 minutes   a day. It seems the American Heart Association also recommends  30 minutes for 5 days a  week.

There appears to be some improvement in stamina for the last few days with this new program but I also read that there are greater benefits for exercising for an hour so I may try that out every now and then.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/10/06/new-study-for-optimal-heart-health-americans-should-double-or-even-quadruple-the-amount-of-exercising-theyre-doing/

Update 2/12/2015 - Have been sticking to 30 minutes as one hour seems too much. Furthermore from the article, it appears that 30 minutes of running appears to be the equivalent of one hour of moderate exercise.

Update 21/12/2015  -   Have been doing 5 km runs these days which can be slightly less than 30 minutes but  it seems that there is some benefit in doing shorter sessions with high intensity too, based on the article below

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/brief-high-intensity-workouts-equal-longer-medium-intensity-training-study-1.2707792

Update 25/3/2016 Have reduced to 2 miles due to the heat wave but I guess that could be the right amount as 5 km can be quite tortuous sometimes.

Update 5/5/2016 Have been doing 5 km the last two days since the heat wave ended. 5 km is healthier I suppose but can be quite tortuous sometimes.

Update 7/5/2016 It seems like I have been affected by the hot weather again so it is back to 2 mile runs I guess.

What's Buzzing?

I managed to pass the MIT Circuits and Electronics  Part 1 but it was a tough one. The Berkeley MOOC Electronic Interfaces was  a little more straightforward even though one has to get 100%  in the theoretical part to pass. (I did not bother about the practical part as I had done somethng similar for my degree course).

Am now looking through the  Circuits and Electronics  Part 1 course again  and trying to get a better grade for it. Anyway I am thankful for these courses as I get to learn quite a lot from them.

Recovering from Bad Headaches

 Last week I had very bad headache a few times and had to go on a course of 2 tablets of uphamol(or panadol) 3 times a day.   Apparently one should not take more than 8 tablets a day. Also I lessened the amount of  time spent on computers and took more rest. There seems to less headaches  now so I guess I am recovering in this area.

Wireless Mouse Weibo from Mr DIY, Tesco Ipoh

I bought this about two months ago.   After about a month of usage,  it started to lag. It seems the batteries had run out, so recently I bought some rechargeable ones and now the mouse seems to be working fine. The led light of the mouse goes to a low light, (it does not actually go off as what I had written before) when the mouse stops moving, so it is best to turn off the mouse after use to save power. I am quite impressed by the Weibo products as I bought a keyboard some time back before the wireless mouse. There is not much of a warranty for them - have to return them within 3 days (update: not a week as stated previously- that was for another item) if there are issues but the cost of these products are considered low and most of them seem to work okay so far.



Update: 10-11-2015.  It isn't working as well as before. Could be due to the fact that it was accidentally dropped when my mum was cleaning the room.  I am still using it though but it seems it sometimes has some difficulty in copying and pasting. This kind of issue does happen in some mouses.

Update: 14-11-2015  It appears the rechargeables are okay - it is just that the performance of the mouse sometimes is not always consistent but still usable.

Update:25-11-2015: I haven't recharged it or switched it off  for some time now.  It appears to be working okay although it lags a little every now and then.

 Hmm, looks like I had to recharge today so there may be some advantage in switching it off every now and then.

Update 14/12/2015: Found out that the led of the mouse does not  go off immediately but goes to a low light mode when the mouse stops moving, so it is best to turn off the mouse when not in use to save power.

Update 26/12/2015: It appears it goes to a low light mode then it goes off after a while but I am not too sure about this!

Update 24/8/2017: I had to recharge the 900 mAh  batteries for about 3 hours - then it was able to work longer.  Here is the site to find out how long to recharge the batteries http://convert-to.com/491/recharging-rechargeable-nimh-nicd-batteries.html

ES500 Solar Charger

 As a solar charger, this doesn't quite live up to expectations but there is something about it that I do like -its design.  It looks like one of the best looking powerbanks out there but it's slow to charge under the sun. As a portable powerbank charged up from the wall socket, it seems to work okay, though I haven't tested long enough to see if it outputs the correct capacity.

After a couple of hours of bright sunlight, it was able to charge up my phone about 5%   but I haven't seen it charge more than  a single bar yet. (There are 5 bars, each bar representing 20%  of the total capacity.)  The last few days have been quite hazy so perhaps this has affected the solar charging performance.

I bought this at the basement of Angsana mall in Ipoh but later I found out there were some on sale at Giant in Bercham. The ones there seem to claim to have  much higher capacity ,70000 mAh, a value which seems too good to to be true and there is no ES500 brand name at the back of the item.