2026-05-31 14:06:20
Initially, I was not overly keen on the Fitbit Air, and that's because the thought of wearing something on me all day, every day, was not motivating. That is why I do not wear a smart ring. Context below:
MereCivilian
However, I also dislike wearing the Apple Watch or the Pixel Watch to track my sleep and much rather wear a band that is much lighter than either of those devices. Therefore, the only reason I bought the Fitbit Air is to track my sleep and, to some extent, the alarm feature was intriguing. Despite preorders opening on 7 May 2026, I waited til 25 May to get my order in.
I got the black (obsidian) one because Australians did not get the option to order the Special Edition.
Another notable thing is that despite the Fitbit Air selling for USD99 in USA, in Australia its AUD199 (inclusive of 10% sales tax) which is approximately USD145, which is significantly more expensive. I suppose Australians are required to pay the Down Under Tax.
One would think I have spent enough, but I really liked the look of the modern band so I got that one too:
I got the Fitbit Air on Wednesday afternoon, and I am writing this blog post on Sunday afternoon. Therefore, I have 4 solid days of use, and in most of that time, I was not wearing any other wearable (no smartwatches). Battery life is at 55% which means a 7-day battery life is feasible.
Setting up on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold was seamless and straightforward. I suspect the setup would be just as seamless on the iPhone. At the time of writing, the Google Health app does not sync data from the Fitbit Air to Apple Health. When it does that, I'll move the Fitbit Air from the Android phone to the iPhone Air. Side note: I use the Health Sync app on my iPhone to sync Fitbit data from the Google Pixel Watch to Apple Health Kit. Therefore, the same app is now syncing the data from the Fitbit Air to Apple Health Kit until Google comes to the party.
Since I still want to continue wearing smartwatches on my left hand, I set up the Fitbit Air to be worn on my right hand. First thought, I like nothing on my right hand. However, I powered through, and as time went by; I got used to having it on my right hand. I still would prefer not to have it. Therefore, when I move on from wearing the Fitbit Air all day to only wearing it when I sleep, I will wear it on my left hand as it's intended for my use case.
My instinct was correct. Sleeping with the Fitbit Air is significantly more comfortable than the smart watches. Also, not having any light coming from the screen on the wrist is fantastic. After a couple of nights, I am confident that the Fitbit Air will be my sleep tracking device of choice. I have yet to try the alarm feature. I thought I would use it all the time, but I forgot my son wakes me up every single day. Somewhere after midnight, he wanders into our room and just sleeps between my wife and I. It's adorable and so sweet to wake up next to him. He will eventually grow up, and I will miss this.
I like the app. It talks to you in simple English, and I would much rather it tell me about the data than me having to analyze the graphs, etc. Note: I sleep well most nights. I'm not concerned about my sleep quality itself (though it could be better). Instead, my difficulty is in falling asleep, a process that can last from 10 minutes to 30 minutes, or sometimes more. Also, no sleep tracker in its own right can improve my sleep. That comes down to me. I feel like it's important to remind myself of that. All these tracking will not magically improve my health or my life, for that matter.
It came as a surprise, but I actually enjoyed use the Google Health app and will probably keep paying for Google Health Premium largely for Gemini (AI) and the workouts.
Allow me to give you an example. On day 2, for my morning brief, the coach asked me if I was okay with the proposed plan for the day. I said, for the last couple of days, I have had some pain in my left instep leg. Taking this into consideration, it suggested low-impact strength exercises. That suggestion went a step (pun intended) further, suggesting workouts from the Fitbit Premium library which were low-impact and supported the equipment I already had.
This made the entire process so easy. I recall spending a lot of time scrolling through the Apple Fitness library trying to find the right workout, while Google Health Premium so easily surfaces the appropriate workout based on my needs. The Fitbit Premium library comprises content from the Peloton library, which I found to be better than the Apple Fitness workouts. In addition, it has custom workouts where it shows an animated video of the exercises that need to be done.
I was impressed, which I had not expected. It is not all roses, though. First, the app is still super buggy. It crashed a few times starting the workout, but once started, it worked well. I predominantly used it on the Pixel Tablet. Noting, there is no iPad app and no app on Apple TV (which is where I used Apple Fitness the most).
Regarding the accuracy of the data, I am in no position to comment. From my perspective, I hope it is consistent so I can get trends, etc. More importantly, I find the AI within Google Health more useful. I can tell things, and it gives me some options to address my concerns, etc.
Another example: I told Google Health that my knees feel tight and it made some useful suggestions, and the strength exercises it suggested were sitting down or laying down.
I am not a fitness expert, so any advice it gives is useful. To the extent that now I am more willing to ask specific questions relating to the health data it has or questions regarding my health and fitness in general. In my books, it's a win.
Google is an advertising company (by the way, so is Apple and Microsoft) but I made my peace with that a long time ago.
The way I see it, Google Health has told me more about my health data and my fitness in the last week than Apple has told me in over the last decade that it has had my data.
It is pretty cool to see others have created things that support or enhance the Fitbit Air experience.
Like this cool charging stand:
MereCivilian
Also, this cool 3D print to use the Fitbit Air with a Casio watch:
This is even cooler, which works with NATO watch straps and does not require a 3D printer:
I'm not planning on returning the Fitbit Air. In fact, I'm keeping it. However, the Google Health app has impressed me more than the Fitbit Air. It is still pretty buggy, but it's got a great foundation and is very useful to me. Interestingly, even if I return the Fitbit Air (which is unlikely), I will continue using the Google Health app. Even in its current state, it can be a hub for all my health data. It has one-way sync from Apple Health (bidirectional is coming) and it syncs with Lose It, my Withings Scale, my Pixel Watch and my Pebble Round watch (via Apple Health). I hope that both Google Health and Apple Health have all my health data, and I can benefit from both these large entities trying to improve their user's health.
Five years ago, my privacy-centric approach would not let me consider using Google Health as my health hub. How times have changed? Yes, my perspective has changed too, but my trust and expectations of Apple have also changed.
I wish you a great week ahead and send positive vibes from Melbourne, Australia.
May the Force be with you!
Blog written entirely on M1 13 inch Macbook Pro, using Ghost editor on Arc Browser.
2026-05-19 18:15:19
What can I say? Despite seeing lots of things that AI can do, I hadn't really found a use for my personal use case. Until today!
I have a Elgato Stream Deck which is connected to my Mac. It works well... most of the time. However, occasionally, the Philip Hue plugin would hang and the only solution would be to quit the Elgato StreamDeck app and relaunch the app. I wanted to program one of the keys on the Elgato StreamDeck itself to quit and relaunch the app.
This sounds simple enough so I decided to use Apple Shortcuts and run the shortcut from the Streamdeck. This partly worked. Partly because, it executed the first part, which is quitting the app but did not relaunch it. This greatly annoyed me, as now, the Streamdeck is completely useless as opposed partially useless where only the Philip Hue buttons weren't working.
Anyway, I decided to ask Google Gemini:
Impressively, Google Gemini explained that sometimes the script can cut off mid execution which is what was happening in my case. The solution provided also made sure that the script did not cut off mid-day.
Anyway, as advised, I went with Method 1 and created the following shortcut:
The relevant code:
osascript -e 'quit app "Elgato Stream Deck"'
sleep 2
open -a "Elgato Stream Deck"
I then assign a button to run this Apple Shortcut from the Streamdeck and it worked flawlessly.
I must say, kinda impressed how easy this was. I am warming up to AI. At least for these specific use cases.
2026-05-10 08:49:36
Recently, a reader of the blog emailed me asking about my RSS workflow, specifically my use of both Feedbin and Readwise. I assume this question relates to a blogpost I published in September 2024:
MereCivilian
Anyway, the following is my response, noting my workflow is remained the same:
Hello XX
Trust you are well.
I have been using Feedbin forever. Its fast and I like its straight forward approach, to the extent that I only use the feedbin web app on all platforms. I do not use any third party RSS apps for Feedbin.
Readwise Reader came into the picture because I was already subscribed to Readwise so reader was included with that subscription. The way I use Readwise Reader is for when I have long blogposts to read, I star it on Feedbin and it shows up on Readwise which allows me read it and my highlights are saved in Readwise.
I have over 700 feeds on Feedbin which I think will just be too much for readwise.
So in summary, Feedbin for triage and Readwise Reader for reading.
Can I move everything in Readwise? Probably but I like using both which have their respective strengths.
Hope that helps.
Wishing you a great day. Today its expected to be sunny in Melbourne so I looking forward to getting out of the house.
Another reason, I am posting my response on my blog is because it is my way of documenting the interactions that come about only because I have this blog. I enjoy communicating with people, and it is great that people reach out. Please continue doing so..
It is mothers day in Australia today... Wishing well to all mothers on this beautiful planet of ours 😸
written and edited on my Macbook M1 Max 16 inch using the Ghost editor on Arc Browser.
2026-05-06 19:09:19
Since my one bag travel adventure, I have been more aware of the weight of things that I carry.
That led me to explore the weight of each and every watch that I own and also the ones that my wife owns:
| Device | Watch Only (g) | Band (g) | Watch + Band (g) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pebble Round | 21.8 | 17.8 (silicon) / 10.7 (leather) | 33.8 |
| Apple Watch Series 10 (46mm Aluminium) | 36.5 | 30.1 (sport band) | 66.4 |
| Pixel Watch 4 (Cellular) | 37.3 | 28 (silicon) | 65.2 |
| Apple Watch Series 6 (44mm Stainless Steel) | 47.3 | 28.2 (sport band) | 75.5 |
| Apple Watch Ultra | 54.8 | 28.2 (sport band) | 74 |
Looking at the weight of the watch without the watch band paints quite the picture.
As evident from the above table, my beloved Pebble Round is the lightest and on my wrist, I definitely can feel it. Not only its the lightest, its also the thinnest of the lot.
The next one on the list is the Apple Watch series 10 which is roughly the same weight as the current generation Apple watch 11. I also found it surprising that the titanium version of the Apple Watch is heavier than the aluminium one. For some reason, I thought it would be the other way around.
The other observation is the weight of the watch band it self. In most cases, the watch band adds at least 50% additional weight on top of the watch itself.
The point from my perspective is that I no longer enjoying wearing the Apple Watch Ultra. Yes its heavy but it is also so very thick. If I am being honest, the Ultra never really suited my lifestyle. At the time, my thinking was that its the Apple Watch with the biggest and brightest screen with the longest lasting battery. That is still the case today but with my current smart watch usage, those are no longer the priorities.
For that reason, lately, I am finding I wear the Pebble Round watch a lot more. I am really looking forward to the Pebble Round 2, hopefully arriving in a couple of months. I initially preordered the Pebble Time 2 but as soon as the Pebble Round 2 was annouced, I switch my preorder. A round watch just feels right.
MereCivilian
2026-05-05 19:28:18
firstly, the spider man image has nothing to do with this post other than I like spider-man and he is reading is just amusing.
Anyway, I am trying to read more. I feel calm, at peace and not thinking about anything else when I am reading. I like that space. that feels like home. Unfortunately, I have not read as many as I would like. This list does not include books that I started but didn’t finish.
These are the books I have read thus far in 2026:
I added the review today but read this book in April
2026-03-10 17:29:10
Watched: 9 March 2026 (labour day public holiday in Australia)
Honestly, the ending of Game of Thrones left a sour taste in my mouth and despite being a huge fan, I only watched a couple of episodes of the House of Dragons, realising it was pretty much similar story line to Game of Thrones, which it is because I have read the book. Unlike the Game of Thrones books, George R R Martin has finished the House of Dragon story. Rant over.
However, this one is different. Yes it is set in the Game of Thrones Universe but it has a different authentic vibe to it with a bit of comedy spread over its pretty serious settings. The comic elements come up in the most serious of settings in the show and that makes it even more funny.
The connection between the two main characters is so beautifully crafted and executed that I was not ready for the twist when it eventually came.
I watched all six episodes in one afternoon.
