GaN Pro Desktop Fast Charger...Garbage
I try to learn "bigger picture" lessons instead of just the one-off, specific circumstance. Here's what I've decided. Brand names are important. If you produce and sell a product without a brand name – like so many on Amazon – it is likely that you have produced a shit product, and you know it.
Case in point:
I needed some fast-charging USB-C and USB-A ports. I compared a number of products on Amazon, and this thing (pictured above) looked like the best bet.
It arrived. I plugged everything in and it seemed to work. Later on, I grabbed my Apple Watch off its magnetic charger and found that it wasn't charged at all. Peculiar! I unplugged its USB-A cable and plugged it back in, and it started charging. Huh.
Later on, I tried to turn on a USB-C powered light. Nothing. I unplugged it and plugged it back in, and presto! It was then that I noticed that my Apple Watch was no longer charging.
So, the last-man wins; whatever I plugged in most recently gets power, and nothing else. Must be a fluke; I'll get another one.
I requested a replacement unit and sent the original one back. I'm glad that returns are easy. There's a UPS drop box not far from here. I am blessed to have only needed to use it rarely.
So, the replacement arrives. It has similar, but not quite as bad behavior. Most things get power most of the time. However, my USB-C powered mini-monitor loses power for a few seconds each time I plug something else in. And sometimes things just don't have power, but mostly do have power.
I went looking for a replacement product, and it was shocking how many of the fast charging GaN products are clearly all made by the same company. They may not have brand names, but they have a brand style.
So my "bigger picture" lesson here is to not buy brand name-less products. There's clearly a reason a company might be inclined to design, create and distribute a product and not want to build a brand image – because that brand image would be very, very awful.
I ended up ordering a UGREEN. It can't be any worse. Hopefully it will be better.
From the Author
8yo Tesla Investor
During a bedtime conversation about finances and investments (it's funny how such esoteric topics pop up), H asked if he could buy a share of Telsa ($TSLA). It would more-or-less wipe out his life savings (in a sense), and I explained that I'd want him to keep his money invested for months, if not a year or more. He didn't seem entirely dissuaded by that. We'll have to talk more. I'd be pretty excited if he wanted to do this; it's way more interesting than a 3% APR savings account.
Oura Ring
I've been wearing this Oura ring for a day now. It's not too annoying; it is a little annoying though. Each time I grab a door knob, or do a set on the pull up bar, or open a jar – it is there to bump and rub and annoy me. I guess people just view this as normal?
The Oura app onboarding process is interesting. I like how they smoothly work around the 30% Apple Tax. You have to enter your email address during one of the steps. This isn't atypical – wait for an email to arrive and click a link to confirm it – but they use this step as the get-your-subscription-set-up step, so that they don't specifically have to call it out in the app, which would no doubt earn Tim Cook's ire. It's a relatively flawless implementation of a generally painful process. These anti-patterns that Apple forces developers into has got to stop. September 1 can't come soon enough! I wonder if Cook will "pull an Obama" and rule from behind the scenes. :-/
But anyway.
The Oura app is peculiar. I don't quite get it. They use tons of "real estate" to tell you about features or services or something. I expected some interesting daily charts to be more front-and-center. Maybe it'll improve once it has more data? I went running with it for the first time this morning. I'm curious with what cadence it measures heart rate. And does it accurately do step counting too? I guess I'll look at the data tomorrow.
Running More and More
When I first started running maybe a month ago, it took maybe six days before everything felt "right" enough that I was willing to go on a 2nd run. I had been actively running months prior to that (up to the top of a nearby mountain, and back), and that earned me a fun case of plantar fasciitis. Fun stuff! I didn't want a repeat, or any other such injury.
I felt about 90% recovered when I declared to S that I was headed out to go running. I don't want to be a liar, so that's the first motivator. By the time I made it down the mountain to the trail in the valley, I still didn't really want to run. And it was a rough start, but I was just going to make myself run for a couple minutes, and then walk the route – but I ended up running all the way to the end, turning around and running most of the way back.
Dodging rocks, roots, creeks and (in this case) a fallen tree, is a great distraction from the normal monotony of running.