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The Persuader
My personal blog, started in 2006. No paid or guest posts, no link sales.
Posts tagged ‘Xiaomi’
17.05.2022
Iāve had both Firefox and Opera GX running as replacements for Vivaldi, which still crashes when I click in form fields, though not 100 per cent of the time. Itās running at about 50 per cent, so the fix they employed to deal with this issue is only half-effective.
I see Firefox still doesnāt render type as well. This is a matter of taste, of course, but hereās one thing I really dislike, where Iām sure thereās more agreement among typophiles:

No, not the hyphenation, but the fact the f has been butchered in the process.
The majority of people wonāt care about this, but itās the sort of thing that makes me choose Opera GX over Firefox.
Due to a temporary lapse in good judgement, I attempted to install Ćber again, this time on my Xiaomi. Here are the Tweets relating to that:
Evidently no one at Ćber has ever considered what it would be like if someone actually read the terms and conditions and followed through with some of the instructions in the clauses.
After getting through that, this is the welcome screen:
This is all it does. There’s nothing to click on, and you never move past this screen.
This is less than what I was able to achieve on my Meizu M6 Note when I tried Ćber on thatāat least there it was able to tell me that Ćber is not available in my area (Tawaāand yes, I know Ćber is lying).
This has nothing to do with not having Google Services as my other half has a non-Google Huawei and is able to get the program working.
For me, it’s three out of three phones over six years where this program does not workāand frankly I’m quite happy taking public transport rather than waste my time with this lemon. Maybe one day they will get it working for all Android phones, but I won’t hold my breath.
Tags: 2022, Firefox, Google, Google Android, Opera, technology, Twitter, typography, Ćber, web browser, Xiaomi Posted in internet, technology, typography | No Comments »
10.01.2022
Six years ago, I reported this error in Here Maps (a.k.a. Here WeGo), both via the official channels and to a software engineer I knew working there.
Itās still there. There aren’t two Wharekauhau Country Estates (this is the route between them, to highlight just how wrong it is; the westerly one is correct).

Theyāve since been in touch via Twitter and Iāve re-sent them all the information, including:
Trust me, I went to this one and wound up the drive to some random farm with no one around, and had to back my car down a muddy trail with immense difficulty as there was nowhere to U-turn.
This only came up because Here Maps tried to take me to New World Foxton recently, and I decided to look back.
If I followed their guidance, I would have to drive through the war memorial.


Donāt get me wrong. I really like Here Maps and the latest UI is fantastic. Itās no worse than its competitors in accuracy terms. Google has sent me to plenty of wrong places when I was still using their site for things. Itās just annoying when the official channels, reporting bugs the way they suggest, clearly donāt work. Hopefully if anyone’s planning their journeys to the above places, they’ll be able to see this post!
Tags: 2016, 2022, Aotearoa, bugs, Foxton, Horowhenua, New Zealand, Nokia, software, UI, Wairarapa, Xiaomi Posted in design, internet, New Zealand, technology | No Comments »
11.12.2021
There were a few surprises switching to Xiaomi.
First up, it asked me to do a voice identification by saying these four words, å°ē±ååø. Only thing is, it doesnāt understand Cantonese.

The default weather app was able to give me details based on exactly where I am (location service turned on, and I was given fair warning that it would be). Thatās superior to Meizuās default weather app, and the after-market Android one I downloaded years ago for my old Meizu M2 Note.

This was a bit disturbing for a Chinese-spec phone: thereās still a Google app in there. I wonder if it sent anything before I restricted it, then deleted it. Permissions included being able to read your contactsā list. I didnāt agree to Google getting anything.

It prompted me to turn on the phone finder, even after we had established that Iām in New Zealand and everything was being done in English. Nek minnit:

Iām finding it remarkable that a 2021 phone does not incorporate the time zone into file dates. I expected this to have been remedied years ago, but I was surprised to see that the photos I took, while the phone was on NZDT, had their timestamp without the UTC plus-13 offset. As a result, Iāve had to set the phone to UTC as Iāve had to do with all prior phones for consistency with my computersā work files. The plus side: unlike my previous two phones, I can specify UTC rather than a location that might be subject to daylight saving.
Unlike the M2 Note, but like the M6 Note, it doesnāt remember my preferred mode when itās being charged by a computer via USB. I have to set it every time. The newer the technology, the more forgetful?
Otherwise itās proved to be a very practical successor to the Meizus, MIUI is prettier than Flyme (although Iām missing that skinās translation features and the ability to select text and images regardless of the program via Aicy), and on the whole itās doing what I ask of it, even picking 5G in town. Importantly, it receives calls and SMSs, and the battery isn’t swelling up.
Tags: 2021, cellphone, China, design, Google, Google Android, privacy, software, technology, Xiaomi, å°ē±³ Posted in China, design, technology | No Comments »
07.12.2021


Top: Decent enough specs for the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 5G. Above: Very respectable download speeds (in the header) as the phone updates 71 apps.
My Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 5G is here, and itās proved better than the reviews suggested.
First up, kudos to the seller, YouGeek on Aliexpress, who not only double-checked to see that I wanted the Chinese version, but was considerate enough to send me, without any prompting, a New Zealand power adapter. The wrapping was the most secure Iāve ever seen from any Aliexpress vendor, like a hefty transparent Michelin man.
DHL did the delivery two days ahead of schedule, which pleased me no end.
The phone itself surprised me. I imagined 6Ā·53 inches would be too big and 199 g too heavy, but neither has come to pass. Itās marginally taller than the outgoing Meizus but not ridiculously so, and as I have large hands, the width is fine. I havenāt noticed the weight increase, either.
The blue finish, which isnāt available on the export Note 9T 5G, is probably the best colour of the three on offer, and frankly I donāt care if the back is plastic or metal. As long as it keeps the bits inside, itās fine.
What also isnāt on offer for export is precisely these specs: MediaTek Dimensity 800U running at a maximum of 2Ā·4 GHz, 6 Gbyte of RAM, and 128 Gbyte of internal storage. The model code is M2007J22C.
Other surprises: itās Android 11 (security update, October 1, 2021) running MIUI 12Ā·5. Now, whether it was straight out of the box, I canāt swear to, since it prompted me to do an update not too long after I switched on and logged in.
It did try to get me to give a voice print to unlock its features by saying four Chinese words. Naturally I said them, but it seems Xiaomi doesnāt recognize Cantonese! The fingerprint scanner wasnāt that easy to set upāit took numerous attempts before it recognized my fingerābut I got there, and now itās programmed, the home screen does launch quickly.
The first order of business was to take myself off ad personalization (so easy, they even take you to the screen during set-up), then download Bromite as the browser, to stop using the clumsy default; and replace Sogou keyboard with Microsoft Swiftkey. The rest was getting the apps to mirror the old phonesā, which was pretty simple thanks to various APK sites such as APK Pure. The only one that did not function at all (a blank screen after the logo) was Instagram, but you expect Facebook, Inc. products to be buggy. An Uptodown download of a version from June 2021 solved that.
Despite what other reviewers found, I discovered that the watermark on the photos was switched off by default. Iāve seen the grand total of one advertisement on the default apps, so the notion that Xiaomi is heavily ad-driven doesnāt seem to be the case with mine. There is a possibility that the combination of Chinese spec, English language, and a New Zealand IP address isnāt one that advertisers want to reach. There are far fewer app notifications than I got on the Meizus.
After updating the OS, there were 71 apps that also needed the same treatment. Those came down at lightning speeds, even on wifi, at over 20 Mbyte/s.
Iāve synced my messages, call logs and contacts, though surprisingly the phone could not work out that the New Zealand 02 numbers were the same as +64 2, and those had to be manually added. The old Meizu M2 Note had no such trouble back in 2016.
The default typeface choice in MIUI is much easier on the eyes than the default Android fonts.
Interestingly, the default music player here also fails to pick up local music on an SD card, rendering it useless, much like Meizuās (are they copying one another, to have the same bug?). Once again, it was InShotās Music Player to the rescue, and it works fine here. Sadly, I do have to relink a lot of the album covers.
Screenshots arenāt as intuitive, as the volume control invariably appears if you do the powerāvolume switchesā combination, but a screenshot feature in the pull-down menu does the job.
The battery life is interesting, as Iāve used it for about six hours since it was charged up to 100 per cent, and it fell to 65 per cent in that time. That tells me the 5,000 mAh is good for 18 hours of sustained usage, which included setting up, Bluetooth-linking it to the car and the M2 Note, running apps, using Here Maps for some navigation, and using some mobile data. I havenāt viewed any videos yet, and I donāt play any games. Iāll be interested to see how it fares on a more regular day: earlier reviews had led me to believe it could last over a day. Iām sure it can without the heavy use Iāve put it through in its first six hours.
I understand that with the pace of change in China, this phone, launched this week one year ago, is already obsolete, but as far as Iām concerned, I hope Iām future-proofed for another six yearsāthatās how long the M2 lasted before things like its short battery life and inability to receive some calls became an issue. (And this was despite the M6 Note having come into service from 2018 with a short break to get serviced at PB.) Itās been a very pleasing first six hours, without the stress of having to put on a Chinese OS myself, and continuing to be Google-free.
Tags: 2021, advertising, Aliexpress, Aotearoa, cellphone, China, Google Android, language, Meizu, New Zealand, privacy, review, Shenzhen, technology, typography, Xiaomi Posted in China, design, internet, New Zealand, technology | 1 Comment »
04.12.2021

Iām starting to understand Xiaomiās naming conventions but itās a mess, especially coming from a marketerās point of view.
I ordered the Note 9, which is superior to the 9. So far so good.
But what Iām getting is not whatās called the Note 9 here (or in any export market, from what I can tell). Itās the Note 9T, since it runs the new MediaTek Dimensity 800U and not the āoldā MediaTek Helio G85. Hereās hoping the case I ordered through a Chinese vendor is for the correct phone since the two have a different shell.
Itās not just any Note 9, but the Note 9 5G, which apparently has minor differences between the regular one and the 4G. Will it mean a very different case? Who knows?
Thereās also a Note 9 Pro, which doesnāt have 5G but has some superior specs but only runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G. And that Note 9 Pro is the Note 9 Pro Max in India because what the Indians call the Note 9 Pro is the Note 9S in other export markets.
Pro doesnāt always mean a better spec in China: the Marvel R crossover, for instance, has four-wheel drive, but the Pro model has rear-wheel drive, although better equipment inside.
Itās appeared on some British and Philippine sites but one site purporting to show all available variants of the Note 9 (including Chinese ones) doesnāt have this model.
Out of sheer luck, since I was never after the most powerful, I seem to be on to one of the better phones in the Note 9 line-up. In terms of real-world use, weāll soon see.
My Meizu M2 Note (Meilan Note 2) isnāt lasting the day in terms of battery capacity, and it seems to drain very rapidly once you head south of 50-odd per cent. A quick browse of a few pages yesterday, using the 4G, saw it drop from 55 to 42 per cent in minutes, then into the 30s even after I switched off the screen and reception. With that and the missed calls, its successor cannot come a moment too soon, even if that successor weighs 199 g.
Tags: 2021, car, cellphone, China, marketing, Meizu, naming, R, Roewe, SAIC, technology, Xiaomi Posted in China, marketing, technology | No Comments »
29.11.2021

My Meizu M6 Note has had to be retired, due to an expanding battery, something which I probably shouldnāt have tolerated for so long (it began happening months ago). I only made the call to stop using it last week after the volume buttons could no longer function, and I probably should have stopped earlier still* as it would have been easier to get the SIM and micro SD cards out!
My original plan was to go slightly newer and opt for a Note 9, and I had located a vendor on Aliexpress who was prepared to send it to me with the Chinese Flyme OS installed. But my sense is that Meizu is now past its prime, and everything seems to be shutting down.
I had been logging into the app store daily for over a year to earn points, but Meizu informed us that it would cease to record log-ins, and we had to redeem what we could by January. Its now-useless default music app Iāve already blogged about. No one answers international queries any more and from what I can tell, official Meizu reps seldom frequent the Chinese forumsāwhile the international forums consist of frustrated users talking among themselves.
And this is coming from a self-confessed Meizu fan. I chose the M2 Note back in 2015ā16 and if it werenāt for the damaged screen, I might never have bought the M6 Note. For now, Iām back to using the M2, which is slower, and the battery doesnāt hold its charge quite as well any more, but at least everything from the M6 Note has synced to it. With my app usage lower than it was in 2012, I donāt notice any real lags in performance within the programs I do use, something that I couldnāt say even two years ago when I was still popping into Instagram daily. Only the camera gets annoying with its slowness. I have gone away from the Swype keyboard though, as Swype no longer sends verification codes to your email to sync your custom word dictionary. Iām muddling my way through Microsoftās Swiftkey, which has proved a tolerable successor (the chief gains are the ability to access en and em dashes and ellipses from the keyboard without switching languages). It seems to forget that youāve pressed shift in order to write a proper noun (you have to do this twice for it to stick!) but it is learning words like Lucire and Autocade as well as my email address.
Readers may recall that after I had the M2 Noteās screen repaired, it would no longer charge, except at the store in Johnsonville (Repair Plus) that fixed it! The lads there would never tell me why they could charge it and I couldnāt and just grinned, while I told them how patently ridiculous the situation was, that even a new charging cable could not work; in fact none of my chargers did. They didnāt seem to care that this was the predicament they put me in. The issueāand I donāt know if they are to blameāis that the charging port is looser than it was, and it needs a very decent micro USB connector. That was thanks to PB Tech for telling me the truthāand a thumbs-down to Repair Plus for not even trying to sell me a better cable! Moral of the story: use people for the one thing that can do, but donāt expect much more from them, not even basic after-sales service.
With its āfaultā remedied about a year and a half ago, I had a phone to use once I put the micro SD and SIM cards back in, though Amanda isnāt able to hear me that clearly on it when Iām at the office, and Iām sure Iāve missed calls and SMSs probably due to limits with the frequencies it uses (though I had checked six years ago it would handle the Vodafone 3G and 4G frequencies).
So a new phone is needed because the “phone” function of the M2 isn’t up to par. I donāt need the latest and greatest, and thanks to the pace of development, a phone launched in 2020 is already obsolete in China. It seems that if Meizu is on the way down that I should go to its arch-rival, Xiaomi, and get the Note 9ās competitor, which roughly has the same name: the Redmi Note 9.
The Xiaomi names are all confusing and the Indian market has different phones with the same names, to add to the confusion already out there. I donāt profess to know where the S, T, Note, Pro, and the rest fit, but letās just say Iāve been led to get a Redmi Note 9.
PB had first dibs but as the salesā rep could not tell me whether I could easily put the Chinese version of MIUI on it, in order to rid myself of the Google bloatware, then I couldnāt safely buy one. I wasted enough time on the M6 Note on that front, and my installation of its Chinese OS could well have been down to a fluke. He also refused to tell me the price difference between the sale units and the shop-soiled demo ones other than it was small, and, āYou may as well buy a new one.ā
Thereās no irony here with privacy: Chinese apps at least tell you what legislation covers their usage, unlike western apps which donāt mention US Government snooping yet Google passes on stuff anyway. In all the years Iāve used the Meizus there has been nothing dodgy in terms of the data received and sent, as far as I know, and thereās nothing questionable constantly running such as Google Services that transmits and drains your battery.
There are some great sites, a number of which are in India, that teach you how to turn off some of Xiaomiās bloatwareās notifications, but they seldom annoyed me on the Meizu. Iāll soon find out first-hand how good they are.
Why the Redmi Note 9? It was one of the few on Aliexpress that I could find with the Chinese ROM installed, saving me a lot of effort. I wonāt have to root it, for a start. When your choice is down to about half a dozen phonesāAliexpress and Ebay vendors are so keen to get export sales they make it a point not to sell Chineseāyouāre guided on price and your daily usage. Iām a firm believer that a phone should not cost the same as a used car. Bonuses: the big battery and the fact it isnāt too bright (thatās just me); detriments: 199 g in weight and a humongous screen.
The vendor (YouGeek) was conscientious enough to send me a message (along the lines of āAre you absolutely sure you want the Chinese version?ā) which cost me a couple of days since I donāt always pop back to the site (and you canāt read messages on the phone browser version anyway). Now weāre on the same page, theyāve dispatched the phone. Weāll see how things look in a couple of weeks. Thereās no turning back now.
* PS.: From How to Geek: ‘Once you notice the battery is swollen or compromised in any way, you should immediately stop using the device. Turn the power off, and above all else, do not charge the device. Once the battery has reached such a point of failure that the battery is swollen, you must assume that all safety mechanisms in the battery are offline. Charging a swollen battery is literally asking for it to turn into an exploding ball of noxious flammable gas right in your living room.’ I wish I was told this when I first went to PB months ago when the battery began expanding and I enquired about phones.
Tags: 2020, 2021, Aliexpress, cellphone, cellphones, China, India, Meizu, Microsoft, PB Technologies, retail, software, Xiaomi Posted in business, China, India, New Zealand, technology, Wellington | 1 Comment »
28.05.2020
Off to PB. The M6 Note was under warranty after all, so itās now with PB Technologiesā service department in Wellington, after I explained it could have trouble doing readāwrite operations and the tech saw the camera and gallery hang (usually they just shut themselves down). I paid over NZ$400 for the phone including GST, and fortunately for me, Iām only 17 months in to my ownership. (You may think NZ$400 is cheap, but I don’t.)
However, before I committed it to service, I had to find a way to get the old M2 Note going. I explained to one of the phone salesā crew at PB my predicament: despite buying new chargers and cables, the only way to charge the phone was to drive to Johnsonville where it was last āservicedā. And, as usual, hereās the kicker: he plugged it in to his nearest micro USB charger and it fed it with juice, instantly. He said it was the cheapest charger they had in store. It also turned on immediately for him, whereas Iāve never been able to get it goingāremember, there are only three buttons here, and I have tried them all. āYou have 86 per cent charge,ā he saidāback home it showed nil, refusing to turn on because the charge was non-existent. Your guess is as good as mine over this.
The really great thing here is that everyone believed me. I guess these techs have been around enough to know that devices are illogical things, and that the customer isnāt bullshitting you, but more at a witās end when they come in with a fault. He sold me a new charger (NZ$18), which worked. Of course, charging it on the cable that fed the M6 Note doesnāt work: it says itās charging, and the percentage keeps dropping. Again, your guess is as good as mine over this.
Tonight itās getting fed the new Adata cable, which took it to 100 per cent earlier tonight.
Up side: how nice to have my old phone back, with Chinese apps that work and look good. Down side: my goodness, a four-year-old phone is slow. I didnāt think the M6 Note was that flash when I got it at the end of 2018, but after 17 months, I got used to it and find the M2ās processing lagging. The battery isnāt lasting anywhere near what it used to, either.
I originally needed the M6 in a pinch, as at the time Dad was heading into hospital and I couldnāt risk being out of contact. The M2ās screen had vertical lines going through after a drop, rendering things difficult to readāand what if I couldnāt swipe to answer? The M6 wouldnāt have been my immediate choice: I would have preferred to have researched and found a Chinese-spec phone, even if every vendor online, even Chinese ones, touted their western-spec ones.
If PB fixes the issue, great. But if not, then I may defect to Xiaomi at this rate. Meizu cares less and less about export sales these days, and there appear to be some vendors who can sell a Chinese-spec phone out there. The newer phone was also buggier: whether that was down to it being a western version, I don’t know. The M6 Note didnāt represent the rosiest of moments, certainly not for Dad, so Iām not wedded to it getting back to full health. Letās see how they go next week, but at least I now have a cellphone that rings againāoneās only concern is how much charge it holds.
Tags: 2020, Adata, Aotearoa, cellphone, cellphones, China, Meizu, New Zealand, PB Technologies, technology, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara, Xiaomi Posted in China, New Zealand, technology, Wellington | 1 Comment »
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