Happy Father's Day! Father's Day is one of the best days of the year. I’m biased, for sure. We get gifts, we get to play golf, and we get to put our feet up. It’s wonderful being pampered. But obviously, it’s far more than the pampering that has me entering “Proud” and “Joyful” in my Bevel mood journal at the end of the day.

Being a father is easily the most rewarding role in the world. Early on, it’s a grind — sleep, poop, eat, sleep, poop, eat… it gets to you (and is far harder on mothers, to be sure). But that so quickly turns into new best friends you didn’t know you needed. I’m in this “new best friends” discovery phase right now. Where I thought it was fun to be a dad when my girls were newborns and infants, it pales in comparison to the joys of young childhood.

Fatherhood is the best. It is a responsibility. It requires you to die to yourself to serve others. But it is a wholehearted privilege in the most divine way possible.

I Returned the Google FitBit Air

I owned Google’s new FitBit Air for a total of 10 days. I had it for such a short period of time that I don’t have any proper photography to showcase the Air. Which is a shame, really — the Google FitBit Air was an excellent introduction to the Google ecosystem, one which I would like to see Apple flat-out rip-off at some point in the future. What the FitBit Air did, it did well. For me, it’s what it didn’t do well that had it on an airplane destined to be recycled.

I was expecting better inter-operability between Google Health and Apple Health, third-party apps, and third-party hardware. When I did my initial reading of the FitBit Air’s capabilities, there was an explicit direction that Google Health would in some way connect with Apple Health. Which, of course, is true — you can read a number of Apple Health data in Google Health. But you can’t read Google Health data in Apple Health. Writing to Apple Health was a no-go. Which meant sleep tracking and fitness tracking stayed in Google Health and went effectively no further.

This meant I couldn’t measure sleep scores in Bevel or workouts in the Peloton app, the two pieces of health and fitness software I rely on. The inability to write to these apps from the onset quickly became a death knell for my FitBit Air.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if my expectations were premature that Google will soon open up writing into Apple Health and better connectivity with apps like Bevel and Peloton. It even sounded like rumours had started to swirl that better compatibility was already being worked on. For those who are on the fence, perhaps some patience is warranted to see if these sorts of compatibilities ultimately see the light of day.

The last major blow was the poor connectivity with our Peloton Bike. We have an original Bike, which is now upwards of six or seven years old. The technology is by no means new, but I’m not willing to respond the $4,500 to update it. Our Apple Watches continue to connect wonderfully with the Bike, and can even grab data from the Bike and app to track progress in our heart rate zones and send the data to Bevel for further analysis. I had genuinely hoped the FitBit Air could take the place of the Watch, feeding heart rate data in during a ride, and feeding workout data into other health and fitness apps. In short, I was able to see the FitBit Air in the Bluetooth view, but could go no further. At no point did tracked-data feed into the Bike.

I have it on good authority that the connection does work better with new Bikes, such as the Bike+. For me, the lack of proper connectivity was the final straw.

The single biggest positive Google’s FitBit Air provided in the 10 days of ownership: I have a newfound appreciation for my original Apple Watch Ultra. I’ve even started to wear the Ultra for sleep tracking at night. The upcoming software support discontinuation for the original Watch Ultra all but guarantees I’m retiring this Watch in the coming months, but you can be sure I’m replacing it with another Apple Watch. The question is whether I upgrade now to a Series 11 (which doesn’t appear to have a lot new coming in Series 12) or wait for the bigger, chunkier Ultra Series 4 (which is said to have many large upgrades coming).

Overall, the Google FitBit Air experiment was a truly great experience. I learned I appreciate being able to tell the time and check the weather on my wrist more than I thought. I learned about some major disconnects between Apple’s and Google’s walled gardens. And I learned the Apple Watch has snuck into “must-have” device territory for me. That is a great 10-day experiment.

Quote of the Week

“Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

— An old Greek proverb.

Here were a few things I shared from the past week. If you want to stay on top of the list throughout the week, don’t be afraid to subscribe via RSS.

Happy Sunday. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.

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