"Roses are red, my Gold Level was extended, KLM Flying Blue, I love you."
Our Chief Mobile Opinionist, Matteo, is thankful for the extension to his Flying Blue status.
I’m a really bad poet, I know. I have butchered a classic children’s rhyming poem here, and my only excuse is that I really want to thank the people at KLM and Flying Blue.
Roses are red,
My Gold Level was extended,
KLM Flying Blue,
I love you.
(Matteo Doni, January 2021)
A whole month before Valentine’s Day, I received a lovely message, via electronic mail, from Flying Blue. Flying Blue is the frequent flyer program of Air France-KLM, which other airlines take part in as well. Those who follow Tech Travel Geeks will probably know I’m quite a loyal customer of KLM and participant in the Flying Blue program.
My Gold Level (status) has been extended and my XP (status points) from 2020 have been carried over. Thank you Flying Blue!
MY KLM Flying Blue status is renewed for 12 months. Thank you KLM Flying Blue
KLM’s wonderful people gained my loyalty after having provided excellent service in multiple occasions. Not only did they solve complicated travel problems for me on multiple trips, but always served me with a smile and an excellent sense of humour. This amazing level of service really won me over. It wasn’t the Tinykens™ in the Crown Lounge at Schiphol and all the other Skypriority benefits, though those may have been a contributing factor.
A Tinyken™: a small glass of self-serve Heineken in a KLM Crown Lounge at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.
The renewal of my Gold Level, the status level which grants me many benefits when I travel, just reinforces my loyalty to KLM and the Air France-KLM group.
2020 was a devastating year for the travel industry. It was heart-breaking to see not only my favourite airline, KLM, but the industry as a whole deal with the impact of the covid-19 crisis. I’m an optimist though: the ripples of the social and economic impact of the crisis will be felt for decades to come at this point, but the lessons learnt will hopefully help us navigate future challenges better.
As a frequent traveller, it is now almost a year since I have been on a flight. We all know it is the right thing to do, and I will continue to avoid any non-essential travel until it is safe to pack my bag, go to the airport and walk down that SkyPriority lane at the gate. I would be lying if I said I haven’t had dreams of this recently.
Rest assured that as soon as it is appropriate I will be back on a KLM flight somewhere and might bump into you at a Crown Lounge in Schiphol.
Stay safe, dream of travel and be ready to take off when we can do so safely.
Again, many thanks to the KLM and Flying Blue teams.
Redmi Note 8T Review - Introduction: How the NHS made me decide to get a Xiaomi
An introduction to what brought Majid to purchasing a Redmi Note 8T.
Xiaomi has really hit it out of the park over the last few years. Coming from relative obscurity in the West 5-6 years ago, to now being one of the biggest consumer electronics brands in the world. There have been major successes such as the Mi 9T, the Mi A Series, as well as sub-brands like Redmi and Pocophone. They have brought innovation, great features at amazing prices to audiences worldwide.
I have owned a number of Xiaomi devices in the past, from the original Redmi Note to the Mi 9T (Redmi K20). Every time I have been wowed by the design, the features and the value for money.
But… (there is always a but)
MIUI, Xiaomi’s version of Android, is not my favourite android skin (sorry Matteo, I mean distribution). I am not a “Stock” Android purist, I have had many different devices over the years, and things like One UI (from Smasung), LG UX (from, you guessed it, LG), EMUI (from Huawei), and others, each bring their own value and features to each device. I even wrote an ode to Samsung’s old TouchWiz once! (https://www.coolsmartphone.com/2016/08/24/an-ode-to-touchwiz-surprisingly/) and really liked One UI on my (stolen) Galaxy Note 9.
Just for clarification, I say “Stock” in quotes as there is really no such thing: there is the Android Open-source Project (AOSP) on which OEMs build their own experiences, Google included. My personal favourite is Oxygen OS from OnePlus which is fast, configurable and updated regularly.
MIUI is a bit too much for me. It looks and behaves too much like iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system). I think MIUI feels heavy, bloated, and full of unnecessary apps. I couldn’t disable or hide, let alone uninstall, the apps or services I didn’t want in most cases. MIUI 10 on the Xiaomi 9T (Redmi K20) has improved a lot in this space, but basically after using the OnePlus 7 Pro, I just couldn’t deal with MIUI, and so like many of my previous devices it got sold or passed on to someone who would benefit more from it.
I’m not a professional reviewer or influencer at Tech Travel Geeks yet, so companies haven’t sent me stuff to review recently. I have use my hard-earned cash when choosing and purchasing devices. So having made that clear, why did I end up purchasing a Redmi Note 8T?
The reason is my employer, the national institution which is the National Health Service also known as the NHS.
Now before you ask “what in the world of all that is holy in the Linux kernel”, I need to provide you with some context.
The NHS is a cash-strapped organisation, this isn’t big news to nobody. IT support and software vary widely round the country due to the nature of the regional organisation of the NHS and procurement being different and varying between Trusts and Hospitals. This is in part due to limited oversight from the Department of Health when it comes to the day-to-day running of the NHS. In this environment, its not surprising that IT has its challenges. Most machines with desktop operating systems are only just getting updated to Windows 10. Much software in use feels like it could have been written by an 8 yr old with Amiga BASIC, and there are also considerations around legal requirements of Information Governance and patient confidentiality in the mix.
There have been some successes withing the English NHS as well: I would like to give a shout out to Dr Li (https://twitter.com/ywl197) for his work in integrating patient records. There have also been successes in electronic patient observations and even tele-medicine. But these differ from hospital to hospital and do so wildly sometimes.
As a junior doctor, IT support wasn’t really front and centre for me. I was rotating around hospitals frequently, doing night-shifts, all while sitting professional Royal College exams. As long as I could do what i needed to do at work, then that was enough for me. That’s the sort of background to how I got my Lenovo Miix 510 (https://www.techtravelgeeks.com/blog/2018/10/10/the-perfect-travel-laptop-which-doesnt-break-your-wallet) which fulfilled my needs, and I had a desktop computer at home for when i needed to make presentations/write papers and needed a full desktop experience.
Now that I have been a consultant for almost 5 years and am a permanent employee of the NHS, my outlooks on matter have changed. When I look at my friends working in (non-healthcare) companies, i see they get company laptops, company phones, company cars and anything else they need to do their job.
Me? I just have my trusted Lenovo Miix and use whatever phone I own at that point. I could try and get a Trust-certified device, but I’m not sufficiently up the management food-chain for that yet.
I have at many times decided to use multiple devices at once, hence the hashtag #Dr2Phones, but I’m nowhere near our Chief Mobile Opinionist’s levels. This is probably because I’m a tech enthusiast (and seem to have no interest in paying enormous mortgage according to my wife). I like to try out different things and see what form factors and software experiences work for me. Having said that I have never reached the stage where i needed 6 phones (looking at you Matteo).
This all leads me to the situation where my personal phone and SIM card is what I use at work. I’ve always had some reservations about this, but as a Doctor it is what I have been doing for the 17 years. I just get it done. Most of my colleagues are in the same situation, and don’t seem to be having issues around this.
Recently this was now starting to have an impact on my personal life. I found myself replying to work emails when out on a Saturday night with friends or answering clinical queries via a WhatsApp from junior colleagues in the evening.
This situation has ramifications: I find difficulty switching off and detoxing from tech. I also found this was causing disruptions to my family-life and blurring of professional boundaries. Generally, this could have caused trouble.
Therefore at the beginning of this year (and decade), i resolved that it was time to compartmentalise fully. It was time to make a clear separation between my work and personal life. This meant that my personal phone number would be separate from my work number. I tried this on a dual SIM device, but again that was a non-starter as I just kept on getting “dragged back in” as Al Pacino said in The Godfather 3 because notifications still popped up.
I decided it was time for a new smartphone. Unfortunately, my stolen Samsung Galaxy Note 9 had left me severely out of pocket. I could have gone for a carrier provided device and SIM, but I couldn’t seem to find the right fit (is it me or has carrier choice/value in the UK decreased significantly?). Plus I already had another SIM and you always tend to save money buying outright over a couple of years.
As an NHS England Consultant Anesthesiologist what do I need from a work phone? Well, the same things you want from a good travel phone (see what I did there?).
The list is like this:
Good battery life
Descent performance
A reasonable camera (for scanning documents)
A nice screen to facilitate editing files
That’s basically about it. I also want a work device to be inexpensive. I am very conscious that I am lugging around almost £1000 worth of equipment in my bag at work, and security is a problem in some hospitals. I also work in operating theatres where there are communal areas outside the theatres themselves lockers are limited. The whole point of this exercise is to enable me to be contactable, especially in an emergency. There is no point in making the upgrade if your phone is sitting in your tiny locker and not getting used for what it’s for.
I thought of just getting something like the Nokia 1 or current equivalent budget smartphone. Frankly I needed and wanted a bit more horsepower, and whatever I thought of MIUI (Xiaomi’s Android distribution) I knew that Xiaomi was a brand I could trust with quality and security/OS updates rather than other branded devices. Yes I could have gone the whole hog and spent more and got something with enterprise-grade security (e.g. Samsung with Knox, Pixel with the Titan M chip or the recently departed Blackberry KeyNumber device) but the price factor always came back into play. Remmber, this was my own money I was spending.
I shopped around, and came across the Redmi Note 8T. It looked good on paper, the symmetry of having had the first Redmi Note in 2015 and now have the 8th one appealed to my sentimental side… And what I got for £150 astonished me.
This has been a bit of a long intro, thanks for reading all the way here if you made it. I hope the scroll indicator on Tech Travel Geeks caught your eye while you read.
And on that (Redmi) Note (8T), I’ll leave you dangling: Part 2, where I actually review the device, is coming soon to Tech Travel Geeks!
No raclettes: Swiss Lounge at Zurich Airport - Review
In her first post on Tech Travel Geeks Alana reviews the Swiss Senator Lounge at Zurich Airport.
Hello lovely readers! After drinking with Matteo and Lukasz on many continents, and leading Matteo to some of the weird and wonderful highlights Shenzhen has to offer, it’s a pleasure to be writing for this fine publication myself (we’ll show you Eurovision street and the world’s best custard tarts next time, promise!).
I had the pleasure of spending this weekend in sunny Switzerland. Weekends away mean flights which means…lounge visits! Over the weekend I’d already eaten my body weight in fine chocolate and awesome cheese, but everything in moderation, including moderation, right?!
First things first, to find the place. I visited the Senator Lounge, just around to the right after security, towards the A gates. It was very easy to find, and a quick scan of my boarding pass and I was in.
Past security, turn right, voila!
First impressions were: the space was lovely, bright and airy, but man was it BUSY! I walked around for at least 5 minutes, feeling like I’d arrived late to the party and everyone else had settled in, made friends, swapped life stories and there were no free seats.
After 4 or 5 awkward laps trying not to clothesline any small children with my bulky winter gear, I found a spot in the quiet zone upstairs. I think everyone was avoiding it because of the no-food rule, but the stacks of plates spoke to a slightly more lenient approach.
No room at the inn
My own quiet, cosy corner
The feeding and watering options were great - a large selection of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, a coffee machine with more buttons than a spaceship, racks of fruit, sweets, bread, cheese, cheese and more cheese (it is Switzerland, after all), and best of all, a team of chefs preparing hot food to order. The dishes weren’t anything amazing, but the setup was really nice and you got the feeling the food was fresher than you might find in an airline lounge.
So, with shelter, food and water procured, my attention turned to the next item in Maslow’s adapted-for-Tech-Travel-Geeks hierarchy of needs: internet. There were signs around for Wi-Fi access, with the spectacularly unhelpful instruction to ‘go to the Wi-Fi printer’. Can one print Wi-Fi? Were the Swiss really so far ahead?!.
Not helpful, Swissair.
There was a printer at the back of the lounge, but it didn’t look aware of the internet in any form. Decoy, or sneak 500? I decided on decoy, and utilised the survival tools at my disposal. I asked a member of staff, who smiled and pointed me towards an unlabelled, unassuming white cube by the entrance stairs.
Yes, the one that looks like a bin.
So, with a seat, drinks, food and a connection to the outside world, I could finally settle in to wait for my flight. But wait! There’s one more need to satisfy…
Ahhh. All the charging points a Tech Travel Geek could need, and right in the comfort of my own chair.
2 USB ports, and plug sockets to suit every taste and budget.
Overall, the lounge is very pleasant. Great food and drink options, a lovely open modern feel and ample connectivity. There are also showers, private ‘cabins’ at the back for calls, plus a smoking area if that’s your thing. The only downsides were the lack of seating (although the crowd had thinned out by the time I left) and the confusing Wi-Fi setup, but all in all, a nice place to relax before a flight.
The Tech Travel Geeks are at IFA 2019 in Berlin!
The Tech Travel Geeks are at IFA in Berlin. Would you like to get in touch? Here is how.
The Tech Travel Geeks are covering IFA 2019 in Berlin this year.
The IFA or Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (International radio exhibition Berlin, a.k.a. 'Berlin Radio Show') is one of the oldest industrial exhibitions in Germany. Between 1924 and 1939 it was an annual event, but from 1950 it was held every other year until 2005. Since then it has become an annual event again, held in September. Today it is one of world's leading trade shows for consumer electronics and home appliances.
If you too are at IFA and would like to meet up, or would like to have a request for Tech Travel Geeks’ coverage, please get in touch using our form or tweeting at us.
Expect plenty of content here on the website and on the Tech Travel Geeks YouTube channel.
We are grateful to Huawei for hosting us this year and the Berlin Messe for recognising the Tech Travel Geeks as Media for the trade show.
Follow our reports from IFA 2019 on our Youtube channel:
We were on the back of the ferry to Kowloon. It was like a ferry-tail...
The back of the Star Ferry from Hong Kong to Kowloon.
We were on the back of the ferry to Kowloon. It was like a ferry-tail...
I'm not apologising to anyone for this terrible pun. I can hear you all groaning from behind The Great Firewall.
Hong Kong Skyline as seen from Kowloon at night
Our day trip from Shenzhen to Hong Kong and back was a great experience: we went up Victoria Peak and walked around the hill, took the tram back down and then the ferry to Kowloon.
Hong Kong skyline
I had some great fun with the cameras of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and the one on the Google Pixel 3 XL too: from zoom, to wide-angle selfies and night shots inight sense shots.
We will be going into this in a bit more depth soon, but here are some samples to wet your appetites.
Shenzhen - Dong Men street food market
Matteo and his better half are in Shenzhen, Guangdong and had some amazing steet food in Dong Men.
Yesterday we arrived in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. Trying to avoid jetlag, after checking in at our hotel, we forced ourselves to go out for something to eat and found our way to Dong Men, a pedestrianised shopping area which is easily accessible on the Metro Line 1.
In this busy shopping area which seems to be full of teeny boppers, I knew of an indoor street food market I visited a few years ago with my colleague and friend Alana. It took a while to find, but we ended up having same amazing food.
We thoroughly recommend this street food market with all its stalls of tasty street food.
Would you like to know more? Engage with us on Twitter @techtravelgeeks.
This Week in Mobile - This Fortnight in Mobile
Matteo sums up the last couple of weeks and rants about Ryanair.
Welcome to This Week in Mobile (TWiM), Tech Travel Geeks' weekly column covering what has happened in the world of mobile. If we haven't covered it on Tech Travel Geeks we'll link to the best content on the web.
Spring in Edinburgh, shot on the Meizu 15. #Meizu15
We skipped a week of TWiM as we have been busy. Lukasz is bouncing around the Pacific doing sightseeing and extreme sports, while I’ve been busy in Edinburgh.
Today I started early and flew down to London on Ryanair, and I’m now judging myself harshly for saving a few pounds and having a horrid travel experience: flight was late in taking off and landing and when we finally did get to St Ansted (that’s Stansted if you didn’t know) we had to wait over half an hour for the doors to the aircraft to be opened. I didn't know it was possible, but on Ryanair you can have a window seat without a window. Next time I will spend a few extra pounds to fly to London City and have a better overall experience as well as actually arriving in London. Luckily I'm feeling fresh, with the confidence a roll in my hand luggage brings...
Honor 10
The Honor 10 as seen in China. Will there be any surprises at the global launch in London?
So, mini-rant over, today I’m in London for the Honor 10 launch event. The Honor 10 shouldn’t be too much of a surprise because it was announced and released in China a while back: based on the Huawei P20 (not the P20 Pro) the device looks as shiny as its predecessors (the Honor 8 and Honor 9) with some awesome gradient paint jobs. Keep an eye out for the full coverage of the Honor 10 global launch and device first impressions here on Tech Travel Geeks.
LG G7 ThinQ
"Notch notch!" "Who's there?" "Who do you ThinQ?" "Why the LG G7 ThinQ of course!"
LG launched the LG G7 ThinQ recently. There has been a lot of criticism of the product in the tech press, despite the device being a good all-round release on paper. I haven’t had the pleasure of playing around with one yet, but Myriam and Nirave have and discussed it in depth on the Mobile Tech Podcast. I really enjoyed listening to the episode and ironically did so on my LG G6 (still one of my daily use phones).
Xiaomi Expanding in Europe
Big news from Xiaomi: the Chinese smartphone company has partnered with Hutchison, the parent company of Superdrug in the UK and the Thrtee networks in Europe and will be selling their products here soon. I’m looking forward to seeing how this works out. The whole Xiaomi range is affordable and excellent value for money, and if they can deliver on support and after sales service we may see very rapid growth of their product in European markets.
Speaking of Europe, it is GDPR Day next week. I have popcorn, beer and a bit of schadenfreude while I watch all the update emails from companies come in. The brands that bring value to me will be the ones I continue to engage with, all the rest will be a good riddance.
We are going to start posting more (and better)content in the next couple of weeks because our setup process is in a good place. Remember to check back here on Tech Travel Geeks and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
This Week in Mobile - Meizu 15 in China
This Week In Mobile is a bit late this week because Matteo has been in China at the Meizu 15 launch event. Lukasz has managed to show us what is in his bag too…
Welcome to This Week in Mobile (TWiM), Tech Travel Geeks' weekly column covering what has happened in the world of mobile. If we haven't covered it on Tech Travel Geeks we'll link to the best content on the web.
A rainy Wuzhen, Zhejiang, China. Shot on Meizu 15 #ShotOnMeizu15 #Meizu15
This Week in Mobile is a bit late this week (again) because I was travelling in China while Lukasz is still on his epic journey around the world with a very densely packed bag.
Motorola G Series Launch in Brazil
Motorola, also known as Lenovorola, have refreshed their popular G Series of Android powered devices, announcing the Moto G 6 Play, the Moto G6 and Moto G6 Plus. I haven't had enough time to look at these devices in depth or follow the launch closely, but luckily our friends at Android Central have and did a great breakdown of the announcement and launch over on their site. Below you can find Daniel Bader's excellent explanation on video too.
Meizu 15 Announcement in Wuzhen, China
The Meizu 15 Launch stage, as shot on a Meizu 15...
As Chief Pixel Density Enthusiast at Coolsmartphone, I was a guest of Chinese technology company Meizu for their Meizu 15 launch event in Wuzhen, Zhejiang, China. You can catch all coverage of the event and the products on Coolsmartphone.com.
The Meizu 15 series, which is comprised of the Meizu 15, Meizu 15 Plus and Meizu M15 is a delightful range of devices. Hardware is well built, has excellent specifications and good ergonomics. Meizu's new version of their Android-based operating system, Flyme 7, has been refined and improved. Overall the Meizu 15 is a pleasure to use and I'm enjoying using it as one of my main devices.
China is on the path to being the first cashless society from what I can see, and AliPay and WeChat are the most used forms of payment. The occasional outlet also accepts UnionPay, but Mastercard and Visa as accepted forms of payment are a rarity in my most recent experience. We had to try hard, but finally found a place for dinner which accepted MasterCard (my Monzo card) in Shanghai. We set to order a quick meal before heading to the airport. Thanks to a misunderstanding using Google Translate we even managed to over-order dim sum, but it was definitely worth it.
We also managed to catch a Maglev train from Shanghai to the airport. I would definitely recommend doing it if you happen to be heading from Shanghai to Pu Dong Airport (PVG).
What's in Lukasz's bag?
Lukasz has finally published his "What's In My Bag" for his round the world trip he is currently on. As expected there is plenty of tech. He is a Tech Travel Geek after all... We look forward to getting more updates from him #soon.
That's all for... last week. I'll try and get back into the weekly TWiM rhythm from Sunday onwards. Safe travels everyone!
This Week in Mobile - droidcon Dubai 2018
This week Matteo and Lukasz have been in Dubai, attended droidcon Dubai and avoided melting or catching fire...
Welcome to This Week in Mobile (TWiM), Tech Travel Geeks' weekly column covering what has happened in the world of mobile. If we haven't covered it on Tech Travel Geeks we'll link to the best content on the web.
Arjaan by Rotana Dubai lobby #dubai #uae #hotel #lobby
If last week was relatively quiet on TWiM, this week is quite busy. I was busy at work and then travelled to Dubai (on KLM of course...) to represent my employer Skyscanner at droidcon Dubai 2018.
Some of the heroes who made droidcon Dubai 2018 possible at in5 Dubai. #droidconae
I really enjoyed droidcon Dubai 2018. Not only did I get to meet lots of new awesome people, all much more talented developers than I will ever be, but also managed to catch up with many of the veterans of droidcon Dubai. It is clear that Kotlin is now the preferred language for future of Android development, as well as other platforms as well. As a recovering Test Engineer, it was also a pleasure to see how much emphasis was put on tools and practices for delivering quality software in many of the talks.
Lukasz at droidcon Dubai 2018. #droidconae #ShotOnPixel2XL
Lukasz, our very own Chief Aperture Officer, also managed to attend a few sessions of droidcon Dubai 2018. He was in the UAE at the beginning of his epic 6 week trip around the world. Not only did he help me discover that two gin lemonades can be extremely expensive, he also assisted with my final preparations for both talks at droidcon Dubai 2018. While I was arriving home in Edinburgh, Lukasz went skydiving in Dubai today. I'm sure you will all enjoy the impressive video of his experience below.
Now, I mentioned I delivered two talks at droidcon Dubai 2018, and as well as my long-planned official talk I delivered one on behalf of Tech Travel Geeks in my capacity as Chief Mobile Opinionist. "The State of Mockodile in 2018" is a tongue in cheek talk about customisation on Android. Video below.
My travel to and from Dubai was on my favourite airline KLM. As usual their excellent service was enjoyed. My most used device while there was the Huawei P20 Pro. In the first week I had some reservations about the device overall but now I'm being won over by it.
While Lukasz and I were travelling to Dubai the world didn't stand still (how inconsiderate). There were no major announcements during the week, but the buzz around some upcoming Android smartphone launches is getting much louder. The OnePlus 5T is sold out across Europe, and this is a clear indicator that the One Plus 6 will be announced soon. I reported on Coolsmartphone of how Meizu has acquired patents for in-screen fingerprint readers. It is unlikely we will see the functionality in the upcoming launch of the Meizu 15 range, but this is exciting for their device launches of Q4 2018.
That's all for This Week in Mobile for now. We'll have more content for you soon.