Category Archives: Smartphone

Smart-me Plug

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I bought a Smart-me Plug about a year ago. Here some thoughts:

  • Setup was very simple and straight-forward.
  • The app looks a bit outdated – definitely no Material design. Especially the graphs could be a lot nicer (interaction, zooming, filtering).
  • The temperature sensor worked initially – but after a couple of months showed values with an offset (e.g. 13°C instead of 20°C). I got the unit replaced in the end.
  • The power meter is a nice feature – although I don’t know how accurate it is.
  • Setting conditions for switching on/off is straight-forward – although it would be nice to be able to create profiles which can be activated/deactivated.
  • The app only works through the cloud. Although it’s nice to be able to switch on/off your appliances from abroad, you depend on this service to be on-line. I also don’t know how secure it is. A stand-alone version with limited functionality would be a plus.
  • There is a REST API (although I haven’t tested it) – cloud-only.
  • The plug is quite expensive – the build quality doesn’t match its price.

Running Apps & Services

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A few notes about GPS tracking while out running. On my mobile phone (still Nexus 4) I used the app RunKeeper (the free version, not Pro) to record the runs. The data is then synced to other services like SmashRun (see below), Endomondo, and even Dropbox using tapiriik.com (a great service and well worth the few bucks for automated sync). Recently, I signed up on SmashRun (free version) for stats and the likes.

A couple of weeks ago I came across Runalyze which offers a lot of statistical data – completely free, no paid version. To me, it seems to be a bit overkill, though.

— Edit 12/02/2016 —
RunKeeper has been bought by Asics. It might be time to switch to the “last” independent running App – Strava (which is supported by tapiriik as well, by the way).