Fitbit On Pixel Watch Update 1
My Reddit post about the Fitbit app on my Pixel Watch is the source of an article on 9to5Google this morning as many people have replied to the post stating they are experiencing the same issue.
As an update, since I disconnected my watch from the Fitbit app on my phone, restarted both watch and phone, deleted yesterday’s step and distance data and then re-connected the watch to the Fitbit app the step count appears to be within expectations.
The problem now is I am not confident that the step count will remain accurate, so the whole situation is requiring more attention that I would like. One needs to be able to rely on data like this or there is no point in even collecting the data.
I have noticed through observations while sitting here at my desk that steps are added slowly over time while they shouldn’t be added at all. I have the felling the sensors on the watch are not being used properly right now, for steps and distance the watch should only increase when one is moving forward and not while sitting at a desk typing.
Fitbit On Pixel Watch Broken
The March 5, 2026 Wear OS update that Google released has broken the Fitbit app. The Fitbit app of my Pixel Watch 3 is significantly over counting/doubling my steps, mileage, and calories consumed. It looks like it is doubling the counts. As an example, I have taken two walks today and the workout details appear correct, one 12 minute, 0.69 mile walk of 1,515 steps and a second 24 minute, 1.35 mile, 2,967 steps walk, but the overview shown on my phone and watch shows a total of 9,827 steps and 4.7 miles.
As an experiment, I shut off my phone and watch then started my watch. After first start up the watch shows the correct step count, but eventually it connects to the Fitbit servers and is then updated with the higher step count.
I am seeing a recommendation on Reddit of a fix involving resetting the watch, which I think means that I will have to re-install apps, but before doing that I decided to try disconnecting the watch from the Fitbit app on the phone.
After I did the disconnect I deleted the day’s step and distance data from the Fitbit app and the backend server so that it displayed 0 steps. I then restarted my watch, observed that it displayed the correct step count, and then reconnected the watch to the Fitbit app, and after a short period of time the watch and the app on the phone showed 5,462 steps.
Next, I went for another walk of 2,662 steps and afterword it showed the correct sum of about 8,124 steps. I am not ready to declare the situation is fixed with my watch but it’s looking positive.
Read an interesting article regarding what one may consider a “common sense” reaction to screen time and an ability to focus and learn:
Consider a simple observation. The same person who cannot get through a novel can watch a three-hour video essay on the decline of the Ottoman Empire. The same teenager who supposedly lacks attention span can maintain game focus for hours while parsing a complex narrative across multiple storylines, coordinating with teammates, adapting strategy in real time. That’s not inferior cognition. It’s different cognition. And the difference isn’t the screen. It’s the environment.
The author later writes:
I used to believe, as I was taught, that literacy was primarily about decoding text. But watching how people actually learn and think has convinced me that literacy is about something deeper: the capacity to construct and navigate environments where understanding becomes possible.
Boox has released second generation of their 10.3-inch Go series e-Ink tablets that appear intended to compete with the Remarkable 2. There are two versions of this generation, a $400 without a front light and a $450 model with a front light. A major negative, in my opinion, is that Boox has replaced the Wacom EMR stylus support with their InkSense capacitive stylus is that is less accurate and requires charging. I would not buy this tablet due to this choice by Boox.
I would wish that Boox would release an 8-inch e-Ink tablet with Wacom EMR support but that appears to be less likely to happen as time passes.
I am watching a video overview of Inkwell, which is Manton’s RSS app released last week. I’ve tried using Inkwell but find it doesn’t fit in to my web reading triage workflow. I send everything to Readwise Reader where I do all my reading, so the blogging and quote blogging of Inkwell would be more useful for me in Readwise. One thing that I am intrigued by is the Reading Recap feature in Fading, but I don’t know whether I would really use that feature a lot or not.
I used to wear dress shoes every day but now it feels strange to wear them. Bought a new pair that I am breaking in before needing to wear them for a date with my wife on Thursday.
So all of the teases on Instagram by Nathon Fillion was for the news that the cast of Firefly is reuniting for an animated series. We got this news nearly at the same time as hearing from Sarah Michelle Gellar that Hulu has canceled the new Buffy The Vampire Slayer even before airing one episode. Might Tubi be interested?
My thought this morning is that we have entered the equivalent of COVID in Trump 2.0. It should not be a surprise that a global crisis would be poorly managed if not triggered by administration that demonstrated this ability when it was last in office. Voters in the U.S., despite claims to the contrary, have to accept some responsibility because it was us who put this man in office after what he did before and said plainly what he would do once in office.
Which is a better value? The 13-inch M5 MacBook Air for $1,099 or the new MacBook Neo for $599? The M5 Air probably has up to seven years of good life ahead, what about the Neo? The Air has a better processor, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage.
Computer Industry Pricing
Reading Craig Mod’s description of the accounting app he has written for himself with the assistance of Claude Code give’s me a “back to the future” vibe. Personal computing began with the idea of one writing their own software and the idea of buying software didn’t really exist. People shared software they wrote, but requiring payment for it was a big against the unwritten rules.
How I Use RSS
As I have observed earlier, right now there is a lot of good energy around RSS with new feed readers popping up nearly every week. Yesterday Manton Reece released is take on an RSS app called Inkwell that is a companion to his micro.blog service/app that I use to host this blog. Because Inkwell integrates with the blogging platform that I use, I find there are reasons to consider using it while I have resisted looking at other apps.
I have been using RSS since I first learned about it in the early 2000s. Like many, I used Google Reader mostly because it was a web app that I could use on any device. Over the years I tried desktop and phone apps like NetNewsWire, but in the end found myself back to the simple web apps that Dave Winer wrote over the years.
The 2026 iPad Air M4: Early Impressions:
The second change is memory. The M4 brings 12GB of unified memory, up from 8GB on the M3 model. More RAM means better multitasking and more headroom for demanding tasks. Transcription in Voice Memos and background removal in Pixelmator happen almost instantly. I feel it in Lightroom as well.
My primary concern about the MacBook Neo is that I don’t think the 8 GB of RAM is enough in the current AI era of personal computing. While the quote above is about the new iPad Air, I think the point about the benefit of moving from 8 GB to 12 GB is apt.
Later in his post Om also ponders whether the Neo is a better value than the Air given it includes a keyboard. I do wonder whether Neo will affect iPad sales.
One thing that would be useful is a way to share / quote text from within the item to the blog post.
Actually, the above is included, just select the text and then click New Post. An also highlight the text, although I have no idea what happens with the highlight.
Manton Reece has released his RSS reader, InkWell. Importing the OPML from Feedland to test and it imported 132 of 135 feeds. A cool feature is that it integrates with micro.blog such that when I click “New Post” it loads the micro.blog blog post page with a link to the article, which I how I originally wrote this blog post. One thing that would be useful is a way to share / quote text from within the item to the blog post. There is also an ability to reply to the item that I am guessing are items originating from micro.blog.
More Experimentation With Android Desktop
I have paired the Nillkin folding Bluetooth keyboard to my Pixel 10, connected the phone to the BenQ monitor and enabled Android Desktop mode, thus providing me a desktop computing device. The keyboard has a built in trackpad to enable me to move the mouse on the desktop and I have figured out how to run multiple (virtual) desktops at the same time. I have ordered a portable, 15-inch monitor that I have been meaning to buy for some time as a backup display and to experiment further with this idea of really portable computing. For blogging, I am writing this in Obsidian running on the phone and I will post this item to the blog later from my MacBook.
I think the whole idea of the MacBook Neo comes down to one question, is $599 a low price?
It occurs to me, that the MacBook Neo is essentially the often desired iPad that runs MacOS.
The battle between cold and warm waged across lower Michigan the last 48 hours was deadly. Fortunately we just had a lot of rain that has given way to warm winds.
Finished reading: Power Play by Cheri Baker 📚