A look at the Breville Barista Touch Espresso machine

Judy said she would like an espresso machine. I thought to myself, I'll get her this for Christmas. But I do not know a thing about espresso machines. I did some research. The Breville Barista Touch Espresso machine seemed to be the one to buy. Not too simple and not too complex. Goldilocks would understand.

 Heck, even Wirecutter, the product review section of the New York Times, said this was the one to get for Judy for Christmas. Well, maybe I am overstating this, the NYT didn't go so far as to say this one was perfect for Judy -- but they came awfully close. 

I found one on sale at Canadian Tire. Yes, Canadian Tire. The store famous for oil changes, snow tires and automobile windshield cleaner also sells espresso machines. The nearest store had four. I got up early and got to the store minutes after it opened at 8 a.m. 

At the check-out I told the lady at the counter I felt quite the fool. Who spends this much to brew coffee? I love my wife but I had to wonder if I loved her this much. I was conflicted. I mentioned I was surprised that the store only had four of these left. "You're wrong," the counter lady said. Someone beat you, and counting the one you are now buying, the store only has two left. She said some stores were sold out and she expected her store to sell out soon, maybe in minutes. Amazing! 

Oh well, Judy loves it. It does make awfully good coffee -- although it calls regular coffee an Americano or some such foolishness. But what do I know? Sadly, this morning I found our usual coffee weak, lacking in character. Character? Who talks like that? Damn. I wish I had just bought Judy a box of chocolates. Then, my morning coffee would still taste wonderful.

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Units like the Breville Touch have a learning curve. The automation of the Touch shortens the learning curve but does not eliminate it. Breville understands and has posted videos and short articles addressing the most common problems encountered by newbie owners.

Let me give you some links.

Coffee Demonstration | How to Dial-in the Barista Touch™ espresso machine | Breville USA

4 Types of Coffee: This is a great page from Breville made even better by the links to be found at the very bottom of the page.

Use Google or AI to find more articles if necessary. Judy found the online info helpful. She now makes fine espresso. 

Sech SCB568P Smartwatch available at Canadian Tire

This is an updated review. With weeks of experience with this smartwatch, I can say that this watch, especially on sale, is good value. Oh, it has its idiosyncrasies, but at a sale price, I can live with the little glitches. This Sech smartwatch would make a great gift for a boy who also has a smartphone.

Sech smartwatch.

I wanted a watch with an alarm. That's all. I take a lot of pills for my heart condition four times daily. I often forget to take my meds and then I take them late. Occasionally, I miss taking my meds completely. This is not good. Clearly, I need a watch with an alarm.

I found a watch on sale at Canadian Tire. The fellow at the store assured me that this watch had an alarm. He was certain; it was a smartwatch, he said. I took it home, opened the box and discovered I needed a smartphone to use my smartwatch. Did I mention I'm old? I thought a smartwatch was simply capable. Oops!

There was a QR code in the instruction booklet; this should have made it easy to set up my watch. It didn't. Why? I did not own a smartphone. My daughters solved my problem. They bought me a used iPhone 9.

Before continuing, at this point it is time to charge the smartwatch using the USB magnetic charging cable. The first charge takes three hours to complete. A shorter charging time will suffice in the future. The watch indicates when it is fully charged.

After charging your smartwatch, you can download the "Da Fit" app to link your smartphone to your smartwatch. Note: the Sech smartwatch will not work with the Apple Watch app—only with the Da Fit app.

There are a number of ways to download the Da Fit app.

1. Point your smartphone steadily at the QR code printed in the Sech smartwatch booklet. A banner or link should appear at the top of the screen—tap it. This will take you to the App Store page for Da Fit. (If nothing happens, you may be able to search manually in the App Store for “Da Fit” and download it from there.)

2: Click on this link to the Mo Young Ltd. Da Fit page. Click on Download or click on the appropriate app store oval.

You must download the "Da Fit" app to link your smartphone to your smartwatch.

At this point, it is time to set-up your smartphone. Unfortunately this can be very difficult if you must use the little booklet that came with the watch. Why? Little print on little pages in a little booklet. For many, the little print is almost unreadable. But, there are solutions.

My first solution is to click on my photo reproducing the booklet for a similar Sech smartphone sold by Canadian Tire. 

I downloaded this from the CTC page discussed next. Enlarge the image on your computer monitor until is is legible. Good luck.

 

 

My second solution, to go to the linked Canadian Tire CTC Sech smartphone page and, although it is not the exact same model, we are going to scroll to Resources and download the posted user manual. These instuctions should do the job.

This solution may not last. When the smartphone featured is discontinued, the resource may disappear as well. 

 

 

I found another solution as well: a complete online Da Fit User Manual.

 

Allow all the permission requests (Bluetooth, Notifications, Health data, etc.)—these are needed for proper syncing and complete functionality. If the Da Fit User Manual does not work for you, please comment and I will try and find a solution.

Now, with the smartwatch up and running, my first question was did it have an alarm? It sure does. Eight alarms to be exact. I need only four. My daughter quickly had all the alarms working for me.

She showed me how my smartwatch could take my blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen level, count my steps, record my sleep patterns and more. It’s too bad none of its tricks are medically acceptable. Clearly, some people do not think smartwatches are as smart as claimed.

That said, my watch can be very smart. As far as I can tell, it does a fine job determining my heart rate (bpm) and recording my oxygen saturation level. It also does a fine job keeping track of my steps and recording and evaluating my nightly sleep patterns.

The blood pressure readings are another matter. They suck! I have an excellent upper arm Omron blood pressure unit. It is accurate. The readings from the Sech smartwatch never agree with the Omron numbers. They are not even close.

When my youngest daughter watched a video on her iPhone, the audio could be heard throughout the room. Her phone, thanks to Bluetooth, was connected to my smartwatch. In a sharing mood, it was sharing with everyone within hearing range.

Later, with my smartphone connected via Bluetooth to my iPhone, I placed a call to my wife. It worked like a charm. I was impressed; my wife less do. Why? Because I was in the same room as she was. She found calling someone only ten feet away rather silly.

Oh well, it keeps good time. The alarm is the bee's knees. I am excited to investigate all my smartwatch's other features. Read on. I will add to this post as I become more and more familiar with my better-than-it-deserves-to-be-at-the-price smartwatch.

Keeping my smartwatch and smartphone connected may be the biggest and most annoying weakness of the Da Fit app. There are numerous comments about this idiosyncrasy online. 

To check the connection, open the Da Fit app and touch the smartwatch icon. It is the second icon from the right at the bottom of the screen. At the top of the new screen, it will read SECH SCB568P. Below the SECH name, you should see "Connected".

If you see "Disconnected", I suggest first rebooting your smartphone. Voila; the two devices should be reconnected. If after thirty seconds the devices fail to connect, tap Find Device. The watch should emit a tone confirming the phone and watch are linked. Wait a few seconds and Disconnected should change to Connected.

If this fails as well, go to Settings and the gear icon on your smartwatch. Settings is found by swiping down on the watch face. Tap the gear wheel, scroll down to System and tap Restart. Do not touch "Reset". Reset is the last ditch move. I try to avoid it.

If you must tap "Reset", be aware that this is the nuclear option. Reset returns the smartwatch to its factory settings. You will have to reload your alarm settings, any formats you  have personalized and all other features you have entered or modified. If you are using an optional watch face, you will have to reload it, as well.

I have been asked if the Sech smartwatch will work without a connection to a smartphone. The answer? No, it won't. Period. End of discussion

But, even with my new smartphone, all my problems did not immediately disappear. Learning how to get the most out of my little smart device was tough for an old geezer who finds it hard to even call it a watch. Telling time is just one of my smartwatch's many functions. I confess, I found it confusing

Watch Faces: I did not find any of the supplied six watch faces worked for me. I downloaded "Business Black" in the "New Watch Faces" group. This alternative watch face displays the percentage of battery power remaining. 

Business Black found in the New Watch Face group.

On your smartphone, tap "Da Fit" app > find Watch Faces (Tap the watch icon, third icon from the left at the bottom of the screen. It should be lit.) > tap Face Gallery below the third watch face shown. 

You will see numerous optional smartwatch faces. I picked "Business black" found in the "New Watch Faces" group.

To switch between loaded watch faces, turn the knob on side of the smartwatch. It turns both clockwise or counter clockwise.

 

Wrist Raise Turns on Watch Face: Still on the subject of the watch face, the face will light up when you move your arm quickly if "Wrist Raise" is activated. This is a battery drainer. To disable the Wrist Raise feature, go to Settings on the watch (sweep down) and tap the gear wheel. Scroll down to Wrist Raise, tap it and slide the onscreen switch to off.

To make the battery last longer, turn Wrist Raise off

.

"Settings" can also be found by turning on the watch, swiping right twice, and then scrolling to the bottom of the function icons. The settings gear wheel icon is the last function icon in the long list. Tap it.

Using the Da Fit app on your iPhone, you can access many of the smartwatch Functions. 

 

Tap the Da Fit icon and then tap the bottom far left icon. It is the first one in a row of four icons. All the functions can be found by scrolling up and down. Here is the function list (top to bottom): “Activity”, “Sleep”, “Heart Rate”, “BP (Blood Pressure)”, “Blood Oxygen”, “Stress”, “Weight” and “Intake Reminder”. Note, we are talking now about your iPhone. Coming up, we will examine the functions found on the smartwatch itself.

All functions work in a similar manner. Click on the function field and a new screen opens with related, in depth information appears. All are petty well self exclamatory. If an old geezer can muddle through, you can too. To close the in depth screen, tap the “X” at the top left of the window.

Always keep in mind: to paraphrase Dirty Harry, a smartwatch has to know its limitations. Smartwatches are not medical devices and much of their data is suspect.

Activity: This records the number of steps taken each day, the distance covered, and the calories burned. The distance covered can be displayed in either Imperial or metric measure. Tap the third icon from the left at the bottom, the smartwatch icon, tap Others. To change formats, tap on the arrow to the right.

• Steps are recorded automatically. I found this function to be amazingly accurate at walking speed. I checked the Net and found many posts agreeing that the recorded steps feature is accurate.
•  
• Distance covered can be fairly accurate as well. But, you must enter your Step Length first. Tap the fourth icon in the bottom row, it shows a person, tap Profile and enter your Step Length.
•  
• The calorie counter is another matter. Most sources give the kCal function a thumbs down. It's best used as a trend indicator rather than a precise measure of calories burned.

Sleep date, Da Fit app.

Sleep: The more I use this function, the more I realize this is mostly for fun and general guidance. It cannot be completely trusted. It promises a lot but delivers very little. Touch the Sleep icon and guesstimates of your Sleep Ratio and Sleep Quality Score are displayed. 

If you want another, more generous opinion of the Sleep function, please click the link to: Do Sleep Trackers Really Work posted on the Johns Hopkins Medical Health site.

On the left is the Sleep data field displayed on the iPhone. Click on the screen info and a second screen opens with even more info plus a rating of your recent night's sleep. I will leave it to you to form your own opinion about the value of this feature. I see it as another trend indicator, at best.

Heart Rate: Tap the heart rate field and a full screen heart rate page appears. Tap “Measure” at the bottom of the iPhone screen. The smartwatch will measure your heart rate and display it on both your watch and your phone. 

I have found this to be amazingly accurate, especially at rest or possibly when the wearer is engaged in light to moderate activity. I understand the more active one is the less accurate the HR readings. 

As a senior, my activity level never exceeds light to moderate. I use this HR function when I exercise on my elliptical to ensure I do not push my heart too hard,

BP (Blood Pressure): This feature is not to be trusted. If you must know your blood pressure, get a proper unit with an upper arm cuff. Omron makes excellent blood pressure monitors. The smartwatch BP feature is close to useless and be warned that the BP measurements taken with a wrist cuff also have a reputation for being untrustworthy.

 

SpO2 or Blood Oxygen: I believe this works. It usually agrees with my single purpose pulse oximetre. Touch the Blood Oxygen field, touch Measure at the bottom of the screen and the smartwatch will start taking the measurement. 

 

If your watch and phone are connected, the percent of oxygen number will be displayed on both the smartphone and on the smartwatch. If the connection fails, I have found tapping Find Device may restore the connection. If this fails, reboot the iPhone.

 

Stress: Almost every one agrees this feature is useless. Enough said. For more info, read Smartwatches Offer Little Insight Into Stress Levels.

 

Weight: There's not much to see here. You enter your weight manually. When you expand the weight window, if you have entered both your height and weight in the Da Fit app, your BMI is displayed and what your number means. It tells you whether you are thin, ideal weight, fat or obese. As I said, there's not much to see here

 

Intake Reminder: This will track your liquid consumption for the day but you must enter each drink manually. I am surprised to find I use this function every day. It encourages me to drink enough. My kidneys love this function. Good hydration is important, more important than I ever thought. I am now properly hydrated.

Those were all the functions found on the iPhone using the Da Fit app. 

 

Using Da Fit app on SECH smartwatch:

 

Let us examine the SECH SCB568P smartphone and discover what functions it offers. Many of these function work best when the smartphone is connected to a nearby iPhone.

 

Activity:

 

The Da Fit app on your iPhone gives your sleep a rating.

Sleep: The more I use this function, the more I realize this is mostly for fun and general guidance. It cannot be completely trusted. It promises a lot but fails to deliver. 

 

Swipe up and Sleep Data are displayed as colour coded bars denoting time awake, REM sleep, light sleep and just resting. I doubt any of the  measurements are truly accurate. For another opinion, please click link: Do Sleep Trackers Really Work posted on Johns Hopkins Medical Health site.

 

Heart Rate: Tap the heart rate icon and tap “Measure” at the bottom of the iPhone screen. The smartwatch will measure your heart rate and display it on both your watch and your phone. I have found this to be amazingly accurate, especially at rest or possibly when the wearer is engaged in light to moderate activity. I have found the more active I am, the less accurate the HR reading. 

 

Phone Call: Tap and a Phone Call screen appears. You have three choices: Recent Calls, Dial Pad, and Contacts. Placing a call was simple. The audio was amazingly good. Recent calls was pretty straight forward. I fave failed, so far, to link my watch to my iPhone contact list. It goes without saying, your smartphone must be nearby and connected.

 

Exercise: Click on this and be surprised. I worked through the list of exercises until I got to elliptical. Walking, running and cycling were all expected but badminton? And there a lot more surprised. There are supposedly more than 120 exercise modes. 

 

Click on Elliptical and immediately see a Set Goals screen: Time, Calories and Open Goal are the choices. Click on time and choose how long you you plan on working out. After clicking, another screen appears. This one shows the elapsed time, it displays the total calories burned, the present heart rate and a graph indicatind the strength of the workout. The graph starts at Light. Keep floating about the exercise tracker and surprise yourself by finding new, hidden functions and screens.

 

If you sweat, do not leave the smartwatch wet or even damp. Wipe the surface with a soft, clean cloth when necessary. 

 

Did I find the elliptical setting useful? Yes. My elliptical machine displays the time elapsed and some other useful information but it does not tell me my heart rate. My doctors tell me not to let my heart rate climb above 120 bpm. Thanks to my smartwatch I can keep my heart rate in the correct range. This one feature is worth the price of admission for folk like me. 

 

Exercise Records: The watch keeps a record of your exercise but you must exercise for at least one minute before data is stored. All records will be found on the app if you keep both the smartphone and the smartwatch synchronized.

 

Blood Pressure: This feature is not to be trusted. If you must know your blood pressure, get a proper unit with an upper arm cuff. Omron makes excellent blood pressure monitors. The smartwatch BP feature is close to useless and be warned that the BP measurements taken with a wrist cuff also have a reputation for being untrustworthy.

 

SpO2: I believe this function works. If your watch and phone are connected, the percent of Oxygen number will be displayed on both the smartphone and on the smartwatch when the measuring is done. If the phone fail to display the correct result, I have found tapping Find Device restores the connection. If this fails, read the 

Problem entry below.

 

Stress: Almost every one agrees this feature is useless. Enough said. For more info, read Smartwatches Offer Little Insight Into Stress Levels.

 

Weather: Shows the current weather info, for instance Cloudy and the present temperature. It also show the time for sunrise and for sunset. Swipe up to see weather. This must be connected to the APP. If the link is broken, disconnected for too long, the watch will not update. 

 

Messages:

 

Shutter: After connecting to your phone, the watch can remotely control your phone’s camera to take photos. After opening the camera on your phone, tap on the watch camera control page to trigger the camera shutter to take a picture.

 

Player:

Relaxation:

AI Voice:

 

Timer: Tap one of the preset times or tap the custom setting, when set, tap the start button. To stop, tap the X.

Alarm: Alarms can be set using the Da Fit app or on the watch, up to 8 alarms can be set. The alarm rings or can both ring and vibrate. Setting the alarm times is both quicker and easier using the Da Fit app on the iPhone. Setting the ring or the ring-vibrate function must be done on the watch itself.

 

There is an automatic snooze function. I could find no way to turn the snooze function off or on. If you do not turn of the alarm when it sounds, it will sound again in a few minutes. Momentarily depress the button on the side of the watch to turn off the alarm.

 

Stopwatch: Tap the start button on the stopwatch page to start timing, and tap the stop button to stop timing.

 

World Clock: When I tap World Clock, I get the correct time in Toronto, Ontario. As I live in London, Ontario, the time shown is also the correct for London. My iPhone has its world clock set to Ottawa, so my watch is not taking it Toronto setting from my phone. Odd. I will continue playing with this.

 

Cycle Tracking:

 

Find Phone: Scroll down to find phone, tap and your linked smartphone will either ring or vibrate, possibly both, making it easy to find your misplaced cell phone.

 

Calculator: A simple calculator that is probably accurate but I cannot use it. My fingers are too thick. Find the calculator app on your smartphone. It is more powerful while offering more options.

 

Games:

Settings:  

 

If all of the above seems a bit hard to follow, I have one last piece of advise: try ChatGPT. Tell it you are looking for a summary of the instructions for downloading and installing the Da Fit app by Mo Young. Ask it, "Can you find such a summary?" Now, play with your new watch and learn by trial and error. I did and I had great luck.

 

I found this info using ChatGPT about the manufacturing of the Sech watch. You might find this interesting.

 

When IWO works with Mo Young on building smartwatches,

Mo Young Ltd. is responsible for producing the smartwatch motherboards (the core electronics and software solutions), while IWO Smartwatch is responsible for producing the complete smartwatch units. 

This collaboration is part of an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) business model, where both companies contribute specific components and services to create a final product, such as the popular Da Fit smartwatch. 

Their roles can be broken down as follows:

Mo Young's Role

• Solution Provider: Mo Young is a leading provider of intelligent wearable solutions, focusing on the design and development of smart wearable products.
• Motherboard Production: The company specifically manufactures the core smartwatch motherboards.
• Software & App Development: Mo Young develops the software and mobile companion applications, such as the "Da Fit" app, which are essential for the smartwatch's functionality and user experience.
• R&D Expertise: They have a large R&D team dedicated to hardware design, UI design, app software, health algorithms, and system optimization. 

IWO Smartwatch's Role

• Final Product Assembly: IWO takes the motherboards and other components to produce the complete, finished smartwatch units.
• Design & Marketing (for micro-brands): IWO positions itself as a one-stop solution for micro-brands, handling aspects like design, brand marketing, and production of the final product.
• Quality Control & Certification: IWO ensures the final products undergo thorough quality control and obtain necessary certifications (CE, FCC, RoHS, etc.) for different export markets.
• OEM/ODM Services: IWO works with various partners and offers wholesale and B2B opportunities, leveraging Mo Young's core technology to provide customizable watches to other businesses. 

In essence, Mo Young provides the technical "brains" of the operation, while IWO handles the manufacturing, assembly, and distribution of the physical product.

 

Still want more? Click on the following: Top Questions Answered: Da Fit Smart Watch Price, Manufacturer, Instructions 

Can Christians Be Threatening?

Can Christians be threatening? Damn right, they can!

Many Christians today are frightened of Muslims. They see Muslims as dangerous, a threat. These Christians would disagree but I feel they suffer from Islamophobia and Islamophobia can prove dangerous to Muslims. Almost an entire Muslim family in London, Ontario, was killed by a young Christian man who drove his car into the family while they were out for a summer evening stroll.

Listening to these frightened Christians go on and on about Muslims inspired me to look into Christians and fear of the other. I did not have to look farther than the Second World War. There are more recent examples I could have examined but being I was born just a few short years after the war, the question of German Christians and their involvement in the "Final Solution" has always been an open question. I decide to look for an answer.

The answer is ugly, nasty and disheartening. Christians can be, and often are,  absolutely terrible people. This comes as no surprise to lots of folk. The United States, a country many claim has a long history as a Christian nation, is not known only for its good deeds. At best, the United States has a very checkered history when it comes to adhering to and promoting Christian values.

But, I am not talking about the Yanks here but about the actions of the Christian Germans before and during the Second World War. Throughout this period, Germany was overwhelmingly Christian, easily over 90% of the population. In comparison, in 1933 it is estimated there were only about 500,000 German Jews or less than 1% of the population.

The fear, suspicion, prejudice and open hostility of the antisemitic Christians toward the Jews has a long history in Europe. For centuries, Jews were portrayed as "Christ-killers", moneylenders and untrustworthy businessmen. In these Christians' eyes, Jew was synonymous with greedy.

As the Nazis ramped up their attacks on the Jews, the Christian leadership in Germany and in much of Europe mostly failed to speak out strongly against the rampant and growing violence towards Jews. In Germany,  a faction calling itself the "German Christians" made every effort to Nazify the church. Even the mainstream churches remained largely silent or, worse, were actively complicit.

If there were only 500,000 Jews in Germany, how did the Nazis slaughter millions and million of Jews in pursuit of the "Final Solution"? The answer is obvious. For the most part, Christian countries controlled by the Nazis collaborated.

By the end of the war, approximately two-thirds of all European Jews had been murdered. Poland alone accounts for about 3 million of the deaths. Hungary adds another 560,000 or so. The German Nazis provided the leadership and physical support for the Final Solution operation, but it took the cooperation of millions of European Christians to make the operation successful.

 Sadly, and shockingly, as one learns more, it becomes clear that the Final Solution only succeeded to the degree it did because it was conducted in countries where nearly everyone was Christian with a long tradition of antisemitism.

Danish Christians see religion as a matter of national identity.

Were there any countries that did not quickly fall inline? Yes. Denmark. The Lutherans, which made up the majority of Danish Christians, were able to save almost all Danish Jews. The government and the Danish citizens organized the escape of  approximately 7,000 Jews to Sweden in 1943. The Danes showed some spine.

 

At this point, my inquiry takes a surprising turn -- there is a lesson here for today's Muslim-fearing Christians, the oh-so-pious Bible thumpers.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark was a broadly inclusive state church. It wasn't highly dogmatic but instead it was a cultural as well as a religious movement. Most of its pastors combined traditional Christians beliefs with an adherence to civic duty overlaid with national pride.

The Danish Lutheran Church's actions were rooted in their belief in a shared humanity. Jews were seen as fellow human beings and not just feared as members of another religious group. The Danes were able to skirt the fear-of-the-other.

The Danish church showed true Christian generosity by providing

 crucial assistance by hiding Jews and by protecting their sacred religious symbols such as Torah scrolls.