A
Notice how most of Guru’s
answers start with a long
and rambling ‘same here’
story? Funny that. Anyway, Guru is
always reminded when he hasn’t
taken his gut medicines, because
the broken valves of his stomach
allow incredible volumes of
stomach acid to squirt merrily up to
his throat. Lovely, eh?
UK company Pivotell sells a bunch
of stuff (branded PivoTell, with that
all-important capital T) which adds
the barest amount of technology to
the compartmentalised pill boxes
your mum uses, allowing you to
automatically dispense your pills
based on the day. It also sells pill
reminders and watches, which are
things your phone already does,
though they’re great for the elderly
and those with diminishing
faculties. It probably is best to rely
on your phone: Medisafe (free with
IAPs) helps you track what you
need to take, when it’s due and,
as long as you remember to use
it, tracks whether you’ve already
had your dose.GADGET GURU’S MAGIC BOX
A
Don’t be afraid to give your
brain a break. Guru has
been doing that for nigh-on
40 years and it hasn’t done him any
harm. It was at this point in writing
that GaGu went off to hunt for
studies that say procrastination is
a good thing, and it turns out (after
an hour’s searching, punctuated by
a visit to YouTube and a sojourn
away from the desk to find a cat
to pet and eat some delicious
Dairy Milk chocolate) that
psychologists aren’t inclined to
find evidence to support it.
They (and this is the nebulous
‘they’, rather than psychologists) do
say a tidy desk means a tidy mind,
but the opposite is also true; it’s
imperative to get yourself into
beneficial habits. Something as
simple as a sticky note with that
general morning routine on it –
clean desk, properly position
monitors, adjust nether regions
- could be enough to remind you
to do the right thing.
Proper posture can also help;
a decent office chair will turn that
lazy slouch into an upright and
alert pose. Guru can’t help but
recommend the stiff, posture-
friendly yet remarkably
comfortable Noblechairs HERO
(£349), which has positively
adjusted his own floppy spine
over the past year.
Many swear by standing desks,
which do away with that potential
for laziness entirely; Guru has a
converter (a Yo-yo DESK Mini,
£250) although he found it made
him more inclined to go and
wander off to the kitchen. Your
results may vary.
Really, though, it’s about your
own ability to focus. Do what works
for you: put a picture of your kids
on your desk, run the Pomodoro
technique to give yourself adequate
breaks, install some kind of
procrastination-stopper on your
computer. Separate work from fun.
You’ll get there.What can I do to my desk to
make working easier?
ALEX ARCHBOLD, TRING
Can I automate
my medicine in
some way?
PAUL ROSE, HALIFAX
Hot news, at least if you’re in the region of
GaGu’s right front pocket: his trusty Nokia 8
developed an irritating fault in which the
home button started activating on its own,
and it has therefore met its doom courtesy
of the heavy iron end of Guru’s Gadget
Corrector 3000. Guru didn’t have an awful
lot of cash on hand with which to pick up a
new Android handset, but his bargain nose
was truly a-sniffin’ when he found the
Google Pixel 3a XL for just 300 bones.
Last-gen it may be, but only just, and the
sacrifices from
the big boy 3 (no
water resistance,
wireless charging,
or metal-and-
glass build) aren’t
deal-breakers.
Oh, and that
camera is
everything it’s
cracked up to be.
Long-term test
results now for
GaGu’s last-gen non-LTE
Ticwatch Pro, and reader
they are not good. What
started as a promising and
very cheap Android smart
watch quickly morphed
into a laggy, stuttering
heap of battery-sucking
junk, so annoyingly slow
that Guru actually stopped wearing a watch
for a while. The trick, if there is one, is to
disable every piece of software from parent
company Mobvoi, which does make things a
little smoother. Not the easiest task, if you’re
not used to tampering with the guttyworks
of Android devices. Guru’s fingers are
hovering dangerously over the ‘install a
custom ROM’ button, so he’ll let you know
if anything comes of that.
It’s worth noting, though, that later
versions of the Ticwatch Pro are reportedly
much smoother, thanks to the extra RAM
doled out to the 4G/LTE edition and the
total overhaul of the recently-issued (and
slimmed down) 2020 version.JUNE 2020 T3 25Gadget guru
ABOVE
“Mr Jones, please
shove me down
your throat. No,
for heaven’s sake,
not up there!”