Hey.
Recently I talked about how to implement contactless payment in Xiaomi Mi Band 3, and therefore the bracelet and everything that happens to it has been in the field of my close attention for a long time.
And so, once again, while rereading the forum dedicated to the bracelet, I came across several complaints about the incorrect software update, leading to the inoperability of the bracelet.
All complaints were written as a carbon copy – after the next update of the Mi Fit program, users began to update the software of the bracelet, after which Mi Band 3 stopped giving any signs of life and did not react to any actions, including setting for charging, and even on 'folk' methods of restoration by freezer and electric shock.
From the description of the situation, it was not possible to identify any system – for those who unsubscribed about the scrapping, this happened on devices purchased both in official Russian retail and in foreign online stores such as Aliexpress, GearBest, etc.
It was also not possible to reveal any dependence on the level of charge at the time of the start of the update – for someone it happened with a fully charged bracelet, for someone with half or a third of the charge.
Also, devices of different batches were exposed to scorching, which excludes the version with a defective batch.
What unites them all is the suddenness of what happened, and the absence of any prerequisites for this.
However, this is not the most interesting thing in this story. The most curious of all is the company's reaction, to a request from a w3bsit3-dns.com user with the nickname Sergey'Winged 'he unsubscribed about his experience of communicating with support Xiaomi. I quote his words verbatim, so as not to distort the meaning:
'Now I was talking to tech support Xiaomi Russia, in general it was said that the' oskirpichivaniya 'device is a deliberate action of the company in the fight against' gray 'devices in the country. Conclusion – do not update! I will send them an email stating the problem and photographs as suggested. Let's see what they say, although there is no wonder … '
No screenshots of the correspondence were provided, so the authenticity of the dialogue cannot be guaranteed.
On the other hand, even if this dialogue took place in this vein, one should not exclude both the banal incompetence of the employee who answered the question about the device's “ overexposure '' and the banal distortion of the meaning due to a misunderstanding between the user and the support employee.
It is difficult to imagine that a company whose main distribution channel is Internet sales will literally shoot itself in the foot, destroying devices that are not sold in official retail. In addition, this version is also opposed by the lack of a real opportunity to track which country each specific gadget was sold to, and if there is no knowledge of which serial numbers were gray-listed, such a step can also hit respectable users who bought gadgets in official retail.
Despite the fact that the version about the insidious manufacturer can be considered untenable, the very fact that devices die during the update can significantly affect the number of sales in the pre-New Year period. And when you consider that in almost every New Year's buyer's guide a fitness bracelet appears as a potential gift, the damage can be significant – users simply choose not to risk it and buy a fitness bracelet that is not subject to a 'soft brick'. After all, it is very unpleasant to be the person who donated a device that will stop working almost immediately after being removed from the box.
At the time of this writing, no official comments have been received from the company. Users continue to take risks by updating their bracelets. The most correct thing in this situation is to postpone the update either until you receive comments from the company, or until a solution appears to 'sprinkle' dead bracelets.
Taking into account the fact that the update can occur automatically, the way out of the situation can be the installation of a modified companion application for the bracelet, which does not update the bracelet to the current software version.
And now, literally 3-4 days after the first reviews about receiving the 'brick' during the update, the first lucky ones began to appear on the network, whose bracelet suddenly came to life. Moreover, if you analyze these reviews, then in most cases we are talking about the revitalization of the bracelet after it is connected to a power source and charging with low current. It looks like xiaomi has been overly tricky with the update, and it does contain a bug causing some bracelets to discharge quickly during the update process. It is difficult to say what this is connected with, but the fact remains that there is a problem with the update, and it is better not to risk it and wait for comments Xiaomi, or the release of a new update.
Conclusion
In this regard, the news that many Samsung Galaxy S9 users have been looking forward to – an update to Android 9.In spite of the fact that initially January was announced as the timing for sending the update, literally the day before yesterday the first ones appeared. Messages from S9 / S9 Plus owners about the expected update.
Despite the fact that many users are not only not against updates, but more often they want and even look forward to updates, both programs and firmware, the recommendation of experienced gadget lovers not to update at the early stages of the release of updates, but to wait for the first reviews of the updated ones, and only then, in the absence of critical problems and shortcomings, perform the update.