August 08 2016, 10:49

Three years ago, I was one of the first to buy the smart fitness watch from Basis, model B1. It is a biorecorder – it continuously records heart rate, steps, and uploads to the cloud. The next model, Basis Peak, looked nicer both in design and features. But I decided not to upgrade.

About the same time, the company was bought by Intel for $100 million. Before the run on Saturday, I decided to wear them again, and I needed to download the software onto my computer. When I visited the official site, I found a complete recall of the Basis Peak sold over one and a half years with a full unconditional refund. And for those who bought it on a promotion – even with a profit. It doesn’t matter how long you used it. The reason – because about 0.2% of the sold watches are prone to overheating. On the website mybasis.com, every available space is occupied by RECALL NOTICE. It’s a pity for the company, they made a good product. And now, it’s buried.

But here’s what’s strange. I can’t find a single complaint on Google. It’s clear that there are complaints, but is it possible that nobody writes about it publicly? It’s not about one person (for one person, they hardly would have dismantled a company bought for $100 million, they would have just compensated him).

August 07 2016, 21:05

Today we went tubing down the mountain river, Shenandoah. Tubings are inflatable donuts. I chose the “Tracker,” which is a single-person inflatable boat. Unlike tubing, it has shark-proof protection: a bottom and a paddle that can also be used for rowing. Most of the journey went through small rapids, where it shook quite a bit and splashed around.

All this is located near Harpers Ferry, a historic town in West Virginia. In two of them on white water, i.e., the mountain river, Masha wasn’t allowed: either the height wasn’t right or the weight. Eventually, this weekend I played it smart: bought from a third company, where we hadn’t been yet, online, with a prepayment, carefully following all the stipulations regarding weight and age. In the end, we got in, but our friends, who arrived later without reservations, did not, for the same reason.

I must say, the restrictions are there for a reason: it was challenging.