The Black Girl Magic Winery is a groundbreaking establishment in the wine industry. It is led by a team of talented black women who are passionate about producing high-quality wines and creating a space for representation and empowerment. The winery aims to challenge the stereotypes and lack of diversity that exist within the wine industry. Black Girl Magic Winery seeks to bring visibility to black women winemakers and showcase their skills, expertise, and creativity. At the winery, a wide variety of wines are produced, ranging from reds to whites and even sparkling options. The winemakers take great care in sourcing the best grapes and using traditional winemaking techniques to ensure the utmost quality in their products.
The winemakers take great care in sourcing the best grapes and using traditional winemaking techniques to ensure the utmost quality in their products. The winery also serves as an inclusive and welcoming space for wine enthusiasts of all backgrounds. It hosts regular wine tastings and events to not only introduce people to their wines but also educate them about the winemaking process and the history of black women in the industry.
Honor MagicWatch 2 review: Solid on health and fitness, but light elsewhere
Smartwatches are not all carved from the same stone -- there are different definitions of what 'smart' means, for example. Android users have more options to choose from than Apple users, but the basics must be covered well. The features Honor headlines for its MagicWatch 2 are long battery life, personalised watch faces and fitness modes.
There are two versions of the Honor MagicWatch 2, designed for different wrist sizes. I was sent the larger 46mm version, which is the only one available in the UK at the time of writing. It's available from Amazon at £159.99 (inc. VAT). Pricing and availability of the smaller 42mm model is yet to be confirmed.
The 46mm version is bulky, especially on a small wrist.
Image: Sandra Vogel/ZDNetThe larger watch has a 46mm face, and is quite thick at 10mm including the protuberance on the back that houses the heart rate monitor and a pair of connectors for the circular, magnetic charger. It's quite a beast to wear, and oversized for my wrist.
Still, there is an upside to the size, and that is a large display. The 1.39-inch diameter, 454-by-454 pixel, 326ppi AMOLED touch screen can display a lot of detail. This matters, as you'll be prodding at the screen and reading the face a lot if you're going to make the most of this smartwatch.
Complementing the touch screen are a couple of large buttons on the right rim. The upper button takes you to all the features of the MagicWatch 2, including apps and settings. The bottom button can be set to launch any of the built-in apps or jump to workouts.
There is a lot of 'stuff' on board in the way of applets. These include flashlight, alarm, timer, weather data, notifications, compass, air pressure readout, music player, contacts, call log -- even breathing exercises. The watch face itself can be swept left and right to get to more screens of information; a sweep upwards reveals notifications, while a downward sweep provides shortcuts to various settings such as the alarm, 'find my phone' and 'do not disturb' features, as well as reporting battery life.
The MagicWatch 2's strengths are health and fitness.
Image: Sandra Vogel/ZDNetFor all its ability to display information, play music, show the weather and so on, it's the health and fitness features that the MagicWatch 2 majors on. It can handle metrics for running (indoor and outdoor), cycling (indoor and outdoor), swimming (pool and open water), walking (indoor and outdoor), climbing, hiking, trail runs, triathlon, elliptical trainers and rowing. The GPS tracking maps where you've been, and I found this to be pretty accurate during testing.
Top ZDNET Reviews
Top ZDNET Reviews
Raspberry Pi 4
Top ZDNET Reviews
Raspberry Pi 400
Top ZDNET Reviews
Samsung Galaxy Xcover Pro
Top ZDNET Reviews
reMarkable 2
The fitness features don't stop at hard physical workouts. A sleep monitor picked up my patterns of light, deep and REM sleep, matching these closely enough to my Fitbit's data to allay any concern over accuracy; the step counter seems accurate both on number of steps and distance, and its heart rate measurements were close to my Fitbit's too. On heart rate, incidentally, the MagicWatch 2 has an on-screen daily report, with longer-term data stored in the smartphone-based Health app.
If you want to use the MagicWatch 2 to initiate calls via Bluetooth, you'll need the 46mm version -- according to the product information, the 42mm model doesn't support that feature. Neither version of the watch has NFC built in, which means there's no support for mobile payments.
It's impossible to add any third-party apps to the Honor MagicWatch 2, so you're going to have to stick with what's on board. To take just one example, I've already noted that there's a music player, and this will cope with tunes transferred across via the Health app (there is 4GB of storage in total, and 2GB available for music). But if you are into streaming services, you can't install applets for these.
If you do need to install third-party apps, then look for a smartwatch running Google's Wear OS rather than the custom LiteOS that's used here, which is dependent on firmware updates from Honor.
Battery life is quoted at 14 days for the 46mm version I tested. The charger is a circular plate which holds the MagicWatch 2 in place with a strong magnet. Leaving the battery to run down from full left me needing to charge after seven days. A more sensible regime of applying top-up charging as part of the same morning routine I use to charge my smartphone meant it barely had to be off my wrist for charging.
Battery life experience will depend on how you use the MagicWatch 2. For example, you can have a watch face (either analogue or digital) on standby, but as you set this up the device warns that doing so will halve the battery life.
Watch faces are available onboard, and you can import more via the smartphone-based Health app.
Images: Sandra Vogel/ZDNetThere are plenty of watch faces to select between. A long press on the face calls up others on board, making it easy to switch if you fancy a change. There are more faces in the Health app, and they're easily transferred into the MagicWatch 2.
As well as being the place where cumulative health and activity data is stored and displayed, the Health app handles data sharing with other apps. At the moment this is restricted to just Google Fit and MyFitnessPal. It's not possible to export GPX files (which contain GPS metrics), or to share data with other popular platforms such as Fitbit or Strava. Honor needs to give this aspect more thought.
Furthermore, the Black Girl Magic Winery actively supports and uplifts other black-owned businesses. They collaborate with local artists to showcase their artwork on the winery walls and feature black-owned restaurants and food vendors at their events. The impact of the Black Girl Magic Winery extends beyond the wine industry. It serves as a symbol of representation and empowerment for black women, inspiring others to pursue their dreams and break barriers. Overall, the Black Girl Magic Winery is a trailblazer in the wine industry and a testament to the incredible talent and strength of black women. It is a place where wine lovers can attend tastings, engage in meaningful conversations, and support diversity and inclusion within the industry..
Reviews for "Rooted in Passion: Black Girl Magic Winemakers Following Their Dreams"
1. John - 2/5 stars - I was really disappointed with my visit to Black Girl Magic Winery. The atmosphere at the winery was lackluster and uninviting. The service was extremely slow, and it seemed like the staff was not knowledgeable about the wines they were serving. In addition, I found the wines to be average at best. Overall, it was a forgettable experience and I would not recommend this winery to others.
2. Sarah - 3/5 stars - I had high hopes for Black Girl Magic Winery, but unfortunately, it didn't quite meet my expectations. The selection of wines was limited, and the tasting options were not varied enough for my liking. The staff was friendly, but their attention was divided, leading to long wait times. The ambiance was also not as cozy and intimate as I had hoped for. While it wasn't a terrible experience, there are definitely better wineries in the area to check out.
3. Michael - 2/5 stars - I visited Black Girl Magic Winery with a group of friends, and we were all rather disappointed. The prices for the wine tastings were quite steep, especially considering the quality of the wines. We found them to be rather generic and unmemorable. The service was also lacking; we had to flag down a server multiple times just to get our glasses refilled. Overall, it felt like the winery was more focused on their branding than actually delivering a top-notch wine experience. I wouldn't go back.