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Pebble Time Smartwatch

goofyone

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I do not know how many of you are into technology however this morning Pebble publicly unveiled their next generation smart watch and made it available for pre-order on Kickstarter. I backed the original Pebble three years ago long before most people became aware of the existence of these devices. As many of my friends know I absolutely love, and still wear my original Pebble watch daily, despite the fact that the watch is over two years old at this point and does not have all the flashy gizmos of some of the newer watches released over the last year. The reasons why I continue to use the Pebble are the screen is always on so it is truly useful as a watch replacement, it is super simple to use, it keeps me updated with all the notifications I need without those I do not, it is fully waterproof, plus it easily lasts over a week on a charge and 2+ weeks if I turn it off at night.

You would think with those relatively simple simple items someone else would have produced something just as good or better however I have yet to find a another smart watch that can do all that. Most other smart watches I have tried are simply trying to do too much and as a result they do not do anything really well. They generally end up being overly complicated to use and packing in all the extra features results in some really stupid compromises such as having to wake up your watch screen simply to read the time. The battery life also sucks on nearly all the other smart watches which results in watches that must be charged every day to be useful which nobody really wants to do.

It looks like Pebble has been paying a lot of attention to things as their second generation of smartwatch appears to take advantage of newer technology to add a lot of nice features to their watch without breaking their existing applications or compromising on any of the advantages which enabled this small independent start-up company to deliver over a million smartwatches in the last two years. That number is even more amazing when you consider the fact that all the Android Wear watches put together sold only 720K in 2014 despite being backed by Google and available in a variety of styles from a number of well known brands. The Pebble watches are also one of the only smart watches which work on both Android and iOS.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-time-awesome-smartwatch-no-compromises
http://getpebble.com

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Joshua Caldwell

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Thanks for the post & just ordered. Too bad there's no heart rate monitor though. Had had been holding off on the old pebble in the hopes that the new one would include that.
 

goofyone

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Thanks for the post & just ordered. Too bad there's no heart rate monitor though. Had had been holding off on the old pebble in the hopes that the new one would include that.

Funny you mention that as I wanted that feature also. Then I read that Pebble actually designed this new watch with "a smart accessory port which will enable hardware developers to build sensors and smart wrist bands that connect directly to the watch". So we will be able to buy wrist straps with the heart rate monitoring function built in. This will also enable other accesories to be built into cradles or wrist bands such as extended life batteries and GPS sensors. :)
 
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goofyone

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I love watches and currently own about 30 watches of all types. I would agree that smart watches are not anywhere close to being as nice to look at or hold as a nice mechanical watch and the fact is that may never change. Having said that I do enjoy the Pebble watches as they produce the only smart watches I have found which successfully combine the useful basic simplicity of a wrist worn timepiece with the added connectivity many of us are used to today.

Smartwatches are a very new field and most companies have yet to even figure out the basics so it will be interesting to see how this technology develops over time as I believe there is still a lot more development needed in this area. As I mentioned above, in my opinion most of the current smart watches are terrible and I would know as I have purchased and returned over a dozen smart watches in the last two yeas after using them and hating them after a few days use. Only one or two of these cost less than the Pebble yet, due to a variety of issues, all but one failed miserably at actually functioning as a basic timepiece which as a wrist watch should be what they do best. The only watch which performed decently, but still not as good as the Pebble, as a timepiece was the now discontinued Qualcomm Toq. However I found the Toq overly complicated to use and much more limited in smart watch functionality than the Pebble, as well as being a good bit larger and more expensive, so it also ended up in the reject bin.
 

Joshua Caldwell

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Funny you mention that as I wanted that feature also. Then I read that Pebble actually designed this new watch with "a smart accessory port which will enable hardware developers to build sensors and smart wrist bands that connect directly to the watch". So we will be able to buy wrist straps with the heart rate monitoring function built in. This will also enable other accesories to be built into cradles or wrist bands such as extended life batteries and GPS sensors. :)
I tried the Basis Peak, the sensors were excellent but their software crippled it to the point of uselessness. It had to be rebooted multiple times whenever I needed to sync it, and intel made their data proprietary so that no other exercise app could use the data.... and intel didn't do anything with the data themselves aside from a couple of bar graphs for sleep and active. They didn't even include a stopwatch ability!
 

goofyone

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as a fellow who still prefers a Razor Flip Phone, I doubt I'll have any interest in a smart watch but I'm curious as to the price ....

The current pre-order price for the new Pebble Time watch is $189 including shipping. The retail price when it becomes available at retail will be $199. The first generation Pebble watches are currently available in plastic for $99 or metal for $199.

I understand about many people not being interested in a smart watch and the fact is that most people are not likely to want one. Despite the current hype surrounding this area from my experience I believe that, for at least the near future, smart watches will only appeal to a limited market as I have found that there are several basic issues which will prevent wider adoption. Smart watches are still not very mature as a product which results in most current smart watches actually creating additional distraction and additional annoyance in users lives with little in return. When compared to nicer watches smart watches are not expensive however when compared to the more common Timex or Casio smart watches are more expensive than these watches most people use. There is also the simple fact that a large portion of the population simply does not wear watches and I just do not see most of these people being likely to begin doing so simply because a watch is 'smart'. Finally we reach the fact that many people simply do not care about having access to notifications and information at all times and there is nothing wrong with that but it does make these people highly unlikely to own a smart watch.
 

goofyone

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I'd be interested in a smart watch if I could remote start my car with it. :)

That is actually already possible however support is spotty and varies depending on watch, vehicle model, and vehicle manufacturer. For instance I know Pebble has Mercedes, Tesla, and Nissan in their corner along with at least one aftermarket vendor.
 
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