Question for people who own Pebble watches - have you read the Pebble privacy policy? They track a ridiculous amount of stuff (everything from your GPS location and activity to what other apps you run on your phone), log it indefinitely (literally 'for a period of time') in personally identifiable form, and reserve the right to sell your data to third parties. It baffles me how people can be OK with this.
Yes, this isn't an alternative to Android wear or Apple watch, just more of the same. Fun fact: a few months ago I was looking for a wearable which had the option to store data locally - I looked at dozens of products and only three of them offered this. One needs a Windows app to transfer data over USB, the other is the Oregon Scientific Dynamo, which has a rather poor iOS app and is quite bulky and imprecise and the third one had a terrible companion app.
Everything else had a mandatory cloud sign-in and sync, with the typical meaningless privacy policy.
They have not endorsed CISA. What the letter they (along with Microsoft) signed called for is legislation to allow sharing information about security threats, not personal information. It just happens that the only bill that does that at the moment is CISA, which unfortunately also has clauses about sharing personal information with the government.
"Google processes your data to fulfill our contractual obligation to deliver our services. Google’s customers own their data, not Google. The data that companies, schools and students put into our systems is theirs. Google does not sell your data to third parties. Google offers our customers a detailed Data Processing Amendment that describes our commitment to protecting your data."
Another way to look at it might be, given your data is one of their biggest assets, it would be foolish to sell it.
GadgetBridge is the only reason I haven't canceled my Pebble Time Steel order. Hopefully I'll have time to help out with the project once my watch arrives.
You mean for Unix phones (a la Ubuntu Phone)? Or you want to tether it to your desktop/laptop? Either way the Gadgetbridge source should provide a good starting point if no existing software is available.
I guess I just don't understand how you can not be bothered by the fact that your watch (or more accurately, the companion app on your phone) is constantly uploading detailed, realtime information about your life to a third party? Are you hardcore in the 'nothing to hide' camp? Do you just not believe that privacy is important?
If you're fine with Pebble knowing everything about you, are you fine with them selling all of this information to anyone they choose?
And given the ongoing litany of security breaches and data leaks, even if Pebble never use or sell your data for anything, are you fine with your information becoming public knowledge if Pebble ever get hacked or have their database leaked?
Some day we may just have to accept ubiquitous surveillance as the price for technology, but I don't think we've reached that point yet.
I'm struggling to care that apple knows I spent last week sleeping in Clapham, but this week sleeping in White City. I don't mind that it knows I went out near St Pauls last night. I can't even say that I'm worried if it could work out who I was out with (although frankly for that they can just read my whatsapp messages in the phone backups).
The part I would have a problem is selling that information. Because frankly I've paid enough for the phone so they can sod off. I don't own a pebble, but imagine I'd feel the same.
Now. I figure y'all have the right to get upset about the information being stored, and should have the right to opt out. But personally I'm more interested in getting worked up over other things that I want to change.
I just don't find GPS locations that big of a deal. I've been sitting for a few minutes trying to come up with sinister things one could use the data for and can only find one: burglars seeing when I am not at home.
.. and even in the unlikely event of Pebble selling my data to burglars who rob me it would be a tale on its own probably worth more than whatever they can steal from me. ;)
I actually am just not _that_ interesting and i can't see what anyone could want to really know about me...?
I mean I'd care if it turned out my credit details were being uploaded and I'm not trying to be funny, but realistically I struggle to see the value in my data
The problem is that the app needs internet access, and access to much of your phone's data, to provide the watch's useful functions. You can't just block internet access without disabling apps that require online data.
That's no excuse for them to then upload all of that data to their servers for monetisation and possible sale.
I've always been a huge fan of "the underdog" Sure this isn't an Apple Watch or a Moto 360, but Pebble has truly created a beautiful product and I respect that. Great work to the guys at Pebble.
If the screen is anything like the Pebble Time it wont be beautiful. I love my PT but depending on the watchface the screen isn't easily readable in anything other than outdoor or very bright indoor lighting. There's a light up button, that helps. The colors are also very muted.
The value of a Pebble watch in my opinion is all in its practical utility, where it really shines. I have been careful to manage what sends my watch notifications and as such whenever my wrist feels buzzing there's something that I need to check. I can do so quickly without needing to pull my phone out of my bag. The time view for what I need to do next is very awesome.
Ultimately my Pebble Time saves me time, makes sure I don't miss important messages or events and it saves my phone's battery life since I check it much less often.
Reports are that the Pebble Time Steel, which uses the same screen tech, is much more vibrant than the Pebble Time due to the optical bonding. The PT Round looks to also use that same technique due to its thinness, so I expect it will look quite good.
Aha! I do own the Pebble Time Steel and couldn't identify with the issue of the poorly readable screen. I find it reads very well in direct sunlight, and when it's dark there's always the light button. I guess this explains the complaints.
The Pebble Time Round would arguably be the best looking smart watch if the bezels were close to zero. Now they are around half the surface area, I wonder if that's really technically necessary..
It's pretty, but they're continuing to compromise core features (waterproofness, battery) which make Pebbles unique, while their software and abilities and displays lag far behind the pack (partly due to vendor lock-in).
I loved my OG Steel. But they won't compete against the Apple Watches and Moto 360s of the world by mirroring their shortcomings and price while providing none of the deep integration, apps, and features.
I think ultimately, the Pebble line will need to become the leader of the "Smart-ish" watches. They'll display notifications, and allow some very limited interactions, but will always be more watch than smart. This will work great for non-geeky people who would love to get notifications quickly and silently, while still retaining the advantages of a more conventional watch (don't worry about charging, water, durability or daylight).
Then, the wrist computers (e.g Apple Watch or Android Wear) will exist for somebody who wants the geekier, app-ier experience and will take some compromises for it.
I like the "Smart-ish" angle. Swatch owns the entry level watch market:
Swatch was originally intended to re-capture entry level market share lost by Swiss manufacturers during the quartz crisis and the subsequent growth of Japanese companies such as Seiko and Citizen in the 1960s and 1970s, and to re-popularize analog watches at a time when digital watches had achieved wide popularity. The launch of the Swatch brand in 1983 was marked by bold new styling, design and marketing. [1]
Maybe they can be the market leader in the entry level market and not have to compete against the Apples and Motorolas who are all fighting over share in the mid-market smartwatch.
Indeed. In my personal not so humble opinion, it's Pebble that leads the actually smart watch pack; Apple Watch and Android Wear are shiny toys for non-geeks who like fitness. It saddens me that Pebble seems to turn toward this audience. Not that mind "normal people" having their toys, it's just that Pebble seeed to be the only company that tried to make a tool.
5-7 day battery life and always-on, e-paper-like color screen. This enables you to use Pebble as an actual watch, or in general as an information radiator - you don't have to interact with it in any way to see the data you need; you just have to look at it. They had these features (sans color) before Apple Watch / Android Wear even existed!
What personally made me buy Pebble over Android Wear / Apple Watch was not point-by-point spec comparison though, but the apparent philosophy of the company since day one. They went with practical (always on e-paper screen instead of touch) and hackable (Pebble is programmed in C, no stacks of Java bloat, no licenses to buy). From the beginning, they were giving off the utilitarian vibe, as opposed to the later Apple's strategy of building an expensive toy. It's a difference of mindsets.
Or at least it was, given that Pebble seems slowly going towards the mainstream.
> 5-7 day battery life and always-on, e-paper-like color screen. This enables you to use Pebble as an actual watch
I'm not sure why the "always-on" aspect is an advantage. The Apple Watch display turns on when I raise my wrist to look at it. Always-on seems more like a vanity feature than actually useful. If you aren't looking at it, it serves no purpose to be on.
The battery life has never been a problem for me. I put the watch on it's charger when I get in bed, and take it off when I wake up. I don't think I've ever hit < 40% battery at the end of the day.
> Apple's strategy of building an expensive toy.
I don't believe that is the intention at all. I think Apple is trying to create a truly useful device, with a much broader scope than Pebble. Personally, the Apple Watch has been very useful for me. I would be very unhappy if I had to give it up. My Apple Watch watch feels significantly more utilitarian than my phone.
I also think you're underselling the fitness aspect. I've been much more active since I got my Apple Watch. The importance of physical activity is hard to understate.
Also, I visited my doctor recently and she was a bit worried that my pulse was high. I showed her the graph of my pulse over the last week, and she was no longer worried. In the future, when we can measure thinks like blood pressure and blood glucose, it will significantly improve people's health. That's clearly where Apple is headed.
I love Pebble as a company and I think they make a really great product. However, it's wrong to say the Apple Watch is nothing more than a toy. It's already had a decent impact on my life, and I think that impact will be exponentially larger in a few short years.
> The Apple Watch display turns on when I raise my wrist to look at it
This is one of those features that has to be 100% perfect for it to work in this form factor, and based on my colleagues Apple Watch (base model), that is not the case. In addition, I don't always turn my wrist to see my Pebble -- I don't need to. This is a small feature but saying its not actually useful is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion.
> This is one of those features that has to be 100% perfect for it to work in this form factor
As an Apple Watch owner, I can state that this is not the case for me, and thus it clearly doesn't have to be 100% perfect. Might it frustrate some people? Sure.
The tradeoff is that my watch can do many more useful things than the Pebble. The additional features are significantly more valuable to me than multiple day battery life and an always-on screen.
> This is a small feature but saying its not actually useful is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion.
I think we have different definitions of "absolutely ridiculous".
> The Apple Watch display turns on when I raise my wrist to look at it. Always-on seems more like a vanity feature than actually useful. If you aren't looking at it, it serves no purpose to be on.
Yeah... if you are wearing it. When I'm at my computer I don't like wearing a watch. So I take it off and place it next to my laptop (hate the band rubbing the desk/keyboard). In that scenario, always on is useful. Also when biking or motorcycling (especially far) I mount it to my bars because I like to be able to see it, again, not wearing it on my wrist. When biking (I bike a lot), the fitness function of an apple watch is <4 hrs. I take longer bike rides that that, so battery life is key.
> I put the watch on it's charger when I get in bed, and take it off when I wake up
yes... but if you don't have to do that for a week, it's much better. Just because you are willing to charge it daily doesn't mean it's acceptable.
All that said.... as an overall Apple fan and fitness fanatic, I would love an apple watch, if and only if, it allowed me to get 5+ hrs of fitness tracking WITHOUT bringing my phone along (so it needs GPS). So alas, I'll hang on to my Garmin which gets 24 hours of continuous GPS recording + my original Pebble until Apple Watch 2.
And to elaborate on the bike mount use, it's not just for "I want a clock on my handlebars." Paired with the GPS in your phone, you can use a Pebble as a bike computer, providing information like speed, distance, and elevation change.
The battery life and daylight visible / always on screen are requirements for this.
I think you're misinterpreting my original post. It's not a shot at the Pebble, or any other device. It's an argument that the Apple Watch is not a toy, and is actually quite useful day to day for many people. It was an argument against a generalization, not an argument for one.
> The battery life has never been a problem for me. I put the watch on it's charger when I get in bed, and take it off when I wake up. I don't think I've ever hit < 40% battery at the end of the day.
Compare that with my use case, where I wear my watch all the time and use it for sleep tracking, yet still I only need to charge it once every five days.
As for always-on, it makes the watch low profile. Depending on watch face it can actually fool people that it is a normal watch. I had a co-worker noticing after a month despite wearing it every day (when I received a message) that it is a smart watch.
>The battery life has never been a problem for me. I put the watch on it's charger when I get in bed, and take it off when I wake up. I don't think I've ever hit < 40% battery at the end of the day.
as a comparison, I can take my pebble to a very long weekend and not bring the cable and still be fine. The battery lasts 5 days in pretty normal circumstances
> The Apple Watch display turns on when I raise my wrist to look at it. Always-on seems more like a vanity feature than actually useful. If you aren't looking at it, it serves no purpose to be on.
There are lots of cases when you want to glance at your watch without doing an explicit, lively motion with your hand. For instance, as I'm typing this comment, I can look at my Pebble without moving the wrist. When a notification comes, I can read it without doing anything but moving my eyes downward. Since I spend 8+ hours every day in front of one computer or another, it's extremely valuable. Similarly, it applies when you're e.g. carrying things, or doing chores.
> I also think you're underselling the fitness aspect. I've been much more active since I got my Apple Watch. The importance of physical activity is hard to understate.
Probably. I admit I might be a bit biased against sports and fitness, for various hard-to-untangle reasons :).
> Also, I visited my doctor recently and she was a bit worried that my pulse was high. I showed her the graph of my pulse over the last week, and she was no longer worried. In the future, when we can measure thinks like blood pressure and blood glucose, it will significantly improve people's health. That's clearly where Apple is headed.
That's a great use of such technology, I admit. You communicated with a specialist and used your data to your advantage. That's how it should work. But generally, it doesn't. I dislike the whole quantified self movement (and fitness-oriented smartwatches are a part of it) for generally being a cargo-cult field. What you usually get is a device that measures something and puts the data in a completely unneccessary (but required to monetize you) cloud app, which then happily displays you some shiny graphs. The prettier the graphs the better thing sells, even though they're often pretty much useless. You can't export your data, you can't study your data, you just have some graphs. You're supposed to look at them and say "oooh, cool!".
There's a broader point here that applies both to QS enthusiasts and dashboard designers and people working on IoT - graphs are means, not an end. They exist only to improve user's decision-making process. Different graphs help with different questions, so it's important to allow users to manipulate the data presentation, and even more important to teach them the right questions to ask.
We have a technology that could really enable people to live smarter, healthier and better, and instead of that we're being fed shiny trinkets that monetize your data and lock it in so you can't use it for your advantage.
> 5-7 day battery life and always-on, e-paper-like color screen
When Pebble was the "InPulse" watch for BlackBerry phones it had none of these things. This feature set is relatively new compared to how long they've been working on watches. The InPulse watch was a lot closer to the feature set of current Android/iOS watches (including the terrible battery life).
Less is more: the Pebble doesn't surpass all the functionality in the Apple Watch or Android Wear devices, it pulls back and focuses on being a great watch, a great tool. It's not a small phone stuck on your wrist. The long battery life with an always on, sunlight-proof display is what really makes a Pebble a Pebble.
2 days of battery life is going to rub some people the wrong way but I think for what they were going for here, it was a good compromise. This continues their core excellence of making a great watch that includes smart, connected features.
I am waiting for my Pebble Time Steel to be delivered. I'm not disappointed at all with this announcement and I'm proud to see Pebble expanding into new markets.
It doesn't really do anything the other two don't. The bid difference that I think people are trying to state is that no one really uses any of those other features. Not really.
Pebble gives you notifications, time ... new ones give you heart rate monitors (I think?). You don't get those other features no one else cares about, but you do get like five days of battery life.
I'm still on my Pebble Steel and I still really like it. I even saw one in a retail store in Ireland today. Was kinda weird.
> The bid difference that I think people are trying to state is that no one really uses any of those other features. Not really.
I'm curious which features you are referring to? I have no need for 5 day battery life on my watch. Would it be great? Hell yeah. However, I also have no problem tossing my watch on the charger when I get in bed, just as I do with my phone.
Features like: answering phone through the watch, drawing, playing tic tac toe or other games (pebble also has some games, but it is quite silly to play games on watch), sending heart beats to someone else, or emoji.
That's I think all Apple Watch offers that pebble doesn't. I did not mention measuring pulse, because it is useful if you use watch for fitness tracking.
I use my Samsung gear to take hands free phone calls (in the car or while holding kids), controlling my music while my phone is plugged in in the other room, as a remote for my tv and (rarely) as a way to take group photos with my phone set up across the room.
Receiving notifications is obviously the primary use (considering looking up my meetings and using it as a silent alarm to get up in the morning as "notifications"), but I use at least two of these other features every day.
I feel it's safer than 2-factor using my phone because I might let someone else handle my phone to make a call, etc., but never my watch. Plus, I can invoke it faster than I can on the phone.
Can't say I've seen it for Apple or Android watches, but for pebble there's a nice app to let you watch the status of your 3d printer if you use octoprint. It's ended up great as a gauge for how long a print has left, even gives a convenient way to stop a print without killed the power to the printer. Sure I can use a phone for the same thing but when I've got it on my wrist with a single button press? much more convenient.
The Time and Time Steel actually have lower waterproof-ness certification than the originals, IIRC. It's not a meaningful drop for everyday use, but they seem to be happy to lose that feature. And the Round is a festival of compromise.
2 days battery is disappointing. Making it slightly thicker and getting more days would have been fantastic. With 2 days you may as well charge it every night so you don't forget.
It's worth noting that this device, unlike any of the previous Pebble devices, is not waterproof. I was smitten until I noticed this - not having to worry about getting it soaked while cycling or swimming is a rather nice feature of my Pebble Time and it looks like I'll be sticking with it for that (even if I do love the new design).
Pebble Time Round is splash resistant but not waterproof. Incidental exposure to water–like unforeseeable rain–won’t ruin your device, but submerging the watch is not recommended. Pebble’s leather bands are not water resistant.
Splash resistance generally means it's fine in the shower and while washing hands, just not while swimming. Or, at least, that's how I've always interpreted it.
Hmm, interesting. I've always been over-cautious where 'splash-resistant' is concerned (As in, not allowing any water to get even remotely near); I'd never thought to consider that manufacturers probably over-compensate where water-resistance is concerned, to save them time fufilling warranty claims afterwards.
When I first saw the announcement, I was really annoyed since I am a PTS backer. But, with the offer they're giving so that I can test out the new one, I'm pretty okay with it afterall. In fact, given that one of the reasons driving my decision to get the PTS was the ~10-day battery-life, I do not suspect I will even consider the PTR; but I love that Pebble was self-aware enough to offer me the choice.
Hmm, so this is an oddly-timed launch. I was just wondering if I should replace my ks-edition pebble with a pebble time, and now here I'm wondering about the pebble round time or whatever. The new round watch probably looks nice, although I'm worried about the bezel size and it not being waterproof. It does look a lot thinner and more watch-like than most other smartwatches, even before you get to the 7-day battery. My first gen pebble has about five days between recharges, despite being in constant use since I bought it.
That said, I think I'll stick with my regular pebble for now - I love the notifications I get on it, but that's its primary job and while the time(round)? is an improvement to display I don't see any of the features as must-have at this point. Seems like a great watch to get if you don't have one yet, but I'm not sure I want to spend $200+ there, especially since my ks model pebble is industrial orange, and they don't have that color anymore.
It's very surpising, I thought they were gone for a full power-efficiency design. Android watches also have this type of autonomy if not used too much.
It's a limit on how large the battery can be in a watch that's this thin. It's half the size of the Pebble Time's battery, so half the expected run time.
Apparently it fully charges in 15 minutes, which may not be so bad: plug it in whilst in the shower for example. I think it's a bit overpriced for what it is but I guess you're paying for the fact it's thinner and trendier with its round screen.
Two days is an awkward middle ground. It's not long enough to really get used to the fact that you don't have to charge it every day, but it's long enough that sometimes you might forget and end up having it die on you.
Same and many of their images are really, really misleading like when they show a black clock face with the black bezel makes the watch look AWESOME with a great sized screen.
You picked a horrible example. Rolex Sea Dweller is amongst the thickest of dive watches because it's designed to be taken to extreme depths (depths no human will ever descend to in a diving suit).
Well, that’s true, but you went to the other extreme of the spectrum: Piaget’s specialty are ultra thin watches, I don’t think it’s a much better example.
Mechanical watches under 7mm are already considered thin; more usually they are 9-11mm. Quartz are easily thinner.
I think smartwatches currently around look thicker because of case and lugs design. For example, the Sea-Dweller is 18mm, but the side of the case is not flat all the way like the 360, the case back is actually inset, so it’s less noticeable.
IMHO it has one killer feature the Moto 360 doesn't - e-ink (which brings with it always-on display, bright-light readability and power savings benefits). For that reason alone I'd be way more likely to pick up one of these than a 360. I also like the design a lot more (huge bezel and all), but that's even more subjective.
It doesn't use e-ink. It uses a Sharp Memory LCD (http://www.sharpmemorylcd.com). I think Pebble calls it e-paper because they promised e-ink in their first kickstarter but were unable to deliver on that. No one else calls it that. I assume a custom e-ink display was too expensive. The first Pebble used the same display as one of the early Nike watches, which made it a lot cheaper.
The original Pebble uses a Sharp LCD. The Pebble Time uses JDI display. I have no idea what display the Time Round uses: do you know for sure it's a Sharp unit?
I'm not positive they still use the Sharp brand, but I'm pretty sure the display technology is the same: LCD backed by SRAM in the display. You don't need to continuously update the display. Once you write a frame or part of a frame, the processor can go to sleep.
Given that they claim 10 days of battery life for the Steel, maybe we should expect the Round, which has a claimed two-day battery life, to only get one.
The "2 days" battery life makes me reconsider. The Moto 360v2 can get nearly the same (not in ambient mode), but it has a better screen that you can even see in the dark... The only reason I would want to get a pebble vs the moto is that it has a longer battery life (a week or so?), but this thing gets only slightly better battery life, yet costs nearly the same, eh, to me it's just not worth it.
I never had a problem charging a smartwatch while I sleep every night. Personally sleeping with a watch is uncomfortable . The battery life selling point is pretty weak, considering that you still need to be tied to a phone with a shorter battery life in order to receive notifications.
I have a Garmin watch, it's as smart as it gets (display weather forecasts, SMS, emails, tracks activity, runs 2048 and Tetris if you care), last a full week on a charge, is waterproof, and is way cheaper than most "smart watches". Android wear, Apple watch? Sheesh.
By the way, Pebble says the time round is "7.5mm thin and weighing just 28 grams". Doesn't define if the weight measurement includes the strap or not.
The vivoactive is 8.0 mm thin, 18g without strap, 38g with strap. So at least the "lightest" claim is probably not accurate.
The Withings Activite does a much better job of mimicking an old watch, but it's also much simpler (just an activity tracker) and doesn't have an LCD screen.
Practically, the issue with the current gen is that they need as much battery as possible. Bezels and weird shapes are both a good way to add volume and battery.
Ugh. Now, I've been a big fan of Pebble, and a two-time backer (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9101787), but I'm skipping this one. Truth be told, I'm not even particularly happy with my current Pebble Time/Time Steel. The screen still has a huge bezel around it, and the colors don't pop nearly like they did in the pictures. In fact, I'd describe the new color screen as a bit washed out. Voice replies and quick replies don't work on iOS (I know what the reason is, and I don't care because that was a listed feature when they wanted money).
The new ones are delicate, too. I've got an actual scratch on both the bezel and screen on the Time (thankfully, a screen protector covers that up) from just brushing against a wall. The Time Steel has a scuff on the bezel from who knows what.
Now we have the option to have even a bigger bezel, and the battery life has been cut to about the same as Pebble's competitors. Might as well buy an Apple or Android watch (or Microsoft Band, if that's your thing). And were I to buy another smartwatch, Apple is what I'd buy. For $100 more, all of the advertised features work, and the battery life isn't all that much worse. Or if I just wanted notifications, one of the Garmin devices, which I could also use to go running without toting a phone.
For the moment, Pebble's remaining advantages are price and battery life if you don't get the round one. And Garmin can meet or beat them on both right now, depending on one's need of other features. I'm interested to see what the next version has to offer, because it better be a big jump if they're going to stay competitive.
This is very weird tbh
I mean you just shipped thousands of people something
And now you announce something which makes that look old.
It's scary to own something from a company like this. Am i to understand that I wont be getting updates on my Pebble Time in the near future because there is a new kid on the block ?
Thanks for the h/w comparison link. A bit relieved.
But still wondering why they didn't give this option during their Kickstarter.
I am sure many people would've bought a circular one, but they wont now because their Pebble Time is still new (2 months old).
You realise you are posting on Hacker News not the Daily Mail yes?
This is a heavily technology focused community and in the wonderful world of technology things change. Quickly. Complaining about a new product coming out is quite baffling to me. Perhaps your post would make sense if they had announced they were only going to develop and support this product going forward but they didn't so I find your post quite out of place around here.
I don't mean to be rude (although it will no doubt come across like I am).
It's a fair criticism. They even felt the need to address it in their announcement.
If Apple released a new Apple Watch tomorrow, early adopters would feel cheated and may think twice about buying future products so quickly.
The Kickstarter approach exacerbates this problem. I understand that many people that bought the last Pebble product don't even have it in their hands yet.
> you just shipped thousands of people something And now you announce something which makes that look old.
So... just like Apple does every year, not to mention pretty much every other hardware company in existence? The alternative is not to make anything new, which would just be dumb.
> Am i to understand that I wont be getting updates on my Pebble Time in the near future
Well, seeing as Pebble Time is still a brand new product, and I'm still getting regular updates on my original Pebble Steel, which is another generation older, I'm gonna say "no".
Difference being that Apple doesn't offer an extended return period for devices just because they released a new one. And why should they? It shows investors a lack of confidence in their products.
You sold us on the Time Steel just 6 months ago, and now it already might not be good enough to keep? Why not?
Apple or Google announcing new flagship phones every year
vs Pebble announcing a new watch in a matter of months ?
Can't exactly draw parallels here.
Something similar would be Apple announces iPhone 6S now and iPhone 6S+ in 3 months.
No, it's scary because they didn't plan out things 3 months into the future.
Or they did, and it's even more scarier to think that they dont care about being honest with their customers.
"We have two options with us, and we'll show you one now. You can buy that. Then we'll show you another 3 months down the line, and maybe you can toss your old one out and get the new one."
PS: It's great that they are offering an exchange program of sorts for the Time Steel owners, but I am sure there are a lot of people with the Time version
I wonder what is viewable screen size in sq. mm. of different Pebble watches. I suspect they compromised on screen size a lot on this model and make it look bigger via wide bezel. Anybody have real data? It also would be good to see a side-by-side picture of Time and Time Round.
The Pebble watch will work with both Android and iOS, for starters (but then again, so does Android Wear devices now too... leaving just the Apple Watch to only support Apple products).
It's SDK is in Python or C, and it makes it really easy to write up basic apps for yourself or others (no special hardware, licenses, or fees necessary to start developing your own apps).
Battery life kills all other smart watches. The always on screen is very nice too (makes it usable as an actual watch, for instance).
So called "Smart Straps" allowing 3rd parties or the OEM to produce different wrist straps capable of different functionality (sensors, additional battery, etc...) - And they are swappable/upgradable.
Even for non-developers, it's easy to create watchfaces using http://www.watchface-generator.de/. Upload a photo, customize your text and download the app to your watch (credit to Paul Rode, a 3rd party developer for this)
I had a Pebble Time and put a number of months into using it full time. The screen is a color e-ink display that is always on, which is really nice. When I chat with my Apple watch friends, the biggest gripe is the battery life. With my Pebble Time, using notifications and using it to respond to text messages, while wearing it all night to monitor sleep, I charge it about every 5 days for a couple hours.
Everyone I know personally with an Apple Watch complains that the battery hardly lasts a day and they're forced to basically charge every night, which I guess gets annoying.
Right now, I think the battery life thing is a major issue with smartwatches like the Moto 360 and the Apple Watch. The Pebble models, the Basis models, and the Garmin models all seem to have this ironed out.
I guess everyone has their own experiences, but nearly all of the reviews and anecdotes I have heard -- and my own experience -- is that the Apple Watch can get through a full day just fine. Of course, you do have to charge it every night.
(And this is coming from someone who returned it and hated it for lots of reasons).
Sorry if I was unclear. Basically, I meant to say that for Apple Watch owners that I know personally, they're able to get through a 24-hour period, but since the watch would be dead the next day, they charge at night. Which in my opinion makes the watch essentially useless for sleep tracking unless you charge mid-day at the office or something.
Does that charging strategy have any impact on the battery's life? I know batteries are rated for a certain number of recharge cycles but I don't know enough about the technology to know if multiple partial recharges have a neutral or negative impact.
Obviously this is just a personal preference, but the Apple watch is ugly. The Moto 360 was the only other watch that I think that comes close to not looking like a smart watch.
Also the e-ink display is a different strategy. I hate the the watch display isn't on all the time so you can't just glance at it without moving your arm.
Yeah, this is huge for me. It also charges super fast, so when it runs out, I can slap it on its magnetic charger, and pull it off 5-10 minutes later if I need to run, and it'll have enough charge to get it through to a time when I have 30 minutes to charge it.
It's more like comparing a Nokia brickphone to an iPhone.
Different target demographic, but even more rabid fans because nothing else gets close to checking all the same boxes. (Unlike "iPhone vs Android", Nokia is more or less uncontested)
And their SDK page [1] isn't very helpful to understand what's its purpose, including if it's useful to create an app communicating with the device for incompatible smartphones.
I've seen some Windows developers getting advice on the protocols used to talk to the watch on their Slack channels. I don't think you'll see Pebble implement a Windows host app, but they've not been too hostile to the idea.
The watch-to-phone communications methods are the same with the Pebble Time Round. It looks like the differences are all in how the UI of the watch is rendered, and those are pretty major. However, outside of the screen, the hardware is very similar to the already-deployed Pebble Time.
I really wanted to pick up a Pebble Time when they publicly launched. I was so disappointed to see that they were charging €250 (~$280) in Europe while only $199 in The States. Now, the Steel and the Round are €300. It's just too much money. Even considering VAT, the difference in price between EU & US seems excessive
There's no excuse for it not being waterproof to at least the 1m level. What's their problem? It doesn't need to be openable. The previous models were not. Just seal it up permanently, preferably under dry nitrogen so it can't corrode inside.
Most likely, since the connector on the back is the same (same USB charging cable as the Time). However, the band sizes are different (14mm/20mm vs 22mm), so you would have to make a band specifically sized for the Round vs. the Time/Time Steel.
