A New Face for Pebble
blog.getpebble.com
blog.getpebble.com
Everything else had a mandatory cloud sign-in and sync, with the typical meaningless privacy policy.
"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.
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.
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 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
I wouldn't like if my ex could go and buy my location data of Pebble. Or my boss, or a burglar.
.. 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. ;)
That's no excuse for them to then upload all of that data to their servers for monetisation and possible sale.
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.
I've had some readability issues, but with the backlight I've never had any issues. The price to pay for a long battery life I guess.
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 don't think that the Apple Watch or at least some Android Wear watches are aimed at a "geeky" audience.
And I don't think that anyone has found anything more compelling than "receive notifications" to use Apple or Android watches for.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you aren't aware of the other things Apple Watch does that Pebble doesn't, you should probably do some more research.
Can you list what other things Apple Watch can do?
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.
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.
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.
P.S. Apologies but your comment about the pulse reminded me this: https://youtu.be/00V7NW2_nSg
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.
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".
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
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.
The battery life and daylight visible / always on screen are requirements for this.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Pebble_w...
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.
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).
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.
I'd like to use a smartwatch for 2-factor authentication.
http://apps.getpebble.com/en_US/application/53131df8bb31cf87...
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.
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.
Motorola had a 360 version that was value based: http://www.talkandroid.com/264030-motorola-decided-to-scrap-..., but my guess on why they scrapped it is due to risk of cannibalization and not enough differentiation of their flagship product.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch
P.S. I think they really missed the price point on this, sub $100 with 10 SKUs would've fostered in a new wave of smartwatch owners.
What did they compromise on Pebble Time? Battery time was improved.
Still, this has a wow factor to me due to its slimness. The Apple watch could have been amazingly thin without the taptic engine: http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/26f878cd9a24ea264d064c...
Its thickness is the main reason I'm not buying v1.
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.
Good work Team Pebble! Keep on rockin'!
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.
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.
Here's a Rolex[0] (Sea-Dweller 4000). Here's a Moto 360[1].
And now instead of holding eWatches to the same standard as mechanicals, it has turned into another thickness race.
Here's Piaget Altiplano for example: http://blog.luxurybazaar.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Piag...
or
Blancpain Billeret https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/62/39/fa/6239fae47...
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.
I'm not going to get the Pebble Round, but I'd be far more willing to strap one to my wrist than I would the Moto 360 monstrosity.
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.
Eg,the ratio of strap and the width of the watch face and the super wide bezel.
I hope they up their game as competition in this space is getting heated.
[Hopefully constructive criticism from a Pebble owner.]
http://www2.withings.com/us/en/products/activite-pop?
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.
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.
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 ?
Outside of the round screen, there isn't anything majorly different.
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).
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".
Still a proud owner of a 5S and by current estimates, will be till 7S+ or something like that :D
But the thousands of Kickstarter backers might have loved an option
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?
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).
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.
Yeah, because this will render your Pebble Time useless?
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
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.
[0] http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/worldwide/huawei-watch/
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.
(And this is coming from someone who returned it and hated it for lots of reasons).
That said, @_davidsmith 's new sleep tracking app for wOS2 is quite nice, and I found that his charging strategy does the trick - https://david-smith.org/blog/2015/09/21/how-to-wear-your-app...
I only needed 15-20 min in the morning and evening to get to all day usability.
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)
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.
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.
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.
"seal it up under dry nitrogen" doesn't even start to describe the process accurately.
Edit: Here's some confirmation on the smart strap support: http://developer.getpebble.com/guides/#hardware-comparison