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Comment by webjprgm | Hacker News Reader

I'd love the idea, except that I don't want to recharge my watch like a cell phone. I'm used to my watch lasting years without changing the battery.

But if I can program my own custom watch face with a button that turns off the Bluetooth, thus extending the battery life ...

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> I don't want to recharge my watch like a cell phone

Isn't that (part of) why it's got an eink display?

It does, the video says ~7 days on one charge. Not bad but not great either.

I own the original inPulse and the charge lasts about 1 day. That's the main reason why I stopped wearing it. Definitely interested in something I can let go longer with an always-on screen. I'm not a fan of thinking about my watch's charge level.

That's going to be a major hurdle for adoption among a wider audience. Not that they need it to be successful, by the way. But most people already end up charging their mobile phones everyday, then they'll have to keep remembering to charge the watch as well every week... that's not very user friendly.

If the battery lasted one month, that would probably be a good spot to be at.

I wonder if they could make an e-ink display with a layer acting as a solar panel charger at the same time. Maybe they could recharge the watch this way, continuously.

it'll be the bluetooth that's the power hog

Just plug it in when you take it off at night. That step can't be that inconvenient, can it?

I'm not sure about GP, but I don't take my watch off at night. The only time I take mine off is when water is involved (I use a cloth watchband).

However, if it only needs to be recharged every 7 days, I could recharge it along w/ my fitbit each weekend.

I only take off my watch when I shower. I even go swimming with my watch. Something like this is really slick, but I have trouble as it is remembering to charge my phone...

Obvious solution is to make a charger for the shower, similar to the ones electric toothbrushes use. Since it lasts 7 days, we can surely hope you take a shower within that time period =)

It's significantly more trouble than what you would do with most other wristwatches: change the battery once every year or three (or if you have a self winding analog watch, never do anything).

Most wristwatches don't run apps and interface with your smartphone.

The fact that it's a smart watch doesn't make charging it any more convenient. Of course, based on the kickstarter results, it's clear many people disagree with my p.o.v. ... =)

Yes it is. If you could put it on an inductive charging pad that would be fine, but I'm not going to fish around for a micro USB plug that probably has fallen behind my nightstand for the 500th time every few days.

That's a really easy problem to overcome... just get a charging station. I have this one: http://amzn.to/IzPAiz

Some others: http://amzn.to/I6TP3w http://amzn.to/I6TSw8 http://amzn.to/I6TT3c

The pain of charging something regularly aside, solve the cable problem by getting a binder clip (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binder_clip - I wasn't sure what they were actually called).

Clip it to your bedside table, desk - wherever - running cables through it. Voila, no more cables vanishing: they're held close by the clip, and most should have heads too big to fall through the gap between the clip and the desk :).

USB is also a crappy way to recharge things. It takes ages for the paltry USB power to recharge my smartphone, particularly if I don't turn the screen off (phone stays awake with USB attached)

USB doesn't really have anything to do with it, it's about the devices (both the phone and the charger). The specs say an USB charger can provide up to 5A, which is more than enough to reach the battery charging limits, AFAIK.

my mistake - I thought USB was limited to 500mA. Whatever it is, my phone is annoying to charge...

There has been a big uptick in the last 12 years on rechargeable gadgets. We used to put double AA batteries in everything. The only thing that needed a charger was the gigantic Motorola MicroTAC cell phone. Nowadays, it's the opposite. I count seven of them in my house alone. The only thing I need a battery for is my television remote.

Inductive charging pads are a great idea, but you need a big vendor to make a standard one. Apple is probably the only company with large enough marketshare. If they came up with an inductive charger for their iPhones/iPads, their product would quickly become _the_ standard. Eventually Amazon would install the technology in the Kindle, Android handset makers would do it just to keep in the game. 3rd-Parties would make inductive power stations for cars, bedside tables, dressers, desks, you name it.

And I would buy at least three.

I already know where I would instantly put 2 of them and probably a third if this ever came to fruition.

They announced yesterday that as a result of water-proofing it will have a special plug.

"Pebble's USB cable is custom cable because the watch will be waterproof and can't have a big hole for the regular USB socket. We will be selling extra cables as well."

I'd rather have micro USB than waterproof, IMO.

Its true that this part seems like not a big deal. But I think with the growing number of devices in everyones arsenal, it's becoming more of a burden. I charge 2 laptops, a cell phone, and a tablet every night. A kindle every once in awhile. I'm on the fence on this one too. The product looks awesome, just wish that number(7 days) was bigger. Part of this may be just getting used to the whole concept. I'd imagine you'd get pretty reliable battery life out of this, not like a cell phone where apps consistently have the potential to suck the life out of your phone. But I definitely would of liked to see some features mentioned on this to conserve more battery when you're using it as a watch and not a smartphone buddy. Solar cells, and being able to disable bluetooth etc.

It sounds like someone should create a device to centralize power.

Charge one unit, and all the other units can pull energy from it.

Maybe there is a need for a micro-form factor rechargeable battery that can be put in electronic devices as a standard.

That would be incredible... Even if the concept of inductive chargers were taken further.

But a central power unit that worked across all devices has some major issues. If you look at something like the "Duracell Instant USB Charger", there's a few batteries like it with usb now. Looking at something like that though, I question if it's possible to make a central, charge-one-unit, device that is actually convenient/functional and makes life easier. Even though the size is down, their annoying to use. Plugging devices into it during the day on a regular basis would be suck. Unless you make some sort of inductive pants lol.

It's an MVP, I'm sure future versions will compensate. Anyway, flip-phone batteries can last weeks but I'm sure you still use a smartphone.

years -> days is a much bigger difference than 7 days -> 2 days

They won't compensate unless the market pushes back. If they can sell this with a 7-day life, my guess is that they will keep that battery life and use tech advances to add features. That's precisely what's happened in the smartphone market.

That's a good point. And it does look like their UI will have to be refreshed or embellished in the future to make this a better mass market product.

I'm not sure how much of a problem this will be. People have worn mechanical watches for a hundred years, and many people who could wear any watch they like choose to continue to do so. Winding is not a barrier to adoption, so why should charging be?

I suspect that watch could last maybe a few days without charging. I am quite tempted to get one however if it needs to be charged every few days it might be annoying when traveling. I already have to carry enough cables when I travel.

If you switch off bluetooth connectivity is it not "just" a watch with a few more features (Accelerometer)? Am I missing something?

Alternatively create an app that switches Bluetooth off at night automatically.

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