Hands-on with the Pebble watch: A handy device with a lot of potential

Perhaps. I have one (I backed it on the first day) and I use it occasionally. Right now (at least with iOS) it's highly limited and is causing a huge battery drain making it impractical to use every day.

However, the guys running the Pebble venture are making some very serious mistakes. As with any Kickstarter venture, backers expect some (and maybe lots) of issues and startup problems. But they've made the fatal error of not communication their progress (with manufacturing as well as software) with the "rabid" early adopters.

These are going to be the folks most vociferous in their complaint and will still be around when (or if) the Pebble becomes a commercial product.

The popularity of any future consumer version will depend on good word of mouth and even better social media and tech media press and I for one are not going to be on this bandwagon.

I do hope they get their act together as I think the Pebble is a useful device for any connected person in the 21st century.