Pebble Raises $15 Million as Wave of Smart Watches Arrives | Hacker News Reader

Pebble Raises $15 Million as Wave of Smart Watches Arrives

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58 pointstaylorbuley52 comments

Wearables ought to ditch the attempted interaction.

The second I'm prodding at a watch to do more than triage notifications or cycle through a couple google-now-style 'cards', I might as well have pulled out my phone.

They should focus on data collection -- which they can be awesome at; notification triage -- which they can be legitimately more-convenient for, and some security integration [1]. And if they did some NFC-triggering, that'd be cool too.

Even supporting deeper interaction is going to relegate these things to 'calculator watch' territory.

[1] if my watch is near my phone, phone should only require the 'simple' unlock code (or none). if watch isn't around, require the full password. also: lock my workstation when the watch 'leaves' the presence of the PC.

Whether interaction is required is entirely up to the person developing the app.

Having the capability and giving people enough rope to hang themselves is one thing. Just don't try to sell it that way. And for goodness' sake, don't implement the core functionality that way.

You'd need some pretty hefty antennas to trigger NFC tags at the range of watch-to-phone or watch-to-computer (say 1 to 2 metres max). Most NFC readers operate around a couple cm, maybe 10cm max. Your computer would lock every time you sipped your coffee :-(

The general idea is great though. I'm not sure what the right proximity tech would be. Someone else can no doubt chime in. Bluetooth would be overkill, NFC not enough.

Is there one can't just use Bluetooth instead of NFC? Does the power consumption get bad?

The power consumption of Bluetooth is so minimal that turning off Bluetooth on an iPhone only hides the icon, it doesn't actually turn Bluetooth off.

do you have a source for this?

I was thinking NFC tag-to-watch to trigger limited-interaction sorts of prompts on the phone and then bluetooth from the watch to the phone for relaying the indicated data or firing actions or whatever. (bump watches, each watch gets a 'send contact' prompt, watches broker a bluetooth contact card transfer from respective phones)

And as for the computer/lock thing, I was thinking Bluetooth. Someone might have to rig up a custom profile for it, but they'd have to do OS integration and awareness anyway. So it's not so much more a roadblock.

Pebble is in the land grab stage right now. Their primary advantage being that they are the first mover.

Their #1 priority is to win the hearts and minds of their users.

A successful kickstarter campaign is a good start but to create "raving fans" they need to be hyper focused in getting you to love the product. To adore it. Otherwise competition will rip them to shreds.

So those of you that have a Pebble? How do you like it? Is it everything you hoped for?

I was mentioning this in the office and had someone show me their Pebble and tell me that they absolutely loved it, aside from the battery life.

It seems convenient and well made, and I'm now considering getting one.

I've had mine for a couple of weeks, using it with an iPhone, and so far it's a neat toy that doesn't do very much. I can see text messages, and I can see the phone number of the person calling me (not their name yet, though). I can control the music playing on my phone. That's about it right now. I haven't tried Runkeeper yet.

I've heard that Android users can hook in to a lot more. Hopefully iOS opens up more access for other apps to send notifications to it.

The feature I probably use the most is the watch itself - I don't have to pull my phone out of my pocket to check the time, and flicking my wrist to activate the backlight works really well.

It looks like there could be a lot of interesting things on the horizon:

    Watchfaces augmented with data from the internet
    Remote controls for internet connected devices
    Multi-player Pebble games
    4sq/Facebook/Yelp Check-in Apps
    Sports/Weather/News/Traffic tickers
    Emergency beacon activator
    Deeper sports integration (skiing, hiking, surfing, tennis, soccer score keeping)!
    Bitcoin price trackers (most important watchapp?)

Exactly what I was about to write. Went back to my Nike Fuel band almost immediately. As a watch, it's just ok. Beyond that, it just isn't that useful. And as phones continue to get thinner and lighter -- I guess I don't see the point.

The Fuel Band is the worst watch I've ever owned. It drives me mad how many times I have to hit the button, and how long I have to wait, just to find out the time.

Fair point. In truth, I use my phone as my watch. I pretty much dont switch from Fuel reading on band.

I notice that the change between miles and kilometers will not work.

I love my pebble. It is exactly what I wanted from it.

Only problem? I need to turn the watch off during exams.

Yeah, exactly the same here, but i managed to dodge that, my red only arrived a couple of days ago and its lovely.

It is fantastic while maintaining a server, I have instant notification of any alerts on my servers no matter if I am on my computer or have my phone on me. Also with the newest additions to the software it is really cool to have for exercising. battery life lasts a week for me and I love that I can change watchfaces when I get bored of one.

I don't have it anymore. I sold it immediately, unopened. I was incredibly disappointed in the poor communication to the backers. I don't want to go into the discussion "backers are not customers", but regardless, the communication was poor and it turned me off from developing for the watch. When the SDK arrived, after very long silence, it seems to have contained what I had hoped for. But for me, it was too late.

I have mine and I like it.

However, I don't think the communication was poor at all - they have sent out 39 project updates over a year, which is almost one per week. Yes, the production was delayed and it took me 11 months to receive my Pebble after ordering, but that's reasonable considering the fact that I was backing the development of an untested and over-subscribed hardware product.

While production was delayed, software is another thing. I backed it for being able to program for. They never explained why being late in physical production meant they did not have to say anything about the software part.

Perhaps a few more details about what was poor about the communication? As a pebble backer myself, I had no issues with their level of communication.

I don't know what you were expecting. I was expecting information on their promise during the financing period. That included the fact that the SDK should be available to all backers as Pebble shipped. And some communication on its progress I took for granted, being part of the ride and being treated as someone that gets involved early. I expected updates on "with the SDK you will be able to do this and that", "now we have added this API, what do you think", "the SDK will be based on this toolchain and work on these platforms" etc. Nothing of this kind. I spent too much time with waiting for information from Pebble already, I don't think I will bother more.

Ok I am being downvoted for responding exactly with my experiences with Pebble. 11 months of waiting and abysmal communication from Pebble's part. SDK delivered in April while expected in August the previous year, but hardly addressed at all during the biweekly updates. Now they get millions in risk capital. I can see who was the useful fool here.

I am really enjoying mine. Even if it only ever allowed me to read text messages and see callerID it would be valuable to me. Of course I'm excited about the apps that are yet to be developed. I use Runkeeper now instead of Strava and Nike+ because of its Pebble integration. I'm hoping the Pebble will allow me to avoid having to buy a super expensive Triathlon watch.

I really don't have many complaints. The battery life is fine but then again I charge it every night on my nightstand. The construction is great and I especially appreciate the fact that I can swim with it on. I replaced the watch band with one I liked better so I'm glad I was able to do that.

I have had the watch become unpaired from my iPhone a couple times which is bad news since I turned off all sounds and vibrations on my phone since receiving my Pebble. But it hasn't happened for a long time now.

I'm excited to start developing apps for it, too. The two-way messaging they just added to the SDK is going to open up a world of possibilities.

All in all, I'm a very satisfied backer so far.

I'm hoping the Pebble will allow me to avoid having to buy a super expensive Triathlon watch.

You can get a Garmin GPS watch for about $100. Less than a Pebble, and you can take it swimming. I wouldn't recommend taking your phone in the pool. :) RunKeeper integration is cool, and handy for those that already use it (or for those that already carry a phone while running, which I don't). But I'm not ditching my Garmin FR610 just yet.

As for the unpairing problem, if it happens then I can never trust it. I had that happen a lot with my iPhone, but not with a Nexus running Android. Looks like a bug in iOS, but regardless of fault I can't trust it to keep me from missing phone calls or an email message when using iOS.

These things will get worked out eventually, but for now I view as a kind of neat, if not entirely reliable, gadget that happens to tell time. But that's just my use case, YMMV.

How are they "first mover"? There's been smart watches around for years. "Smart watch" gives over 1700 results on AliExpress, ranging from a ton of cheap java watches to smartphones in a watch.

Don't get me wrong, the Pebble looks great and the execution seems great in ters of creating a brand and a stylish product that makes these vastly more desirable than cheap Chinese java watches, and I'm sure there's a big opportunity there. But they're nowhere near first.

Technically, a first mover is the first company that occupies a significant niche or segment. The fact that it was not the absolute first to ever release a product doesn't take the first mover position from them (there were tons and tons of niche pens before BIC came along and defined the market, as the first mover, for instance)

I would love it if they would let me trade back my InPulse watch for a Pebble.

I like my Pebble a lot. A had Sony LiveView before it, and, even though it's not color, it cannot even be compared to it (I haven't seen the Sony SmartWatch though). Other grat things about it:

- managed to get 9.5 days out of the battery, having it connected to my phone only during the day

- there are some really cool watch faces available already

- the hardware packaged within is impressive, even if developers can't access it yet (compass, accelerometer, bluetooth 4.0).

I do think they might have trouble with their users hearts. If you read the comments on the Kickstarter campaign, they are filled with dissapointment regarding repeated delays and lack of communication. They haven't done a great job at keeping their backers informed.

It will be interesting to see what happens if rumored watches show up from larger companies. If that happens, I think Pebble is done. I have one, I like it (but I don't "love it!"). Pebble has demonstrated trouble with coordinating all of the moving pieces, from manufacturing to software and firmware. I don't fault them, it's a tough job, but their window is shrinking. At the moment they have yet to fulfill all of their Kickstarter backers, and I just don't see that happening until at least July.

Those 600 "apps" the article mentions? They're just watch faces (and a few small games, I guess). Those were built with an alpha version of the watch face SDK, with the warning that your watch could be bricked if you install any of those 600 "apps". A real SDK with two-way communication with the watch is nowhere to be seen.

Maybe that $15 million will allow them to get cracking on getting that SDK out the door. Without some real dev support, allowing them some real traction, I suspect they will suffer the same fate as Microsoft's SPOT watch.

The just released the two-way SDK today.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper...

They raised from CRV. George Zachary is one of the best VC guys in the valley. No matter what, he always replies to your email. You'll get a reply from him which might come 1-2 weeks later on Sunday midnight. Which means he is working all the time and tries to respond to everyone! Big congrats to the Pebble team from starting a whole new market segment with their vision starting from the kickstarter till the closing the round to all the stuff that they'll be doing in the future!

I'm strongly cross-dominant [1], I write left-handed and mouse right-handed (I also swing right-handed in baseball and golf, but box southpaw so go fig). As a result, I have no comfortable hand to wear a watch. In high school I got by with cheap pocket watches for awhile. But let's be honest, pocket watches are not a great fashion statement.

The mas market adoption of cell-phones was great for me, since they're essentially pocket watches with a phone (and now a computer) attached.

I've seen various smart watches over the years, but I inevitably fall back to "but I'd have to wear a watch".

1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dominance

I do some things right-handed, some left. I manage to get along with wristwatches just fine. They're going to occasionally get in the way regardless.

Yeah, it just turns out that all the things that require my wrist to be moving around on top of my desk I do with both hands. Dragging a wristwatch around gets old fast.

I would go as far as saying I am cross dominant, but I certainly have a weird mix in that regard. I tend to take watches off as soon as I am stationary (I've lost a few F-91W's this way). I guess you could just take the watch off when you sit down like myself.

Though to refer to your original comment I don't think you are too concerned either way.

Wow, I'm the same and never knew it had a name. I write left-handed use use a fork with my left-hand and generally consider myself left-handed. But, I throw right-handed and swing right-handed (although I became a decent switch hitter in little league, I had more power left-handed but more accuracy right-handed). Some tasks I have trouble picking a hand and go back and forth between the two. When I bowl (which is usually only about every 5 years or so) I spend the entire time switching between both hands to find one that feels more comfortable. I also pass a tennis racket from hand to hand depending on which side the ball is on, but I play ping-pong solely with my left hand. When I first started using computers in elementary school I made a conscious effort to use the mouse with my right hand because even then I knew that every computer I came to would have the mouse on the right side. However, I usually use a laptop trackpad with my left hand. I, like you, found wrist watches uncomfortable to use. I wore one in high school and always put it on my left wrist but I had to remove it every time I sat down to write or type. I think smart watches could have some useful applications, especially when cycling as a glance-able cycle-computer paired with a ride tracking app, but I just don't think I could put up with the pain of wearing a watch every day to get any benefit from one.

Yeah watches just ended up being a huge irritant to me as well. It bothered my father tremendously as he thinks not wearing a watch is a symbol of being a "layabout". But of course I always had a watch or clock on me or near me, just not a wrist watch.

I got a pebble to try to build a specific app: electronic leash (using bt 4.0le) to a phone and/or laptop. It's pretty easy to do electronic leash of a Mac laptop (or Linux, or Windows) using an iPhone; hard to do for the iPhone/iPad alone due to Apple. Presumably feasible to do on Android, but most hardware still seems to lack 4.0le, which would kill battery.

Wouldn't wear it as my watch in general. It's really "tall" (not thick, not wide) -- I have decent-sized wrists, and the watch still bumps against stuff more than what I wear otherwise. I really prefer metal-cased watches with deployment clasps and tritium gtls, too, which would be difficult to Pebble-ify. The pebble is really well made for a kickstarter'd consumer electronics device, and well made for any non-Apple consumer device in general, but it's still not quite a $100+ wristwatch mechanically or aesthetically.

Otherwise, the "show a notification" thing is interesting, but I can feel my iPhone vibrating in my pocket, so if I have a way to tune notifications (like dnd mode) and lock-screen viewable messages, it's pretty close. I'd still prefer the Pebble for quickly glancing on public transit, or in any situation where I'd feel uncomfortable taking out my phone.

Smart Watches are on my radar. We develop a lot of GPS type apps, so this sort of platform is an easy and natural shift for us. It seems like there is a lot of uses for smartwatches, from health and fitness, to productivity and and people management.

I think the watches will have a quicker start than the glasses out of the gate, and usher in the era of cyborgs. I'm not sure if there is iPhone-level of money for the first to reach the platform though. It's really PC, Internet, and iPhone sized shifts you get the most from recognizing.

I still can't see myself ever wearing one of these. It's cool and all and I would love to write some custom apps for it, but its just not there yet aesthetically.

In my opinion the Microsoft SPOT watches from 5+ years ago were more aesthetically pleasing than the pebble.

That is a very easy problem to solve from their standpoint. The next step after this first round of watches is to offer different styles, I'm sure.

I think a good combination might be Smart watches + Google Glass. Smart watches can provide more sophisticated input while glass provides great output and camera. I don't really see the value of a smart phone + smart watch combination.

You don't? The phone stays in your pocket and when you get notifications they go to a device that's strapped to your body- this describes Glass and Pebble. The watch and HUD both have poor res and inputs, things the phone does better. I think you'll see people using a phone+wearable a lot more frequently than two wearables.

How about getting alerts on your watch, while your phone is in your pocket? Or syncing your watch with your iPad after taking a run, over bluetooth, automatically? Or talk into your watch while your phone is a camera?

It's funny right, there was a time when investors didn't think smart watches were going to be of any interest to anyone; that was just a few years ago. This is really the difference between a visionary entrepreneur and the rest. Congrats Eric and the team, great job and looking forward to see what's to come. Pebble glasses, perhaps ?

I wouldn't call them first-movers because there are some companies including Nokia, Apple and Microsoft that already had a smartwatch project on hold.

Plus the fact that Pebble is focusing on sports watches.The others will focus on a full-featured smarwatch.

They are however the first the ship, and that's what counts

We will see in the near future I guess...

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