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Comment by 51Cards | Hacker News Reader

I had a Pebble bought for me as a gift and I have to admit, while I'm a technophile I did think it was gimmicky.

Count me as reformed; I fell in love with the Pebble quickly. Now I won't try to tell anyone that it is a do-all device but it has done two things for me.

A. Having notifications pop up on your wrist... priceless. I get email and texts constantly and when I am working on-site I don't have to keep pulling out my phone. I can assess quickly if it's something I need to take time to deal with. I now wonder how I did without this.

B. It has convinced me that this is going to be a very big thing in the future. I find I constantly want the Pebble to do more... like the Galaxy Gear does. I'm not advocating the Gear specifically, but I am saying that having a Pebble has convinced me that this is a mobile device interface (wrist mounted) I want to see mature and that I will be making a standard device type for me.

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Not trying to be snarky at all here, genuinely wondering what the advantages are as opposed to simply having your phone on your desk while you're working?

I mean if notifications are the primary feature (being connected 24x7 etc), isn't that the purpose of a smartphone after all? Why bring yet another device into the fray when it admittedly is a one-trick pony at this point of time?

I don't have a pebble, but I'd imagine for some people the phone is out of arm's reach or they have it on do not disturb / silent mode so notifications don't show up on the screen.

Not the parent, but for me I don't have to keep the phone on my desk at all. It can stay in my bag. That's actually less distracting since the notifications to my wrist can be filtered (only email and messages, only phone calls, or whatever). Parent mentioned working on-site, where the phone might be more likely to walk off if you forget to pick it up.

Is it revolutionary? Will it change your life? No, I don't share the same rosy view as the parent commenter. But I do find it handy, my phone stays in the bag most of the time, and I don't have to dig for it to find out that I need to pick up milk on the way home.

I keep my phone in my bag too, I don't always have pockets and girl pockets are small anyway. Watches definitely help in that case.

Also, I had an app which forwarded all phone notifications to the Pebble and it certainly helps you realise just how spammy the phone is. But it was useful for capturing things like bank app alerts, TripIt, Google Now, etc.

What's the range on the Bluetooth? Prob not enough to get notifications at one of those annoying parties where you have to place your phone in a bowl at the door so you aren't distracted during "people time". I can see it would be useful to surreptitiously receive new Tinder match notifications while on a Tinder date though.

Mine will quite happily work from the other side of my house or if I'm outside gardening or something, so 15m or so. Far enough so that I can out my phone in its dock and do stuff pretty much anywhere on my block and still get notifications.

In my case I don't work at a desk many days... I am walking around most of the day with my phone in a hip holster. During these days I am getting client emails and system alerts and Pebble saves me from pulling my phone out about 40 times a day to see why it just chimed at me.

When I am home I can also walk around the house and get alerts without having my phone on me which was also a surprise use case I hadn't expected.

It's a fair question, but for me moving notifications (vibration and tones) from my pocket to my wrist has been one of the best things to happen to my productivity this year.

My job is to give people I'm in conversation with my full attention. Getting texts or whatever used to completely destroy my ability to concentrate, and they are almost always useless — but not completely, preventing me from turning them off. With my Pebble, I can casually stretch and glance at my wrist to make sure that the house isn't on fire, and my client has no idea.

Likewise, I've never had a phone that vibrated strongly enough to get my attention when walking or biking. This is usually when all of the important calls would come in. Now the problem is solved.

http://hackertourism.com/watches

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