Pebble Time Smartwatch Receives Overwhelming Support On Kickstarter 141
DJAdapt writes: Pebble Time, the successor to the Pebble & Pebble Steel smartwatches, has gone up on crowdfunding site Kickstarter, hitting its $500,000 goal in 17 minutes and hitting the $2M mark in less than an hour. The new wearable is touting a color e-paper display and microphone for responding to notifications. It also has features Pebble users are already familiar with, such as seven days of battery life, water resistance, and an extensive library of watch faces and apps. Will any of you be jumping on this? Holding out for the Apple Watch? Waiting for wearables to get more capable?
Watches (Score:5, Insightful)
I freed myself from wearing a watch about 10 years ago. No longer having the familiar restraint around my wrist has made me feel free. I much prefer a phone in the pocket to a phone on my wrist.
Why we ever moved from pocket watches to wrist watches is a mystery to me.
Re:Watches (Score:5, Insightful)
Why we ever moved from pocket watches to wrist watches is a mystery to me.
Primarily because you can glance at a wristwatch without having a free hand or any specific clothing.
And you can also wear a wristwatch to bed. I like being able to see whether I can sleep for an hour more without fumbling around.
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You need one of those ceiling projector clocks. I've had one for years and it's the nuts. Just look at the ceiling to see the time.
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Sounds implausible. Only the officers would have needed to know what time the barrage would lift (or whatever) and they generally didn't carry rifles.
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Try strapping your watch on your right wrist (if you're right handed), and you'll understand why we carry them on our left wrists.
FTFM (Fixed that for myself)
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I'm left handed and I've always carried my watch on the left hand.
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Once again, the simple answer is the right one.
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I'm a left-handed person and I always wore watches on my left hand. First of all it didn't cause me any problems to do so. Second of all it would be awkward to operate the watch on the right hand, since button-placement is ergonomically better suited for wearing watch on the left hand and operating it with the right one. Try winding a "legacy" analog watch with your left hand, while wearing it on the right one. You can, but it's damn uncomfortable.
The o
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Wearing a watch in bed is idiotic. Your skin needs to breathe now and then. Do you wear your shoes to bed as well? You deserve also to wake up with the imprint of the watch on your forehead,.
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Wearing a watch in bed is idiotic. Your skin needs to breathe now and then.
That's two disjointed statements. Wearing a band that slides the width of the watch up and down makes skin breathing no issue at all. Not wearing an appropriate band is going to cause problems whether you sleep with the watch on or not.
Do you wear your shoes to bed as well?
What purpose would it have? Unlike a watch, which does tell the time, also in bed.
You deserve also to wake up with the imprint of the watch on your forehead,.
That says a lot more about your sleeping habits than mine.
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Because you can launch a synchronized attack from the trenches without everyone fumbling to stuff their watch back into a pocket. Then fashion took over.
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1) How often do you look at the time? I look twice a day tops, if at all.
2) Alarms are hard - why are you fumbling at all.
1: I have a job.
2: I tend to wake up several times before the alarm time. If it's just 15 minutes before, I get up; if longer, I stay in bed and try for some additional sleep.
Also, sometimes I sleep other places than where I have an alarm clock.
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Your phone doesn't already have alarm features? Couldn't you use that as your alarm clock and, when turning it off check to see if you need to get up or can sleep in? I mean, you are already reaching out of bed for your alarm anyway.
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Your phone doesn't already have alarm features? Couldn't you use that as your alarm clock and, when turning it off check to see if you need to get up or can sleep in?
No, it doesn't work that way. See, when the alarm goes off you know you cannot go back to sleep. That's kind of what the alarm is for. So when you turn it off it's always time to get up and never time to sleep in.
It's when you wake up without the alarm going off you may want to know what time it is, preferably without any fumbling that makes you more alert, nor noises waking partners, dogs, cats or walruses. All I have to do is lift one hand and open one eyelid and blissfully slip back to sleep. Tha
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You can't? I can always just set my alarm a little later and just close my eyes again. Guess everyone is different.
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Call me crazy, Mr Anon, but isn't while you are sleeping the BEST time to charge your phone? I know it is mine. When I go to bed, I make sure my alarm is on, my phone's 'block spam' feature is on and I plug it in to my charger. In the morning, I always have full charge and am woken by my alarm.
I have been using phones for my alarm clocks since my old nokia when I was in university. I have a job, sadly, posting on slashdot isn't it. Goodbye :)
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I work for a living. I would look at my watch at least 20-30 times a day at least as I record my activities so I can bill them to my customer.
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I work for a living. I would look at my watch at least 20-30 times a day at least as I record my activities so I can bill them to my customer.
You must not work with computers for a living - I would have the software record the time (date and elapsed for good measure) automatically.
But I'm lazy.
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"I freed myself from wearing a watch about 10 years ago. No longer having the familiar restraint around my wrist has made me feel free. I much prefer a phone in the pocket to a phone on my wrist."
And I felt the same way -- until I started wearing a pebble. I like keeping my phone in my pocket rather than taking it out 50+ times per day to see if an email or text is trivial or not.
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Here's a hint, they are all trivial. If someone can't be bothered to talk to you in person, it's probably not something that needs your attention immediately, if ever.
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Same here. I stopped wearing watches because I had allergic reactions to the metal, and for the past 15-20 years I used my cellphone as my watch instead. I don't often need to check the time, and when I do, odds are I'm behind a computer anyway. When I ordered my Pebble, I was a bit concerned because I didn't know how my skin would react to the plastic, but fortunately, the Pebble didn't provoke any reactions.
For me, the main benefits my Pebble brings to the table are moving the notifications out of my p
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sounds cool. does it work iwht iphone?
Re: Watches (Score:2)
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Same here. I stopped wearing watches because I had allergic reactions to the metal, and for the past 15-20 years I used my cellphone as my watch instead. I don't often need to check the time, and when I do, odds are I'm behind a computer anyway. When I ordered my Pebble, I was a bit concerned because I didn't know how my skin would react to the plastic, but fortunately, the Pebble didn't provoke any reactions.
You can easily replace the Pebble's watchband, as it is standard 22mm. I hated the original silicone watchband and bought a nice leather one on Amazon for $20. Now the Pebble feels and looks nicer.
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I simply set most notifications to silent and treat them like email, to be looked at when it suits me. The only ones that actually vibrate are ones I wish to read quickly, everyone else has to wait until it is convenient.
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I like keeping my phone in my pocket rather than taking it out 50+ times per day to see if an email or text is trivial or not.
This. I didn't realize how annoying it actually was until I didn't have to do it anymore. I like my current Pebble 2 quite a bit, and am looking forward to the Pebble 3.
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Re:Watches - Jewelry, Not Functionality (Score:5, Insightful)
There are some functional benefits to a wrist watch over a pocket watch such as the ability to tell the time even with your hands full, but really, watches (particularly at the higher end) are more about being a piece of jewelry than funcitonality. Consider the fact that a $10,000 Rolex or Omega automatic is typically substantially less accurate than a $100 Seiko with a quartz yet people still pay the substantial premium. Heck, I've found myself guilty of wearing an automatic watch set to the wrong time because I was in a rush in the morning and wanted to wear the watch for the look.
There's tons of better, more accurate sources to tell time, but people wear watches anyway. When you start viewing watches as just a piece of socially acceptable (typically male) jewelry, they tend to make much more sense.
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Recently, I saw a picture of a diamond-encrusted Apple watch band / case. I'm sure there will be a market for third parties, catering to people with more money than either common sense or fashion sense to 'improve' their smart watch in one way or the other.
Now that nobody has a 'classical' style computer, case modders have to go somewhere.
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Don't laugh. Turns out custom straps actually are quite important, and it's a mistake many Swiss watchmakers forget about. The fact that Apple provides a wide range from the get go signals other manufacturers to step their game up.
A horologist's take on t
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I freed myself from wearing a watch about 10 years ago. No longer having the familiar restraint around my wrist has made me feel free. I much prefer a phone in the pocket to a phone on my wrist.
Why we ever moved from pocket watches to wrist watches is a mystery to me.
The chances of my wristwatch battery dying (they last years between "charges"), or it automatically syncing to a new time zone (when I don't want it to), or contracting a virus (when I never want it to) are pretty much zero, and yet I've just described struggles people go through daily with their "watch". Why the hell would I subject myself to that when a wristwatch will pretty much just work non-stop.
You "freed" yourself, as if the burden of a wristwatch was akin to the struggle of enslaved African Americ
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Why we ever moved from pocket watches to wrist watches is a mystery to me.
Apparently, they were needed by pilots in the early era of flight. They needed to keep track of time, and at the same time they had to control the aircraft, which, at the time, was a hard physical work. So, wrist watches became a necessity, then cool, then a fashion item.
My intro to aerodynamics book told a story similar to this one: http://monochrome-watches.com/... [monochrome-watches.com]
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Same, but involuntarily, I developed extremely sensitivity to nickel. and could no longer wear anything on my wrist except gold or titanium. I bought skagen titanium watches, but first one they had used stainless steel for the claps, so it game me a horrible itch, next one the glass broke, and last one the latch broke. That some $300 wasted on low quality Danish junk that looks nice but can't stand up to normal wear. I still look for watches, but they all advertize their material for the face side. The bac
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I still prefer watches, but fancy one as in useful like the old school Casio Data Bank 150/300 watches. I wished smartwatches were like those without requiring those big phones.
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"No one has ever resisted looking at their phone... you can see the people just itching to check their texts. At least a watch is mildly intrusive."
Don't you just love it, when you give a speech and 2 dozen people are checking their watches every 30 seconds?
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some of us don't wear pants and it makes it a real pain to dig out our phones (think about this before you respond)
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You didn't think before you replied! I'm a lady!
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You didn't think before you replied! I'm a lady!
Well I suppose that smell is more bearable. Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Battery life (Score:1)
Waiting for a 2+ year battery life which is what I expect of my watches.
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>Waiting for a 2+ year battery life which is what I expect of my watches.
I assume you are joking? A "dumb" watch battery life can't be compared to a smart watch. And if you are seriously waiting for a year year battery life, you will be waiting decades (or longer). Of course, if all you want is time/date and maybe an alarm or stopwatch, then you should be fine with a traditional watch.
Meanwhile, I have been VERY happy with my Moto 360 and its 2-day battery life. As long as I can reliably get 24 hours
Re:Battery life (Score:4, Insightful)
I assume you are joking? A "dumb" watch battery life can't be compared to a smart watch.
Why not?
The smart watches just need to be far more frugal and, dare I say it, smart? Passive NFC powered devices already exist, for example.
A pacemaker can run 5-10 years on a battery. A wristwatch that mechanically moves hands and dials runs for years on a single battery.
Saying it can't be done is copping out. It's like saying we could never have an electric car that could go for 300 miles on a charge.
We can, and we should.
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I've got a very nice Tissot watch. It has touch screen, compass (yes it actually turns to point north), barometer, altimeter, stop watch, alarm, thermometer, and both physical hands and a little lcd display, it's also water resistant to 30m and is has a titanium body. (Yes it also does time and date).
If I want to make calls, check the weather forecast, or interface with other devices, I have a phone in my pocket. (which also does a lot of these functions, and is needed to make the pebble useful anyway).
Why
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A dumb watch has a hardware logic circuit to drive a segmented display. A smart watch has a general purpose CPU that has to render the time using a supplied font to the pixels of the display. This might be just a blit from a pre-rendered buffer, so long as the fonts align to the pixel grid. But even with a "paper" screen, the CPU is *always* going to be an order of magnitude more power hungry than a hardware implementation.
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Yes, an individual render operation is always going to be more expensive. But it's not necessary to always update the screen - given that watches are usually held in a specific orientation when being read, you could easily reduce power consumption by an order of magnitude if you only rendered the time when it was actually being read. There's also the possibility of drawing power from the wearer's movement, similar to an automatic.
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Passive NFC powered devices already exist, for example.
Radio transmissions obey the inverse square law, so the amount of energy you receive rapidly decreases as distance increases. That's why RFID devices only work at extremely short range, typically less than 2cm. If you wanted to keep your phone in your pocket it would either need to send out extremely powerful transmissions or the watch would need an extremely large antenna to receive enough energy to do anything useful.
Can't change the laws of physics, captain.
A pacemaker can run 5-10 years on a battery. A wristwatch that mechanically moves hands and dials runs for years on a single battery.
You make a very common mistake which is to vast
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That is not a real smart watch. There is no matrix display, no text, graphics, no apps. I wouldn't be able to see my appointments, no notifications, no weather info, no Email, no voice response, no wikipedia lookup, just time.
Why is this charity? (Score:2)
Every person contributing gets a watch (there are no "supporter only" level tiers in this one). That's not a charity; that's a pre-order.
I don't see why there's anything wrong with this. Everyone can see enough money is going in that pre-orders will be fulfilled. The company can see that enough pre-orders are in place that they can begin an earlier run of production.
To me using Kickstarter for a pre-order of a product is LESS "douchey" than putting up a pre-order payment form on your website that is coll
The assurance is historical (Score:2)
There are no "assurances" from Kickstarter (nor should there ever be; that is why the system works).
The assurance for me as a backer of the Pebble Time comes in the form that (A) they have produced products from a Kickstarter before, combined with (B) each person contributing is paying a realistic sum of money to receive a product, and there are enough people already committed that the production will go forward.
Supporting every Kickstarter is a matter of risk assessment. I'm just saying that the risk of n
The difference is tangible (Score:2)
In other words, the only thing that makes preordering shit on kickstarter "less douchey" than preordering shit on another random website...
Is as mentioned; the fact that you can see the level of financial support for pre-orders, and the other aspect is that if there is not enough support they do not get your money. With a pre-order form on any other website when they have collected my money it's much harder to get it back, even if they fail to deliver.
Why do you continue to deny this simple but significant
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I think I'm not the one who brought up the douche.
Um, you "think"?????!?!?! It seems like something you would know if you had written.
Apparently your personal Pebble
Don't own a Pebble (yet). The Pebble Time is a much more compelling device, with it's Time Stream (or whatever they call it) feature especially interesting since it's something unique to that device, I also like the inherent neutrality of the company supporting both iOS and Android and having a full and at this point well-used SDK.
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I had you pegged as Apple iWatch all the way. With the release less than two months away, what is it about the Pebble that's got you wavering?
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I'm not wavering; I'm also getting an Apple Watch. Honestly I think both may be useful in different circumstances; possibly the Pebble Time "past/now/future" thing may be a better UI for a watch.
I want to use both and see which idea ends up working better for me, or even if they just are useful for different things and I use them interchangeably. Lots of people own more than one "real" watch, why can't the same be true for smart watches (well, beyond the obvious drawback of cost - but then a Pebble Time a
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I can dig it. I'm a big fan of eInk as well.
I'll keep an eye out for any head-to-head comparison post iWatch launch -- the crown bit has piqued my curiosity.
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Read that again - and again and again. Do you even english?
Did it not strike you that the first sentence is talking about a companies own web page (i.e. not Kickstarter), the second is about Kickstarter? No? Nothing there? Blank stare? Ok then...
Slashdot - come for the trolls, stay for the amusing lack of reading comprehension!
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People exploit it for pre-sales too.
Already in it (Score:5, Informative)
The fact it's well on its way to beat all previous Kickstarters by a long stretch should be a testament to the fact that yes, people want smartwatches, but not necessarily any sort of smartwatch. For me, Wear devices are automatically out because they have poor battery life and their screen shuts down while inactive on top of being not great to read in the sun. A smartwatch should be usable in all situations a normal watch is, at the very least, and the battery should be long enough that you can make a trip for a few days without worrying about a charger. The Pebble guys seem to have understood this, and it's paying off.
I'm in also (Score:3)
I also joined in because I want to support the tech of color eInk.
And I really liked the idea of a UI based on time for a watch, being able to scroll forward or backwards in time...
It will be really interesting to compare this with the Apple Watch, which I also plan to get. It will be very interesting to see which resonates more with the public - a more polished experience, or a much stronger battery life?
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Good to see there are people to whom buying cheap trinkets is a matter of personal pride and sense of achievement. It is because of heroes of conspicuous consumption like yourselves that the capitalism and the global warming are strong, and the rivers in China run in all colors. Keep up the good work, you're what your watch.
Achievement is real (Score:2)
Good to see there are people to whom buying cheap trinkets is a matter of personal pride and sense of achievement.
The achievement is not in the trinket; it is in the advancement of technology generally. I don't care for trinkets, I care for things I buy to be useful tools. It may or may not be, but as a side effect I support color eInk which is a technology I hope spreads to other products because I like the qualities it offers.
It is because of heroes of conspicuous consumption like yourselves that the ca
The Other Shoe (Score:1)
The joke's on you here as well, I'm wearing a watch that doesn't need electricity.
A) I'm pretty sure it required electricity to manufacture.
B) Whatever you are typing on also requires electricity.
C (most important)) The eco-crime you have committed is not specifically in *a* watch. It is in your failure to support technology which enables a vast worldwide savings of electricity by consumers that were going to have an electric watch one way or another. By backing the further use of iInk I am encouraging te
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A) I'm pretty sure it required electricity to manufacture
Good to know you think Pebble is made by fairies and involves no electricity and no electronic components, which manufacturing is one of the most polluting industries ever. You're what, 14 and in a school with emphasis on the arts?
B) Whatever you are typing on also requires electricity.
Yes, environmental-friendly nuclear, nothing to do with the coal power you're using.
It is in your failure to support technology which enables a vast worldwide savings of electricity
[citation_needed] with numbers on the full ecological impact of Pebble watches on the environment, or GTFO. You can GTFO right away, because nothing Pebble does is "supporting technology".
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(A) you missed point C. Remember I said C was the most important.
(B) Natural gas actually, but it's not like I can build a nuclear reactor myself and again it's not (C). I do promote nuclear power at every opportunity though so I applaud that.
(C) (still most important) I'm talking future numbers which are inherently unquantifiable until the future becomes present.
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Remember I said C was the most important.
I'm talking future numbers which are inherently unquantifiable until the future becomes present.
In other words, you can't justify your crap in any reasonable way, but you think it is important? You must be the master logician in your mom's basement.
Natural gas actually
Same thing, global warming. Exactly opposite to what I have.
you missed point C
You never made a point that could be missed. See above.
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In other words, you can't justify your crap in any reasonable way
I already did with point C - you are at this point mis-directing because you feel shame about your eco-crime to future humanity.
Same thing, global warming.
But not coal, which was your presumption. Your in admission to admit when you are wrong loses you any points gained by using clean reliable nuclear power.
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I already did with point C - you are at this point mis-directing
No, you didn't, you said "the future will prove me right". That's a misdirection, if there ever was one. ;)
But not coal, which was your presumption.
Nope, my presumption was contribution to global warming and pollution, to which your Pebble contributes, and my 1910 Omega doesn't. Check your reading comprehension, you seemed so proud of it, and yet you need to work on it badly. ;)
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What I would really like to see if the same colour e-paper available as an SPI-driven module for the maker community (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc).
After watching the Pebble Time video on Kickstarter, I'm wondering why we haven't heard of any advances on colour e-paper in such a long time. The previous colour e-paper displays had weak, almost pastel-like, washed-out colours and had a slow refresh but this new display seems to have amazingly rich colours and a really fast refresh speed.
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I'd like to see a bigger, super-widescreen version of this thing. Even with only 64 colours, with the same DPI it would be nice for dynamic arcade cabinet marquees.
Hell, make them ultra-big and give us the ability to free-form cut three sides and the length of the side with the controller and we could have full-side artwork cut to the profile of the cabinet, too.
What I wonder is, how much would it cost at those sizes.
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I love my Garmin (Score:2)
I love my Garmin Fenix2. Accurate Heart Rate Sensing, GPS, swim stroke analysis, power meter, plus it keeps time pretty well. 7 Days of Battery Life, 24+ hours of continuous data collection. I'm eagerly looking forward to the Fenix3.
Prior to that, I'm normally a bit fan of purely analog for the watch.
Brightness? (Score:4, Interesting)
(The first generation pebble has a pretty low contrast ratio too, using a Memory LCD screen -- not true e-ink, although it was advertised as such)
That said, the new model does look interesting.
They'll deliver too... (Score:1)
Kickstarter should only ever be used for new projects. Established businesses, artists, engineers, etc should not be allowed to sully the waters for people or projects that could legitimately use it.
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So what you're saying is one of the world's most successful smart watch manufacturers, with a healthy cash flow and established production and retail channels shouldn't be using kickstarter to launch their third generation device?
No (Score:2)
Will any of you be jumping on this?
NO
Holding out for the Apple Watch?
NO
Waiting for wearables to get more capable?
NO
I still wear a nice Tag watch, but it is more bling than an essential, I "currently" see no value in a smartwatch over my smartphone which I always have with me anyway and my phone has a much better size screen.
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I "currently" see no value in a smartwatch over my smartphone
I agree completely. I also have and love my current (Pebble) smartwatch. It's an accessory, not a replacement.
I also currently see no value in a bluetooth headset over my smartphone, but I've got one of those too.
Jail (Score:1)
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Re:Jail (Score:4, Funny)
If you are an American, I can understand this sentiment completely. Given the lack of affordable health care, especially psychiatric care (do you have "Poor Impulse Control" tattooed on your forehead?), the penal system is perhaps the best option for getting the help that you clearly need.
USA! USA!
7 days runtime (Score:1)
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No watch, no phone (Score:2)
Lifestream (Score:1)
As the current owner of a Pebble... (Score:2)
It's a nice upgrade (Score:1)
The original Pebble won (Score:2)
I was a supporter of the original pebble, and I still love it. I feel no need to replace it with anything else because it already does everything I want. Also, it looks like the new one is slightly bigger, which makes me less interested. However, I support the company, and like their general philosophy -- that the watch should supplement, not replace your phone. I like the 7-day battery life, and the ability to read the thing even in direct sunlight.
I don't see a strong need for color, but as long as it loo