They're shifting their focus to health, which really concerns me. I've been a Pebble user since day 1 and mostly love the idea of smart watches because they can be a very easy way to get information. Unfortunately, Apple is keeping their API's closed off, because of which Pebble is crippled on iOS. I have the feeling that this lack of good integration is forcing them to focus on health.
Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff
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Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff
#12I never understood the appeal of smart watches. Aren't they like tiny screens for the phone in your pocket? Why can't you just use the phone? I don't own a smart phone either, but I understand why you would want one. But with smart watches I'm at a complete loss.
Can some smart watch owner please explain what they like about having the watch?
Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff
#13If they could get rid of that horrible bezel design, more people would probably buy their product. I still can't understand how they shipped the round with that HUGE bezel. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?! Did no one want to tell Eric that that was a bad idea or was he just stubborn in wanting to ship it like that? Also, what was up with their terrible website design? SEE THIS FOR CONTEXT --> https://web.archive.org/web/201…
Lots of the smartwatch manufacturers appear to have engineers and designers who've never actually used watches all that much. The Fitbit is another great example of hardware fail: both of my parents and one of my brothers bought a Fitbit Surge about a year ago. In the last month, the strap broke on all three. Well, that's typical for a plastic strap watch, just buy a new strap. Oh no, the strap actually contains antennas and stuff, so you can't! So all three were returned to the shop as warranty claims. Thanks to good consumer protection laws, my parents got Samsung Gear, and my brother a Garmin, instead of defectively designed hardware. The man at the shop said they were getting Fitbit returns at a rate of about five a week.
Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff
#14It's like building a company around Tamagotchi only without something as revolutionary.
Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff
#15I never understood the appeal of smart watches. Aren't they like tiny screens for the phone in your pocket? Why can't you just use the phone? I don't own a smart phone either, but I understand why you would want one. But with smart watches I'm at a complete loss. Can some smart watch owner please explain what they like about having the watch?
> Can some smart watch owner please explain what they like about having the watch?
I ended up abandoning the platform for various reasons, but
1. It stopped my phantom leg tingle, where I'd feel like my phone was vibrating. This was a huge psychological plus for me.
2. It's a lot less intrusive to check my watch socially than it is to pull out my phone, unlock it, drag down the blind, check the notification, etc.
3. Being able to change the watch face on a whim was really appealing. I loved having a quick way to check the time/date/next train.
4. The voice reply was useful when I had my hands full, but I only really used it a dozen or so times.
Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff
#16I never understood the appeal of smart watches. Aren't they like tiny screens for the phone in your pocket? Why can't you just use the phone? I don't own a smart phone either, but I understand why you would want one. But with smart watches I'm at a complete loss. Can some smart watch owner please explain what they like about having the watch?
It is indeed a tiny screen for the phone in my pocket, which allows me to interact with my phone without necessarily having to take it out. Here's a few ways in which I use it:
* In the kitchen to time cooking, to save getting half cooked food on my phone.
* To have a quick glance at incoming notifications while walking.
* To send quick replies to some of those notifications. * To check the time (its not only a smart watch, but also just a watch).
* To track how much sleep I'm getting, and the quality of that sleep.
* To track my exercise, both while running with real time information from my phone, and passively tracking how much walking I do.
* To control music I'm listening to in the shower.
* To give me at a glance directions when Google Maps is navigating for me, rather than walking around staring at my phone.
Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff
#17I never understood the appeal of smart watches. Aren't they like tiny screens for the phone in your pocket? Why can't you just use the phone? I don't own a smart phone either, but I understand why you would want one. But with smart watches I'm at a complete loss. Can some smart watch owner please explain what they like about having the watch?
It is indeed a tiny screen for the phone in my pocket, which allows me to interact with my phone without necessarily having to take it out. Here's a few ways in which I use it: * In the kitchen to time cooking, to save getting half cooked food on my phone. * To have a quick glance at incoming notifications while walking. * To send quick replies to some of those notifications. * To check the time (its not only a smart…
> To control music I'm listening to in the shower.
what
Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is indeed a tiny screen for the phone in my pocket, which allows me to interact with my phone without necessarily having to take it out. Here's a few ways in which I use it: * In the kitchen to time cooking, to save getting half cooked food on my phone. * To have a quick glance at incoming notifications while walking. * To send quick replies to some of those notifications. * To check the time (its not only a smart…
> To control music I'm listening to in the shower. what
It wasn't until college when I discovered this, but a lot of people (not necessarily a majority) listen to music in the shower. I thought it was pretty weird until I saw this multiple times.
Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff
#19I never understood the appeal of smart watches. Aren't they like tiny screens for the phone in your pocket? Why can't you just use the phone? I don't own a smart phone either, but I understand why you would want one. But with smart watches I'm at a complete loss. Can some smart watch owner please explain what they like about having the watch?
> Can some smart watch owner please explain what they like about having the watch? I ended up abandoning the platform for various reasons, but 1. It stopped my phantom leg tingle, where I'd feel like my phone was vibrating. This was a huge psychological plus for me. 2. It's a lot less intrusive to check my watch socially than it is to pull out my phone, unlock it, drag down the blind, check the notification, etc. 3.…
To your second point, I have grown up with smartphones around me for close to half my life and in my peer group it isn't considered rude to occasionally check your phone and maybe peck out a quick response. By contrast, I've found that people with smartwatches are often looking at their watch, which is a gesture that is hardwired in my brain to mean "what time is it"/"I'm in a hurry"/"you're wasting my time". It's a very subtle thing, to the point where it has made me mildly anxious about interactions without consciously understanding why. If smartwatches really catch on, it will take time for me to mentally re-bind that gesture to mean something less rude.
Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff
#20I never understood the appeal of smart watches. Aren't they like tiny screens for the phone in your pocket? Why can't you just use the phone? I don't own a smart phone either, but I understand why you would want one. But with smart watches I'm at a complete loss. Can some smart watch owner please explain what they like about having the watch?
It is indeed a tiny screen for the phone in my pocket, which allows me to interact with my phone without necessarily having to take it out. Here's a few ways in which I use it: * In the kitchen to time cooking, to save getting half cooked food on my phone. * To have a quick glance at incoming notifications while walking. * To send quick replies to some of those notifications. * To check the time (its not only a smart…
> allows me to interact with my phone without necessarily having to take it out
No offence, I'm sure you love this device, but to me this sounds like a wafer-thin marginal improvement that does not seem worth the effort required to keep yet ANOTHER device charged. Seriously, we're talking 2 seconds saved per look? If the argument is "it adds up", you're looking at you smart device (phone or watch) too much! With the watch you then you have to decide whether or not to take your phone and fiddle with it. IMHO everything on this list works as I want with a phone, except checking the time, so I have a Swatch from 2004 for that (which has a replaceable batteries that lasts years each).
Smart watches as they currently exist fulfill a manufactured desire (again, IMHO!)