Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 72 posts

Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff

#21

Post by david-given »

I just bought a PTS, to replace an LG G Android Wear watch which I can no longer stand.

It's slightly terrifying how much better the PTS is that the G, in every possible aspect, despite technically being worse. It's got less RAM, it's got a slower processor, it's got a smaller screen, it doesn't have a touchscreen... but somehow it ends up being a vastly nicer and more useful thing than the G.

I think that partly it's to do with different expectations. The PTS feels like a watch with lots of cool features. The Wear feels like a lobotomised smartphone which would frustrate me every time I use it.

But there's a lot of really careful design in the Pebble which is missing from the G. The UI is amazingly fast --- you never have to wait for it, ever (unlike the G). It's well designed and I can find things, unlike the G with it's weird U-shaped settings menu. I control it by pressing buttons, which is fast and reliable and, critically, means that the screen's not covered by my fingers; the G was controlled by sloppy touchscreen swipes that it wasn't very good at recognising.

Also, the PTS has a 10-day battery life and a screen that I can see in direct sunlight.

(The PTS screen is a thing of beauty. It's a reflective Sharp Memory LCD, and you can see it in direct sunlight. Like, it looks really good in direct sunlight. The colours have this metallic tint to them which the UI design shows off nicely. It's small, but so, so much nicer than the G's screen.)

Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff

#22

Post by thraxil »

adrianN wrote: post #12

I 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?

* When a call comes in, I can see at a glance who's calling and dismiss the call without taking my phone out of my pocket and carefully do the right swipe gesture to dismiss the call without accidentally picking it up.

Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff

#23

Post by saw-lau »

adrianN wrote: post #12

I 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?

I love my Apple Watch, but have to admit I mainly use it... as a (beautiful, IMHO) watch.

Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff

#24

Post by david-given »

hauget wrote: post #4

If 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…

It's a bit unfair to link to a version of their page which is two years old --- the current one is completely different.

As for the bezel... it's not actually a big deal in real life. It looks way worse in photos. I was concerned until I had a chance to hold one in my hands. I think it's because that watch interactions tend to involve very focused attention for very close up. If you get a chance to try one in real life, I'd recommend it (actually put it on).

I imagine the reason for it is simply that Sharp Memory LCDs don't come in very many sizes and they need somewhere to put the works; i.e., a technical compromise.

(I would much rather have the small Sharp screen that a bigger OLED. You have no idea how much nicer the Sharp screen is.)

Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff

#25

Post by mikekchar »

hkmurakami wrote: post #3

>Smartwatch pioneer Pebble is laying off 25 percent of its staff amid increased financial concerns. >letting 40 of Pebble’s 120 employees go. What the math?

No idea, but is it possible there were actually 160 employees and the count after layoff was 120 employees? That would be 25%.

Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff

#26

Post by [deleted] »

argonaut wrote: post #18
malinens wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

[deleted]

Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff

#27

Post by Disruptive_Dave »

argonaut wrote: post #18
malinens wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I never knew this was considered weird until right now. Music + Shower = Glorious Morning.

Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff

#28

Post by mirsadm »

adrianN wrote: post #12

I 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?

I've got an Android Wear device that sits in a drawer because it is pretty useless. Charging it every night is more hassle than it's worth. I don't like wearing watches though. However now I wear a fitness tracker (Garmin Forerunner 235) because it is useful to me. It lasts 5 days on battery, it has GPS built in so I don't take my phone when I run anymore, it tracks my sleep and has all day HR monitoring and best of all it connects to my cycling sensors so it replaces my cycling computer.

It also has basic notification support but that is the least useful part. Getting notifications on a watch saves me about 2 seconds and is not worth wearing a watch and charging it every night.

Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff

#29

Post by teekert »

david-given wrote: post #21

I just bought a PTS, to replace an LG G Android Wear watch which I can no longer stand. It's slightly terrifying how much better the PTS is that the G, in every possible aspect, despite technically being worse. It's got less RAM, it's got a slower processor, it's got a smaller screen, it doesn't have a touchscreen... but somehow it ends up being a vastly nicer and more useful thing than the G. I think that partly it'…

I agree, my pts feels like a nice watch, a good watch with well visible screen in any conditions. What you get extra is: Notification, alarms, bike computer, ski-tracker, music controller (includes Sonos), step counter, sleep tracker. Mine consistently gets a 12 day battery life. It can even be stretched to 14 probably because at the end it goes into watch only mode. I love it much more than I could have imagined in advance. Just expect a nice watch, not a small smartphone. I even got it becuase I wanted a watch, my alternative was a Casio with some features.

I use my phone in a very different way now, I hardly turn on the screen anymore. I see if something is important right away (usually it is not) and I can leave it until I'm on the train for example.

Re: Smartwatch firm Pebble lays off 25% of its staff

#30

Post by hemdawgz »

verytrivial wrote: post #20
jon-wood wrote: post #16

Earlier 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…

> 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…

I don't know how much time it really saves me, but in addition to the convenience I find it much less intrusive (e.g. in meetings or other social situations, or when walking) to quickly glance at my watch to read an incoming notification rather than pulling my phone out.
Post reply on HN