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Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]

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Re: Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]

#161
post #99

Looks great! The very first Pebble was actually instrumental in building digitalocean - I met them at MLH hackathon at CalTech and forced one of the founders to sell me a demo unit- all I used it for was notifications on the digitalocean twitter and outages pushed from slack, I tried to reply to every single tweet at us immediately. A little memento of when I hired Mikeal Rogers: https://s.h4x.club/4guEJN95 Funny, no…

Agreed. I'd kill for a watch that you could hold all notifications until you decided to receive them all, ideally at a slow pace over a period of time. For now, I disable notifications but it's a shame I can't access them when I'm ready to do so. I have hopes for this pebble!

Apple's Focus settings let you set up special allow/deny lists for notifications and the notifications come in when you disable the focus. Unfortunately they don't have separate watch/phone settings on this although you can block apps from being able to notify on watch at all, ever. This is how mine is set, pretty much I only allow watch notifications for navigation, phone calls/DMs from known contacts.

Re: Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]

#162
post #61

What is the use-case now in 2025 for an e-ink watch? I have a Garmin Epix pro gen 2 which gets about a month of battery life and has a gorgeous AMOLED, has profiles for pretty much every sport ever invented, incredibly accurate GPS tracking, all day HR-tracking, ECG etc. I understand it's about 4x the price, but there's also lower-end Garmin's that are about 2x the price with the same screen, slightly less features a…

This is off topic, as the Pebble doesn't really aim at a use case I care about. Navigation and tracking of hikes and other daytime outdoor activity is my use case. Automatic illumination has never worked well for me on any watch. It seems I just don't roll my wrist to view the screen the way other people do, so this heuristic fails badly for me. I often read my watches via ambient light and the light hasn't triggered…

Same. Amoled watches feel like TEXT IN ALL CAPS to me, screaming for attention when all they should do is make information available, vs force-feeding data. For attention, there's the vibration buzzer (which I absolutely love, so much more personal than a phone jumping around on the table)

Re: Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]

#163
I love the idea of having it, but as with every watch I ever had, I wear it, put it to charge and then eventually forget it exists. I have a couple of "smart" watches just taking space in the drawer. Probably one I worn the most was just the Casio F-91W. I think the idea of having to charge the watch (means taking it off and not wearing it for a while) breaks the "connection".

Then another thing is that I always have a phone with me, so I just reach for it to check what time it is.

What would you use this watch for?

Re: Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]

#164

Why would anyone support this knowing how it went the last time? Eric isn't in this because he want you to have a better watch, he is in this so he can sell you out at the first opportunity. It may not be FitBit or Automattic this time, but that's just what he does.

> Why would anyone support this knowing how it went the last time?

"How it went"? Seriously?

What about this: the Apple Watch Series 0 up to 3 no longer work with modern iPhones (or Android, anyways). Series 2 and 3 were released after Pebble went out of business.

And I still can use my old Pebbles with Android's latest phones.

TL;DR: Pebble's "sell you out" worked better than Apple's "sticking with you".

Re: Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]

#165
post #61

What is the use-case now in 2025 for an e-ink watch? I have a Garmin Epix pro gen 2 which gets about a month of battery life and has a gorgeous AMOLED, has profiles for pretty much every sport ever invented, incredibly accurate GPS tracking, all day HR-tracking, ECG etc. I understand it's about 4x the price, but there's also lower-end Garmin's that are about 2x the price with the same screen, slightly less features a…

Wait an AMOLED with 30 days of battery life? Why/how can my Apple Watch barely make it through 24 hours? What’s the fundamental difference between these two smartwatches that accounts for a 30× decrease in battery life?

The Apple Watch feels like it's designed as a very small iPhone. It has a lot of unnecessary functionality on-device, like email, a separate iMessage client, and its own Focus settings, which can sync to the iPhone, possibly as a requirement to make the watch operate independently. All these things take up battery power.

Also, Apple sees no benefit having their watches last longer, so they're adding features instead of optimizing them, as long as it hits 18 hours or so.

Re: Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]

#166
post #49

For those confused like I was: - Pebble 2 Duo: $149, B&W, original Pebble look - Pebble Time 2: $225, color, new round square look * both with intended IPX8, 30-day battery, "e-paper" aka gameboy style LCD, suite of sensors, Pebble app compatibility

Did they give up on the “Core” branding?

When I was looking at this a month ago it was the “Core 2 Duo”

https://ericmigi.com/blog/introducing-two-new-pebbleos-watch...

Maybe Intel had a word?

Re: Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]

#167
post #49

For those confused like I was: - Pebble 2 Duo: $149, B&W, original Pebble look - Pebble Time 2: $225, color, new round square look * both with intended IPX8, 30-day battery, "e-paper" aka gameboy style LCD, suite of sensors, Pebble app compatibility

Did they give up on the “Core” branding? When I was looking at this a month ago it was the “Core 2 Duo” https://ericmigi.com/blog/introducing-two-new-pebbleos-watch... Maybe Intel had a word?

They recently recovered the 'Pebble' trademark and thus rebranded: https://ericmigi.com/blog/july-pebble-update

Re: Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]

#168
post #61

What is the use-case now in 2025 for an e-ink watch? I have a Garmin Epix pro gen 2 which gets about a month of battery life and has a gorgeous AMOLED, has profiles for pretty much every sport ever invented, incredibly accurate GPS tracking, all day HR-tracking, ECG etc. I understand it's about 4x the price, but there's also lower-end Garmin's that are about 2x the price with the same screen, slightly less features a…

The Garmin is a sports watch, the use case is for people who want a smartwatch that is not a sports watch. Why pay 4x or even 2x the price for features you don't need?

In fact, I am tempted by the Pebble Core 2 (which is the lower-end version) because it ticks all the boxes: affordable ($150), supports notifications, vibration, good battery life (30 days), and of course it tells the time. It is also one of the most open smart watch platforms.

I am not a competitive athlete, I don't need a detailed report of my physical activity, and my idea of health is not chasing numbers unless it comes from a prescription. Not saying it is wrong, it is just not my thing. As for GPS tracking, it is a nice feature, but AFAIK, Pebble watches can use the GPS in your phone to do some limited navigation.

Pebble watches still have some basic health tracking features, like step counting, sleep tracking, heart rate. All probably inaccurate like for most watches, but considering how cheap these things are, why not put them in.

Re: Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]

#169
post #61

What is the use-case now in 2025 for an e-ink watch? I have a Garmin Epix pro gen 2 which gets about a month of battery life and has a gorgeous AMOLED, has profiles for pretty much every sport ever invented, incredibly accurate GPS tracking, all day HR-tracking, ECG etc. I understand it's about 4x the price, but there's also lower-end Garmin's that are about 2x the price with the same screen, slightly less features a…

Citation needed; that Garmin watch cited claims about 30 hours of life unless the screen is mostly off and you severely hamper the features (i.e. "smartwatch mode"). I wont doubt you can get it to last weeks like that.

These devices are able to always show the display, don't need to turn off features, can still show notifications, etc.

Re: Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]

#170
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait an AMOLED with 30 days of battery life? Why/how can my Apple Watch barely make it through 24 hours? What’s the fundamental difference between these two smartwatches that accounts for a 30× decrease in battery life?

The Apple Watch feels like it's designed as a very small iPhone. It has a lot of unnecessary functionality on-device, like email, a separate iMessage client, and its own Focus settings, which can sync to the iPhone, possibly as a requirement to make the watch operate independently. All these things take up battery power. Also, Apple sees no benefit having their watches last longer, so they're adding features instead…

Yea I see the Apple Watch an extension of iPhone. It's an accessory that integrates with the ecosystem and offers conveniences. I see it as a different product with different use cases that other competing watches.

For most people, the batter is enough for the day of an average use and they charge it at night with their phones.

I don't know about the Apple Watch Ultra 2 however and how it compares.

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