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Introducing Pebble Time

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Re: Introducing Pebble Time

#121

Post by TeMPOraL »

eloisant wrote: post #78
mbesto wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is way more common than you think. The most successful kickstarter campaigns usually have their demand already assessed (the number I've heard is usually 25%) before launching.

So you're saying successful "campaigns" are simply the ones using kickstarter as a pre-ordering platform? That's very sad.

Kickstarter seems to be considered mostly as a marketing tool by startups nowadays. My friend and his hardware company is in the middle of a campaign right now and he told me that they aren't really hoping for much more than breaking even - they're doing it just for marketing and thus increasing the amount of money they can raise from investors.

Re: Introducing Pebble Time

#124

Post by jscheel »

I'm still rocking my original Pebble. I really wanted to upgrade to the Steel, but I figured I would just wait for the 2nd (3rd?) gen. to come out. Now it looks like I'll be waiting even longer, until they come out with the TimeSteel, or whatever they will call it. Kudos on the awesome updates, but the watch body just looks terrible to me. BTW, they raised a cool $100k in the time it took me to watch the video. That's just crazysauce.

Re: Introducing Pebble Time

#126

Post by nsxwolf »

djim wrote: post #107
nsxwolf wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But probably more than the almost-a-day the Apple Watch is likely going to get. Being able to sleep with your watch on most nights of the week is a bigger deal than a lot of people realize.

personally, i don't like wearing my watch when i sleep.

There's still the drag of having to remember to recharge it every night, even if you're taking it off.

I experience this now that I've gone from the XBox 360 to the PS4. The XBox 360 battery lasted what seemed like forever. I would go a week or two without even thinking of plugging it in to charge. The PS4 controller battery life is so bad you have to plug it back in every time you're done playing.

I've had many people say "what's the big deal, just plug it in, are you lazy or what", but it is noticeably irritating.

Re: Introducing Pebble Time

#127

Post by jkestner »

M4v3R wrote: post #8
arrrg wrote: post #6

It's a bland gadget. I'm really not sure about that approach. It's so cheap and uninspired. Whatever you think about the overall shape of the Apple Watch, at least it's not a bland gadget. It seems to pay meticulous attention to all the micro details that make jewelry jewlery and not a bland tech toy. (Seems to because obviously no one has looked at it in detail. But first indications are good.) This one does not. I'…

They seem to care about the technology side more. Plus, once you get this right, you can work on your casings to sell it to people that do care about it more. Also, this is what they've done with the first Pebble - first the initial, plastic one, and only after - Pebble steel.

Exactly, a tick/tock product cycle. Apple does the flip of this - using the same case for two models, with different internals. Though they start with the high-end model. Are there as many examples of working your way upmarket?

I think it may also be due to costs. The color e-paper screen obviously costs more, and perhaps a full Steel model would teeter within range of the fashion smart watches (including Apple Watch Sport), where the comparison would be less flattering.

Re: Introducing Pebble Time

#128

Post by TeMPOraL »

georgeecollins wrote: post #49

What I think is good about this is that they are thinking of a new paradigm for UI on a wearable. For Android Wear devices it feels like Google just decided that voice was going to take care of UI, and no decisions about physical controls needed to be made. But there are two problems: voice isn't that reliable, and more importantly, there are a lot of situations where you want to use your watch but not talk to it.

I agree. Voice control in the Apple/Android paradigm is... weird. Talking to the phone, requiring Internet connection, unusable on a busy street. Take out the phone, unlock it, move it in front of your face (now I can't see a thing and start bumping into people), "ok Google", say it again, wait for the S4 to react, say something, see it's interpreted wrong...

I very much prefer to type, it's faster even on a touch screen.

So here I am, waiting for a subvocal recognition system and the comeback of off-line speech processing.

Re: Introducing Pebble Time

#129

Post by feld »

myth_buster wrote: post #101
georgeecollins wrote: post #49

What I think is good about this is that they are thinking of a new paradigm for UI on a wearable. For Android Wear devices it feels like Google just decided that voice was going to take care of UI, and no decisions about physical controls needed to be made. But there are two problems: voice isn't that reliable, and more importantly, there are a lot of situations where you want to use your watch but not talk to it.

I disagree with you in parts. I've a pebble while my wife has an android watch. The killer feature on the android phone is voice commands. I agree that when in public it's a privacy concern to use voice commands hence an alternative is necessary. But its incredibly convenient and useful to control your phone and watch say when you are driving or at home. It's incredibly useful to set reminders just by saying "Ok Goog…

Why can't you just ... issue voice commands to your phone?

Re: Introducing Pebble Time

#130

Post by mikestew »

I was waiting to see what Apple had in store but...oh, what the hell, I'll pull the trigger. Fact is, I'm pretty satisfied with my original KS-backer edition Pebble. Apple is going to have to have a pretty convincing story for me to charge a watch every single day. I spend enough time away from 5VDC power sources that such short battery life could become occasionally annoying.

The original Pebble does what I want it to do. In fact, it does more than it promised pre-shipping (counts steps, as one example). I'm hardly one to be brand-loyal to a watch, but ignoring late shipping to KS backers, Pebble has exceeded expectations, so I'll give them another whirl. Apple, OTOH, is going to have to do a hell of a job to convince me to spend almost twice as much on a new platform that needs daily charging. And I say this as one with a house full of Apple gear, much of it pre-ordered on the day of announcement.

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