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Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

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Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#11

Post by andrepd »

ghaff wrote: post #8
paulcole wrote: post #2

The smart watch market is just huge. If there are 100 million people who wear an Apple Watch, it’s not surprising that less than .02% of that number would like something as niche as the pebble. It’s like the iPod Classic people. Billions of people want music with them wherever they go. 12 of them like it in MP3 form on a little brick that’s not their phone.

It’s interesting to me that when the Apple Watch was coming out (and maybe more broadly when fitness bands etc. were becoming available) there was a pretty widespread sentiment that younger people didn’t want watches because why would they? They always had their phones.

Honestly, I still don't see the value in a smartwatch. Paying with nfc with your wrist? That's probably the only use case I can see. But then it's not worth it having to charge yet another device daily

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#12

Post by emj »

I'm looking at buying readily available a cheap programmable smartwatch. PineTime was easy to write programs for and that Casio replacement board [0] discussed here earlier also hade a nice tool chain, but with shipping and taxes it's just too bothersome.

[0] https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-wa...

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#13

Post by diego_moita »

I use 5 of them!

And I have one more with a wasted battery that I intend to replace.

And I'll still buy some more, because I want to have them available for the rest of my life.

There are things that only the Pebble does:

- button only interface that you can handle in the dark without glasses

- a screen that barcode scanners can easily read for authentication into the gym and library

- a TOTP app (authentication tokens) that you can access with only a button press, etc.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#14

Post by lotsofpulp »

andrepd wrote: post #11
ghaff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting to me that when the Apple Watch was coming out (and maybe more broadly when fitness bands etc. were becoming available) there was a pretty widespread sentiment that younger people didn’t want watches because why would they? They always had their phones.

Honestly, I still don't see the value in a smartwatch. Paying with nfc with your wrist? That's probably the only use case I can see. But then it's not worth it having to charge yet another device daily

I like it because it lets me be on call without having my phone on me, which lets me avoid using my phone too much and give full attention to kids or whoever I am with.

Also, the vibrate function for alarm or calls in the middle of the night does not disturb anyone else, but still gets me up.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#15

Post by JCharante »

andrepd wrote: post #11
ghaff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting to me that when the Apple Watch was coming out (and maybe more broadly when fitness bands etc. were becoming available) there was a pretty widespread sentiment that younger people didn’t want watches because why would they? They always had their phones.

Honestly, I still don't see the value in a smartwatch. Paying with nfc with your wrist? That's probably the only use case I can see. But then it's not worth it having to charge yet another device daily

I like mine since I don't have to carry my heart rate monitor (HRM) around if I want to exercise. Some are good at sleep tracking too. It's a good pedometer and I can go on a run w/o my phone and the built in GPS keeps track of things. If my phone battery dies, I can still communicate with people (although many apps on the Apple Watch are badly designed to require a phone connection rather than just data).

The notifications are nice if I'm on the subway and don't want to pull my phone out of my pocket to see what's up.

It doesn't take long to charge the watch, whenever I take a shower I put it to charge and it's full battery by the time I'm back at my desk.

I also like turning off alarms by using the watch rather than pulling out my phone.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#17

Post by david_allison »

andrepd wrote: post #11
ghaff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting to me that when the Apple Watch was coming out (and maybe more broadly when fitness bands etc. were becoming available) there was a pretty widespread sentiment that younger people didn’t want watches because why would they? They always had their phones.

Honestly, I still don't see the value in a smartwatch. Paying with nfc with your wrist? That's probably the only use case I can see. But then it's not worth it having to charge yet another device daily

I don't own one, but I can also see the uses of:

* Consuming notifications without potentially being distracted once you unlock your phone

* Haptics for notifications - I'd like to be notified of some things, but 'vibrate' is a little too much

* Fitness/sleep tracking

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#18

Post by paulcole »

andrepd wrote: post #11
ghaff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting to me that when the Apple Watch was coming out (and maybe more broadly when fitness bands etc. were becoming available) there was a pretty widespread sentiment that younger people didn’t want watches because why would they? They always had their phones.

Honestly, I still don't see the value in a smartwatch. Paying with nfc with your wrist? That's probably the only use case I can see. But then it's not worth it having to charge yet another device daily

I wear a Coros Apex Pro all day. Between notifications and GPS running ~40 miles a week I charge it about every 2.5 weeks.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#19

Post by anoonmoose »

emj wrote: post #12

I'm looking at buying readily available a cheap programmable smartwatch. PineTime was easy to write programs for and that Casio replacement board [0] discussed here earlier also hade a nice tool chain, but with shipping and taxes it's just too bothersome. [0] https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-wa...

I bought into the Bangle.js 2 Kickstarter and I have to say, I'm incredibly happy with it. Granted, I've done nothing with it besides design my own watch face and take advantage of the GPS to set the time occasionally, but I know it's capable of a lot more. It was very easy to write the watch face code, and I feel like it would be pretty easy to do whatever I wanted to do. Ecosystem for it is probably a bit more developed than it was at launch, too- they were supposed to follow up with some apps that made interfacing it with your phone easier, dunno where that ended up.

To be fair- I've also got PineTime bookmarked for if my Bangle.js 2 ever breaks, or I just want to mess around with some lower-level aspects of watch firmware.

https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js2

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#20

Post by ClassyJacket »

andrepd wrote: post #11
ghaff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting to me that when the Apple Watch was coming out (and maybe more broadly when fitness bands etc. were becoming available) there was a pretty widespread sentiment that younger people didn’t want watches because why would they? They always had their phones.

Honestly, I still don't see the value in a smartwatch. Paying with nfc with your wrist? That's probably the only use case I can see. But then it's not worth it having to charge yet another device daily

I just like being able to customize the watch face basically, and see notifications without pulling out my phone.
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