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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

#101

Post by scambier »

benj111 wrote: post #65
yonaguska wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it had an insanely long battery life, I could respond to, and read text messages without opening my phone. It didn't have unnecessary stuff- it was simple and met my watch needs. I don't have a smartwatch now, because I'm not interested in having yet another computer on my wrist. I guess I've just decided to settle for a gimmicky automatic watch, it doesn't even have an alarm! And it dies if I stop using it for a…

>And it had an insanely long battery life. Is there a term for complementing something that is objectively much worse than what came before only because it's better than what we have now. Stockholm syndrome? Watch batteries used to last month's/ years / didn't need batteries at all. It's the same with phones, they used to last a week easily, now we get excited when they last 2 days.

> Is there a term for complementing something that is objectively much worse than what came before only because it's better than what we have now.

What kind of smartwatch came before it, that had a battery that held for more than a week? And no, a simple watch is not a smartwatch, so that doesn't count.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#102

Post by MereInterest »

I've wanted a smartwatch, but times I'd looked into smart watches, especially for activity/sleep tracking, I couldn't find a single one with a reasonable privacy policy. In the US, unless the data are self-hosted or covered by HIPAA, there's nothing binding about a privacy policy. Even if the privacy policy currently prevents the data from being sold, the policy can be changed, the company could be bought, or the company could go bankrupt with the databases sold at auction. Because HIPAA covers medical companies rather than medical data, it does nothing to prevent this. Until this loophole is closed (or a miracle happens and the US passes something akin to the GDPR), the lack of privacy prevents me from getting one.

And every time I hear about the Pebble and self-hosting, I get disappointed that it no longer exists.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#103

Post by benj111 »

bunderbunder wrote: post #69
benj111 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Human rights? That's kind of a tenuous link at best. You could make the case that buying more increases the opportunities for those at the bottom. I'm not even necessarily making a factual statement here, but personally I don't feel that there's anything to reconcile.

A lot of raw materials that go into modern electronics are produced using slave labor, and the “recycled” devices tend to end up poisoning the environments of people in similarly disadvantaged communities. I don’t know enough about these things to know whether buying more or less of these devices directly helps enslaved people, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to observe that rampant consumerism does fuel the postcol…

Ok. Well there's 2 elements here, the factual and emotional.

Factually you could argue either way. I suppose broadly you could say that industrialisation is bad for those at the bottom in the short term. But after the hump things get better. Is that pain reasonable? Is it avoidable? Are we morally obligated to avoid it? Are all somewhat open questions.

The GP used the word 'reconcile' which to me is a more emotional metric. Personally I don't make the link (rightly or wrongly) between me buying X and person Y suffering. So personally I don't have anything to reconcile. That is a correct answer. It isn't the answer, but as an answer to the GP, it is legitimate.

I can also see it being a reasonable answer to say that in buying Congolese cobalt you are helping the country industrialise, which in the long term is a good thing. Again you may disagree with the reasoning or morality but it seems to me a legitimate way of reconciliation.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#104

Post by ziml77 »

keraf wrote: post #26

As a big Pebble fan, I was really sad to see the company go without any similar alternatives in the market (at the time). My watches ended up having various hardware issues over the years, so I switched to something else. The efforts Rebble has put in to keep these devices alive is amazing. If they grow bigger, I'd love to see them do hardware. In the meantime, I'm wearing a Withings ScanWatch [0]. Not as extendable…

That Withings watch looks pretty nice. What I would really love to see is a Pebble revival with that monitoring tech in it. Like if I saw that end up on Kickstarter, I would easily drop in $1k to help fund the development and production (as long as the project was run by someone who will definitely be able to make it happen).

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#105

Post by insane_dreamer »

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

Best use case I've found is as a phone for kids. We recently got a cheap one for our 10-year old with a $10/mo plan so he can call/text us. Gave him a great sense of security, and us as well. (We can use FindMe to locate him if necessary, he can only test/get calls from contacts we add, so no robocalls, etc.)

My mom, in her 70s, uses hers for calls a lot -- though in her case it's tethered to her phone so the phone has to be within range (I don't see how that's very useful, might as well use the phone).

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#106

Post by irrational »

aliqot wrote: post #51
darau1 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a guy that bought every new Samsung flagship device as soon as they hit stores. He said he just has to upgrade.

I wonder sometimes how can people reconcile buying a new X every Y and still be concerned about human rights and the environment, etc.

How do you know any of them even are actually concerned about those issues and don't just give lip service (if even that)?

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#107

Post by diego_moita »

haunter wrote: post #35
diego_moita wrote: post #13

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 toke…

> a screen that barcode scanners can easily read for authentication into the gym and library Only Pebble can do this? Apple Watch does that too, like literally I use mine for the same cases you described

Don't know about the Apple Watch, I'm out of Apple's walled garden.

My experience with bright screens is that low density bar codes work ok mostly. But some high density codes don't work well. One of them is Plessey, still used in Europe.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#108

Post by insane_dreamer »

Markoff wrote: post #73

same here with Amazfit Bip, had few months stint with AMOLED smartwatch which was necessary to charge twice a week until I got fed up with that (plus unreadable display in sunlight unless maximum brightness) and bought again second Amazfit Bip (1st broke) which cost me less than 20USD used and I have to charge it once a month plus it has perfectly readable transreflective display not requiring any backlight, which lo…

> just watch with notifications so I don't have to turn on phone screen

you might like the Withings

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#109

Post by tekchip »

Gigachad wrote: post #24
SentientAtom wrote: post #3

If it works for you, why would you migrate to a different product with features or performance outside of your needs? We are so deep into a disposable society that we eagerly await the NEXT BIG THING (TM) without ever evaluating what our need consists of or whether we have any need for an upgrade to begin with.

The pebble was a bit of a gimmick. It was the start of the future but on its own it was kind of worse than a regular watch. It looked ugly, had a terrible screen, didn’t have any of the stuff you mostly do with a smartwatch now. And half the features no longer work.

That was v1. The latter versions solved most of those problems and rebble.io keeps a pebble 100% functional.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#110

Post by GuB-42 »

SentientAtom wrote: post #3

If it works for you, why would you migrate to a different product with features or performance outside of your needs? We are so deep into a disposable society that we eagerly await the NEXT BIG THING (TM) without ever evaluating what our need consists of or whether we have any need for an upgrade to begin with.

- Parts breaking that can't be easily replaced. In particular Li-ion batteries have a limited lifespan, both in time and in number of cycles.

- Security: hackers constantly find new vulnerabilities. And depending on the kind of device, it can be a big deal.

- Services shutting down, it can be direct (if the device connects to the internet), or indirect (if some "companion app" is no longer available).

- Or just plain obsolescence. The device may be incompatible with modern standards, irrelevant, unfashionable, etc...

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