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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

#181

Post by FeistySkink »

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…

Most Garmins (Fenix, Forerunner series) can do all of your "only Pebble" parts. In fact I replaced my touchscreen smartwatch with Fenix 6 precisely for not having one and relying on buttons instead.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#182

Post by seized »

razemio wrote: post #166
edejong wrote: post #163

There still is no good replacement for these properties of the Pebble 2 smartwatch: - > 7 days battery life - HR monitor (useful as a sports watch) - - toned down to fit different clothing styles - hackable - high-contrast, always-on screen - buttons I am currently wearing a Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire sportswatch, which comes close.

Just checked the Garmin Fenix 7 and now I want to add one missing point to your list: - affordable

Garmin has a wide range of watches, many of which meet most of those criteria. Except for hackable. I have a Vivoactive 4 and I've been very happy with it.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#183

Post by gnicholas »

edejong wrote: post #163

There still is no good replacement for these properties of the Pebble 2 smartwatch: - > 7 days battery life - HR monitor (useful as a sports watch) - - toned down to fit different clothing styles - hackable - high-contrast, always-on screen - buttons I am currently wearing a Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire sportswatch, which comes close.

Just to clarify, you're talking about the version that was never released — the one with the Kickstarter that was cancelled? All of the above features except the HR monitor exist on my PTS, I think.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#184

Post by delecti »

xrd wrote: post #133
delecti wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One problem with the smartwatch market is that it's hard to know what "comparable" means to any given person. I've found an Amazfit Bip to be a totally satisfactory replacement for my Pebble Time, but it doesn't cover every single usecase. It does have a battery life measured in weeks though (usually 3-4 for me, less if I use the GPS to track a bunch of exercise), which is a pretty nice selling point.

Do you build your own apps for it? I'm interesting in understanding how hackable it is? For example, can you write an app that pulls the GPS data from a run off it, or is that data readily accessible somehow?

I haven't done any hacking of any of my smartwatches. If that's important to you, then I don't really have any recommendations for you (and it highlights my point about different people's definition of "comparable").

I want my watch to have time/date, alarms, timers/stopwatches, the ability to read phone notifications, always-on screen, and battery life measured on the scale of weeks. Step and heartrate tracking are also nice perks that the Amazfit Bip also includes.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#185

Post by dotnet00 »

ZaoLahma wrote: post #118
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.

I bought a Big Brand Flagship Phone (tm), the Samsung Galaxy S9, in 2018. They stopped upgrading the OS with new functionality in 2020 only two years after its release, and this year they stopped providing security updates! Considering how much functionality and information is on that phone that could affect my life in absolutely fantastically negative ways if it was hacked (online accounts including owned licenses f…

To be fair the situation regarding updates is starting to improve now that new phones bring very little to the table besides faster processing and marginal camera improvements and similarly OS updates don't do much besides change the UI slightly.

Samsung (and IIRC Google) now promises at least 4 years of regular updates and 5 of security.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#187

Post by wingmanjd »

tekchip wrote: post #115
dcormier wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any comparable alternatives to Pebble even now? I’ve yet to see one, but I haven’t followed the market very closely since I stopped using one.

Surprised this hasn't been mentioned on this thread yet. Hardware wise the closest is probably the Pine Time from Pine64. Software and services wise this isn't on pebbles level though. https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/ As others mention hybrid watches are probably the closest alternative.

I own a Pinetime, and I agree it's close to the Pebble (I used to own a Pebble Steel). My Pinetime gets around 3ish days battery life, usage dependent.

I wanted a watch that I could control my media player on my phone with, gave me notifications, and didn't cost me an appendage. The Pinetime was $35USD shipped (IIRC), and while I can't dismiss phone notifications from my watch, it does at least show me the notifications from my wrist. I'm very happy with mine.

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#188

Post by seized »

solarkraft wrote: post #27

That few? I wasn't a huge fan of Pebble, the company - they didn't sell replacement parts, for instance (the watch for geeks? yeah, sure). For some crazy reason, though, to this day, this watch is still almost the only one that gets such a basic thing right: Telling the damn time. The formula is as simple as it is unreplicated: - Always telling the time - Good battery life - Buttons Why nobody else makes such a watch…

Garmin watches do all of those things well, including heart rate and fitness tracking/etc. Take a look at the Vivoactive line. My Vivoactive 4 gets >1 week battery life depending on the number of notifications I get (vibration vs battery life).

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#189

Post by edejong »

razemio wrote: post #166
edejong wrote: post #163

There still is no good replacement for these properties of the Pebble 2 smartwatch: - > 7 days battery life - HR monitor (useful as a sports watch) - - toned down to fit different clothing styles - hackable - high-contrast, always-on screen - buttons I am currently wearing a Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire sportswatch, which comes close.

Just checked the Garmin Fenix 7 and now I want to add one missing point to your list: - affordable

Yeah, although the Garmin Fenix 7 is an awesome watch, especially as an amateur athlete, it is ** expensive.

Features from the Fenix 7 which I value over Pebble (apart from the obvious):

- Materials: titanium and sapphire. Means it is indestructible. Great for hiking expeditions.

- Garmin Connect (SaaS fitness community).

- HRV (Heart Rate Variability).

- Regular, well tested updates.

Stuff that I miss:

- Hackability (I want to transfer my data directly to InfluxDB)

- Thickness (14.5 mm, which is 5 mm more than the Pebble)

- Community

Re: Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

#190

Post by LeifCarrotson »

gnicholas wrote: post #165
edejong wrote: post #163

There still is no good replacement for these properties of the Pebble 2 smartwatch: - > 7 days battery life - HR monitor (useful as a sports watch) - - toned down to fit different clothing styles - hackable - high-contrast, always-on screen - buttons I am currently wearing a Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire sportswatch, which comes close.

Can the Garmin control music playback from your smartphone?

Yes, and better than that, most new Garmin watches can also store several GB of music on the device itself and play it over Bluetooth headphones, no need to carry your phone with you.

Watches are a strange sort of luxury good, where some people will pay thousands of dollars, and Garmin aggressively price-segments their products. Use this comparison tool to see the different features:

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/product-comparison-calculator

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