I want a watch that stands alone.
Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables
21–30 of 237 posts
Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables
#22I didn't think I would like the Apple Watch as much as I do. I swear, add a camera, and I'll leave my phone at home. I know, it's not a mobile browser, not really much as a mobile messaging device — but that's fine. One one hand, I'm not your stereotypical phone user that is always engrossed in the black mirror but furthermore, the Apple Watch means I am even less inclined.
Feel like I'm on the opposite side of the spectrum. I hate wearing it and don't like wearing anything any kind of jewellery either. Only really wearing it for sleep tracking and I don't even do anything with the data. I don't really use it for time and I honestly can't think of any reason to use it for anything. The health stuff doesn't tell me anything is wrong with me and the notifications drive me insane vibrating on my wrist so I just turned it off and they've been off since.
Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables
#23Pebble IMO was and still is the best wearable watch. I don’t think anything worked better largely due to the long battery life and generally the e-ink design. Had they added different wrist bands with smart tech in it, it would have gone even further. I don’t really think apple has a decade lead, what they do have is minimal innovation they’re competing with. AND more importantly, a brand and ecosystem. That being sa…
I had both the original Pebble and the Pebble Time. The battery life, always-on screen, and readability in the sun made for an incredibly useful experience. After my Pebble Time broke, rather than switching to another smart watch I got a simple "dumb" watch.
Frankly I don't think I'll wear another smart watch that isn't a Pebble, which means I don't think I'll get another smart watch.
Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables
#24Pebble IMO was and still is the best wearable watch. I don’t think anything worked better largely due to the long battery life and generally the e-ink design. Had they added different wrist bands with smart tech in it, it would have gone even further. I don’t really think apple has a decade lead, what they do have is minimal innovation they’re competing with. AND more importantly, a brand and ecosystem. That being sa…
Pebble was a lot of fun for tech people who wanted a minimalistic watch, but the Apple Watch is in a different league altogether. The two aren't really comparable.
There may be a niche market for low power, hackable, e-ink watches with minimal functionality, but the size of that market is orders of magnitudes small than what companies like Apple are addressing.
Pebble ultimately fizzled out because the demand just wasn't there. It might be possible for an indie company to make something similar if they focus on staying lean and small, but it's difficult to cater to niche audiences with small TAMs where the barrier to entry gets lower every year.
Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables
#25Pebble IMO was and still is the best wearable watch. I don’t think anything worked better largely due to the long battery life and generally the e-ink design. Had they added different wrist bands with smart tech in it, it would have gone even further. I don’t really think apple has a decade lead, what they do have is minimal innovation they’re competing with. AND more importantly, a brand and ecosystem. That being sa…
I'm going to miss my Pebble when it finally dies. Still wearing my Kickstarter Pebble Time. One thing it did well was be a watch first, as opposed to a small phone on your wrist. Depending on your needs/expectations those are very different wearable experiences. Sure the nice OLED is great, but clearly that comes at the cost of battery life. This is especially notable if you use to wear dumb watches.
Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables
#26Pebble IMO was and still is the best wearable watch. I don’t think anything worked better largely due to the long battery life and generally the e-ink design. Had they added different wrist bands with smart tech in it, it would have gone even further. I don’t really think apple has a decade lead, what they do have is minimal innovation they’re competing with. AND more importantly, a brand and ecosystem. That being sa…
I had several pebbles (2 b/w and the colored one) and now have an apple watch. You don’t know what you’re talking about, the tech in the apple watch is years ahead. There’s much to criticize about the apple watch but it does the important things just so much better than the competition. I also never understood the focus on battery life. I put my watch on the charger whenever I go to sleep. If I forget it either still…
One of the few things I used my smart-ish watch for is tracking my sleep.
Without a large screen and turning off all notifications, I get about 3-4 weeks of battery with my current watch. Personally I rarely take it off.
I’d like at least a week of battery if I were to adopt any other smart watch. For me personally, I enjoy thinking less about the battery of a device that I mostly use for passive personal data collection and telling the time.
Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables
#27Pebble IMO was and still is the best wearable watch. I don’t think anything worked better largely due to the long battery life and generally the e-ink design. Had they added different wrist bands with smart tech in it, it would have gone even further. I don’t really think apple has a decade lead, what they do have is minimal innovation they’re competing with. AND more importantly, a brand and ecosystem. That being sa…
I had several pebbles (2 b/w and the colored one) and now have an apple watch. You don’t know what you’re talking about, the tech in the apple watch is years ahead. There’s much to criticize about the apple watch but it does the important things just so much better than the competition. I also never understood the focus on battery life. I put my watch on the charger whenever I go to sleep. If I forget it either still…
You must not care about sleep tracking? That's why I find battery life annoying on the apple watch, it always runs out by the end of the day. Luckily, it does charge really fast so 30 min before falling asleep and its back on.
Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want to track your sleep that doesn't work so well
Everyone says this without trying it. I wear my Apple Watch to sleep. In the morning I shower and charge it. It is fully charged and lasts till next morning.
No problems here either. Lately I just wear it in the shower and charge it for a while when I sit down at my desk to work. It charges fast enough and I don't miss out on any activity tracking while I'm typing away at my desk.
I plug my phone in to charge at the same time. It's really not a big deal.
The only time it might matter is if I was doing a weekend camping trip or something, at which point the connected features of the Apple watch are less useful and a minimalistic Garmin would make more sense.
Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables
#29Pebble IMO was and still is the best wearable watch. I don’t think anything worked better largely due to the long battery life and generally the e-ink design. Had they added different wrist bands with smart tech in it, it would have gone even further. I don’t really think apple has a decade lead, what they do have is minimal innovation they’re competing with. AND more importantly, a brand and ecosystem. That being sa…
This. A smartwatch must be a watch first. A watch is small, always-on, and recharged rarely. Most smartwatches aren't - short batteries, screens that you have to shake to wake, and large.
Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables
#30Pebble IMO was and still is the best wearable watch. I don’t think anything worked better largely due to the long battery life and generally the e-ink design. Had they added different wrist bands with smart tech in it, it would have gone even further. I don’t really think apple has a decade lead, what they do have is minimal innovation they’re competing with. AND more importantly, a brand and ecosystem. That being sa…
I don’t get why battery life is important beyond 24h. I just put the watch on its charger at night. Only downside is during traveling, one more thing to carry and possibly the watch won’t make it through excruciating international travel. So it won’t matter to me if the watch lasts a day or a week, it’s off my wrist when I sleep and goes on it’s charger.
I’m T1 diabetic and use my watch for monitoring my glucose levels. I wear it 100% of the time, aside from showering when it charges. Charging quickly and having a minimum of 24hrs of charge is really important to me. Apple Watch hits both of those.