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Pebble Round 2

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Re: Pebble Round 2

#251

Post by [deleted] »

aidenn0 wrote: post #90
walletdrainer wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW the same is true of the Rolex Daytona and Patek Philippe Nautilus. There’s probably an actual reason for why this is done. On a mechanical watch I’d often prefer for the crystal to be damaged rather than the case, though I’m not sure that the same logic works for Apple Watches.

Does one ever polish a crystal? Having it raised would make that much easier (also if one does, tell me who can do it to mine, my crystal is scratched to the point where I can't read my watch if the main lighting is behind me).

[deleted]

Re: Pebble Round 2

#252

Post by erohead »

laweijfmvo wrote: post #146
erohead wrote: post #3

Proud of this one! Feel free to ask any questions you might have. (Pebble founder)

What kind of “sleep tracking” can you really offer with no heart rate monitor?

Generally most sleep tracking products use actigraphy (measurements of your movement) to track sleep. Pebble partnered with researchers at Stanford back in the day to produce an algorithm for our operating system, which worked quite well and is now open source!

You can read the code and see how the sleep tracking algorithm works here - https://github.com/coredevices/PebbleOS/blob/main/src%2Ffw%2...

Re: Pebble Round 2

#253

Post by apparent »

Someone wrote: post #237
mrinterweb wrote: post #84

Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be. It feels like everyone else is trying to make a phone replacement. Pebbles are more of an extension to your phone. Sure it can do some things without the phone, but it isn't trying to make calls, access mobile data with its own sim, use GPS. Those kinds of watches feel like they are designed for athletes who want to leave t…

> Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be. So, why do you think Pebble didn’t succeed? I think that’s because you’re a minority, and demand for a Pebble-like product is too low at the price point where it would be a viable business.

IIRC they got out over their skis financially. Eric did a podcast interview where he talked about what went wrong, I think it was this one. [1]

He's self-funding this company and doing pre-orders, which means that risk should not exist this time around.

But to GP's point, I agree that Pebble knows what smartwatches are, and they make the best ones. But it turns out that lots of people want (or have been convinced by marketing that they want) a wrist-worn computer, which has been a boon for Apple/Google.

I think the new Pebbles will convert a lot of people because the battery life skips two orders of magnitude (in the time sense), going from ~1 day to ~1 month. That and the slick user interface should be attractive to folks who are considering upgrading their AWs as the battery degrades. Some will realize that they don't need all the computer-y functionality that the AW provides and just go with a Pebble. The fact that they're a bit cheaper, and available in a nice-looking round case is an added bonus.

Like a lot of people, I assumed I would like AWs, and that they would continue to evolve to better and better battery life. But they haven't approached Pebble territory and I can see that the functionality they provide is not worth the tradeoff for me. I just don't care to tap at a computer on my wrist. Maybe other people do, but I'd bet that Eric's going to win over a lot of AW users who realized they are overkill.

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc5I0rM2ORc

Re: Pebble Round 2

#254

Post by apparent »

4ggr0 wrote: post #240
apparent wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Eric posted about this, and it was an impressive distance. Obviously YMMV based on the size of your house and how thick the walls are, but my old Pebble worked in much of my house and I would expect that as BT has gotten better (on both the phone and watch) in the last decade, the new versions will have even more range.

also probably depends on the building you live in. not trying to start a flame-war, but i can imagine that you get quite some range in the US, if you live in one of those cardboard-inner-walls houses. in the 30cm thick solid wall apartment i live in my pebble looses connection the next room over, i almost need line-of-sight for it to work. working at my desk, get up, walk 5 meters to the bathroom, watch looses connec…

Is this an old Pebble or a new one?

Re: Pebble Round 2

#255

Post by apparent »

rollcat wrote: post #236
apparent wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it's good for the people in America and other shorter-warranty countries, who get to free-ride on any enhanced reliability that this results in. But honestly I've had Macs that still work 15 years after I bought them, and iPhones that work for easily 6 or 7. That's not because AU or EU require a somewhat longer warranty, I don't think.

> But honestly I've had Macs that still work 15 years after I bought them [...]. 2002 PowerBook user checking in. Not great for "modern" work, CPU gets really hot compiling "simple" stuff like git or libressl, but OSX 10.5 is a superior user experience to macOS 15. Still great for lightweight web browsing (disable JS!), some coding (Python 2.7.14!), classic games (StarCraft! from a *box*!).

Amazing. I have a 17 year old iMac that still works OK. I don't use it often, but I remember the first time I booted it with an SSD over FW800 and I was like damn, this is a brand new machine.

Re: Pebble Round 2

#256

Post by aidenn0 »

walletdrainer wrote: post #249
aidenn0 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does one ever polish a crystal? Having it raised would make that much easier (also if one does, tell me who can do it to mine, my crystal is scratched to the point where I can't read my watch if the main lighting is behind me).

It might be possible, but I’m quite sure nobody does it with newer crystals. The replacement costs just aren’t high enough to justify the effort Also, they just don’t really scratch.

> Also, they just don’t really scratch.

Do I need to take a photo of my crystal? Maybe mineral crystals don't scratch but glass ones certainly do.

Re: Pebble Round 2

#257

Post by apparent »

pjmlp wrote: post #232
mrinterweb wrote: post #84

Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be. It feels like everyone else is trying to make a phone replacement. Pebbles are more of an extension to your phone. Sure it can do some things without the phone, but it isn't trying to make calls, access mobile data with its own sim, use GPS. Those kinds of watches feel like they are designed for athletes who want to leave t…

I would say Amazfit are great, I don't need an app store and a programmable watch to do cool stuff in whatever programming language on weekends. The set of pre-installed apps, integration with watch messages, call notifications and media controls are enough. However maybe I am old fashioned, the oldie Timex and Casio smartwatches were also good enough for me.

I like Amazfit well enough but I found the UI to be English-second and therefore a bit confusing. Also, I don't trust a company like Amazfit to have my GPS location at all times.

Re: Pebble Round 2

#258

Post by mrinterweb »

Someone wrote: post #237
mrinterweb wrote: post #84

Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be. It feels like everyone else is trying to make a phone replacement. Pebbles are more of an extension to your phone. Sure it can do some things without the phone, but it isn't trying to make calls, access mobile data with its own sim, use GPS. Those kinds of watches feel like they are designed for athletes who want to leave t…

> Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be. So, why do you think Pebble didn’t succeed? I think that’s because you’re a minority, and demand for a Pebble-like product is too low at the price point where it would be a viable business.

The finance comments may be right. Another factor would be marketing budgets and existing brand recognition. The watches are marketed as having all of these features, and I think customers got lost in the feature comparison instead of thinking if they really want a smart watch to do that. Many customers aren't thinking if they really want to pay another monthly for a watch data SIM. I think people lost sight that their phone can do all that stuff, and they are going to be bringing their phone with them so why would they need redundant functionality generally worse than than what their phone can do. If pebble gets a marketing budget, I would hope they focus on messaging of what makes their watches stand out.

Re: Pebble Round 2

#259

Post by ragazzina »

tw04 wrote: post #159
mmmlinux wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Garmin is more fitness tracker than smartwatch.

I take it you don’t have a garmin? You can play music directly from it (spotify, YouTube music, etc apps). You get phone notifications, can respond to text messages, make payments, and newer versions include LTE. They are absolutely a smart watch.

Does it last 2 weeks with that kind of usage?

Re: Pebble Round 2

#260

Post by serbuvlad »

afavour wrote: post #190

I’m an OG Pebble user converted to Apple Watch… couldn’t resist placing an order for the Round 2 because it looks amazing but I worry I’ve grown too accustomed to the feature set of the Apple Watch (deep OS integration, contactless payment). Maybe it’ll be my “dress” watch. All else aside I hope this might inspire Apple to try with their watch design. The first watch felt lazy and it’s basically unchanged since then.

Somewhat unrelated but as a Pixel Watch user (since I'm in that ecosystem), I envy the Apple Watch just for the square display. It is just the fundamentally correct design for text imo (which is a large part of what is going to appear).

One of my main uses for my Pixel Watch is reading notifications, and even for a 2-3 line text message I have to scroll to read it because it gets cut out by the roundness.

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