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While I love gadgets, the idea of wearing something on my wrist whose sole purpose is to interrupt me with notifications (most of which I would not want) and th
by grandalf 10y ago
While I love gadgets, the idea of wearing something on my wrist whose sole purpose is to interrupt me with notifications (most of which I would not want) and that offers an extremely bright display is pretty much the last gadget I'd want.
Even with the new color temperature adjustments on the iPhone, looking at the screen in the dark is quite unpleasant.
I would much prefer an e-ink smart watch.
- jonknee 10y ago> I would much prefer an e-ink smart watch. Then go get one, the Pebble has been around for years.
- skykooler 10y agoI have a Pebble Time Steel, and I love it. And I'm amazed at how blinding other smartwatches are.
- bluejekyll 10y agoOut of curiosity, have you written any software for it? I'm considering getting one, and the SDK looks attractive.
- fredley 10y agoI have, it's great fun, the documentation is fantastic. Reminds me - I need to update my watchfaces to the new SDK this weekend!
- chrisper 10y agoDid you use C or JavaScript? I tried using C once, but I gave up.
- skykooler 10y agoHave not yet, but I am planning to once I get some free time.
- denzil_correa 10y agoI have a Pebble Steel and I hate it that Pebble would not fix an inherent "screen tearing" issue that they have with their hardware.
- unwiredben 10y agoThey fixed it with the screens in the Pebble Time series and the Pebble 2. It's a connector problem, so fixing it required a redesign.
- denzil_correa 10y agoIn that case, they should own up to it and make it up in a meaningful way to their customers who backed them initially. They've lost a customer.
- Jean-Philipe 10y agoI have a Pebble Time and love it! The display is not bright, can be read without backlight even. The interface is well thought through and pleasant to use (even though it doesn't have a touch screen). Filtering unwanted notifications is super easy. I find myself looking much much less at my phone since I have that watch. Oh and the battery life is the best!
- Fezzik 10y agoI think a lot of people use it for tracking... I am personally excited that I can use it as a lap counter now for swimming - counting laps for 90 minutes is a pain. The fact that I can track running as well, start wearing a watch again, and get notifications, is just icing on the cake. Lap counters have existed for a while, but having it integrate with my phone seamlessly is great for record keeping. Still mind-boggled that I get to wear something so awesome on my wrist.
- tdkl 10y agoYou'd be shocked that already existed before Apple Watch - made by Garmin.
- dirtyaura 10y agoI feel Apple Watch will be a school book example of Christensen's disruptive tech for traditional sport watch makers like Garmin, Suunto, Polar et al. It's not yet good enough for tracking serious training (prosumer use), but it's steadily eating the lower end of the market and in a few years it would be better than anything the old gang can make.
- jusben1369 10y agoHonestly, I think you just did a great job of describing FitBit vs Apple.
- ddoran 10y agoNo matter how much the Apple hardware may catch-up with Garmin etc's capabilities, Apple's closed system is at odds with the data mobility sought by most advanced Garmin/Suunto users that I know e.g. to/from Strava, MapMyEverything, TrainingPeaks etc. I think Apple will be happy to leave the Prosumers behind and appeal to people who are less active, and maybe even be a first step towards dedicated sports watches. At least for now. After a year with the Apple Watch as my day-to-day watch and Garmin Fenix 3 for sports (swim, bike, run, hike), I've now switched to Garmin Forerunner 235 for day-to-day and Fenix 3 for sport purely so I can get all of my data into a single repository, easily. The one killer app I'm missing on the Apple Watch is Siri.
- mason55 10y ago> Even with the new color temperature adjustments on the iPhone, looking at the screen in the dark is quite unpleasant. It's annoying to turn off and on but there is a fake night mode that you can use. Go to General > Accessibility > Invert Colors (or Display Accommodations > Invert Colors). It's like a fake night mode which is great for reading in bed.
- throwanem 10y agoYou can bind that to a triple press of the home button in Accessibility, too.
- intopieces 10y agoI use this on the iPad for when I'm viewing PDFs, it works quite well.
- throwanem 10y agoAlso for reading in bed.
- mason55 10y agoWait, how? I tried to hook it up to the global accessibility pop up but couldn't figure it out. Triple-press home would be awesome
- throwanem 10y agoIn iOS 9.3.5, probably also most earlier versions: Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Accessibility Shortcut, and check "Invert Colors" in the list. Or just type "Shortcut" in the search field I've just now noticed they added at some point in the last five years, and it'll be the first result. That's probably quicker.
- nilkn 10y agoI wouldn't say the sole purpose of a smartwatch is to deliver notifications. They're just slightly more useful watches, and that's more or less it. I have an Apple Watch, and while it's not the best product Apple has ever made, I still find the time to put it on every day. I find that it's convenient in a lot of small ways. I also like wearing it through the night and using it as an additional alarm clock.
- Void_ 10y agoI used it for few months, and then one day I forgot to charge them - then I just didn't bother to charge ever again.. These Apple presentations were fun to watch a few years back... Maybe I just got older.
- rangibaby 10y agoA. No Steve Jobs B. They haven't really done anything other than incremental updates (faster, better camera) since the iPhone 5. I think the 4 was a huge upgrade as well. iPhone 3G: App Store 3G +white color iPhone 3GS: Copy + paste Video iPhone 4: Facetime Retina display Front camera, much better quality rear camera Running more than one app at once Wallpaper and multiple homescreens without JBing first Drops calls if you "hold it that way" -white color iPhone 4S: Siri +white color iPhone 5: 4G Tethering Headphone port changes from top to bottom Taller screen EarPods No glass on back iPod app renamed to "Music" (A SAD DAY) -black color -white color +dark gray color +gray color iPhone 5s: Touch ID OS looks better +gold color iPhone 6: Larger screen Harder to use with one hand Odd shape Bends "Phablet" version also available iPhone SE: iPhone 5 with iPhone 6 specs iPhone 6S: 3D touch +pink color iPhone 7: Dual-lens camera Water "proof" Earphone jack removed Stereo speakers +black color AirPods (for rich people)
- jamesjyu 10y agoYou can customize the notifications. The biggest value I've found for the watch is that I take out my iPhone less, and actually spend less time looking at notifications.
- dr_ 10y agoAgreed. I find it useful to answer, and many times reject, phone calls.
- justsid 10y agoI noticed the same thing. I was actually very agains the Apple Watch, but received one for free from my workplace so I just gave it a shot. And I actually fell in love with it, mostly because I don’t use it as an extension of my phone (got some apps on it, but I really only use it for the time and notifications). The Series 2 is not enough of a step up to justify buying one, but I’d be interested in seeing what Series 3 has to offer next year.
- jawngee 10y agoI use mine to respond to texts and answer phone calls. The scribble thing in watchOS 3 is pretty crazy with how well it works. watchOS 3 in general is a huge improvement. But, you know, to each their own.
- melling 10y agoI also use Apple Pay when available. The real killer features are health and safety. In the future, everyone will wear a smartwatch: https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/in-the-future-everyone-will-wear-a-smartwatch/ https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/in-the-future-everyo... Apple made incremental progress on the health features today. Look at Fitbit sales: http://www.zdnet.com/article/fitbit-leads-wearables-market-as-apple-watch-sales-decline/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/fitbit-leads-wearables-market-a... Apple will be doing more to target this market.
- equalarrow 10y agoYah, it does work well. I do a lot with my watch. * Morning alarm clock (buzzes me instead of noise - key when I sleep with my kids) * Heartrate tracking (all day long across multiple things - biking, walking, resting, etc) * Sleep tracking * Notifications (small part, but useful) * Calorie burn * Sunrise/sunset * Temp outdoors * And of course, date/time I have a complication setup that delivers 6 stats quickly. Biggest feature for me. For quantifying my data, the watch has been really good for me. I'll prob go series 2 so I can go all in for water activities. Looking forward in the future to measuring even more.
- troygoode 10y agoYou sleep with it on? When do you charge it?
- r00fus 10y agoI don't often sleep with mine on (usually just dump it on the nightstand if I forget to put it in the charger). If I forget to charge overnight, I just drop it on the charger 1st thing in the morning, and it's usually charged by the time I leave for work. This even works if I happen to do a morning workout - even with 20% I can complete an hour, drop it in charger, shower, eat and it'll be charged enough for the day (usu. 80%+). I toyed with the idea of having an extra charger for my car, but seriously don't need it.
- tajen 10y ago> whose sole purpose is to interrupt me with notifications But this one has Pokemon Go on it!! Waiting for them to have a knob that goes to 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven
- zeta0134 10y agoOn the subject of e-ink smart watches, I love my Pebble Time for exactly this reason. One of the backlight settings is Off, and the display is gorgeous. I forget it's even e-ink, because I'm so used to thinking of Kindles when I think of e-ink, with their weird flickering page refreshes. This thing has buttery smooth animations and looks like any other screen to me. The 5-day battery life is certainly helped by this. The notifications thing really did bug me at first, but fortunately the app allows you to silence notifications. I have mine set to ping me about calendar appointments and text messages, and pretty much nothing else. That strikes a good balance for me.
- jbmorgado 10y agoI'm also waiting for the new Pebble (I had a Pebble time before) or to check some real reviews of Xiaomi Amazfit Smartwatch and see if the battery life is as good as they claim. A thing I like a lot in these devices is to monitor my sleep, something that is impossible with a device like the Apple Watch that must be in the charger during the night.
- SEMW 10y ago> I forget it's even e-ink ... looks like any other screen to me. That'll be because it isn't e-ink :) It's an LCD, specifically this[0] Sharp 'memory LCD'. Pebble brand it as "e-paper", but that's just marketing fluff, the technology is unrelated to e-ink (what kindles use). [0] http://www.sharpmemorylcd.com/1-26-inch-memory-lcd.html http://www.sharpmemorylcd.com/1-26-inch-memory-lcd.html
- zeta0134 10y ago! I was not aware of this! And you're right, it's definitely marketed as e-paper, my mistake. That's still pretty cool! I guess that explains why the display goes dark if the battery actually dies though, as it does require some power to maintain.
- Shivetya 10y agoI am still in the category of, until I can make calls with it and not need the phone I am not in need of it. I figure by gen 4 or 5 we might get there
- jusben1369 10y agoYes I think this is key. If you can leave your phone behind for runs, hikes, biking etc I think it becomes very useful in it's own right. Right now you're still probably going to take that phone for emergency/connection issues.
- kalleboo 10y ago> Even with the new color temperature adjustments on the iPhone, looking at the screen in the dark is quite unpleasant. I use the Accessibility-Zoom Filter-Low Light setting to cut the brightness in half, then mapped to a triple-tap on the home button to dim the screen. Even with that, and the screen at the lowest, it's pretty bright at night. I never understood why hardware manufacturers don't let you make the display darker...
- techdragon 10y agoThis is one of my favourite "hidden tricks". It's also a great example of what Apple is failing at lately. Discovering everything you're device can do is harder and harder with each update. A big thick feature manual would be so "not Apple"... And so we get the highlight reel with each OS or hardware update, and have to learn the rest by chance. We Google by chance, we poke around and find things by chance, etc.
- dazzla 10y agoThe watch notifications replace the vibration of the phone in my pocket. With the watch I don't take out my phone to see what the vibration is for and then most likely getting lost in the phone, surfing etc.
- rimantas 10y agoDon't buy one then. Seriously people, what's wrong with you? If the only thing you know is complain about things that are not even relevant to you, why not just shut the fuck up and make a world a better place?
- mikeash 10y agoDude's just voicing his opinion. At least he was polite about it, which puts it ahead of your comment.