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Still bitter that Fitbit bought Pebble and did apparently nothing worthwhile with the tech or the team they acquired. I loved my Pebble OG and kept searching f
by amatecha 7y ago
Still bitter that Fitbit bought Pebble and did apparently nothing worthwhile with the tech or the team they acquired.
I loved my Pebble OG and kept searching for a nice secondhand Pebble Time Steel to upgrade to -- until the Fitbit acquisition where we learned the Pebble ecosystem was unfortunately doomed.
I've since "upgraded" to an Apple Watch S4, but to be honest it's really just a "side-grade" as there are major downsides compared to the Pebble OG, like battery life, lack of always-on display, and the lack of useful tactile buttons.
Being able to switch the currently-playing music track _without having to look at it_ is one thing the Apple Watch can never provide for me. I have to look, see where the UI button is, and tap on exactly the right spot on the screen. It frequently doesn't recognize that I tapped on the fwd/next track button either (presumably because I didn't tap perfectly within the hitbox). This hugely defeats the purpose of a subtle wearable that can stay "out of the way" and not steal your attention.
- eugeniub 7y agoFWIW you can upgrade to the S5 to get an always-on display. I upgraded from S2 to S5 and I love it. Better late than never. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- amatecha 7y agoAh yeah I am aware of that -- though I understand the S5 also has quite a bit less battery life? Is that correct? I'm pretty happy with battery life on the S4!
- mshroyer 7y ago> battery life, lack of always-on display, and the lack of useful tactile buttons. Have you looked into Garmin's watches? Granted, they're expensive, but these are some of the main reasons I love my fenix. (In addition to it functioning as a very capable bike computer.)
- amatecha 7y agoNah, I already got the Apple Watch S4 as a gift so it will be a long time before I am looking for a new smartwatch! One day though, I'd definitely scour all the options available to me :)
- sulam 7y agoAt the risk of sounding contradictory — the latest Fitbit watch has AOD, more than 7 days of battery life (at least for me — half that if I turn AOD on), and a button. It also uses that Pebble tech to power their third party app ecosystem.
- nhumrich 7y agoI had the versa (v1) and it didnt have AOD, but you would install watch faces that allowed it and battery was like half a day, if that. So while I dont doubt your claims, I gave up on Fitbit before the versa 2. The buttons also dont do much, sadly.
- Matthias247 7y agoI thought their new watch OS (e.g. used in the Versa) is based on the Pebble tech? A least it has very similar features (scriptable via Javascript).
- jeremiahlee 7y agoBeing mad at Fitbit because Pebble was a poorly run business is misguided. Pebble was out of cash and going to shut down. Fitbit paid to keep the Pebble servers running and paid people to gracefully wind it down so the devices didn't brick. The team that built Pebble built the FitbitOS ecosystem. They have done incredible work and did it even better the second time around. Disclosure: I am a former Fitbit employee.
- amatecha 7y agoI guess to clarify, I'm bitter that a new Fitbit smartwatch didn't come out that met or exceeded what I got out of the Pebble OG, to put it simply. The form factor and overall ecosystem didn't compare, from my subjective viewpoint. I imagine it has hopefully improved over time, but the last one I saw that a colleague had purchased (Versa or Versa 2, I forget which) I wasn't really impressed. :\ Oh, regardless, thanks for giving your $0.02, cool to hear from someone who worked there! :)