4 ms·

For me, the appeal of the smartwatch is more advanced health tracking, custom applications, NFC, and GPS. As far as I know, Pebble lacks most if not all of thes

For me, the appeal of the smartwatch is more advanced health tracking, custom applications, NFC, and GPS. As far as I know, Pebble lacks most if not all of these features. I really want to want a Pebble, but it's far closer to a customizable watchface than even a Fitbit. On the other hand, daily charging of smart watches is completely outrageous.

gleenn 2mo ago
They have some heart-rate and some health tracking an as others have mentioned, so many of the more fringe features are way less useful than a watch that lasts anywhere from a week to a month on a charge versus a daybor two with the ultra
- danilafe 2mo ago
  Well, right, that's why I said "advanced" health tracking. A pedometer is enough to measure steps. And then, I dunno. We've clearly made this trade-off before with mobile phones. As much as I like the Nokia I had that went weeks without a charge, I also rarely notice the charging time of my phone. Lately I've been thinking about a mode in which a "smartwatch" serves as a fitness tracker, heads-up display, and wallet, while a real, mechanical watch, which never runs out of battery, becomes the timepiece (and fashion piece?)
cyberax 2mo ago
PebbleTime 2 has a pedometer, HR monitor, and sleep tracking. You can set it to do continuous HR measurements during activities. This covers all the basics. GPS is covered by the phone that you're going to be carrying anyway. Really the only missing part is NFC payments.
- danilafe 2mo ago
  > GPS is covered by the phone that you're going to be carrying anyway Unless you go for a run, for example. > Really the only missing part is NFC payments. And custom applications, not the least of which are navigation tools like Google Maps or Citymapper.
  - cyberax 2mo ago
    > Unless you go for a run, for example. You can bring your phone with you! Then you can combine its GPS tracks and the information from Pebble. > And custom applications, not the least of which are navigation tools like Google Maps or Citymapper. They won't work without the phone connection because Pebble does not have a cellular modem. But there are mapping apps for the Pebble that use the phone's GPS: https://apps.repebble.com/maptastic_52e7521679f937c182000004 https://apps.repebble.com/maptastic_52e7521679f937c182000004 or https://apps.repebble.com/maps-nav_99279aadf6df4c0fadfdb39a https://apps.repebble.com/maps-nav_99279aadf6df4c0fadfdb39a
    - flowardnut 2mo ago
      >You can bring your phone with you! You can, but it's pretty awful. put it in a pocket and it flops around. Wear a band that slides in your phone in and get it soaked (i'm a sweat monster). I own a pebble, but I'll gladly just run without a phone.
      - cyberax 2mo ago
        Have you tried one of these upper arm holsters? Actually, you gave me an idea! There are button-sized Bluetooth GPS loggers. They can record a GPS track, and you can later download the data from them. Since it's freaking GPS, it automatically has timestamps, so it's easy to correlate with other activity. As a bonus, I think it should be possible to connect them directly with the phone. BRB, I think I have a ESP-based Tiny Arudino somewhere...
        sliken 2mo ago
        Heh, I used to use bluetooth GPS tracker with my nokia 770. It worked well since I could place the gps where it got the best signal. I could start a track, have it record it, and then check in with the n770 only when I needed to see a map. That way I made the most of my n770's battery life, but still got continuous tracking. Beware that they take much longer to start since they don't know the GPS coords of the nearest cell tower, nor do they download the GPS almanac over the cell connection. They will however remember the almanac so you can leave it on for 30 minutes and not have to redownload it the next day.
- VertanaNinjai 2mo ago
  OP specifically called out GPS in relation to a watch as a desired feature. You can’t just summarily dismiss that with a hand wave of “you have a phone don’t you?”
  - cyberax 2mo ago
    It can mean different things: support for fully autonomous GPS or for the phone-assisted GPS.
- hutattedonmyarm 2mo ago
  > GPS is covered by the phone that you're going to be carrying anyway. I leave my phone at home when I go for a run. Connect my headphones to ma watch (which as my podcasts and audiobooks on there), remove the house key from my keychain and carry nothing with me besides key, watch and headphone. Feels so much better than having a phone with me
- NetMageSCW 2mo ago
  That isn’t advanced health tracking. Advanced health tracking is when my Apple Watch watched my activity versus heart rate over time and warned me it saw signs of hypertension, which caused me to buy a wrist BP and do a health log for BPmin Apple Health, then produce a report and go to a doctor who prescribed medication for me. Does the PebbleTime do that?
  - cyberax 2mo ago
    Pebble Time has the HR sensor, and it has activity monitoring. You can upload the data into Google Health or Apple's health tracker. So it should work? It's the same data, after all.
subarctic 2mo ago
I canceled my pebble preorder when I found out it can only record audio for a couple minutes at a time. A big use case for me is to record voice notes without going into the distraction center that is my phone, but often they can be 20+ minutes
lawn 2mo ago
Pebble's custom applications is far better than Google or Apple. It's much more hackable. The other features are indeed worse or missing.

gleenn 2mo ago

They have some heart-rate and some health tracking an as others have mentioned, so many of the more fringe features are way less useful than a watch that lasts anywhere from a week to a month on a charge versus a daybor two with the ultra

danilafe 2mo ago
Well, right, that's why I said "advanced" health tracking. A pedometer is enough to measure steps. And then, I dunno. We've clearly made this trade-off before with mobile phones. As much as I like the Nokia I had that went weeks without a charge, I also rarely notice the charging time of my phone. Lately I've been thinking about a mode in which a "smartwatch" serves as a fitness tracker, heads-up display, and wallet, while a real, mechanical watch, which never runs out of battery, becomes the timepiece (and fashion piece?)

cyberax 2mo ago

PebbleTime 2 has a pedometer, HR monitor, and sleep tracking. You can set it to do continuous HR measurements during activities. This covers all the basics. GPS is covered by the phone that you're going to be carrying anyway. Really the only missing part is NFC payments.

danilafe 2mo ago
> GPS is covered by the phone that you're going to be carrying anyway Unless you go for a run, for example. > Really the only missing part is NFC payments. And custom applications, not the least of which are navigation tools like Google Maps or Citymapper.
- cyberax 2mo ago
  > Unless you go for a run, for example. You can bring your phone with you! Then you can combine its GPS tracks and the information from Pebble. > And custom applications, not the least of which are navigation tools like Google Maps or Citymapper. They won't work without the phone connection because Pebble does not have a cellular modem. But there are mapping apps for the Pebble that use the phone's GPS: https://apps.repebble.com/maptastic_52e7521679f937c182000004 https://apps.repebble.com/maptastic_52e7521679f937c182000004 or https://apps.repebble.com/maps-nav_99279aadf6df4c0fadfdb39a https://apps.repebble.com/maps-nav_99279aadf6df4c0fadfdb39a
  - flowardnut 2mo ago
    >You can bring your phone with you! You can, but it's pretty awful. put it in a pocket and it flops around. Wear a band that slides in your phone in and get it soaked (i'm a sweat monster). I own a pebble, but I'll gladly just run without a phone.
    - cyberax 2mo ago
      Have you tried one of these upper arm holsters? Actually, you gave me an idea! There are button-sized Bluetooth GPS loggers. They can record a GPS track, and you can later download the data from them. Since it's freaking GPS, it automatically has timestamps, so it's easy to correlate with other activity. As a bonus, I think it should be possible to connect them directly with the phone. BRB, I think I have a ESP-based Tiny Arudino somewhere...
      - sliken 2mo ago
        Heh, I used to use bluetooth GPS tracker with my nokia 770. It worked well since I could place the gps where it got the best signal. I could start a track, have it record it, and then check in with the n770 only when I needed to see a map. That way I made the most of my n770's battery life, but still got continuous tracking. Beware that they take much longer to start since they don't know the GPS coords of the nearest cell tower, nor do they download the GPS almanac over the cell connection. They will however remember the almanac so you can leave it on for 30 minutes and not have to redownload it the next day.
VertanaNinjai 2mo ago
OP specifically called out GPS in relation to a watch as a desired feature. You can’t just summarily dismiss that with a hand wave of “you have a phone don’t you?”
- cyberax 2mo ago
  It can mean different things: support for fully autonomous GPS or for the phone-assisted GPS.
hutattedonmyarm 2mo ago
> GPS is covered by the phone that you're going to be carrying anyway. I leave my phone at home when I go for a run. Connect my headphones to ma watch (which as my podcasts and audiobooks on there), remove the house key from my keychain and carry nothing with me besides key, watch and headphone. Feels so much better than having a phone with me
NetMageSCW 2mo ago
That isn’t advanced health tracking. Advanced health tracking is when my Apple Watch watched my activity versus heart rate over time and warned me it saw signs of hypertension, which caused me to buy a wrist BP and do a health log for BPmin Apple Health, then produce a report and go to a doctor who prescribed medication for me. Does the PebbleTime do that?
- cyberax 2mo ago
  Pebble Time has the HR sensor, and it has activity monitoring. You can upload the data into Google Health or Apple's health tracker. So it should work? It's the same data, after all.

subarctic 2mo ago

I canceled my pebble preorder when I found out it can only record audio for a couple minutes at a time. A big use case for me is to record voice notes without going into the distraction center that is my phone, but often they can be 20+ minutes

lawn 2mo ago

Pebble's custom applications is far better than Google or Apple. It's much more hackable. The other features are indeed worse or missing.