Tech review
Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 6:55 am
I recently bought myself a pebble time color (http://www.getpebble.com).
Pros:
I used to swap my phone battery out two-three times a day, but now that I barely ever take my phone out of my pocket, the phone's battery lasts all day!
Due to the color e-ink display, the watch's battery lasts a few days, too. My brother has to charge his Apple watch every night, and frequently forgets to bring it with him, during the day. I wear mine at night, and wake up to my wrist vibrating alerting me to my Google calendar events. I charge my watch during the day, when it gets to 10% which has only happened once since I got it, 3 days ago. (It had 40% when I opened the package).
I love playing 2048 on my wrist!
When my customers ask me to predict the whether, I can pull up the forecast on my watch easily! The forecast is conveniently included in the timeline, so as I scroll through my upcoming events, I pass weather predictions.
Open source (theoretically easy to modify).
Water resistant up to 30 meters (there are even scuba apps that remind you to log your air pressure, and compiles charts of air usage over time, while using the internal sensors to tell you how deep you are).
Cons:
If you turn the Apple watch to look at it, the screen turns on. Pebble's e-ink display is always on, but the backlight turns on when you shake it. So the light turns on when I'm driving, cooking, eating, masturbating, or having a seizure, but when I want to know what time it is at night, I have to give myself carpal tunnel syndrome, and people around me think I'm packing a can of chewing tobacco.
The bezel scratches easily, but it does not effect usage at all.
Most apps are designed with animations (This drastically effects battery life with an e-ink display). If there are 4 frames per action, that's 4 times as much power required!
Most of the apps are goofy adaptations of something that could be useful... For instance, I was looking for an app to keep track of passenger counts, ice sales, and mooring rentals, and had to sift through tons of single purpose counters, such as illuminati confirmed (where you push a button every time you witness evidence of the illuminati), or alcohol and nicotine consumption trackers, etc... Eventually, I found an app called multi-counter, but it's not quite as useful as I'd hoped, so I'll probably end up writing my own.
The color screen is nice, but not necessary. The only benefit I've seen thus far is how the color coded menu allows me to scan quickly without actually reading the options... If I want to launch Pandora, for instance, I just cycle through to the blue tile. I could have saved a hundred bucks by buying the black and white version. Then again, I want a weather radar app, and that would be nearly impossible to decipher in black and white.
Lastly, I wish it didn't require a phone. There are smart watches on the market that have their own SIM card, but none of them have e-ink displays, and their batteries don't last long at all... I wish there was a wearable phone with a battery that lasted as long as a pebble!
The weather forecast is simply an icon indicating a general overview of the day plus the temp, which is fine if you're wondering if you should wear long sleeves, or bring an umbrella for your commute, but when you work outside and talk with sailors all day, it would be much more helpful to have a graph indicating hourly chance of precipitation, wind speed and direction, tides, etc... Maybe I'll write an app for that, too.
PS: My brother spent over $400 on the cheapest Apple watch, while I spent over $200 on one of the most expensive Pebbles!
Overall, I'm happy with my purchase, as I'm sure I'll be able to correct most of the cons, overtime.
Oh, and one of my passengers had a kid with a smart watch... Did you know Leap Frog makes smart watches? It's like $30, has a built in camera, customizable digi-pet avatar, and tricks kids into getting off their fat asses and get some exercise! I doubt it's bluetooth or waterproof, though.
Pros:
I used to swap my phone battery out two-three times a day, but now that I barely ever take my phone out of my pocket, the phone's battery lasts all day!
Due to the color e-ink display, the watch's battery lasts a few days, too. My brother has to charge his Apple watch every night, and frequently forgets to bring it with him, during the day. I wear mine at night, and wake up to my wrist vibrating alerting me to my Google calendar events. I charge my watch during the day, when it gets to 10% which has only happened once since I got it, 3 days ago. (It had 40% when I opened the package).
I love playing 2048 on my wrist!
When my customers ask me to predict the whether, I can pull up the forecast on my watch easily! The forecast is conveniently included in the timeline, so as I scroll through my upcoming events, I pass weather predictions.
Open source (theoretically easy to modify).
Water resistant up to 30 meters (there are even scuba apps that remind you to log your air pressure, and compiles charts of air usage over time, while using the internal sensors to tell you how deep you are).
Cons:
If you turn the Apple watch to look at it, the screen turns on. Pebble's e-ink display is always on, but the backlight turns on when you shake it. So the light turns on when I'm driving, cooking, eating, masturbating, or having a seizure, but when I want to know what time it is at night, I have to give myself carpal tunnel syndrome, and people around me think I'm packing a can of chewing tobacco.
The bezel scratches easily, but it does not effect usage at all.
Most apps are designed with animations (This drastically effects battery life with an e-ink display). If there are 4 frames per action, that's 4 times as much power required!
Most of the apps are goofy adaptations of something that could be useful... For instance, I was looking for an app to keep track of passenger counts, ice sales, and mooring rentals, and had to sift through tons of single purpose counters, such as illuminati confirmed (where you push a button every time you witness evidence of the illuminati), or alcohol and nicotine consumption trackers, etc... Eventually, I found an app called multi-counter, but it's not quite as useful as I'd hoped, so I'll probably end up writing my own.
The color screen is nice, but not necessary. The only benefit I've seen thus far is how the color coded menu allows me to scan quickly without actually reading the options... If I want to launch Pandora, for instance, I just cycle through to the blue tile. I could have saved a hundred bucks by buying the black and white version. Then again, I want a weather radar app, and that would be nearly impossible to decipher in black and white.
Lastly, I wish it didn't require a phone. There are smart watches on the market that have their own SIM card, but none of them have e-ink displays, and their batteries don't last long at all... I wish there was a wearable phone with a battery that lasted as long as a pebble!
The weather forecast is simply an icon indicating a general overview of the day plus the temp, which is fine if you're wondering if you should wear long sleeves, or bring an umbrella for your commute, but when you work outside and talk with sailors all day, it would be much more helpful to have a graph indicating hourly chance of precipitation, wind speed and direction, tides, etc... Maybe I'll write an app for that, too.
PS: My brother spent over $400 on the cheapest Apple watch, while I spent over $200 on one of the most expensive Pebbles!
Overall, I'm happy with my purchase, as I'm sure I'll be able to correct most of the cons, overtime.
Oh, and one of my passengers had a kid with a smart watch... Did you know Leap Frog makes smart watches? It's like $30, has a built in camera, customizable digi-pet avatar, and tricks kids into getting off their fat asses and get some exercise! I doubt it's bluetooth or waterproof, though.
