Pebble Smartwatch Review

 

The Pebble smartwatch for iPhone and Android is a prime example of the bizarre times in which we live. In an era of people increasingly telling time by looking at the corner of their computer's screen or their smartphone lock screens, Pebble wants to make the wristwatch everyone's preferred timepiece. But instead of pitting the watch and smartphone as competitors for one function, Pebble tries to go beyond the default use case for either device and do much more.

Sony, Microsoft, Motorola, among others have also tried to turn the watch into more than just a timepiece, but even their millions of dollars in R&D and years of manufacturing experience couldn't quite get the category right. Yet Pebble, a humble Kickstarter project embraced by nearly 70,000 backers, is the most buzzed-about smartwatch yet. Have those early believers been vindicated by the release of a phenomenal product or are they just another cautionary tale of what happens when reality doesn't meet the hype?

Pebble retails for $150, and that cost doesn't buy good looks. The watch features a plain rectangular plastic face connected to an equally plain - though to be fair, quite comforting - band made of smooth rubber.

Multiple colors are available for the watch portion, but the glossy plastic frame and exposed charging connector are about as stylish as a watch found in a sporting goods store. The nondescript design is forgivable considering that no one is buying Pebble to make a fashion statement. While it's not the prettiest timepiece on the market, Pebble is simple enough to not clash with most attires or look cheap.

A 1.26-inch black and white e-paper display with 144 x 168 resolution shows the time and compatible notifications from an iOS or Android device. A backlight makes the screen more legible when in the dark. This light can also be automatically triggered by gently flicking one's wrist.

A menu button and a charge connector are on the left side, and navigation buttons for scrolling and selecting are on the right. Pebble is light as a feather, so pushing the buttons with too much force will cause the device to slant at an uncomfortable angle, but the light feel is otherwise a blessing.

Key specs to know about the Pebble include:

Scratchproof, shatter-resistant, and 5 ATM water-resistantVibrating motor to send notifications and alarms Accelerometer sensor to use gesture detection Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and Bluetooth 4.0Replaceable 22mm watch bands

Pebble's superficial shortcomings are a non-issue for most. The real value of a smartwatch is its "smarts" offered through software. While craftsmanship and fashion play a much larger role when selecting a standard wristwatch, Pebble attracted scores of customers by promoting the idea that their watch could do more than simply tell time. The Bluetooth 4.0-capable watch can link with a smartphone to download customizable clocks, relay notifications from a smartphone, and even initiate controls on an Apple iPhone or Google Android device.

The type of smartphone someone owns greatly affects just how smart Pebble can appear. An iPhone is currently able to receive notifications for incoming calls, calendar appointments, text messages, and iMessages, but not all apps are able to send notifications. The watch proves to be a nice timesaver because it shows Caller ID information and can accept or decline calls, though it doesn't automatically turn on speaker mode, so you'll still have to pick up the phone. I also loved Pebble's music control feature that's able to start, pause, and select next or previous tracks in the Music app. There are no volume controls, but the pause and next track buttons also work in other apps like Pandora and Slacker.

The Android version of Pebble is noticeably more powerful. In addition to the standard reminders and music controls previously mentioned, the Pebble Android app supports notifications for the Email, Gmail, Calendar, Google Voice, WhatsApp and Facebook apps. Even more control is available by using a third-party app that can route notifications from any app to the Pebble, something not available on an iPhone unless you are on a jailbroken device.

One uncomfortable aspect is that Pebble requires Gmail login information to access Gmail notifications, something that many might be hesitant to do, and for good reason in light of concerns for account security. Another shortcoming is that the app treats notifications on a last come, last served basis. There's no way to scroll through alerts, so it will only display the most recent message or tweet to appear, so you could conceivably miss an important notification.

Apps were also supposed to be a part of the Pebble package, but the watch sadly does not yet have those features. The original plan for Pebble included added functionality for apps, the most notable being run stats being displayed on-screen for RunKeeper. Despite having an SDK available since last spring, and an early demonstration of the feature, RunKeeper and other third-party apps are sadly absent from Pebble. The only things downloadable so far are additional clocks, which are nice but not enough to make anyone forget about what Pebble is capable of accomplishing.

As I alluded to earlier, Pebble is not the first device that attempts to extend the power of connectivity from the pocket to the wrist. The difference is that other solutions have used power-sucking LCD screens that require frequent charging, which is a non-starter for most people. Pebble avoids that issue entirely because the e-paper display is long lasting, and Bluetooth 4.0 uses less energy when paired with a capable smartphone. Pebble has an advertised seven days of battery life, but that can be lessened if Bluetooth is always on and someone constantly accesses the backlight.

I managed to use the Pebble frequently, with both the Bluetooth and backlight always enabled, for more than four days before the battery indicator began warning that it may be time to charge the device. Pebble lasted for at least another six hours even with the indicator on. The only concern will be related to the smartphone, which will noticeably drain faster depending on the device and usage habits. Pebble will continue to function as a watch when disconnected, but notifications will obviously cease once Bluetooth is disabled.

Pebble is a bold project that clearly ran out of the gate faster than anyone expected. The small startup that developed the watch has had to learn and adapt on the fly because of unexpected demands, and that has led to the device falling short of its potential.

The good news is that there's still a lot of upside and room to grow. Apps will eventually help fulfill Pebble's promise, and the device is already a good product. Over the past week, I've enjoyed being able to skip songs without having to reach for my phone and cut down on the amount of calls missed when I was in another room. I've even found a new way to locate my frequently misplaced phone by remotely starting a song and following the noise.

That won't be enough for most people to spend $150, so Pebble is currently a fancy toy with a chance at being more. Pebble is not yet the elegant solution that its Kickstarter project inspired, but it's a functional timepiece well on its way to becoming something special.

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By: Unknown On 10:06 PM

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Some Pebble smartwatches bricking after shutdown, company replacing faulty units

It appears that Pebble's smartwatch is officially feeling its largest growing pain since debuting just two months ago. A five-page long (and growing) thread on the company's forum has some owners describing a bug that's leaving their Pebbles pebbled bricked after shutdown. Pebble's Eric Migicovsky let us know that the company is actively replacing affected units, while examining those being sent in to find out the root cause:

We've had reports of this issue, and we understand of course that it's annoying for users. We're replacing any Pebbles for users who report this issue. We're reviewing the Pebbles that get returned, working to get to the bottom of the issue. We have our support team ready to follow up to any user that reports this issue.

As it stands, there's no word on whether firmware update 1.9 has any role in keeping the devices from turning on after being shut down. Owners have further reported that no amount of charging their Pebble will help it to actually come back to life. We've reached out to the company for more info on the matter (including nailing down how many units the company has replaced so far), and we'll be sure to keep you updated. For now, let us know whether your experience with Pebble has been rocky at all so far.

Update: That was fast -- apparently Pebble has received about 30 reports of this issue since Friday. Here's the official word from Migicovsky:

We're tracking a few reports of this issue. Up to Friday, we've had 20-30 reports (out of 30,000+ pebbles in the field). We've gotten several back to the office, and we're getting to the bottom of it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Source: Pebble (forum)

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By: Unknown On 11:03 PM

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Pebble watch pulls all notifications from the iPhone, but only if you jailbreak

The Pebble already does a good job of pulling notifications from stock iOS apps to your wrist, including SMS, email previews and calendar appointments. But if you want a broader range of alerts from third-party apps -- say, Google+ -- then you're basically stuck. Unless, it seems, you're prepared to jailbreak your iPhone. Developer Conrad Kramer recently tweeted to say that his "BTNotificationEnabler" tool is available on Cydia, and that it allows every single arrival in your Notification Center to be sent to a Pebble or other compatible Bluetooth device. It's unlikely to induce many smartwatch owners to liberate their phones, even with the relatively easy and untethered evasi0n hack now available, but at least we'll have one more bullet point the next time someone asks "why jailbreak?".

Via: PhoneArena, CultofMac

Source: Conrad Kramer (Twitter)

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By: Unknown On 9:05 PM

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Pebble smartwatch review

What is Kickstarter? The answer you'll hear, as long-winded as it may be, will likely touch on Pebble. If it doesn't, you'll probably want to ask someone else -- with more than $10 million pledged, the people's smartwatch catapulted past the crowdfunding site's records and the startup's own expectations. It achieved a $100,000 funding goal in two hours, and it was clearly a favorite among our readers. Of course, there were doubts that Eric Migicovsky, the company's founder, would deliver such an appealing and seemingly powerful product for $125, but following our first look during the company's CES press conference, that dream became real.

So, what is Pebble? It's not a smartphone for your wrist, as we've seen attempted before. In fact, it's far less sophisticated than you might expect -- the lightweight device reads out basic text, lets you skip through music tracks and, of course, displays the time. It's hardly the greatest achievement of our generation, or even the device of the year. It's become incredibly popular, sure, but despite the hype, you certainly don't need to own one. Yet, somehow, even the most technologically inept people in our lives have heard it mentioned on morning talk shows, FM radio stations or from pre-teens anxious to impress their friends. Having a smartphone alone isn't enough anymore. Or is it?

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We tested a black Pebble, which is the first color to ship. The face is slightly glossier than renders implied, but otherwise the production device looks nearly identical to early prototypes. There's a 22mm rubber strap for mounting the device to your wrist -- you'll likely be able to swap in your own band with matching dimensions. It's a fairly attractive combination, though regardless of the strap you choose, you'll probably want to leave Pebble behind during formal events, or walks down the runway.

Pebble feels very comfortable when fastened on the wrist -- it's relatively lightweight, and the smooth edges maintain their distance from sensitive skin. Still, it feels solid enough for regular use, and thanks to waterproofing down to 50 meters (164 feet), it can stay on your wrist during laps in the pool (or in the ocean), and it'll work just fine in the shower as well. There are two exposed metal connectors, used to pair up with the proprietary magnetic USB charging cable (the only accessory that ships in the box), but the housing appears to be properly sealed.

The secret to Pebble's weeklong battery life and daylight readability is a technology similar to what's penetrated the lives of bookworms young and old: an e-paper display. The 114 x 168 black-and-white screen sports nearly 20,000 pixels, letting you view emails and a time readout in several fonts, along with watch faces and other indicators. The display looks great both indoors and out, though we did notice some odd black spotting while viewing the panel in direct sunlight -- adjusting the angle eradicates the issue.

There's a simple backlight that illuminates the panel briefly at night, automatically when you receive a notification or manually when you activate any of the four side-mounted buttons. It's fairly dim, enabling you to avoid disturbing fellow moviegoers or that patient significant other sharing your bed, but still bright enough for you to catch every detail. Pebble will reflect even a small amount of ambient light, however, so your backlight usage is likely to be fairly minimal.

Pebble doesn't offer much functionality without a smartphone. You'll need one (and an accompanying app) to get started, and although you'll be able to display the time while disconnected (in Airplane Mode, for example), software updates, feature additions and notifications all require a Bluetooth connection. Fortunately, there's Bluetooth 4.0 support, which offers speedy performance with reduced energy consumption. This also contributes to Pebble's weeklong battery life, and a reported five to 10 percent hit to your smartphone's longevity.

We'll detail the user interface more in the section below, but since there's no touch functionality here, you'll need to navigate using the four side-mounted buttons. There's a home (or back) button on the top left side, which brings you back to Pebble's main configuration page. Positioned to the right of the e-paper panel: a top button scrolls up, a smaller center button makes selections and the control on the bottom scrolls down -- through messages, menus or tracks while controlling music playback. All of these buttons require a firm press, rather than a tap, and while you won't accidentally activate the controls, registering input can take a bit of effort.

Pebble's two apps -- one for Android 2.3 or later and the second for Apple devices running iOS 5 or later -- enable everything from initial setup to push notifications. There's no user manual in the box, so you'll need to download your respective app to get started. Pairing takes a few seconds, and then you're good to go. The smartwatch will automatically adopt the local time on your smartphone, and you can select from a few default watch faces, ranging from Text Watch, which you're probably already familiar with, to Classic Analog.

To take full advantage of the device's functionality, you'll need to head back over to the smartphone app, where you can push additional watch faces (there are currently just five to download, including TicTockToe). Eventually, this custom app store will include third-party apps, such as the bike computer and golf rangefinder that the company pitched on its Kickstarter page, though they're not available now.

The app's Settings page is where you'll select notifications to push. Based on the apps installed on our Galaxy Note II, we were able to choose from incoming call alerts, text messages, calendar reminders, email previews, Google Talk messages, Google Voice messages and Facebook messages. Each option has a checkbox, so if you want to use your Pebble for caller ID but don't want to be bothered with Facebook messages, that's perfectly OK. With each notification, the watch will vibrate once, the backlight will flip on (for a few seconds) and the message will pop up.

Theoretically, you can simply shake your wrist to dismiss the notification, though we were only able to accomplish this by pressing one of the buttons. You can choose from large and small fonts for notifications, but regardless of the size, you can scroll to see more using the up and down buttons. You'll need to hop over to your smartphone to read the full message or send a response. Similarly, when you receive a call, your only option on the watch is to dismiss the notification, but doing so won't send your caller to voicemail.

Unless you're looking at your watch every few seconds, there will likely come a time when your inbox contains multiple messages. Unfortunately, Pebble will only display the very last notification received, so it won't completely eliminate a need to check your smartphone. Also, it's not currently able to display certain languages -- a message we received with Chinese characters rendered as several lines of rectangles on the display.

At this point, all of the interactions between Pebble and a connected smartphone go in one direction -- from your handset to the watch -- with one exception. The wristwatch's music player controls playback on your Android or iOS device, including play / pause and track skipping. There's no volume control, which seems reasonable given the limited number of buttons. With our Android phone, the watch was able to identify and control music from the native app, but not third-party services, such as Spotify.

Although it may seem to be the case given the excitement surrounding this launch, Pebble is not the only smartwatch on the market. Sony and now Toshiba are two of the giants behind similar tech, and the former company's SmartWatch is even reasonably priced, at $149. Allerta, the company behind Pebble, released its own wearable several years ago, called inPulse, but smartphone compatibility was limited to BlackBerry models and certain Android-powered handsets, and the device uses an OLED display. Similarly, WIMM Labs' WIMM One was made available to developers, but is no longer in production.

Pebble's success stems from the promise of third-party apps and the practical e-paper display, along with the marketing power of Kickstarter. Functionality remains somewhat limited, but this is a first-generation device from a small manufacturer that's currently only in the hands of a very limited number of lucky backers. If consumer interest is any indication, developers will likely soon be hard at work on a variety of unique applications, if they aren't already. The platform is incredibly young, and the best is yet to come.

We've really enjoyed our time with Pebble so far -- it's not a fashion statement, necessarily, but we wouldn't be surprised to see it pop up on many wrists in the weeks and months to come. Functionality is still quite limited at this point, and considering how fresh the device is, that's to be expected. The features that are already available work well, and the smartwatch has been a pleasure to use.

Taking price into account, Pebble is an excellent value, especially for lucky Kickstarter backers who were able to take advantage of $99, $115 and $125 pre-orders. We're very optimistic for the device's future -- our chief concern relates not to the hardware, but how it will affect behavior: If you thought that friend who glances at his smartphone every few minutes was rude, just wait until they own a Pebble.

Update: Pebble's fearless leader, Eric Migicovsky, responded with the answers to a few of our questions. He confirmed that the goal is to fulfill all Kickstarter orders within the next 6-8 weeks, with preorders following. The device may eventually end up in retail stores, but there's no firm timeline there. Pebble is powered by an ARM Cortex-M3 processor, with a 140mAh battery keeping you up and running for up to a week with occasional use, or five days with frequent notifications and backlight activation. On the cosmetic front, the dark spots we saw in sunlight was likely a "Mura Effect" from the lens -- it's possible that other users will notice this as well. Finally, English is the only language currently supported (which explains why our Chinese characters rendered as rectangles), but others will soon follow.

Update 2: Apps that support the Audio / Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) should be compatible with Pebble's audio controls. Spotify, however, does not include this support.

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By: Dilusha On 11:10 AM

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Pebble smartwatch unboxing (video)

It's here! After nine months of waiting and a whopping 31 project updates, our very first Pebble smartwatch has finally arrived. Despite all of the excitement surrounding this device, the unboxing itself was rather anticlimactic -- there's nothing but a watch and USB cable inside, and the box took all of 10 seconds to open, despite an unexpected cardboard zipper failure. The packaging is very similar to what Amazon uses to ship its Kindles, and we definitely don't mind the no-frills design, especially considering that it's efficient, made from recycled materials and dead-simple to open. If you're a Pebble backer, your device is coming soon, if it hasn't arrived already -- that doesn't mean you can't unbox one with us, though. There's a gallery below, followed by a quick video after the break.Pebble smartwatch unboxingSee all photoswhen.eng("eng.galleries.init")

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By: Dilusha On 8:53 AM

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FCC gets timely visit from the Pebble smartwatch

The most funded project in the history of Kickstarter with funding pledges totaling $10 million, the Pebble smartwatch missed out on the holiday season, as expected. That was the second delay for the device, which was originally supposed to launch in September. Using Bluetooth, the watch pairs with your smartphone to alert you to calls, messages, email (including Gmail), tweets, Facebook messages and even has apps for joggers and golfers. The device will also read texts and iMessages meant for Apple iPhone users. All this in a waterproof 50mm x 30mm body. Pebble's iOS and Android app lets you change the watchface whenever you want, from a number of great designs. The watch will be available in Arctic White, Jet Black or Cherry Red. A forth color will be selected by the public.

While the actual launch date for the Pebble smartwatch is unknown, the device did visit the FCC which is at the least, one important task that needed to be done before the watch was made available in the U.S. The group behind Pebble might be beginning to feel some pressure to release the smartwatch after hearing talk that Apple and Intel could be working together on a 1.5 inch iOS smartwatch of their own, that obviously would be one of Pebble's top competitors.

source: FCC,  Kickstarter via Engadget

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By: Dilusha On 11:23 AM

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Pebble smartwatch stops by FCC, tries to prove it's not vaporware

The Pebble smartwatch missed its original September target ship date. Then, it failed to ship in time to stuff stockings this holiday season. And, while we've seen them in person and the company claims a release is imminent, you'd be forgiven for being a bit skeptical. But there is reason to hope: the connected wristwear has officially received a thumbs up from the FCC. What's more, the e-paper timepiece gets the full teardown treatment and comes complete with an owners manual. There's no surprises here, but if you're the impatient type, there should be a few things to keep you occupied until the next delay.

Filed under: Wearables

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Source: FCC

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By: Dilusha On 8:27 AM

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