
Five days with Pebble - danilocampos
http://danilocampos.com/2013/02/five-days-with-pebble/
======
thechut
WHERE IS THE SDK? Why will nobody answer this question?

I received my Pebble 10 days ago. I was an early back of a black Pebble. So
far I have really loved my Pebble, but it is begging for apps. The Pebble team
said during the Kickstarter for their 2m stretch goal that they would release
the SDK before the watch. Still no SDK, and not even so much as a mention
since they started shipping. Obviously, as with almost all Kickstarter
projects (including Pebble), there are delays. That is fine.

But why will nobody from the Pebble team comment on the release or what is
going on? I have sent emails, posted on the forums, signed up for mailing
lists, posted kickstarter comments, and lurked in IRC (and now commented on
HN) to try to figure out what the deal with the SDK is. NOBODY KNOWS or nobody
will talk about it.

There are rumblings that some people, possibly "hacker special" backers, have
already been given access to an SDK. I'm not sure if this is true, but it
shouldn't prevent the Pebble team from making an announcement about what is
going on with the SDK.

I'm not trying to put Pebble down or trying to degrade what Pebble is in any
way. I own an inPulse and I backed Pebble the second I found out about it. I
hope for nothing but success for Pebble and think they could do amazing
things. I think they could do even more amazing things if they let developers
start making Pebble even better.

PEBBLE TEAM, if you are reading this...PLEASSSEEEE just tell us what/when to
expect!

~~~
danilocampos
Maybe I'm biased given my background as an iOS guy, but...

I'm just happy they got the hardware out and it's working pretty damn well. I
want to write code for this new platform more than anyone.

But they're a hardware startup! And they're shipping their hardware! That shit
is impossible, and frankly, worth prioritizing over any other goal. Getting an
SDK right takes time. It took Apple a year for the iPhone, and they had
enormous resources and a comparatively luxuriously-appointed platform.

How much RAM do you think a little guy like the Pebble is working with?

So I can imagine there be dragons in Pebble SDK town. They're going to get
there. But be realistic and cut some slack here. As a fellow backer, I'm
looking at all of this as having gone infinitely better than expected. Maybe
you want a bit more communication on this subject, and that's fair, but keep
some perspective.

Creating the future takes time.

All their incentives are aligned with yours. The better the dev ecosystem for
this platform, the more money they get to make over time. It's gonna be fine.

~~~
whatnottt
Good communication 101 in my books says they should write a statement about
it, especially since they've indicated that it should be out before the watch.
Or atleast comment on the questions.

I think people want pebble to succeed and there is lot of love for the
product. And telling about the dragons and delays creating the SDK would just
improve the image of fair and open culture they have.

I can imagine they've had a crazy year but an hour spent on commenting this
would be time well spent in my oppinion.

------
vitno
I'm at 4 days with my Pebble.

It's great. It's subtle, it looks nice and I like having a watch.

My only two caveats, I had to give a presentation the other day and it went
off during my presentation. Sure, I was the only one who noticed, but it threw
me through a loop for a second. A "Watch mode only" switch would be nice.

The other is the watch strap. I ordered a leather strap which I think will
make the watch look an order of magnitude better.

edit:

oh. I would also like notifications I clear on the watch to clear on my
smartphone.

~~~
doodyhead
Could you not just disable Bluetooth on your phone for situations like that?
Just curious if there's a downside.

Would love a Pebble but haven't ordered yet so I'm going to wait until they
catch up on the backlog.

~~~
vitno
yea, I had another presentation today and that's what I did. Nowhere near as
convenient though.

I'd like a software switch in the menus for the current version and the next
version to have a physical switch.

~~~
erohead
There's a software switch in Pebble to disable notifications. Settings ->
Display -> Notifications On/Off

~~~
vitno
_Looks at profile_... must know what he is talking about.

That's fantastic. In the future though, a physical switch seems like a good
idea.

------
jaysonelliot
I, too, love my Pebble, if only for the convenience of getting text and call
notifications on my wrist.

I'm surprised at how poorly thought-out the UI is, and particularly surprised
at how little control I have over it, at least out of the box.

For the moment, there's no way to invert the screen color, no way to view text
or call history (even to the point of seeing a notification if you
accidentally press the wrong button and dismiss it), not even a battery life
indicator that I've been able to find.

Eventually, as developers start getting apps on the Pebble, and as Pebble
themselves work on the UI, I have faith it will improve. As the author says,
this is what it's like in early adopter land.

One thing the Pebble has convinced me of is that smart watches will be a
popular product category in the near future. There's just too much potential,
and even my very basic, very early-stage Pebble has already become one of my
favorite gadgets.

~~~
dublinben
If smart watches take off, it will be when Apple releases theirs.

~~~
laumars
Technology has taken off in the past without Apples influences (netbooks,
IPTV, I'd even argue that smartphones and MP3 players too - though Apple did
lead the charge in their re-invention which further popularised them).

Plus it seems a little presumptuous to make such a definitive statement when
given Apple's watch is only a rumour and how unreliable Apple rumours are at
the best of times.

~~~
ocean12
Netbooks? How'd that work out for the industry?

~~~
laumars
Rather well actually. It's funny how short some peoples memories are, but
netbooks were very well received.

Popular enough that Intel rushed through some low powered x86 designs for fear
of ARM taking off.

Popular enough that Microsoft rushed through changes to Windows XP (both in
terms of software code and licensing) for fear of Linux taking off.

In fact they were so successful that complaints were often made against Apple
for having no such device (this of course was before the MacBook Air and iPad.
Neither of which are netbooks -obviously- but between the two they covered
enough of the form factor to keep most of the complainer quiet).

Granted the demand for netbooks have since fizzled out, but they were hugely
successful at the time and did the start of the popularisation of users
switching away from heavy "powerhouse" hardware to more portable devices for
lighter work loads. Credit for which belongs largely to ASUS and the EeePC,
which was basically the first consumer netbook - though similar hardware was
being built by the _One Laptop Per Child_ scheme - amongst others.

It's also worth noting that ASUS never sued Acer and other OEMs over pathetic
design patents over netbooks. And how Diamond Multimedia never sued Apple over
portable music players (one could argue the original iPod shared a lot of
similarities with the Rio PMP00[1]).

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_PMP300>

~~~
ZeroGravitas
It's not short memory, Apple blogs have been waging a campaign against
netbooks since their heyday, just like they wage campaigns against phones
bigger than 4 inches and tablets smaller than 10", TV boxes with support for
keyboards, styluses, royalty-free video codecs etc. etc. Basically if Apple
isn't in the market (yet) then it needs to be torn down, otherwise Apple looks
bad.

------
ChuckMcM
I've got an inPulse watch^h^h^h^h^hpaperweight. If you want to see the effect
of the Langolier spammers go over and look at inPulse's website
<http://www.getinpulse.com/hack/forum/> (not recommended). You can also see
folks crying in the corner for any information at all. They never followed
through and made it work with 64bit versions of Windows, the Linux support was
sub par at best, mostly unusable. Just checking they at least have finally
turned off the page where they would let you order one.

To say this left a 'bad taste' would be an understatement.

~~~
duskwuff
"Langolier spammers"? Never heard that term.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Stephen King novel "The Langoliers" (made into a bad TV movie) see
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Langoliers>

They are creatures that come and eat up the world after time has moved past,
dead web sites (and dead forum sites in particular) get 'eaten' by spammers in
much the same way.

------
Apreche
I have one, and this is accurate. The only benefit is being able to see
notifications on the wrist without having to take the phone out of my pocket.
That being said, it is a huge and amazing benefit. I hate watches, and feel
they have no purpose, but now it does.

The thing is I think this article understated the horribleness of the
notification bug that is supposedly Apple's fault. It's a huge pain in the
ass. The only feature that matters on the Pebble is seeing notifications on
the watch. Sometimes my phone buzzes and the Pebble does not. Unless the
Pebble gets 100% of the notifications reliably, it becomes a frustration
instead of a boon.

If that is fixed, then oh yes. If it's not fixed soon, I'll be trading pebble
for the rumored Apple watch. Heck, I might do that anyway. But still.

~~~
dguaraglia
As the guys from The Bugle (a satirical podcast) said while describing this
product: "we've definitely come a long way when there's a need to develop a
complete new piece of expensive hardware just to avoid _having to take your
phone from your pocket_. Meanwhile, no solution to the global hunger problem."

As much as I nerdgasm at how cool this device is, I have to wonder if, as a
species, we haven't 'jumped the shark'.

~~~
laumars
Where do you draw the line between necessity and greed?

Do I need a 40" TV? Not really, 14" is big enough to watch, it's just less
enjoyable. But then TV is purely there for enjoyment anyway, so perhaps just
owning one is jumping the shark when one could equally read the news online.

This watch might be excessive, but then so are the phones that this connects
to (how many people actually _need_ a smart phone? Even for corporate use,
'dumb' feature phones can send and receive e-mails). And it's greatest use is
to check notifications when driving (I don't _need_ to drive, I could get the
train) or chatting to friends down the pub (I don't _need_ to drink).

Plus lets not forget that progress and technology is generally invented for 1
of 3 reasons:

1) to kill each other

2) to cut costs in companies (usually resulting in job losses as technology
replaces human beings)

3) to make our lives more luxurious.

Personally I'd rather see more 'pointless' smart watches than job losses and
smart bombs.

------
justjimmy
I'm constantly missing calls/texts when I'm on the move/walking about with my
phone in my pant pockets - can't feel the buzz, especially during winter
season. Having a buzz on my wrist seems like a neat solution and w/o having to
fish for my phone constantly.

It's definitely going to require some practice to fight the urge to simply
glance at my watch (than fishing out the phone) when engaged with
something/someone else.

------
harlanlewis
Enjoyed the read, thanks for sharing. The 'decorum' bit made me chuckle,
though - checking your watch while someone's talking is hardly the height of
etiquette!

I'm not too familiar with Pebble's interactions and content display - can you
really just glance at it after your pocket buzzes, or is there any cycling
through display modes to see notifications? If notifications take over
display, how long do they persist? What default content gets hidden to show
the notification? Or does it work a completely different way?

I'm looking forward to playing with one myself but for now am reduced to eager
fanboi questions...

~~~
danilocampos
So, when a notification hits your phone, the Pebble immediately buzzes and
lights its screen, displaying the content of that notification. It'll sit
there for three minutes, then go back to whatever you were doing.

So if you were in the Music controller, you would hit the Pebble's back button
to dismiss the notification and you'd see your current track again. If you
were on a watch app, you'll see the watch.

Fair point about manners! The fact that the device rather noticeably lights up
gives you a bit of cover though.

~~~
rufo
As someone who already dreads smartphones coming out at lunch or dinner
outings with friends, I already hate the idea of people's wrists lighting up
and distracting from conversation. :)

~~~
danilocampos
Believe me, this is better. The curiosity urge is what gets the phone pulled
out of the pocket. From there, it's very low friction to decide to open it up
and start screwing around. Separating the two acts has, for me, been an
improvement.

~~~
kefs
...or you could just set custom notification tones and vibrate
patterns/intensity levels for specific apps/contacts/labels/anything (on
android)

~~~
danilocampos
It's not the same as reading, though. I've done that in the past and it worked
out like this:

"Oh, I know exactly who is texting me. They are a high priority person in my
life. Let's make sure they're okay...

Aaand it's a cat gif."

The text display is the game-changer here.

------
Tyrannosaurs
"Sometimes I want to give the people I’m with my undivided attention. That
means the phone stays firmly in my pocket. And as long as no calls or
notifications come in, that’s fine. But once my pocket starts buzzing, my mind
can start to run wild with curiosity. Is someone in trouble, or did a dumb
tweet get faved by someone? That game can erode attention after awhile. With
the Pebble, I can discreetly glance at my wrist without breaking the flow of
conversation."

In what way is this giving someone your undivided attention? You're just
slightly modifying the division of your attention and making it easier to hide
that you're thinking about something else.

Personally I find a better solution is to either be honest and put your phone
on the desk and explain to people that you might be getting a call you need to
take, or put it somewhere you can't see, hear or feel it and genuinely
disengage.

Not saying I don't like the Pebble, I do, just that I don't think this is a
great use case for it.

~~~
risratorn
It gets your mind off of the thing without getting your phone out of your
pocket ... one glare at your watch and you know if it's worth interrupting
your conversation or not. If not, it's just a 2 second interruption at max
which should not interfere with your "undivided attention" to the person you
are speaking with.

This is at least how my "attention" works :)

------
ryanb
I'm really enjoying my Pebble as well. Screening text/calls on my wrist is a
lot nicer than I thought it with be. I'm excited to see what kind of apps the
developer community is going to come up with now that they have Pebble's in
hand.

------
spullara
I'm not as happy with mine feature-wise but glad I participated. Build
quality-wise it is pretty bad. I've already lost a button and reported it to
them. I think of it as taking a cold shower before jumping in the iWatch hot
tub.

~~~
saraid216
Should sell yours to this guy: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5216938>

------
robbiet480
Loving my Pebble, especially with Light Flow Plus and Pebble Notifier however,
I am really hoping for the IFTTT channel to come out soon, although I heard
from rumor that IFTTT isn't playing ball, but I don't know for sure.

~~~
erohead
Right now you can get ifttt alerts sent to pebble via SMS (iOS) or email/SMS
(Android). It's 100% in our court to get the final part hooked up, absolutely
nothing to do with ifttt!

------
modeless
I'm loving notifications on my wrist, but there are a few rough edges. The
worst is that dismissing a notification on your phone does not dismiss it on
the watch and vice versa. Messages you received and already read on your
phone/computer will remain on the watch face, obscuring the time. This forces
you to constantly interact with the watch in addition to your phone/computer.

Other problems: There's no generic support for Android notifications, so only
a few apps work, not including Google Now or G+. Google Talk notifications are
nice but vibrate the watch too often.

------
cpenner461
Thanks for the overview of your experience. I'm eagerly waiting for mine to
ship. How did the shipping process work? I.e. did it just show up on your
doorstep one day or did the Pebble account site tell you when it shipped? I
keep checking my account every few days but there's no sign other than I've
done all I can do for now. Trying to figure out what the rest of my wait will
be like. :-)

~~~
danilocampos
I checked my mailbox and BOOM, there it was. I got a shipping notification the
next day, which was cute. But in SF, I'm less than an hour's drive from their
fulfillment center, so others will probably be better prepared.

~~~
geoffpado
I had the same experience in central Missouri, so… probably not. I'm totally
okay with them being able to ship faster than sending e-mails, though.

------
shurcooL
Sounds like this would be a great match with my LTE iPad mini (I keep it in my
pocket). But I'll probably still wait until Apple releases their version. Even
then, not sure if I'll get it because I prefer to have one device... at least
until they start to sync Notification (Interruption?) Center.

------
zwegner
I think I'll pass--I instinctively check my phone too much as it is, I really
don't need another device to feed my dopamine addiction. Reminds me of an old
Calvin and Hobbes strip--if we wanted technology to make our lives more
convenient, we'd make computers slower, not faster.

------
6thSigma
Ugh, I should have ordered during the Kickstarter. I was literally at the
billing info page when I decided to wait until some reviews came out.

I was bought one as a gift, and still haven't received a billing notification
yet. :(

------
tsycho
For those with Pebbles, does it have any impact on the battery life of the
phone? How's the battery life of Pebble itself?

~~~
thechut
I've had my Pebble for 10 days. I charged it once when I got it and once since
then, it died on me for the first time while I was wearing it today. I would
say the battery life on is great especially compared to the inPulse and
definitely usable.

I've noticed the battery usage varies a lot. depending on watchfaces, how your
notifications are set / how many notifications you get on a daily basis. But
my sparse charging since I got it has proven that the battery should easily
stand up to 3 or 4 days of use between charges. This was more than enough to
satisfy me after the crummy battery life I experience with inPulse.

------
mrcrassic
This looks incredibly, incredibly useful. These guys are going to go FAR with
this. I just pre-ordered one. Can't wait!

~~~
reiichiroh
Although things are subjective, it looks pretty ugly and flimsy. I'll sit this
out until they can be as durable as a simple Casio watch or G-shock.

------
just_observing
"Sometimes I want to give the people I’m with my undivided attention."

and now I can pretend I am.

------
mattbarrie
Apple is about to eat their lunch.

