Pebble Smart Watch to Begin Shipping January 23

d-klumpp said:

Not only am I puzzled by the concept of a cheesy electronic watch, what's the point of having a remote screen for my phone –– a phone that's rarely more than an arm's length away??

Real watches are usually Swiss and are always mechanical. Unless one is training for a marathon, to be caught with something else is an embarrassment.

Dave

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Feel better now?

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Allenbf said:

I've been looking forward to this announcement. I wasn't a backer, but I'm on board now. This looks awesome.

So if I ordered today, I expect I wouldn't get until April? Ughhhhh.

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Pretty sure that they aren't accepting orders anymore. Goal is to fulfill all of the original orders generated thru Kickstarter and only then will they reopen sales to the general public. So more likely you'd need to wait a couple months before even being able to get an order in, and I am betting that they will get swamped again, resulting in longer then expected delivery times.

I'm very interested in this watch and will be checking it out again when it goes out for general sale.

I think e-ink makes a lot of sense for this type of device. Not like you're going to watch video or color photographs on a tiny screen anyway. I value battery life and readability over anything else.

drummingcraig said:

Feel better now?

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Pretty sure that they aren't accepting orders anymore. Goal is to fulfill all of the original orders generated thru Kickstarter and only then will they reopen sales to the general public. So more likely you'd need to wait a couple months before even being able to get an order in, and I am betting that they will get swamped again, resulting in longer then expected delivery times.

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Site is still accepting orders, though.

I have a phosphor e-ink watch already and it's pretty nice. Definitely signing up for the pre-order on this one.

avanpelt said:

The next iteration will get some of the 1.0 bugs ironed out and might offer some different band choices.

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The currrent rev intentionally uses a standard-size watch band so that you can change it yourself. Why be limited by what the manufacturer offers, when you can put on whatever you can find? From the FAQ:

For those wondering about order of shipment for backers...it was stated in the presentation that they would ship in order of backer date. In other words, those that backed on day one of the Kickstarter will ship out first and so on.

drummingcraig said:

Pretty sure that they aren't accepting orders anymore. Goal is to fulfill all of the original orders generated thru Kickstarter and only then will they reopen sales to the general public. So more likely you'd need to wait a couple months before even being able to get an order in, and I am betting that they will get swamped again, resulting in longer then expected delivery times.

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As others have said, their site is still accepting orders. However, they say that their manufacturing capacity is something like 15000 watches/week, and so it'll take several weeks to ship all of the kickstarter backer orders. So, it'll probably be early/mid-March before any website orders will ship. If they're gotten a lot of website orders, it could be April or later before any order placed now may ship.

Chupa Chupa said:

Technically and legally, the screen is e-paper, not e-ink. Similar, but different. The screen in the Pebble is manufactured by Sharp and doesn't use e-Ink's technology and isn't licensed by e-Ink.

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Right. Nonetheless - my opinion of the project stands in high regard. And you'll have to give us a review when you get yours!

I do need a replacement for my both dead MBW 150 and 100 executive edition. The OLED displays have died and no one on the web can replace them. The Sony smartwatch or whatever it was called was terrible!

Super stoked and looking great. I can't wait to get mine.

It is very obvious though, the future of these is going to have to be touched based, because it is hard to do water resistance without tough to push buttons.

Maybe this is where Apple will excel. I think if Apple took their touch technology, combined it with an older version of the nano, which could easily be a monochrome screen, and you would have a great product imo. I know everyone would argue it needs to be color but why?

Any word on the battery and the battery life? Is it replaceable? Will it have to be charged every night?

hofer said:

Any word on the battery and the battery life? Is it replaceable? Will it have to be charged every night?

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Once a week.

Blomkvist said:

I am hoping that some developer comes out with a fitbit/fuelband like application for this watch. It seems to me that this functionality would best fit into a sports watch...and I think Pebble would be a great platform.

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They are working with runkeeper, but the integration won't be ready for launch.

I got in on the early bird $99 price, so I should get mine soon after the 23rd. I'll be sure to post a review here.

d-klumpp said:

Not only am I puzzled by the concept of a cheesy electronic watch, what's the point of having a remote screen for my phone –– a phone that's rarely more than an arm's length away??

Real watches are usually Swiss and are always mechanical. Unless one is training for a marathon, to be caught with something else is an embarrassment.

Dave

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Again, the electronic watch goes back to the geek in us. Although I'm not ready to give up my 'real' watch, this does have an interest.

I am curious to see where these go. I'd be interested in them if they integrated some sort of sport function app, whether partnering with Nike+ or the likes.

ThatsMrsGeek2U said:

I'm finally coming around to the idea of a watch again, finding that I can't have my phone laying around with young kids.

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Sucks don't it?

I have two kids... I can't leave my phones out without either A) getting baby drool all over the phone and potentially having it dead the next time it turns up or B) changed settings, random applications added all over my screen and a ton of unwanted outgoing texts/emails. Darn four year olds.

d-klumpp said:

Not only am I puzzled by the concept of a cheesy electronic watch, what's the point of having a remote screen for my phone –– a phone that's rarely more than an arm's length away??

Real watches are usually Swiss and are always mechanical. Unless one is training for a marathon, to be caught with something else is an embarrassment.

Dave

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As someone who wears a mechanical watch every day, it pains me to say this; you sound elitist. Not everyone can afford/wants one (though they are awesome, and I got mine for a song). Different strokes for different folks.

fiddlestyx said:

I am curious to see where these go. I'd be interested in them if they integrated some sort of sport function app, whether partnering with Nike+ or the likes.

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Well I know RunKeeperPro already has an app developed for it

ingramLee said:

but I mean... must we be THAT connected to our technology???

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The first true cyborgs have already been born. Get on board or become obsolete.

I was one of the backers and have been waiting for this for awhile. A nice thing that has happened in the months since backing is that they have continued to add and improve the device. The shipping versions will have magnetometers and ambient light sensors - which were not part of the original description. It has a magnetic charging cable as a way to keep it water resistant. It will also support SMS on the iPhone which, in the beginning was something that they could not do. But with iOS 6 and latest Bluetooth, now they can. I look forward to the apps and updates that will be available. I mainly wanted this thing to get alerts in places where I did not want to get out my phone and to control my music when cutting grass or working out. In both cases, pulling my phone out of my pocket or off an arm band were a pain in the keester.

samcraig said:

Well I know RunKeeperPro already has an app developed for it

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Good to know. I've never used that app so I'll have to check it out.

Looks Really interesting, will wait for the reviews and also what apple is cooking up

Pebble -- a product that wouldn't exist if Apple had simply included similar features as built-ins on the 7th generation iPod Nano, utilizing Bluetooth Smart as a "tether" for connecting to your iPhone.

Good news

When the kickstarter campaign was announced I was tempted, but I wasn't willing to pay so far in advance. I decided I would pay the full price when the device was released, if it was as good as promised. As the release date was delayed I was glad about my decision. I would like to try this out, but I'll wait until they are readily available. Others can be beta testers, and I'll see what other devices are announced. This does look like the best option so far.

Ashyukun said:

I'm glad we finally have a ship date for them- but I'm also worried about how long it will be until mine actually ships out. Definitely curious as to what priority order they'll use for shipping them. Order in which the backers signed up? Single-unit order first? Preference to multiple-unit orders? I'm unfortunately figuring I won't get mine until well into March. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will come in around my birthday.

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They said they'd ship them in the order of backing. Also, they said they'll be making 15000 per day, and there were only 86000 ordered or so as far as I remember, so they should be able to make them all within a week. Not sure whether they'll be able to ship that many of course. Hope they thought of that.

samcraig said:

Yes. It's not retina. It's e-ink.

I think it's a great project - and certainly seems to be better than previously released similar-type watches.

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I think this one beats it.