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From Pebble Steel to Apple Sport

T

thatsmyfish

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 20, 2009
405
185
I took the plunge and ordered the Sport today. I've had a Pebble Steel for six months. For those who came from a Pebble, I'm curious what functions of the Apple Watch are the same in daily usage, what you find you use more or what works better or didn't work on Pebble, etc.

I had recently added an email app to the Pebble and jury-rigged it to send pre-set texts to my close friends to allow some degree of notifications as that was a deal breaker for me.
 
I came from a Pebble and got my sport today. I've only had it for a few hours but it's definitely a step up. Notifications are similar but you can effortlessly reply to them now. The current sports apps I've tested are slow but easier to navigate than the ESPN app on Pebble. Going from the three buttons to the touch screen and crown is probably the biggest step up. The haptic feedback is also silent where I found it could be embarrassingly loud on my Pebble (though maybe they improved that with the Steel?).

EDIT: also, weather updates that didn't randomly think I was somewhere I wasn't. The Pebble had a tendency to disconnect or stop sending me notifications without warning as well.
 
It's fairly loud on the Pebble, but very noticeable. I've heard the feedback on the Sport can be missed due to it being so subtle?
 
thatsmyfish said:
It's fairly loud on the Pebble, but very noticeable. I've heard the feedback on the Sport can be missed due to it being so subtle?
Click to expand...

Yes, I had to turn on the prominent haptic setting and that made it much better. It's still silent but it vibrates before the tap.
 
Night and day. Touch screen, replying, color screen, and notifications that actually work. Can't wait to sell my pebble tomorrow
 
thatsmyfish said:
I took the plunge and ordered the Sport today. I've had a Pebble Steel for six months. For those who came from a Pebble, I'm curious what functions of the Apple Watch are the same in daily usage, what you find you use more or what works better or didn't work on Pebble, etc.

I had recently added an email app to the Pebble and jury-rigged it to send pre-set texts to my close friends to allow some degree of notifications as that was a deal breaker for me.
Click to expand...

I switched from the Steel, been using the Pebble watches since the Kickstarter first shipped. I have had my Apple Watch for about 13 hours now.

It is considerably lighter and this band is extremely comfortable.

Notifications are better. Audio alert along with vibrations. When you dismiss it is also dismissed from the notification center on the iPhone so you don't have them piling up. It also displays the entire message for texts and all the alerts have had the full texts, no more truncated notifications that I then need to continue reading on my phone.

Taking calls on the watch is great, a little buggy with some white noise and latency, but better than just being able to accept or decline from the Pebble.

Ability to received images via text and have them displayed on the screen is great. Even GIFs play on the watch screen.

Siri is on point, dont know why it's not this accurate on the iPhone.

Battery life is okay... Came out of the box at about 80%. Used it down to 55% after like 4.5 hours. Charged it back up to 100%, took less than an hour. And have been using it since then and I'm currently at 79%. Could easily get a full day out of it.

Used the maps today. It was great function wise, just wish Apple Maps would get their ***** together with POIs and searching.

Apple Pay and Passbook are super convenient to have on the watch and work great.

The digital crown and touch interface with force touch make this ridiculously easy to use.

It did take a couple hours to get used to not having to flick my wrist to light it up. Just raise your wrist to look at it and it all appears.

If you have any specific questions let me know.
 
Is the etrade app functional/available? IIRC, you can use the etrade app without an account...

Is there a stock ticker app?
 
segrobja said:
I switched from the Steel, been using the Pebble watches since the Kickstarter first shipped. I have had my Apple Watch for about 13 hours now.

It is considerably lighter and this band is extremely comfortable.

Notifications are better. Audio alert along with vibrations. When you dismiss it is also dismissed from the notification center on the iPhone so you don't have them piling up. It also displays the entire message for texts and all the alerts have had the full texts, no more truncated notifications that I then need to continue reading on my phone.

Taking calls on the watch is great, a little buggy with some white noise and latency, but better than just being able to accept or decline from the Pebble.

Ability to received images via text and have them displayed on the screen is great. Even GIFs play on the watch screen.

Siri is on point, dont know why it's not this accurate on the iPhone.

Battery life is okay... Came out of the box at about 80%. Used it down to 55% after like 4.5 hours. Charged it back up to 100%, took less than an hour. And have been using it since then and I'm currently at 79%. Could easily get a full day out of it.

Used the maps today. It was great function wise, just wish Apple Maps would get their ***** together with POIs and searching.

Apple Pay and Passbook are super convenient to have on the watch and work great.

The digital crown and touch interface with force touch make this ridiculously easy to use.

It did take a couple hours to get used to not having to flick my wrist to light it up. Just raise your wrist to look at it and it all appears.

If you have any specific questions let me know.
Click to expand...

Much appreciated! I've actually had a decent run on the Pebble lately. My notifications have been on point, and Smartwatch+ has given me access to my calendar and reminders, which has been a help. I haven't dropped a notification, but the inability to respond to notifications has been a hangup. The email app I added has been fairly helpful, but using the phone carrier email to text function has led to quite a few media texts the Pebble can't read, and it messed up this morning and sent the same text to six people instead of one. Hopefully they were awake at 6am! You actually put your finger on the biggest issue. I can answer the phone from the Pebble if I'm about to miss the call, but sound like an idiot screaming from across the house that I'm on my way.

The ability to control the Apple TV will be a huge advantage in addition to all the integration as my wife and I have not gone a single day without losing the remote. Does it function just like the remote app for iPhone?
 
thatsmyfish said:
Much appreciated! I've actually had a decent run on the Pebble lately. My notifications have been on point, and Smartwatch+ has given me access to my calendar and reminders, which has been a help. I haven't dropped a notification, but the inability to respond to notifications has been a hangup. The email app I added has been fairly helpful, but using the phone carrier email to text function has led to quite a few media texts the Pebble can't read, and it messed up this morning and sent the same text to six people instead of one. Hopefully they were awake at 6am! You actually put your finger on the biggest issue. I can answer the phone from the Pebble if I'm about to miss the call, but sound like an idiot screaming from across the house that I'm on my way.

The ability to control the Apple TV will be a huge advantage in addition to all the integration as my wife and I have not gone a single day without losing the remote. Does it function just like the remote app for iPhone?
Click to expand...

The Pebble OS has come a long way and yes in the last few months it has gotten better with notifications and stuff. But the Apple Watch just works with the iPhone and is made to work with it and it's flawless, rather than having to piecemeal a working watch together with add-on apps and making due with certain features lacking.

As for Apple TV, dont have one so cant speak to that.
 
How is the email presentation? The Pebble allows me to see only the first few lines of an email with no native response ability. Can I read the full email and is there the ability to send a preset response from the watch itself?
 
thatsmyfish said:
How is the email presentation? The Pebble allows me to see only the first few lines of an email with no native response ability. Can I read the full email and is there the ability to send a preset response from the watch itself?
Click to expand...

You can read the entire email but you cannot respond from the watch; you'll have to dig out your phone for that.
 
I'm aware that you can send your heartbeat to another Apple Watch. Can you also send taps to another Apple Watch? Most importantly, I know you can send drawings to another apple watch, but would these carry over as picture messages to other iPhones or devices? I could easily see myself getting a text from someone and wanting to scribble a question mark back or something of the like? Would that work if the other person doesn't have the watch?
 
thatsmyfish said:
I'm aware that you can send your heartbeat to another Apple Watch. Can you also send taps to another Apple Watch? Most importantly, I know you can send drawings to another apple watch, but would these carry over as picture messages to other iPhones or devices? I could easily see myself getting a text from someone and wanting to scribble a question mark back or something of the like? Would that work if the other person doesn't have the watch?
Click to expand...

No. Those features are exclusive to Apple Watch.
 
The way I described the difference on twitter was comparing pebble to a VCR and Apple Watch to Netflix.

It's a completely different experience IMO. The only downside I've found is that the pebble was very easy to read in direct sunlight, unlike the Apple watch.
 
A new question popped to mind. How does the body of the aluminum seem to hold up to real word use versus the body of the Pebble Steel. I'm assuming the Pebble is not directly equal to the stainless steel Apple Watch.
 
One weird difference I found today. Got a call on my iPhone in my pocket. Instinctively I looked at my wrist to see who was calling but the watch never popped up a caller ID. Did I do something wrong or have others seen this too?
 
Clearly I don't have one yet but my understanding is whereas we would get Pebble notifications if banners or alerts came up on the iPhone and only didn't get Pebble alerts when we were in the iPhone app and bypassed the notification, we won't get Apple watch alerts if the iPhone is active to receive any type of notification. So if your phone is in your pocket but the screen was already fired up when the call came through, it would not go to the watch? Or is this not the case and it should ring on both?
 
I've had a Pebble Steel for a year. I've now had my Watch for two days. The Apple is so, so much nicer. Stainless steel with black classic buckle.

In the last year, I've become accustomed to looking at my wrist when notifications come in. It's nice to have more control of what comes in on the watch versus the Pebble which was pretty much all or nothing (pure mirror of the phone).
 
Biggest difference is that I can write full native apps for my Pebble (that don't require my iPhone nearly to run), plus the Pebble can be used for more than one day away from a charger (backpacking for instance). But I'm still getting a Sport Watch as well, as I usually have my iPhone nearby.

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Brian Y said:
The only downside I've found is that the pebble was very easy to read in direct sunlight, unlike the Apple watch.
Click to expand...

Very important. Plus being more water resistant. I know someone who uses their Pebble out on sailboat races during bright sunny days.
 
I got a plastic Pebble the day Apple Watch went on sale to see if a smartwatch would be useful. I didn't want to get the first gen Apple watch because of its battery life and no waterproof. I am so impressed with this $80 timepiece. Long battery life and is always "on". So when the Apple watch has 5 days battery life and is waterproof, I will be the first to get one!
 
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