From Pebble to Apple Watch - What do you think?

[BeyondtheTech]

As an original Kickstarter backer to the original one and even the Early Bird for the Pebble Time, I was happy with the multitude of watchfaces, apps, and games. Even the Time was to be backwards compatible with many of the thousands of apps already out there. Remote control of music was my most used feature, especially as a commuter.

But notifications were its pain point, in my opinion. Limitations by Apple prevented replying to text messages, emails, or notifications. Android had far less limitations because they were able to send back much more control to the smartphone it was connected to.

Battery life didn't matter so much. I always topped off every night, though it was nice that I could forget a day or two and not even have to worry.

When WATCH was announced, I knew it would be more interactive, and it proved itself as such in the various demos. Speakerphone capabilities and Siri were icing on the cake. I immediately canceled my Early Bird pledge for the Time, and I don't regret the decision once I slapped on my WATCH on my wrist.

The one thing that I did recently realize is this: most WATCH apps won't run without it connecting back to the iPhone. To compare, this is what happens when you want to play a Video Poker app on the Pebble, versus a Video Poker app on the WATCH, both not connected to any nearby smartphone. Even if the WATCH app has no use of internet or network connectivity, it appears that every WATCH app acts like a remote session back to the app running in the background on iPhone. The app on the iPhone sends the image or data, the WATCH sends back touch responses back to the app on the iPhone, rinse, repeat. That's probably why there are no fluid or fast action games like Flappy Bird or Angry Birds, nor even any finger swiping for games like 2048 - only tap on a side of a screen.

 

[FuzzyDicePHL]

You're right and the other person is right too. The flick the wrist turns on the light. I turned it off as its of times while sleeping or getting to sleep certain movements turned on the light. Usually arm was right near my eyes.

Not only that, but if you're using Jawbone Up on it, a lot of times you have to flick your wrist to hide the history graph and set it back to showing the time. I'm constantly doing that.

 

[CrAkD]

I came from a pebble and its night and day. The apple watch might not be perfect when it comes to notifications but the pebble was awful it would just not work for days at a time. Also not being able to reply on the pebble kind of made it useless.

 

[conifer]

Have a question in this thread below about listening to recorded music while out and about exercising, wonder if anyone of the watch owners or pebble owners can answer?
thanks in advance

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1878219/

 

[PedCrossing]

I had a pebble steel for two weeks, loved the always on screen and I definitely hope Apple would offer the function since the battery isn't that bad. Only the hour and minute finger and a red dot for notifications would be enough for always on screen.

The reason I gave up pebble after two weeks was I had to constantly reconnect bluetooth and the screen would freeze once in a while showing me wrong time and information and the vibration was noisy.

 

[Fiestaman]

Everyone seems to forget how restrictive Apple is with their APIs and this is what causes all the issues with the Pebble watch on iOS. As long as one keeps this in mind, they'll realize the Pebble was actually great, especially with it being 3 years old and for the price. Comparing the Pebble to the Apple Watch is like comparing a Honda to an Audi. The Audi will obviously look nicer and drive better, but you can't knock the Honda for what it is. Functionality was much improved on Android and notifications are much more reliable. A lot of our issues arose from the closed ecosystem of iOS. I personally loved my Pebble and wore it proudly everyday. I also jailbroke my phone which added functionality that was previously locked away. Was amazing on my runs and bike rides, but have now switched to Apple Watch. The integration is far superior, but for obvious reasons.

 

[BrettDS]

The one thing that I did recently realize is this: most WATCH apps won't run without it connecting back to the iPhone. To compare, this is what happens when you want to play a Video Poker app on the Pebble, versus a Video Poker app on the WATCH, both not connected to any nearby smartphone. Even if the WATCH app has no use of internet or network connectivity, it appears that every WATCH app acts like a remote session back to the app running in the background on iPhone. The app on the iPhone sends the image or data, the WATCH sends back touch responses back to the app on the iPhone, rinse, repeat. That's probably why there are no fluid or fast action games like Flappy Bird or Angry Birds, nor even any finger swiping for games like 2048 - only tap on a side of a screen.

This is exactly the case, but I think there's great hope that it won't always be this way. I'm sure that at some point apple will announce support for apps that run natively on the watch, with any luck as early as WWDC in june.

 

[BeyondtheTech]

This is exactly the case, but I think there's great hope that it won't always be this way. I'm sure that at some point apple will announce support for apps that run natively on the watch, with any luck as early as WWDC in june.

Given the stranglehold on control of Apple's hardware and OS, I doubt they'll open up control. Of course, whatever will keep WATCH in the lead over other smartwatches, they'll use that to their advantage.

 

[MattDing]

at least pebble can communicate to its customers, and successfully roll out new products with preorders....even as a start up.

You must have not had anything to do with their Kickstarter then.

I backed it on April 13, 2012. It was funded May 18, 2012 with expected shipping September 2012.

I received my watch in March of 2013.

Yes, ELEVEN months after ordering. And SIX months late.

Kind of puts 4-6 weeks in a little more perspective.

 

[NeshyD]

I had the OG Pebble for about 14 months before getting my 42mm blue Apple Watch Sport.

After about 48 hours of using the Apple Watch I haven't looked back to my Pebble. It's so nice raising my wrist and have it turn on automatically without flicking to turn the light on. I also love the retina display and being able to do a lot more with the Apple Watch than I could with the Pebble.


I do appreciate my Pebble though. It gave me a great smartwatch experience 14 months before most and was a great utility to my everyday life.

 

[troy14]

I used a Pebble for a long time and now own an apple watch, but, really miss the Pebble in some aspects. Sometimes, I want to just glance at my wrist and see the time without having to "raise and turn" my wrist on my Apple Watch to see the time. The pebble was great for that, and the screen never turned off so I could see it (if the lighting was appropriate) for as long as I wanted. This is useful to me in the hospital setting.


Secondly, the battery life. I know the Apple Watch does so much more but the Pebble was so nice in regards to "oh I forgot to take it off today it's okay though I still have 4 more days of battery life" where the Apple watch is "****, it's going to die in about an hour or two"

I probably will get the pebble time and use both, truthfully. The pebble originally SUCKED with disconnecting bluetooth, notifications stop going through, but I think they fixed most of that as of late

 

[rywen]

Sadly, it's becoming almost impossible for startups to compete with established companies when it comes to hardware. Pebble needs to "pivot" soon or they'll find themselves irrelevant.

I respectfully disagree regarding Pebble's need to pivot. No third party manufacturer will come close to the build quality, app integration, or overall experience of the apple watch...but some people aren't looking for that. I think as long as display technologies are what they are, pebble will always have a niche market of those who want a watch with a long battery life and always-on display (not to mention a lower price point)

Even though I have an apple watch, I still backed the pebble time on kickstarter. There are times in life where I value a daylight readable display and long battery life over the apple watch features.

 

[nezzy]

I used a Pebble for a long time and now own an apple watch, but, really miss the Pebble in some aspects. Sometimes, I want to just glance at my wrist and see the time without having to "raise and turn" my wrist on my Apple Watch to see the time. The pebble was great for that, and the screen never turned off so I could see it (if the lighting was appropriate) for as long as I wanted. This is useful to me in the hospital setting.


Secondly, the battery life. I know the Apple Watch does so much more but the Pebble was so nice in regards to "oh I forgot to take it off today it's okay though I still have 4 more days of battery life" where the Apple watch is "****, it's going to die in about an hour or two"

I probably will get the pebble time and use both, truthfully. The pebble originally SUCKED with disconnecting bluetooth, notifications stop going through, but I think they fixed most of that as of late

This has been the great thing about the Pebble for me. Long ago had my pager forwarded to my phone. All pages/consults come through my phone and thus Pebble, and I love it. I've thought about the potential ease of replying to a consult notification from my office directly from my watch. And I have had a lot of issues as of late with the dropped connection to the Pebble, to the point that I turn the ringer on my phone, which I cannot stand doing.

My only battery concern worry is that I like to wear my Pebble as a sort of "back up" for waking me up when on call. I don't always hear the phone chime as I try to keep it fairly brief to spare my wife the noise. Charging it nighty takes that away.

 

[troy14]

This has been the great thing about the Pebble for me. Long ago had my pager forwarded to my phone. All pages/consults come through my phone and thus Pebble, and I love it. I've thought about the potential ease of replying to a consult notification from my office directly from my watch. And I have had a lot of issues as of late with the dropped connection to the Pebble, to the point that I turn the ringer on my phone, which I cannot stand doing.

My only battery concern worry is that I like to wear my Pebble as a sort of "back up" for waking me up when on call. I don't always hear the phone chime as I try to keep it fairly brief to spare my wife the noise. Charging it nighty takes that away.

There's a few things along those lines that the Apple watch isn't so great at, either. For instance, if you set an alarm on the Pebble (vibrate), I can almost guarantee that I will feel it and wake up. With the "haptic" vibration on my Apple Watch, even short naps - I sometimes don't wake up because I didn't feel it. I ability to take action on my notifications is awesome, but sometimes I don't really use it because out in public I just don't feel like talking to my watch, so i'll pull out the phone and type anyways..even though my watch Siri is incredibly accurate and convenient. Which makes me think I might just go back and get a Pebble Color.

 

[macAllen]

I still have my Original Pebble, today is my last day actually, Sport SG is coming in tomorrow.

One thing that I think I'm going to miss is easily changing the song played on my iPhone psychically on the buttons with out looking...

Charging it every night vs every week, I don't think this will bother me once I have a stand!

 

[Fiestaman]

You must have not had anything to do with their Kickstarter then.

I backed it on April 13, 2012. It was funded May 18, 2012 with expected shipping September 2012.

I received my watch in March of 2013.

Yes, ELEVEN months after ordering. And SIX months late.

Kind of puts 4-6 weeks in a little more perspective.

I don't agree. Apple announced the Apple Watch nearly 8 months ago (and how many years have they been working on it?) and they are a hundreds of billion dollars company making a foray into a partially established market. Pebble on the other hand was a brand new company looking to make a whole new market with a whole new product. The fact that Pebble was successful at all is beyond remarkable.

 

[slvrscoobie]

Pebble has and will continue to do very well for android market.
I think the aw will kill off the iPhone pebbles.
Owning one for 18 months (I waited til they were in best buy due to hoopla surrounding KS) it was nice. Got very used to looking at it after I heard / felt phone buzz. But I told a lot of people that it was an ignore machine.
Call? Ignore. Txt, ok got it. Email, read later.
I couldn't act on anything without grabbing the phone. The AW changed that. It's really what I wanted from a smart watch.

 

[elemenohme]

The biggest difference for me between the Pebble and the Apple Watch is how notifications are handled. If I'm using my iPhone, the Watch doesn't duplicate alerts that appear on the phone, where the Pebble always did.

It also manages to stay connected to the iPhone all the time, which the Pebble could never do. That drove me crazy! I used one of the weather watch faces and it was nearly always displaying outdated information. The Watch does a wonderful job of staying up-to-date.

I'm glad I canceled my order for the new Pebble and went with the Apple Watch instead.

 

[BeyondtheTech]

The biggest difference for me between the Pebble and the Apple Watch is how notifications are handled. If I'm using my iPhone, the Watch doesn't duplicate alerts that appear on the phone, where the Pebble always did.

It also manages to stay connected to the iPhone all the time, which the Pebble could never do. That drove me crazy! I used one of the weather watch faces and it was nearly always displaying outdated information. The Watch does a wonderful job of staying up-to-date.

I'm glad I canceled my order for the new Pebble and went with the Apple Watch instead.

This. Totally forgot about synchronization of notification acknowledgement. This drove me a little nuts on the Pebble, having to acknowledge them there, then acknowledge them again on the iPhone.

Pebble's Bluetooth wonky connectivity really annoyed the crap out of me, too - yep, noticed it when weather stats weren't updating. First, it likes to be listed twice in the iPhone's Bluetooth settings, due to the connectivity over regular Bluetooth and then through Bluetooth LE. And connectivity would fail because of LE, which made me have to jump through hoops of restarting the Pebble and/or restarting Bluetooth or the iPhone altogether. I'd have to run into the Pebble app and see what the issue was all the time.

I could chalk it up to iOS 7 and 8 - it did start to get flaky overall with other Bluetooth devices beyond iOS 6, and it's been a bumpy road back to smooth sailing. However, (knock on wood) I only had a Bluetooth connectivity issue only once after I initially paired it when I got it out of the box. Since then, it's been nice and chatty with my iPhone since.

 

[AppleFan360]

The biggest difference for me between the Pebble and the Apple Watch is how notifications are handled. If I'm using my iPhone, the Watch doesn't duplicate alerts that appear on the phone, where the Pebble always did.

Yeah I forgot about that. The AW is definitely a great extension to the iPhone as far as notifications. I guess you can say the Pebble is kind of like a "dumb" terminal when it comes to notifications.

 

[BrettDS]

The biggest difference for me between the Pebble and the Apple Watch is how notifications are handled. If I'm using my iPhone, the Watch doesn't duplicate alerts that appear on the phone, where the Pebble always did.

Honestly, this is one thing I miss about the pebble. I'd rather get notifications on the watch all the time whether I'm using the phone or not. I can understand why some people wouldn't want to, but I'm hoping to see this as an option sometime.