Seeing how fast backers are adding, they probably save a lot of headache by leaving the scaling to others. Kickstarter handles the traffic from user signup to charging the credit cards at the end. And Kickstarter already figured out how to do this on that scale.
2. Kickstarter money is technically a donation, so you can spend the money right away if you need to. (taking a typical pre-order is little tricky from an accounting perspective if it's considered revenue)
Just in terms of law: it's not an investment, it's not a purchase (since there's no guarantee of backers receiving their rewards), it's not a loan. It works exactly like when your local public radio station offers t-shirts to donors. IANAL but it seems pretty clear that kickstarter revenue would be a donation from a legal perspective.
I think the actual litigation that has already occurred -- e.g., the Washington State and FTC consumer protection suits -- have treated it mostly as a purchase (money exchange for a specific obligation), and certainly not as a donation.
It's certainly not portrayed as a pure donation (money given with no specific reciprocal commitment) in Kickstarter's terms.
As a backer, I'd treat Kickstarter just like setting the money on fire.
As a project, I'd be unlikely to offer a complicated physical device that I was not yet able to produce. I might put weaselly bullshit about a reward being a great sticker and up to 1 device.
Donation is the wrong way to think of it from an accounting perspective (though perhaps not from a legal recourse perspective.) Preorders are not recognized as revenue. They are a debit (increase) to Cash and a credit (increase) to a liability that's usually Unearned Revenue. As you ship, you credit (increase) Revenue/Sales and then debit (decrease) the Unearned Revenue liability account.
Edit: renamed 'Prepaid' to 'Unearned' -- had to brush up on my GAAP nomenclature
They've historically done all pre-orders on Kickstarter and were one of the first massively-successful projects to come out of it (and they shipped, too!). I'd assume it's entirely due to marketing and the ability to maximize pre-order sales.
Working capital on better terms than equity or debt. They have a proven track record, so it's not very risky to backers, and they get working capital at a very low cost.
Edit: Other comments referencing marketing make a good point. PR value is big for a massively successful kickstarter.
Also, for the Core at least (the one I'm interested in) it's an early 2017 projected release date (and I have bought enough Kickstarters to know that this slips). Seems to me that a normal retail experience simply would not support this kind of anticipatory release (and it is a dealbreaker for me)
It's crazy to me that Pebble manages to crowdfund most of its operations like this. I assume that since the delivery dates are so close they've almost finished development on the products? So really this more of a pre-order than anything else.
Worked twice will work again.
You can pay and know ahead of time how the demand will be. Should lower your purchasing prices as well if you can pay upfront.
Its a smart move and they will do it again and again with every new product they develop.
And they have filled order books which will help to raise money if there is a need for it.
Yup, a preorder without the legal restrictions that come with preordering (in some US states you can't charge a credit card before the order ships). So this way they can use the money from their "preorders" to actually manufacturer the product that is being shipped, where traditional preorders are more about gauging market demand and possible using that as leverage to acquire funding to go to manufacturing.
The first Pebble met their goal within 2 hours, the second within 1 hour, so it's not terribly surprising that this one met its goal within about 2 hours. Still definitely impressive though.
You seem to be right -- other articles mention that the Time 2 has steel casing. I'm surprised they don't mention on the kickstarter page, it was a major selling point for me.
Edit: Also interesting, the new Time 2 has an MSRP $50 cheaper than the Time Steel.
I'm currently sporting a Steel (the original) and went in for the new Time 2. Agree with comfydragon that the Time looks like the new version of the Steel line.
Wish they kept the leather strap, though, but maybe they will have different straps available down the road?
I really love my Time 1. The battery life is outstanding and while most apps are not pretty, there is a lot of functionality here. Even if you limit it to text/email notifications it's pretty great.
I just went on a 6 day vacation and didn't even bring my charger. Worked like a champ.
Same same, yeah, seeing a lot of squares for emoticons, but getting 12 days of bat life easily (just avoid often updating watch faces like with a seconds-hand.)
My lower button does start to feel a bit mushy... It still clicks but not as nice as the upper one. If it stays like this, no problem, I'm just a bit afraid I will stop working exactly after the warranty runs out, and I can't see how I would be able to fix that myself. I'm hoping to get at least 4 years of usage out of this watch.
I'm going to join in since I've been using a pebble for years with great enjoyment.
I treat it as a secretary. I think of different communication media as having different urgencies / time constants. Emails are a daily report. My phone's notifications are an hourly report. Notifications which I forward to my watch are the instant things. Be sure to mercilessly "mute" most apps from bugging you on your wrist. With this setup, I never feel the urge to check my phone. If there is something important, it would've buzzed my wrist.
Here are my subjectively appreciated apps
Homescreen: Fairweather. It is information dense display of weather, sunset time, pressure, vis., etc.
(Top) Button shortcut: Forecast weather. Shows a probability of precipitation over the next 24hrs (I donated for data from forecast.io). Great for avoiding the rain when walking the dog / biking home / etc.
(Bottom) Button shortcut: A bus/train stop info panel. It uses the phone's GPS to tell you when the next buses/trains are coming. Handy for when there is a stop within 100 feet of the bar and you can know if you want that extra beer or not.
Timer/Multitimer are great. Alarms for waking up are great. 7minute workout app is great.
- Compass - for compass and the ultra-cool switching between normal and "in-flight HUD" display depending on your wrist orientation.
- GPS Bookmark - lets you bookmark the location you're standing in right now, and later display the direction and the distance to that location. It uses the compass on your watch and your phone's GPS. It works on GPS coordinates, so it doesn't require you to have any Internet connection. I found it extremely useful when I was in Shenzhen, China - I bookmarked my hotel and work, and used the third bookmark slot (you have one slot per button) to record temporary locations like the metro station I just got off from. It was really invaluable for finding my way back from wherever I ended up going.
- PebbleTasker - like the name suggests, it lets you call Tasker tasks to Pebble. I.e. you can make Pebble buttons do pretty much anything on your phone, without having to write an app yourself. You can bind some to each button, and then also use a list menu for more. The bindings can also be dynamically configurable from within Tasker, if you feel like making e.g. location-aware actions on your watch, or something.
- AutoPebble from AutoApps plugins for Tasker - something similar to PebbleTasker, but more advanced - you can dynamically configure the contents and behaviour of the watchapp from Tasker. A bit more difficult to set up, but also much more powerful. It's probably the best option if you want to have whatever the data you want on your watch, and in the way you want it.
Never noticed that Kickstarter has live updates for money and backers.. It's crazy how fast they sell (probably in part due to the earlybird specials), almost 1k USD / second.
That being said, it almost feels like an abuse of the platform. It's their third generation of smartwatches after all. I really like the new models with heart monitor though and now they've also added a pure fitness tracker-like device.
The question of whether Pebble is abusing kickstarter came up last time around as well. I think it's ultimately up to kickstarter and I would guess they are okay with it given their 5% take ($35k in the last 45 minutes, ~$1M last time)
I feel the same way. Pebble isn't kick starting anything at this point. They're just crowdfunding interest free R&D loans with pre-sales, which is fine, but the use of the Kickstarter platform for the THIRD time seems disingenuous.
I don't know. I like them using it much better than the usual use - VCs checking product-to-market fit prior to deciding whether to invest in a startup. Kickstarter is long past being used to actually kickstart anything, at least in tech projects.
How is it an abuse of the platform? From the beginning, Kickstarter had often been used to fund individual product launches that were not company or product-line launches.
Could you elaborate? I've been looking at the FBCHR as an Apple Watch that I don't have to charge every night and thus could take advantage of sleep tracking. Also unlike WATCH I understand the FBCHR automatically detects runs/workouts without having to start a workout app. Thanks.
- They advertise 5 days charge but I get maybe 3 days. 4 at best.
- The heartrate reader is only accurate when you're at rest. Any sort of sweat or physical activity and the reading becomes wildly inaccurate or just stops working.
- The app takes like 5-10 minutes to sync every time and it won't sync in the background. So when syncing, I have to move my finger around on the phone so my phone doesn't lock and mess up the sync. I live in China so that might be the issue here. YMMV
- It does auto detect but I have a Vespa scooter so everytime I ride my scooter, it counts it as me walking a shitton of steps and I have to manually go on the website to delete those activities. This is also occasionally an issue in cars.
Overall, just dissatisfied with how this product works.
The Charge HR sync is garbage in the US as well. It never syncs for me unless I explicitly open the app, and even then it takes forever. "All day sync" is enabled, I've tried resets etc. no dice.
I'm OK with the HR accuracy, but the sync issues make it more trouble than it's worth. I still wear the thing, but only bother to sync and look at the app perhaps once a week at most since it's so damn slow.
I love the concept of the Core, because I often leave my phone at home. Unfortunately it requires a country whith a mature and affordable mobile internet infrastructure, neither of which applies to Germany.
Open Hotspots in Germany are incredibly rare (due to a just recently lifted law that made Hotspot providers liable for criminal activities commited over their connection). The use cases you described can be covered with an iPod Shuffle or similar MP3 player. The interesting part is really the mobile internet connection, which is hard/pricy to come by in Germany and probably other countries. Especially in rural areas you won't get a good enough connection for Spotify.
Another useful use case would be an emergency button for elderly people. Current devices are rather expensive and/or only work at home.
I don't think you need to use open hotspots - assuming you have your own WiFi at home, you can just do your syncing once you're back at home after your run. Also the core has GPS, which the iPod Shuffle doesn't.
I didn't find Germany's mobile internet too expensive, I was quite happy with Congstar prepaid when I was last over there. Certainly comparable with Australian mobile internet pricing. On the other hand, Australia now has free mobile Spotify streaming (on Optus), not sure if Congstar does.
I recently switched to 1&1 here in DE. They offer 1.5gb for 17eur with unlimited calls (without contract). You can get better/cheaper plans with a tarif though https://mobile.1und1.de/
Is it free 3G? I wonder what the (if any) catch is, and I don't see any place to pop in a sim card. Looks awesome.
Pebble is so underrated. I've tried out so many smartwatches and activity trackers and always come back to the Pebble Time. It just keeps getting better and better! Kudos!
> 3G Connection: Streaming over 3G, sending emergency SOS messages over 3G, or any other 3G-enabled features will require a data-enabled SIM card from a supported cellular carrier.
Love it, but I can't imagine battery life would be too good. With the small form factor, the only way I can see it lasting longer than a few hours is to have the 3G off most of the time, and turn it on periodically.
Ting (choice of Sprint or T-Mobile) is $6/line, plus usage. Google Fi (uses both Sprint and T-Mobile) allows subscribers to add data-only SIMs to their existing plans at no additional charge (other than data usage).
In Canada, FWIW, you can get tranched plans from most carriers starting at $5 month (it is their "tablet" option). The bills go up pretty quickly if you use it much, but still a decent option.
Well there aren't any pictures of the bottom, or very good pictures of any of the sides either. I would guess it has a similar sim tray on one of the sides as many phones do.
Agree, but in a device in a minimal form factor it's probably better to have a single high speed bus exposed as opposed to trying to break out everything.
You can see 3D renders for existing products and the B/W Pebble 2 at https://github.com/pebble/pebble-3d. I'd assume that's where the rest of the renders will go.
Well that's great but let's talk about the previous Time, it also has some exposed pins. I don't recall anything ever happening with these except for vapor-product talk online. I'm a second time backer but since the previous stuff seemed to just get lost and forgotten about I've given up on wanting to chase this.
Just this afternoon there was a consumer magazine making a full section on faked non user repairable claims from manufacturer. I agree with you, the core appeals to me much more thinking I can tweak it if needed.
Same here! The "Core for Running" side helps me justify the money (running with my watch + my phone has annoyed me for a while), but I'm actually more excited by the "hackable" aspect :)
I like that it's one step closer to having some nominal level of communication ability without a phone. I would love to have a Pebble style watch allowing me to be fully untethered even if it meant being receive-only most of the time.
I don't know much about the pager protocol, but I think it doesn't require transmit power on the endpoint. I'm imagining a mode where the Pebble goes out of range of the Core, and then goes into passive pager mode maybe with some kind of SMS to pager gateway.
Pagers use special frequencies, and are most often transmitted in the open. If you live somewhere that has a pager service provider, you can likely pick it up using a RTLSDR setup.
I'm a little confused reading the page. Is the Core for Running and Core for Hackers the exact same hardware? THat is, if I pledge $69 do I get something that I can hack?
I don't care about Core for running, I just need the hackable version
As somebody who doesn't use Spotify, I wonder how open the Core will be, e.g. for other audio providers like PocketCast. If I could just tell it to play the latest podcasts from my PocketCast, this would be the perfect fitness tracker for me.
They state in the Kickstarter that the Core runs Android. So basically it runs the Spotify android app. Chances are that support could be added easily for other apps.
I can do next/previous, play/pause, and change the volume when using PocketCast on Android from my pebble time 1. When PocketCasts was the last used audio app, it opens and start playing when I go to music and hit play on the pts.
Oops, now I see what exactly the core is... Maybe a bit different.
Question: I've been deliberating getting a smartwatch so this is good timing. However, I've been trying to cut down on screen time and distractions. Is getting a smartwatch a good idea?
I have a time and whenever I get a email or text I can read it on my watch first and determine if it's worth getting out my phone for. Before, whenever I got a notification I'd have to take out my phone and could get drawn into other things on it. It depends on how you use it, but I find it really good for that exact purpose.
Pebble Time owner here: The watch has reduced my "take out the smartphone and fiddle" occurences from 40+ to maybe 4 or 5 times a day. Notifications are no longer an excuse to glue the phone to my body, so I just put my phone somewhere in the house/on my desk most of the time.
I use mine solely to make sure I don't miss calls texts, and appointments. But you know yourself. Would you be tempted to load flappy bird onto it right away? Would you forward your facebook notifications to it?
Fortunately, there isn't enough screen real estate and input methods to get a lot of gaming going.
> I've been trying to cut down on screen time and distractions. Is getting a smartwatch a good idea?
You make it sound like those desires are at odds, when in fact a smartwatch supports your goal. Thanks to my Pebble, I only take my phone out of my pocket when I intend to use it. I don't even take my phone out of my pocket to reply to text messages sometimes now, since I can do it from my Pebble. Ditto for changing/pausing the song on Spotify, or of course checking the time, which I used to use my phone for before I got my Pebble (first first gen, then Time). Not to mention it's great to be able to send calls to voicemail if I don't want to answer them or don't recognize the number, and I can do that without stopping walking.
I'm sure I'd frequently fire up Twitter or Hacker News if I had my phone in my hands after replying to a text, so I think my Pebble saves me from a lot of distractions.
I think it can be depending on the way you use it. It allows you to instantly see if something is worth attention or not. If not, push the button on pebble and the notification will remain open on your phone. This means you will be reminded to respond when you do have the opportunity to get your phone out. I mute my phone, Pebble is all I use for disturbance and it is less severe than a phone.
If the pebble would do 3G an I could answer calls? I think I'd even hardly ever use my phone anymore.
Core is super cool, but I feel there's a big miss for tracking heart rate. I suppose you could cobble it together with Wahoo Fintness TICKR X and merge the data after the run, but it would be awesome to combine those two products.
Also would be great to see it tie into other devices like cadence / speed sensors for bike rides.
Does show that these types of devices are just around the corner, which is exciting. For me, I'll keep on trucking my phone with me until I get full integration with tracking heart rate and cycling metrics.
"Leave your phone at home -- We all love our phones. But when you’re out for a run, strapping a big phone to your arm isn’t much fun. We built Core for a better running experience, to give you the benefits of your phone with none of the inconvenience."
HR trackers need to touch your skin or be wrapped around your torso. This would severely impede on the devices ease of wearing/ease of use/lightness, which is it's main focus.
And here I just bought a Pebble Time. Guess I know why it seemed so cheap.
Hopefully this won't fragment the app marketplace and it will maintain universal app coverage across all the Pebble watches.
I wonder if it would be possible for an Android Wear watch to do something similar to the Pebble: Long battery life, no touch screen, e-paper display and run alright. I imagine the colour space differences between e-paper and LCD would cause issues though.
Android is a much beefier OS than Pebble, which is an RTOS and doesn't scale down nearly as well. Pebble can produce products at such low prices and high-battery costs because they squeeze every drop out of their low cost hardware.
Most Android apps require more system resources than the entirety of a Pebble watch.
Aside, I'm continually impressed with Pebble, and disappointed with Android Wear products. Taking a phone OS and cramming it on a watch seems lazy, not innovative, and the experience has never felt great. What Pebble has done feels really innovative and polished -- they've come a long way.
I agree, every Android Wear watch I've seen has the same issues of lag, screen time-out time and battery life. They feel like they're trying to be something that can't exist yet because of power limitations, whereas the Pebble watches embrace their limits and don't try to be more.
Yeah, their lighter platform seems to be a win for battery. But their cheapest product is going to be an Android widget, presumably because that is an easy path to a broader range of features.
It's also much bulkier than the watch and has no screen. It has a lot less to deal with and they can carefully control what apps it's running since the user has no input.
I also don't understand why Google and Apple don't pursue the Pebble market. I think they made the perfect choices given all constraints. Screen always on, at least 10 days bat life (pts), not to big, water resistant. It's a nice watch as it is and then you get the smart part as extra.
Sad they haven't announced a new Pebble Time Round - I got one after giving up on smartwatches for a long time and it's fantastic. I get compliments on it as a watch before anyone even knows it has smart functionality built into it. At the end of the day, smartwatches are still fashion accessories and the PTR is the only one so far that doesn't look supremely awkward to me.
They will likely announce a new round before the end of this kickstarter -- similar to how they announced the Time Steel. There's a video of Eric wearing a round watch with a smaller bezel.
That was explained on the Pebble Dev slack as a pre-production Pebble Time Round. They originally had a smaller bezel for that, but had to expand the size due to manufacturability issues.
That's plausible, but it could also be a convenient explanation to keep a new design under wraps until a big announcement.
I currently have an original Pebble Steel. I pre-ordered a Time 2 today, but I'd love to be able to upgrade my order to a Round 2. That watch is, by far, the nicest looking smartwatch so far, from any manufacturer.
Backing a Kickstarter is not "pre-ordering". Kickstarter is not a store. Maybe you feel more confident because this is Pebble, but the distinction remains. Buying something from Kickstarter is not placing an order for something. It's investing in an idea.
I'm sure he understands the difference, but with two successful campaigns for the pebble, and this new one already at 2.5m, one can understand his faux pas.
I'm also sure he doesn't need us to tell him the differences between kickstarter order and a true pre-order.
I understand this is how kickstarter markets itself, but "campaigns" like this sure make it look like a new-tech store. And in this particular case, what idea are people investing in? The newest version of a watch from a company that's doing $40M-$60M of dollars in revenue each year?
Kickstarter does not market itself that way. Kickstarter is misleading about what it does and how it works. That people say things like "pre-ordering" indicates it.
There are significant differences between a pre-order and backing. There are accounting differences for Kickstarter and there are less guarantees for backers than for pre-orders. You aren't entitled to any of your money back, support, or timeliness. Pebble Time showed up at Best Buys before backers got their watches. I bought my Pebble Time from the pebble website and people were still complaining about having backed the kickstarter.
With a kickstarter you're shooting your money into the void and hope something comes back to you. With a pre-order you're legally entitled to a product or your money back and receive benefits from the various federal and state laws that govern how businesses do commerce.
> You aren't entitled to any of your money back, support, or timeliness
Fair point about timeliness, but where did you get the idea that you're not entitled to your money back or support? From the Kickstarter page:
> We stand firmly behind our products. Each Pebble product includes with a 30 day (after you receive it) money back guarantee and minimum 1 year limited warranty.
There is no investing going on here. This is absolutely a pre-order. It doesn't matter what Kickstarter says in their ToS, you're pre-ordering a product.
I find it strange seeing non-pebble smartwatches on people's wrists where the display is off by default. I don't think having a device that is passively in sleep mode by default is very fashionable. Kind of like looking at an elaborate painting frame minus the painting. When I hear about people spending top dollar for the higher-end Apple watches, I just think it is so strange that the expensive fashion accessory they are wearing will be seen by others as being off most of the time.
Agree 100%. My PTS gets 9 days+ between each charge and the display is always on, whilst doing steps and sleep tracking and integrating with my S6 Edge.
I love the fact that the Pebble is such a focused device; I'd never trade it for an "screen on demand when shaking it around" iWatch, even if they threw an iPhone in for free.
Kickstarter takes 5%, so that piece is likely negotiable. The 3-5% is for payment processing and it seems like it is through Stripe or Braintree. Both start at 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction but bulk pricing is available at $80,000/month (which Kickstarter definitely meets). So there is some wiggle room on both side, but this is Kickstarters profits so likely won't cut a ton of percentage points.
I like gadgets as much as anyone but I'm still struggling to find a use case for a smart watch. My preferred mode of exercise is cycling and I already have a GPS bike computer & HRM. I know I could see notifications from my phone on my wrist but that just isn't enough to tempt me. Having said that if I did get one the Pebble looks like the best option.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 183 ms ] thread2. Kickstarter money is technically a donation, so you can spend the money right away if you need to. (taking a typical pre-order is little tricky from an accounting perspective if it's considered revenue)
Says who? Here's what the terms of use say:
https://www.kickstarter.com/terms-of-use#section4
It's certainly not portrayed as a pure donation (money given with no specific reciprocal commitment) in Kickstarter's terms.
As a project, I'd be unlikely to offer a complicated physical device that I was not yet able to produce. I might put weaselly bullshit about a reward being a great sticker and up to 1 device.
Edit: renamed 'Prepaid' to 'Unearned' -- had to brush up on my GAAP nomenclature
Edit: Other comments referencing marketing make a good point. PR value is big for a massively successful kickstarter.
And they have filled order books which will help to raise money if there is a need for it.
Edit: Also interesting, the new Time 2 has an MSRP $50 cheaper than the Time Steel.
Wish they kept the leather strap, though, but maybe they will have different straps available down the road?
I just went on a 6 day vacation and didn't even bring my charger. Worked like a champ.
My lower button does start to feel a bit mushy... It still clicks but not as nice as the upper one. If it stays like this, no problem, I'm just a bit afraid I will stop working exactly after the warranty runs out, and I can't see how I would be able to fix that myself. I'm hoping to get at least 4 years of usage out of this watch.
What apps do you use and can recommend?
I treat it as a secretary. I think of different communication media as having different urgencies / time constants. Emails are a daily report. My phone's notifications are an hourly report. Notifications which I forward to my watch are the instant things. Be sure to mercilessly "mute" most apps from bugging you on your wrist. With this setup, I never feel the urge to check my phone. If there is something important, it would've buzzed my wrist.
Here are my subjectively appreciated apps
Homescreen: Fairweather. It is information dense display of weather, sunset time, pressure, vis., etc.
(Top) Button shortcut: Forecast weather. Shows a probability of precipitation over the next 24hrs (I donated for data from forecast.io). Great for avoiding the rain when walking the dog / biking home / etc.
(Bottom) Button shortcut: A bus/train stop info panel. It uses the phone's GPS to tell you when the next buses/trains are coming. Handy for when there is a stop within 100 feet of the bar and you can know if you want that extra beer or not.
Timer/Multitimer are great. Alarms for waking up are great. 7minute workout app is great.
- Compass - for compass and the ultra-cool switching between normal and "in-flight HUD" display depending on your wrist orientation.
- GPS Bookmark - lets you bookmark the location you're standing in right now, and later display the direction and the distance to that location. It uses the compass on your watch and your phone's GPS. It works on GPS coordinates, so it doesn't require you to have any Internet connection. I found it extremely useful when I was in Shenzhen, China - I bookmarked my hotel and work, and used the third bookmark slot (you have one slot per button) to record temporary locations like the metro station I just got off from. It was really invaluable for finding my way back from wherever I ended up going.
- PebbleTasker - like the name suggests, it lets you call Tasker tasks to Pebble. I.e. you can make Pebble buttons do pretty much anything on your phone, without having to write an app yourself. You can bind some to each button, and then also use a list menu for more. The bindings can also be dynamically configurable from within Tasker, if you feel like making e.g. location-aware actions on your watch, or something.
- AutoPebble from AutoApps plugins for Tasker - something similar to PebbleTasker, but more advanced - you can dynamically configure the contents and behaviour of the watchapp from Tasker. A bit more difficult to set up, but also much more powerful. It's probably the best option if you want to have whatever the data you want on your watch, and in the way you want it.
That being said, it almost feels like an abuse of the platform. It's their third generation of smartwatches after all. I really like the new models with heart monitor though and now they've also added a pure fitness tracker-like device.
- The heartrate reader is only accurate when you're at rest. Any sort of sweat or physical activity and the reading becomes wildly inaccurate or just stops working.
- The app takes like 5-10 minutes to sync every time and it won't sync in the background. So when syncing, I have to move my finger around on the phone so my phone doesn't lock and mess up the sync. I live in China so that might be the issue here. YMMV
- It does auto detect but I have a Vespa scooter so everytime I ride my scooter, it counts it as me walking a shitton of steps and I have to manually go on the website to delete those activities. This is also occasionally an issue in cars.
Overall, just dissatisfied with how this product works.
I'm OK with the HR accuracy, but the sync issues make it more trouble than it's worth. I still wear the thing, but only bother to sync and look at the app perhaps once a week at most since it's so damn slow.
Mine has an air bubble in it (which is common, just do a search) while many others have also reported that their charge band is peeling.
> You can also use Core’s 4GB of built-in storage to access your favorite playlists, podcasts, and audiobooks.
> Core also works without a SIM card or cellular plan, using WiFi to sync offline music and workouts.
Another useful use case would be an emergency button for elderly people. Current devices are rather expensive and/or only work at home.
I didn't find Germany's mobile internet too expensive, I was quite happy with Congstar prepaid when I was last over there. Certainly comparable with Australian mobile internet pricing. On the other hand, Australia now has free mobile Spotify streaming (on Optus), not sure if Congstar does.
I love that they're marketing it as hackable. I wish more companies would do that.
I wonder what kind of interface the expansion port is.
Pebble is so underrated. I've tried out so many smartwatches and activity trackers and always come back to the Pebble Time. It just keeps getting better and better! Kudos!
Could be a great pairing.
Well there aren't any pictures of the bottom, or very good pictures of any of the sides either. I would guess it has a similar sim tray on one of the sides as many phones do.
I don't know much about the pager protocol, but I think it doesn't require transmit power on the endpoint. I'm imagining a mode where the Pebble goes out of range of the Core, and then goes into passive pager mode maybe with some kind of SMS to pager gateway.
I don't care about Core for running, I just need the hackable version
Oops, now I see what exactly the core is... Maybe a bit different.
Besides that they say the Core runs "unlocked" Android 5.0, so I'd imagine you can load it up with whatever you like.
Fortunately, there isn't enough screen real estate and input methods to get a lot of gaming going.
You make it sound like those desires are at odds, when in fact a smartwatch supports your goal. Thanks to my Pebble, I only take my phone out of my pocket when I intend to use it. I don't even take my phone out of my pocket to reply to text messages sometimes now, since I can do it from my Pebble. Ditto for changing/pausing the song on Spotify, or of course checking the time, which I used to use my phone for before I got my Pebble (first first gen, then Time). Not to mention it's great to be able to send calls to voicemail if I don't want to answer them or don't recognize the number, and I can do that without stopping walking.
I'm sure I'd frequently fire up Twitter or Hacker News if I had my phone in my hands after replying to a text, so I think my Pebble saves me from a lot of distractions.
If the pebble would do 3G an I could answer calls? I think I'd even hardly ever use my phone anymore.
Also would be great to see it tie into other devices like cadence / speed sensors for bike rides.
Does show that these types of devices are just around the corner, which is exciting. For me, I'll keep on trucking my phone with me until I get full integration with tracking heart rate and cycling metrics.
Core can take your Pebble watch to the next level. When paired, Core provides a network connection for internet-enabled Pebble apps. "
Hopefully this won't fragment the app marketplace and it will maintain universal app coverage across all the Pebble watches.
I wonder if it would be possible for an Android Wear watch to do something similar to the Pebble: Long battery life, no touch screen, e-paper display and run alright. I imagine the colour space differences between e-paper and LCD would cause issues though.
Most Android apps require more system resources than the entirety of a Pebble watch.
Aside, I'm continually impressed with Pebble, and disappointed with Android Wear products. Taking a phone OS and cramming it on a watch seems lazy, not innovative, and the experience has never felt great. What Pebble has done feels really innovative and polished -- they've come a long way.
I currently have an original Pebble Steel. I pre-ordered a Time 2 today, but I'd love to be able to upgrade my order to a Round 2. That watch is, by far, the nicest looking smartwatch so far, from any manufacturer.
Backing a Kickstarter is not "pre-ordering". Kickstarter is not a store. Maybe you feel more confident because this is Pebble, but the distinction remains. Buying something from Kickstarter is not placing an order for something. It's investing in an idea.
I'm also sure he doesn't need us to tell him the differences between kickstarter order and a true pre-order.
There are significant differences between a pre-order and backing. There are accounting differences for Kickstarter and there are less guarantees for backers than for pre-orders. You aren't entitled to any of your money back, support, or timeliness. Pebble Time showed up at Best Buys before backers got their watches. I bought my Pebble Time from the pebble website and people were still complaining about having backed the kickstarter.
With a kickstarter you're shooting your money into the void and hope something comes back to you. With a pre-order you're legally entitled to a product or your money back and receive benefits from the various federal and state laws that govern how businesses do commerce.
Fair point about timeliness, but where did you get the idea that you're not entitled to your money back or support? From the Kickstarter page:
> We stand firmly behind our products. Each Pebble product includes with a 30 day (after you receive it) money back guarantee and minimum 1 year limited warranty.
I love the fact that the Pebble is such a focused device; I'd never trade it for an "screen on demand when shaking it around" iWatch, even if they threw an iPhone in for free.
Does that mean that they don't have to pay sales tax on any of these preorders?
0 - https://www.kickstarter.com/help/fees?country=US
"$79 or more Limited (14991 of 15000 remaining) ONE Pebble Core in your choice of white or black."
The core is apparently a smartphone without the touch screen, or perhaps a mobile router with extra smarts.
Anyways, i am really not a fan of this timeline thing they have been going with on their recent watch models.