Do you have a smart phone? Are you familiar with the Pebble watch?

[thewayne]

You may or may not have heard of the Pebble, but it is arguably if not the first, one of the first, smart patches. They debuted with a Kickstarter campaign that was awesomely successful, and I kinda regretted not getting in on it but I was unemployed at the time and just couldn't see spending the money.

Well, I'm in trouble. I now am earning a decent salary and they're launching a new Kickstarter campaign.

They've completed engineering and testing for their next generation watch, the Time. The first Pebble, like this one, uses the eInk display found in the original Kindle and the Nook paper white ebook readers, it only uses electricity when the display refreshes, so the Pebble could last upwards of a week between charges.

The Time makes a few changes. It's a bit thinner and designed with a slight curve so it conforms to your wrist. It has a microphone and you can use it as a voice recorder. It also now has a color display, which is kinda cool. It's also water resistant, you can shower and swim with it. But the big change is how it's used: the paradigm is very different than the original Pebble, and you really need to see the video to appreciate it. And the video is quite good, so I would recommend it regardless.

If you back the Kickstarter, you can get one before anyone else, and you'll save $20 off the $200 list price. And the Kickstarter is funded, so it'll be made. And boy, is it funded! They were asking for $500,000 and they currently have $11,700,000. There's 26 days remaining in the fund drive, and yes, I think I'll get one.

You see, there's one thing that I haven't talked about: they're programmable. You can download different watch faces, and there are 6,500 watch faces and applications available, and they're mostly, if not entirely, free. I want to code my own watch face. Even though I make my living with computers and have so for over 30 years, I eschew digital in certain ways, and one area in which I do is watches. Why do I need to know that it's 1:04 right now? I want my watch to say 'Just after 1:00'. And then 'Almost a quarter after'. Or 'About 1:30'. I like the abstract. The last three watches that I've owned have been analog. I don't normally wear a watch, but I think this could be fun and useful, especially having the voice recorder. I've dictated a lot of game design notes while driving to Las Cruces or Phoenix, 100 and 500 miles respectively, but using the one in my iPhone isn't very convenient. In the previous generation of iOS, Siri wouldn't turn on the voice recorder on command, which makes it useless while driving. Now it does, but when I'm driving, I'm usually listening to podcasts. So this wrist voice recorder, assuming it's easy to activate, could be quite useful to me.

Anyway, if you have a smart phone, you might find this interesting. And I think it's more than reasonably priced.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-time-awesome-smartwatch-no-compromises

Comments

[silveradept]

That's a neat watch, and the microphone would certainly fulfill our desires for the worst communicator.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

It's a nifty device indeed, but, I don't think I'm really part of the smartwatch market, simply on the basis that I don't really want something on my wrist(s), other than perhaps purely as an accent to the outfit. I could see notification of who's calling the phone being of some utility, but I barely use phones either. =:)

[Memo to self: when rabbiteering, check the *wind* forecast too, not just sun/cloud. FSM, it was a chilly, stiff wind this afternoon. Still, I might have one or two shots worth sharing, though the wind didn't help much with maintaining focus]