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Before the days of small wrist computers, your phone was trying to do everything, was the pebble. It was a very different experience from Smartwatch today, and I could not help, but wish that the philosophy of pebble watches was more popular.
Always perform without trade-off
One of the biggest things to correct pebbles was a performance. Instead of lightning, the vibrant OLEDs that demand attention to your battery in a day and drain, the pebble used e-paper. You can find the same technique on a kindle e-reader. This meant that the screen was always readily read, and barely power. I could go for a week or more, sometimes without the need to charge it. Compare this to my current smartwatch, Pixel Watch 3, which needs to be charged every night.
To date, pebbles are the only smartwatch that I have always used with the competent forever. When I am not seeing it 99% time, it is not worth the hit to battery life to perform. Using the new OnePlus Watch 3 is the closest to which I really came to enable the feature. The lift-to-wake usually works fine, but it is not 100% fool. Even if it does not work only 5% time, it is something that I never had to think with the pebble.
Apps were not points
It focuses on increased efficiency beyond the screen. Pebbles were not hitting a group of apps that do better work on your phone. Its strength was actually a smart clock – a partner of your phone, not replacement for it. This provided information on time, which you can see without taking out your phone, controlling your music and providing simple, useful equipment. Navigating with the physical button simply makes sense on a device that you were constantly staring or trying to swipe the small icon.
Pebble’s philosophy had an impact on the early smartwatch. Android Wear- Which will later become “Wear OS” – with a similar approach. The apps were out of the way intentionally and were cumbersome to launch. Instead, Google tried to bring useful information to the surface, as you needed it, and a major focus on information. However, it took no time to kick for Android Wear’s phone-effect.
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Your smartwatch is only as annoying as you make it
Smartwatch provides quick access to notifications and shortcuts, but this can be a great thing. This is why some people are going back to simplify “distraction-free” analog watches. You should not blame smartwatch for your bad habits.
Back in July 2014, I wrote an editorial Fundroid The title “This is the time to stop the treatment of Android wearing Android like a phone.” This was the first one month after the launch of Android Wear Smartwatch. At that time, Google’s guidelines urged the developers to avoid “inputs required by proper motor skills”. The keyboard and calculator were not part of the experience. However, people did not prevent those apps from creating, however. the rest is history.
Fellow vs mini phone
Modern smartwatches, in search of being a mini-phone, often remember the thing that is on your wrist. They have powerful processors, high-resolution color screens and a large library of apps, many of which are not very good to use on small screens. This battery comes at the cost of life, always on-practiced, and often, simplicity. Do you really need to scroll via Gmail on your watch?
In fact, I think some people to do Want to be able to scroll via Gmail on their watch. For some, seeing information on their wrist is enough to prevent them from taking out their phone. For others, this means looking at a calendar and typing a message on a small keyboard. I move towards the former group, but maybe I’m in a minority?
The pebble was a notification center, a subtle controller, and a clock that you did not have to worry about dying before the end of the day. While I am not going to say that I hate my modern smartwatch and all today, I am very excited about the revival of pebbles. As soon as I am able to connect my old pebble time steel with my phone again, it will return to my wrist. Would I know that I really like modern smartwatch? If I do, you will hear about it here.
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Pebble is back with 2 new e-paper smartwatch starting from $ 149
A decade ago, a company called Pebal launched a wildly successful kickstarter campaign for e-paper smartwatch. After releasing some models, the pebble was eventually overshraded by Apple Watch and wearing OS, but a similar product has disappeared. Now, the pebble is officially back with two new devices.
