new Pebble OS update now provide native support for steps tracking and sleep tracking. Native! No more half baked Up and Misfit app! It’s pretty good integration into the timeline. This Health app is not a watchface - it’s a Timeline app itself - so you don’t have to sacrifice your beautiful watchface for it.
It’s nice, but the sleep tracking needs work. If I wake up in the middle of the night, it only logs my sleep up until then.
They must not have had any middle-aged testers.
The new timeline is also available for the older Pebbles now. I haven’t used it enough to know whether or not I like it or not. I liked being able to easily switch between watch faces by using the up and down buttons but now I can’t do that anymore. I’m not sure if the integrated fitness is available for the classic Pebble watches. One thing that can be said though is that the watch has no problems running the updated software.
So I like having a watch but haven’t had one for a while. Figured I’d try a fitness band or smartwatch. After checking Amazon off and on for a month or so I went with the Asus Zenwatch 2. At about 130-150 it’s about half the price of anything simliar. It’s square faced and slightly larger than the others, but other than that it seems to be a steal at that price. Even simple fitness trackers with some sort of watch face were more for the most part.
Got it paired with my Samsung with no problems. Really just playing with it and figuring it out now, but so far I’m really liking it.
Any good advice for someone new to smartwatches, like battery prolonging and apps that make the watch worth it?
Honestly, I’ve found them great for notifications, seeing who’s calling/texting, and alarms, plus health tracking. All of the other apps just seem like you should just grab your phone.
So there’s a new Pebble Time 2 coming out. I’m perfectly happy with my Pebble Steel although it would certainly be great to have a smaller bezel. After 7 months I’m very happy with my purchase. I almost never wear my old dumb watches any more which makes me a bit sad and slightly upset because they’re not exactly cheap so I feel like I’ve wasted some money.
me too. But on the Pebble though, especially Time, the text are just too small and dim (yes, I maxed them) to be useful for me. My eyes are bad!
That’s why I prefer the old black and white Pebble. I’m pretty sure the contrast is better than on the newer versions.
The Pebble Time 2 screen’s 50% bigger, so hopefully it’ll help the text issue.
I bought my Pebble Classic in January. I’ve always had a weak spot for interesting watches like the Kisai Seven, the One Odin’s Rage or the Kisai Traffic, so I was used to switching watches. Well, I haven’t changed my watch since January. I got used to muting (is that a word?) my mobile via watch, controlling the mp3 player, checking who sent an SMS without getting out my phone. I love it. I never would have thought that you can get used to the small conviniences that never sounded that great on paper.
The main thing I like about the Apple Watch is that I can see my next appointment on the watch face, the temperature outside is accurate (ran into problems with Android smartwatch faces and accurate temps), and the health/workout tracking that it does. I’ve answered a few calls with it. The text message stuff was good when I was using the Android and Samsung watches, but you can see iMessages across multiple platforms (like your computer), so I rarely respond to texts on my watch.
I also like the integration with Maps for turn by turn directions (especially when walking). Otherwise, the rest of the apps just notify me as necessary, but I just use them on the phone.
A question for pebble folks…
Currently, I have Map My Ride on my phone, and I can use my asus zenwatch to do things like start a ride, or look at my stats while riding, or whatever.
Would I be able to do this on a pebble? I ask because I thought that the pebble didn’t have real android wear integration like an android watch? I’m not really sure what aspects of it would function different than a normal android wear watch.
I am using a Pebble Time but I don’t have an Android. But I know of some of my watch face has a companion app on the iPhone like Runkeeper. Anyway, according to this Pebble forumer, there is a Map My Ride and it does exactly as you are looking for.
The one thing that isn’t clear from that, is whether it lets you start the workout from the pebble.
This is one of the things that makes me wary of the Pebble. I’d kind of prefer it ran with the standard Android wear stuff, just so I would know it functions more like other smartwatches.
But we’ll see what happens by the time the Time 2 comes out.
I like my zenwatch, but I really like the idea of the e-ink display to make it easier to see outside, and the 10 day battery life.
I think the 10 day life is a bit of an exaggeration. The Pebble Time was advertised as 7 day battery life but in reality, it’s around 4-5 day. It’s still really awesome, sure. I would think the Time 2 might just be 7 days instead of 10.
Even if that were the case, it’d still be good enough. Certainly better than most watches which get one day.
Probably the best thing about my switch from Apple to non-Apple is the Pebble Time Steel. I replaced my Apple watch with this smartwatch and continue to be pleasantly surprised with just how easy it is to use. It is certainly no fashion statement, but if you are interested in a watch that will help you get work done, this is a good choice. The PTS was the easiest to set up watch of the many smartwatches I’ve tried. There aren’t a lot of instructions included, but a quick Google search showed me everything I needed to know. I downloaded a nice analog watch face (that is almost completely customizable) and the wunderpebble app. I get notifications from Outlook mail and all the other apps on my Note 5 phone. The Outlook emails actually show up on my watch (this became a problem for me on my Apple watch). I’ve been so happy with the PTS that I’ve already pre-ordered the PTS 2. If you can get over the utilitarian looks (and the ugly grey band that I am replacing with the black PTS), this is a pretty nice watch. Plus I only have to charge it once a week and it is waterproof!
Agreed. I was ready to try the Apple Watch if they did anything to fix the battery issue with gen 2, but nope…
A band can make a huge difference. Truffol has some bands that make the Time Steel look a lot classier. I have the “Metal/Black” version of this Truffol band and while it doesn’t look like I blew $1,300 on an Apple Watch Edition, it matches my black Time Steel perfectly and the combo looks much more high-end than it does with the stock band.
Nice watch straps! I ordered a Truffol black leather band, but that Fossil band looks pretty good.