If you still have Pebbles around, be sure to go to Rebble.io and register very soon, and connect your Pebble account, if you want to be able to access your data/settings in the future. The Pebble servers are shutting down in just over a week, so after that you won’t be able to transfer your data.
Not sure what all carries over. I’ve moved to an Apple Watch, but I still have a pair of Pebble Time series watches, so figured the one-minute process was worth my time in case I ever want to do anything with them. (I’ve pulled out the Pebble for short trips before, when I didn’t want to be hassled by my Apple Watch’s stupidly short battery life.)
Thanks for the tips, @Editer. I have just created a Rebble account. I hope these guys are able to continue the work and keep my Pebble alive a couple of years more. While I use Apple Watch now, I do switch to Pebble once a while just for having a different watch, and my Pebble have a nice leather strap which I love.
Thanks for the heads up. I don’t often wear my Pebble these days (I have currently gone back to a traditional watch, of all things), but I’d certainly much rather keep the option open.
I bought the Garmin Vivoactive HR and generally like it pretty well, but MAN is it bad about keeping track of flights of stairs climbed. I’ve gone up the stairs in my house like 12 times today (and one rather massive set of blocks arranged as stairs at a park near the Willamette river) and it’s credited me with 3 flights. And yes, I’m climbing the stairs while swinging my arms, so the accelerometer should notice it.
Other than that I don’t have many complaints, apart from that once in a while during a walk the heart rate monitor will apparently just take a vacation and under-report (and much more rarely wildly over-report) the heart rate. Like I know that it must be in the 110 range minimum, and it’s saying I’m in the high 90’s for a couple of minutes on end. Finally it seems to catch up.
Glad you like it. In general the passive tracking is most accurate for steps, less for climbing and heart rate. If you record an activity and tighten the strap it should be precise.
I enjoy looking at recent activities or even things I did a long time ago, it can be fun to look at old activities and recall them.
I ordered a “used - like new” Samsung Gear Sport through Amazon. It was only $155 CDN plus shipping and taxes so I jumped on it. We’ll see how like new it is but the seller has very good reviews. I’m probably a little late to the party as the new Samsung Galaxy Watch is going to be out soon but I’m not ready to pay what that’s going to cost. My only concern is that I know that Galaxy’s speech recognition is shit (the one before Bixby) but my dying Pebble has got nothing at all so I guess I won’t be too bothered. Not sure how I’ll do with not having my 5-6 day charge though. C’est la vie.
It really isn’t a big deal in my opinion, unless you travel a lot or leave your watch on while you sleep. I just put mine on the charger at night without even thinking about it. I do hope the next Apple Watch supports Qi charging though, will make it even easier.
Well I’m at about day 3 of having a new Samsung Gear Sport and I’m loving it so far. It was listed as “used-like new” and as far as I’m concerned it is basically new. So I call that a pretty sweet deal for $150 Cdn plus tax. They still have them on the Canadian Amazon site if anyone else is interested. From the seller “Canadian Smart Tech”. Someone else commented that their “9/10 condition” actually means 10/10 and I would have to agree. I put it back on the charger at the 48 hour mark and it still had 22% battery left. I think it would normally last even longer as I played with it a lot to test it out. I’m thinking about turning on the always on screen function to see what that does to the battery. I think taking it off for an hour each night to charge while I’m sitting down to eat dinner would be a nice compromise for being able to see the screen all the time without having to make an exaggerated wrist gesture. So far I’m really enjoying the ability to check my heartrate and sleep patterns. Does a good job of tracking my route by GPS although I haven’t done it enough to see what that does for the battery. I like how it will automatically track your exercise even if you forget to start the function. So far it has tracked my bike rides and walks automatically. It has even started a “dynamic exercise” function while I was doing some brisk vacuuming and raking so I think that must mean “I don’t know what the hell you’re doing but your heart rate has shot up” type of exercise lol. No real downsides so far. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to control my podcasts like I could with my Pebble but it seems to be working so far. There is definitely a paucity of apps available but that doesn’t bother me much as I have exactly the apps that I want.
Received a T-Mobile LTE 46mm Galaxy Watch yesterday. If you liked the Gear S3, you will like this watch (assuming you don’t care about the missing MST payments). I set it up this morning around 7:00 AM, turned off the LTE, installed a number of apps, and looked at a couple of watch faces. It is now 2:45 PM and I am at 90% battery with watch face set to always on. I think the improved battery claims are real.
Watch feels lighter than the Gear S3 Frontier I won.
Trying to decide between an Apple Watch and a Fitbit Versa for my uncle. He has Down Syndrome. He adored his Pebble. Primary use cases are just time, weather, and receiving notifications (primarily text messages).
He’s an iPhone user, so the Apple Watch seemed natural, but the cluttered home screen full of tiny icons will probably be a challenge for him, given his vision and somewhat poor dexterity. The Versa seems like it’ll do what he wants, with a simpler (more Pebble like) UI, plus it’s cheaper to boot.
Any thoughts? Any way to make the home screen on an Apple Watch more streamlined (and with larger icons or text)? Or should I go for the Versa?
Edit: I should add that he would definitely get a kick out of Dick Tracying phone calls with his wrist on the Apple, but don’t think that should be a deciding factor.
I don’t ever use the home screen on the Apple Watch, is you mean the honeycomb view of all the apps. Like, at all. Do you just mean the watch faces? You can opt for simpler/larger/less cluttered views there, but it depends on how much you want to access.
What all will he actually want to do with the watch?
Also Siri is solid for simple common stuff, that’s always another option instead of poking the screen.
His primary use case is really going to be just reading texts, or at least seeing he has them, checking the time, and weather. Siri is tough for him, as she doesn’t always understand him because of the way he speaks.
You can put it in a list view now. Guess it depends on how many apps you install, but I have liked it a lot better.
And you never use any apps @WhollySchmidt? I don’t a lot, but at various times I want access to an app that isn’t a complication. Like the Grocery app while grocery shopping.
I have no use for a smartwatch. I haven’t worn a watch in like 20 years. So anyway, I just got a smartwatch.
I call it the “talking dog watch”, with the old adage, “When you see a talking dog, what does it matter what it says?” It cost twenty dollars. The Wyze watch. 47mm.
Nice screen, fine build quality. Doesn’t feel cheap, until you use it.
The raise to wake works, kinda, with an OK success rate and a second delay. It successfully displays the time. The heartrate and blood oxygen sensors work, although I wouldn’t trust them to be accurate. All the clock faces are terribly ugly. I won’t be wearing it, but I never expected to. I mean, c’mon, twenty dollars!
