As someone who has exclusively worn a pebble since it was crowd funded, I am trilled. I love purpose built devices[0] that don't attempt to do everything. I don't need a watch that does everything, just triage notification and perform time related activities and get out of the way. Pebble has always fit that niche. The fact that I can hack on it and mold it to my needs has been icing.
I have some sincere questions on the design choices. For context, I own a pebble time (everyday wear for triaging notifications) and a polar watch (for exercise tracking). Also part of a cycling community where we swap exercise watches to try out what else is out there. I have found I always sleep in my polycarb pebble time because I forget I am wearing it - it is that unnoticeable.
1) Why limit Core 2 Duo screen to BW? Feels like a step back when the Core Time 2 will have it. Sourcing parts?
2) According to the blog, I understand the Core Time 2 is your (Eric's) dream watch, so not trying to rain on your parade but trying to reason about the audience you're catering to here. The heart rate monitor suggests that it can be used to track physical activity. But... no GPS, metal (heavy) case, and protruding sensor diminish the utility of the sensor. If you've ever run with a light watch, you'll start noticing how quickly metal watches fatigue the skin. I've slept with watches on that track my sleep (optically) and the protruding sensors always causes pressure points - similar to a pebble (heh) in the shoe. Having 30 days battery life, speaker, and better vibration make for a great gadget that doesn't need to be taken off... unless it is not comfortable.
[0]: https://www.polar.com/en/science/whitepapers Purpose built devices are optimized and companies that build they have domain knowledge. You've probably never heard of polar but they publish the science behind their features where as garmin has nice looking gear but has gimmicky features, like "body battery"
1) Yes, the hardest part of building a watch is getting a display. There is only 1 vendor and we have to use what they make. Custom displays cost $1m+ and take 18 months to build.
2) It's not a running watch. I'd recommend getting garmin if you're looking for that.
> 2) It's not a running watch. I'd recommend getting garmin if you're looking for that.
I think we are on the same page but I've communicated poorly. Why even include a heart rate sensor on a watch that is not intended for exercising in when the trade-off is sacrificing comfort and raising the complexity and cost of the design?
I've used exercise as a catch all for continuous monitoring of the heart. Point being, to get more utility out of a sensor, you'd have to wear it more with less interruption. 30 days without taking off a device is... Unheard of (and wicked cool!). So comfort will be more appreciated in the long term, I suspect
I've mentioned this in the above reply but I'll repeat here: It is not common to wear watches for more than a few days at a time simply because there are not many whose battery will last that long. The effects of fatigue/pressure point from the sensor bump are less observed but not missing. Majority of consumers wear Apple/Android watches that need to be recharged every day. With 30 days on wrist, I can extrapolate that fatigue will be more pronounced - so I am calling it out.
I acknowledge this is a niche concern/complaint but this is a niche product for a niche base of folks, I'm simply curious about why. I want this to succeed and be sustainable so I asked about the utility of the sensor and provided a counter example since it's additional raises complexity.
It is not common to wear watches for more than a few days at a time simply because there are not many whose battery will last that long. The effects of fatigue/pressure point from the sensor bump are less observed but not missing. With 30 days on wrist, I can extrapolate that fatigue will be more pronounced - so I am calling it out. I understand I am a small sample size but I have 2 watches whose battery lasts 7 days and the one without the bump is more pleasant to wear for a week between charges. To the point that I always reach for the comfort option and eventually sold off the other.
I don't use my watch for running (using a 7 year old Fitbit versa). However, I do keep it on the entire day unless it is charging. I was curious what the weight of the Time 2 was going to be (I don't see it in the specs). I just wanted to compare the weight of it to my existing device. Thanks!
On my Samsung Galaxy watch, if I get a notification from my Unifi security cameras, for example, I get a little thumbnail image appear on my watch. There's no special app on my watch, just the app on my paired Galaxy phone.
Will it do this? Or would I just get a text notification? I don't understand smart watches well enough to know how much they are doing themselves vs how much of what they do is to be a mindless projection of whatever the paired phone tells them to do.
The Pebble software doesn't have support for images in notifications right now. But it definitely could/should be added. And it's open source, so you could even do it yourself!
I am not familiar with the pebble SDK or notification API it has. Smart watches usually will display whatever notification the mobile devices instructs it to display.
If you get a push notification on your mobile, I don't see a reason why pebble won't display it. The thumbnail image might be fixed but all the text content will be shown. And FWIW, the entire thing is open source so you can go in an add it, or open feature requests, etc.
Use the Android pebble app "Notification Center" and it should be able to do that for you.
(Notification Center gives you extreme amounts of control over what to send to the watch how it gets displayed, etc. It's the reason I'm still daily wearing my pebble watches)
I have some sincere questions on the design choices. For context, I own a pebble time (everyday wear for triaging notifications) and a polar watch (for exercise tracking). Also part of a cycling community where we swap exercise watches to try out what else is out there. I have found I always sleep in my polycarb pebble time because I forget I am wearing it - it is that unnoticeable.
1) Why limit Core 2 Duo screen to BW? Feels like a step back when the Core Time 2 will have it. Sourcing parts?
2) According to the blog, I understand the Core Time 2 is your (Eric's) dream watch, so not trying to rain on your parade but trying to reason about the audience you're catering to here. The heart rate monitor suggests that it can be used to track physical activity. But... no GPS, metal (heavy) case, and protruding sensor diminish the utility of the sensor. If you've ever run with a light watch, you'll start noticing how quickly metal watches fatigue the skin. I've slept with watches on that track my sleep (optically) and the protruding sensors always causes pressure points - similar to a pebble (heh) in the shoe. Having 30 days battery life, speaker, and better vibration make for a great gadget that doesn't need to be taken off... unless it is not comfortable.
[0]: https://www.polar.com/en/science/whitepapers Purpose built devices are optimized and companies that build they have domain knowledge. You've probably never heard of polar but they publish the science behind their features where as garmin has nice looking gear but has gimmicky features, like "body battery"