Pebble smartwatch finds its voice

Pebble has strayed further away from its hobbyist DIY roots, with the release of a new firmware that supports Nuance's voice SDK. The two Pebble watches released so far this year have both incorporated a microphone, but lacked an API to allow Pebble's thriving developer community to take advantage of it. This has just been …

[D@v3]

Thirstier?

Maybe.

Physically smaller battery, probably.

[Boothy]

..much thirstier than previous Pebbles..

Nope, it just has a smaller battery so they could make a thinner watch.

2 days is still better than most other rival watches.

Also anyone with a Time Steel, can do a straight swap to the new round version if they want style over battery life.

[PleebSmash]

Re: ..much thirstier than previous Pebbles..

"2 days is still better than most other rival watches."

Care to revise that statement?

[phuzz]

Re: ..much thirstier than previous Pebbles..

As far as I know, most smartwatches need charging every night under real-world conditions, is there any that do significantly better than that?

(Edit, not heard of the Vector before, 30 days is impressive, I shall investigate.)

[James 51]

The voice thing still looks like solution in search of problem. Without playback or response it's very limited in what it can do. Still the pebble is the one smart watch which tempts me.

[dogged]

I recently acquired a Vector Watch (I don't work for them and am not affiliated etc etc).

Basically it's a nice round watch with selectable faces that does notifications from your phone, is waterproof and has a 30 day battery life. That last bit seems legit, I'm on Day 22 with no charging and it says it's nearly 3/4 depleted.

There is an api forthcoming which or may not suck. So far I'm quite happy with it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Me too the battery life is truly amazing. I can't be doing with charging every day or so. I had some connectivity issues though and have given up on it after two weeks and sent it back. After a few software updates and improvements I will definitely be buying again. I had the black round one with the black rubber strap, even without the smart watch features it was a nice looking watch and very well made.

[Stevie]

Bah!

Great. Another reason for idiots to be yelling on my train home.

[Paul Westerman]

Text message replies work already (on Android)

A couple of button presses and I can say a quick response and my phone sends the text - works surprisingly well. Really impressed with my Time Steel and it easily lasts a week between charges.

[ici.chacal]

Unless it calls me Michael in KITT's voice, I'm not interested...

[Dan 55]

Excellent

Couple a voice-controlled watch with an autonomous car and my 1980s dream will finally come true. All this happening in the same week as the Star Wars trailer and the BTTF anniversary set. What a week.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

ici.chacal & Dan 55 beat me to it...

... have a pint & an upvote. So, fancy pencelling in a date for the Knight Rider LARP?

[MyffyW]

"Th-this is your p-pebble s-speaking. If you m-must do that f-four times a d-day, p-please take me off b-before h-hand"

[DaveeD]

Low cost?

Low cost? My Time Steel cost £207 including postage. It's rubbish. Not particularly stylish looking, especially without the metal strap which has yet to arrive. Getting the black/grey was a terrible choice as the coating marks and scratches really easily (the largest being right down the left of the massive bezel and I've no clue how I did it). It's about half as functional as an Android Wear watch although functionality may well improve over time with software updates. There's also an outside chance of someone actually producing a useful smartstrap but I doubt it (plus if anyone did it would probably cost the earth).

All in all it was a fantastically unwise purchase which I regret. Oh, I've been getting battery life of a little less than 5 days instead of the claimed 10.

[werdsmith]

Re: Low cost?

I got the Pebble Time for £109, it looks OK - because I don't think it's pretending to be a posh watch.

It also does everything I need it to, I certainly don't want to be talking to it. All I wanted from it was a device to allow me to quickly check if anything incoming was needing attention or could be ignored for now. I've never bothered using the timeline thing, and the only watchface I use with it is the plain one with the giant numbers.

It's never a solution looking for a problem, because there are no problems involved.

I'm amazed that there are no "I don't see the point of smart watches" supercilousisms added to this thread yet. It usually takes them less than 2 minutes.

[Tom 35]

Re: Low cost?

I won a pebble time a few months ago and it's turned out to be more useful then I expected. If I lost it somehow I'd buy another one. I get 7 days on a charge.