Pebble thread: Early adopters ahoy

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Pebble thread: Early adopters ahoy

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

That Skinomi one aside, what kind of screen protectors are y'all using? None of the stores around here in Taipei seem to have anything for smartwatches, and they just take one look at go "nope, it's curved, no dice." I bought an iPhone one and cut it down to the size of the screen proper, but that's kind of a half-assed solution.

# ¿ May 30, 2013 12:31

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:56

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

So how do I get either Plus or Readebble to work? Most of the messages and emails I get are in Chinese, so right now all I get from those is squares.

# ¿ May 31, 2013 06:27

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

Honestly Facebook and Gmail notifications, time, the alarm, and pausing/resuming podcasts are about all I've been using mine for and it's been pretty great so far.

Although I did set up one of the 3rd-party notification things to send notifications from Google Maps and use it to find a couple of places when I was walking around the other day and while getting updates every few meters/every time the GPS resyncs was a little bit of a pain in the rear end, it was also actually pretty handy.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2013 21:22

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

IuniusBrutus posted:

Awesome - what's the wait time looking for non-kickstarter orders for a black one? They seem...apprehensive...to give any firm timetable.

I'd say, given how they've handled things so far, you'd be safest assuming no more specific than "before the end of 2013." But even that much I wouldn't be too confident about.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2013 05:26

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

kuskus posted:

They're on their last new color production (white) and within the next two weeks will probably have satisfied all Kickstarter stuff. Soon after that the preorders will start to get shipping notices.

Going by comments on the Kickstarter page, they've got to finish shipping out the "switch to black" ones first too, the ones that were supposed to have shipped weeks ago. Even having received my red watch, my position on their production and shipping of anything remains "believe it when you see it and not a second before."

# ¿ Jun 6, 2013 14:39

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

Wait a loving second, they haven't even finished making for or shipping to backers yet and they're already shipping later pre-orders? Jesus Christ, is there any aspect of this whole project they can't manage to screw up in some fashion?

# ¿ Jun 7, 2013 09:15

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

Ah Pebble, such a neat product, such a clusterfuck of a business.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2013 06:24

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

sirbeefalot posted:

For those of you that received yours, what's the communication like leading up to delivery? Did you all get emails/tracking numbers etc. or did it just show up one day?

Got an email saying "It'll be shipping in about two weeks." Almost exactly two weeks later, got an email saying "Here's your tracking number and the website of Singapore Post to follow it on." Promptly discovered SingPost's tracking is hot loving garbage. About a week and a half later, Pebble.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2013 15:11

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

kuskus posted:

That's pretty interesting. Everyone I know (mind you- I'm counting on one hand) had theirs shipped from California. City of Industry maybe.

Yeah, I'm in Taiwan, so shipping from Singapore makes way more sense. In as much as shipping from anywhere that isn't where they were made (China/Taiwan) makes sense in the first place. But if you're going to have a centralized shipping hub for the non-US parts, Singapore, Hong Kong, or Kuala Lumpur would probably be your best choices just for pure centrality.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2013 17:06

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

SyRauk posted:

They are killing themselves with their slow manufacturing and will not be able to compete with the other wearable devices that have already expanded upon the Pebble's basic design.

Honestly, as soon as a smartwatch with equal or better functionality and battery life is released by a company that actually understands how to handle customer relations comes out, Pebble as a company are hosed.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2013 09:59

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

Maybe they should try posting on Kickstarter or answering emails for a change instead of loving about on Reddit.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2013 09:35

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

waffle posted:

Have they actually finished shipping all the Kickstarter orders? I can't imagine them stocking a single Best Buy if they can't even ship out all the preorders and Kickstarter orders after so long

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha of course not.

On a similar topic, has anyone heard any resolution to the "shipping to Germany is all hosed up" beyond their vague "we're trying, honest!" from the final KS update?

# ¿ Jul 2, 2013 20:04

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

amiantos posted:

If you're a black/red pre-order and haven't gotten yours yet, it's safe to imagine that Best Buy was a guy ahead of you in queue.

I tend to agree in terms of the $0 pre-orders, but the 2012 preorderers and the backers who STILL haven't got their watches even after the "switch to black, it'll be faster" thing, are still waiting for them to make any kind of effort on German shipping, or have been left hanging for weeks by Pebble support, they've got every reason to be pissed. Throughout the whole exercise it's been abundantly clear Pebble couldn't give a poo poo about customer service, though, so at this stage I don't know why anyone's even surprised.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2013 07:30

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

SyRauk posted:

Oh man, same here. As soon as I try to explain what kickstarter and crowd-sourcing/funding is their eyes glaze over and I might as well try explaining what nuclear fusion is to a termite.

I just say I got it off the Internet.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2013 03:52

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

What on Earth does "always skip onboarding" mean?

# ¿ Jul 8, 2013 20:59

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

Oh, so it's basically "skip tutorial" then. Thought so.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2013 05:11

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

SpelledBackwards posted:

I've played some with Pebble Canvas to make my own custom face with dynamically updating text (including missed SMS count, missed call count, and phone battery %), but if the watch loses connection, it doesn't seem to reliably time out and at least display the things it does know regardless of connection (date/time). Yet occasionally I will see it without a connection (presumably), and only the date/time show up, whereas the dynamic text from the phone is blanked out. So I don't know how it gets into that state vs. the all-blank face.

I was using Pebble Canvas for a bit to display time, date, missed calls/unread emails/unread sms, and next two appointments from GCal, and it kept making GBS threads the bed. I realized why, though - the appointments were long enough to push the whole thing beyond the Pebble's message-length limit, breaking the updating.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2013 09:06

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

kitten smoothie posted:

On the left and right edges of the screen, there's thick bands of yellow

kitten smoothie posted:

The screen notwithstanding, it seems when I press one of the buttons on the side, 2/3 of the time it wouldn't register.

That sounds hosed up. I haven't noticed anything like those with my watch. You might want to contact Pebble support. (Although on the other hand you'd probably get quicker support if you prayed to Zeus for help.)

# ¿ Jul 10, 2013 08:31

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

Bugger me, a Kickstarter update that actually addresses people's concerns instead of just being autofellatio and vague handwaving? Color me impressed.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2013 20:33

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

Evil Robot posted:

If you have an Android phone, install Pebble Notifier and send notifications from Google Maps to Pebble. It'll notify you with navigation directions and distance every few seconds.

Just to reiterate - every few seconds. If you're on foot and using it, it's a loving terrible idea. If you're in a car or something, I guess it might be a better one.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2013 04:56

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

So has there been any word on the supposed IFTTT support yet?

sub supau fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Aug 30, 2013

# ¿ Aug 30, 2013 20:37

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

Kazy posted:

From last month's reddit AMA:

OK, so I can pretty much kiss goodbye to that then, since I'm in a country where that doesn't work. Great.

e: holy poo poo that AMA is Pebble as hell. "When will (thing you promised months ago/basic functionality someone else knocked up in short order) be done?" "Eventually." "What are your goals for the future of Pebble?" "Stuff."

sub supau fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Aug 30, 2013

# ¿ Aug 30, 2013 21:26

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

mcpringles posted:

What apps were you expecting? Runkeeper and Golfcaddie were both released and there are a few games and other 3rd party apps.

I don't know about apps, but how about the weather functionality they show on a watchface on the Kickstarter video? Or the "watchapp store" they claimed would exist in that same video? (And no, half a dozen watchfaces and snake in a list that hasn't been updated since launch doesn't count.) Or apps that can "transmit data to the Internet" (also from the pitch video)? Or the IFTTT service they showed off at CES seven months ago? Or the ability to actually read messages in Unicode so that those of us who live in non-English-speaking countries can actually read notifications without having to channel them through a third-party app?

# ¿ Aug 31, 2013 08:34

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

SirSigma posted:

When you put it that way, the guys behind Pebble sound awfully lazy.

Honestly, I don't think they're lazy, I just think their imaginations exceeded their ability. And that they're kind of poo poo at customer relations and expectation management.

I still wear my Pebble (for as long as I can tolerate the strap), and I still dig the caller ID, Facebook notifications, and some of the 3rd party stuff. But it definitely failed to live up to the hype, the pitch, and its potential.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2013 20:06

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

Jet Jaguar posted:

Hmmm. Of the 2,200 watchfaces and apps available for Pebble, how many are actually worth having?

Of the 2,200 watchfaces and apps available, how many are actually apps? Bundling together the numbers of watchfaces and apps like that seems super obfuscatory to me.

Magic Mango posted:

There's also an updated SDK in the works which should enable some fancy apps in the near future. Full details here, but it looks like the Pebble will finally do what it promised!

Oh hey, almost six months after most people gave a poo poo, almost a year after they finally started shipping, and almost a year and a half since their almost entirely fictional pitch video they've almost delivered what people expected in the first place!

# ¿ Nov 7, 2013 10:17

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

So iPhone users, does your Pebble actually stay consistently connected to your phone? Because mine and my Android phone seem to just completely forget about each other all the loving time for no apparent reason and with no notification. Thankfully Augmented Smartwatch will usually work to reconnect it but it seems hosed that basic functionality needs a third-party app to unfuck it.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2013 10:47

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

Chernobyl Prize posted:

I ordered a Pebble on Amazon for $120.00 with some gift cards I got from work as a bonus. It seems like I'm getting in at a good time with the new firmware coming out in a couple months and an app store on the way. I think I'm going to swap the band out right away though, it looks a little hokey to me in the pictures.

Seriously, swap the band immediately. The original one is hot street trash. Literally any band available anywhere would be better. poo poo, tying it onto your wrist with string would be better.

Also I'll believe the app store thing when it launches and not a second before.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2013 05:50

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

$250 for a shinier Pebble with a less poo poo strap (presumably) and less scratchable face? Are they fuckin' high? I mean I'm glad they're finally giving us an app store, but for $250 for a watch that (presumably) will still have all the connection problems, pitiful memory, and a complete lack of non-Latin character set support?

# ¿ Jan 7, 2014 05:41

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

CaptainCaveman posted:

Is there a web front end to their app store? Browsing it on the phone is kind of painful. I didn't see one, but I'm hoping it's out there and I just missed it.

It took them almost a year after beginning shipping to finally have any kind of app store at all. A Web frontend for it will probably be heading our way sometime in between 2015 and The Jetsons.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2014 06:52

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

If the Apple watch can one-up Pebble by, you know, supporting languages outside EFIGS, it'll bury Pebble.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2014 04:02

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

Well, I see in my email today that only two and a half years after the (supposed) delivery date of the Pebble, they've finally found a way to do what they'd insisted was impossible and let people use languages other than English! At this rate, maybe by 2016 we'll have IFTTT support!

# ¿ Nov 26, 2014 09:36

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:56

sub supau: Aug 28, 2007

Rosalind posted:

Received a Pebble for Christmas. I was so excited.

My condolences.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2014 03:52

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Pebble thread: Early adopters ahoy