Gadgetory

the personal area network it's not a sexy term but it is a cool idea and this is the next step toward it I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is what life on a pebble smartwatch is like by now you've heard about pebble and if you haven't you should read our editorials about the little device and the company behind it at pocketnow.com and while you're at it you should follow us because that's a cool thing to do pebble isn't the world's first SmartWatch but it is arguably the world's best-known one part of that is because of the record amount of Kickstarter money that brought it into being but the more important part is that it's a really good product that doesn't try to do more than it's designed to this isn't a full smartphone on your wrist or even an approximation of one in its current form pebble is primarily a second screen for your notifications a reason not to pull your phone out of your pocket or across the room to go get it on its face that doesn't sound like a reason to drop a hundred and fifty dollars and for some people it sounds absurd but if you're open to new ideas and a change in your routine the convenience it brings is amazing once you're through unboxing your pebble and powering it on and maybe adding a metal watch band like I've done you've got a choice of configuring it with the standard pebble app or with the third-party pebble notifier which we recommend as it gives you a wider range of notification customizations the watch connects via bluetooth to your Android smartphone or iPhone I've used mine on both a galaxy note 2 and Droid DNA and outside of a couple minor bugs TouchWiz and sense don't fiddle too much with pebbles functionality but though you will get tired of the accessibility bug on Samsung phones constantly telling you when you open and close homescreen folders closed after you tell pebble what apps you wanted to talk to you drop your phone in your pocket and that's when life on a SmartWatch begins pebble doesn't have a speaker so the notifications it delivers our vibrations right to your wrist it's a little jarring at first but you get used to it quickly and it eliminates that feeling of uncertainty you get when you're carrying a phone in a backpack or in a cargo pocket on some loose pants you never have to stop a conversation or take your headphones off to ask is that my phone because the bone-jarring vibration on your wrist is impossible not to notice speaking of those notifications part of the reason wearing a SmartWatch right now is so interesting is that no one around you knows what it is pebbles unique watch faces might catch their eye but most average people still think it's just a fancy timepiece if you get a lot of notifications that you're constantly checking people will start asking you if you've got a hot date you need to get to or something like that it almost forces you to explain what pebble is which depending on how social you're feeling is either a blessing or a curse the notifications themselves on the ePaper display are short they cut off after a few words whether they're a text or an email and some notifications don't contain any content at all they'll just say new Twitter interactions or somesuch but it's usually enough to get the gist of the message and decide whether it's worth taking out your phone and the screen is very easy to read under almost any lighting condition at its core pebble is really a triage device instead of oh my phone buzzed let me take it out and see what that was it's Oh my wrist buzzed let me see if I need to take my phone out at all it doesn't seem like much and people who want to marginalize the product is something for the super lazy have an easy target and pebble but they're missing the point fishing your phone out of your pocket or crossing the room to go get it only to discover that it's a Facebook event invite you don't care about is irritating running to find your ringing phone only to find out that it's a telemarketer calling is annoying and pebble removes that annoyance in a fun hip relatively stylish way that's only scratching the surface of what's possible the watch also includes functionality to control your smartphone media player and there are supposedly a ton of third-party apps coming down the pipe as developers work with pebbles SDK but for now the shortcomings like not being able to read full messages lack of an aggregator notification area in a minor bug here and there are nowhere near enough to overcome the added convenience pebble brings Plus especially if you're a tech geek it's just again pebbles concept is not a complicated one it's a risk-based extension of your smartphone but in that simplicity it's amazing by not trying to do more than it can by not overextending itself it delivers an excellent experience it's better to do a handful of things well than to do many things poorly a lesson pebble clearly understands will doubtless see more features creep into future pebbles but this version is so good and its potential is so vast that we think it's the first concrete indication that wearable technology doesn't just have to be a fad it can be practical it can be useful and it can be the future that's it for this time folks thank you for watching subscribe and all the usual places follow us on all the social networks and stay tuned for a lot more from PocketNow thanks again for watching we'll see you next time