I, for one, am very happy with my choice of the Pebble smartwatch. e-ink display gets ~5 days on a full charge!
10 hours of battery is a deal killer, but it is something they might be able to address in version 2 with a more efficient chip and maybe smarter power management and probably a bit higher capacity battery. \
Of course if this does take off I canât wait for the inevitable screen size arms race from the various manufacturers, just like in the Android smartphone market. In 4 or 5 years weâll be able to buy a watch the size of an old iPhone because screen size is king, and then people will hack them into regular phones because Android phones will be too big to fit in their pocket anymore.
I bought the Galaxy SIII when it was still the top of the line for Samsung, and am peeved at them for not being able to upgrade the phone to the newest Android software ⌠maybe ever. Yes, I could root. Yes I could do this fix. Yes I could do that fix, but for goodness sake I shouldnât have to when I am paying hundreds of dollars plus locked into a contract.
I gotta say, I am not an Apple fan, but Iâm considering the switch.
Agreed. I find that if I shut the Pebble down at night while Iâm sleeping, I can often eke out a full week or more on a single charge.
Where are you getting the 10 hour number from? The only thing listed in the article was âabout a dayâ and that the batteries were running down by the time the demo was over, which can probably be attributed to higher than typical use of camera and screen.
I think the thing is going to flop but no need to start making up numbers to speed it on itâs way.
totally going to start doing that⌠good tip
Iâm fascinated by this idea! Would be rad to have a cuff-shaped touchscreen device in the future.
Yâall gonna look real uptown with a $300 doorknob on your wrist.
Youâve already got a clock in your phone and the world is full of other clocks. Wristwatches are just an excuse to wear bracelets.
Yes, bluetooth headset pairing under 70M of saltwater, zippy inertial 3D GPS response for cavern divers, and a suite of confined space apps or the price will quickly fall under the more adaptable e-paper watchâs $50.
Or, as you may suggest, move to paired detached cuffs, standalone gothic bowed collar and animal ears (because arenât the good doorknobs $300 MSRP anyhow?)
How do you shut the Pebble off while you are sleeping? Like, on the second nodding chorus of âHighway to Hellâ you have some sort of cue-response with your wrist? [self-caffeination continues]
Dumb. On iphone you wouldnât have any options to get it done. Plus just be patient man⌠the Siii is getting an official update to 4.3 (which is what you need for this watch) in October:
Ars report 315mAh battery. And âitâs only compatible with Samsung smartphones that run Android 4.3. Thatâs pretty crippling.â
YeaâŚ
Iâll stick to my Gshock watches which lasts for months without any recharge from itâs solar cells. Or just a regular watch which lasts at least a year before you switch batteries. Thank you.
I bet the battery killer is Bluetooth, display and chip. Bluetooth is bloated. Donât know how much power the display and chip needs. I think this thing is overkill.
Do I have to be the one to tell everybody how to power a smartwatch?
Integrate the battery into the band (Li-ion cells are a thin film thatâs rolled up; should be feasible enough), with only a tiny back-up cell inside (if thatâs even necessary on something designed to pair with a phone).
For crying out loud, duh.
Awesome, let us know how your Kickstarter goes.
Ugh. Twice as much as the Pebble at retail, and like I need another camera in my life.
Iâm a bike mechanic, not an electronic engineer.
And anyway, youâre nuts if you think some backyarder can cut it against megacorps when it comes to miniaturised stuff.
Ah, sorry. Perhaps you can understand my confusion: you wrote with such confidence about the method and ease with which a smartwatch should be powered, I just naturally assumed that you were on the road to doing it yourself, rather than simply being one of those guys who are the technology worldâs equivalent of the armchair quarterback who spends his Monday evenings shouting baffled invective at those stupid running backs who would score a damn touchdown every now and then if theyâd just listen to him and run faster, dammit.
If youâre going to liken me to an armchair quarterback, perhaps youâd be so kind as to point out the obviously crucial flaw in my idea that renders it actually not a superior approach.
Thereâs potentially more room in the band, and until a day or twoâs capacity at least is feasible, the main point of it is to allow hot-swapping another band/cell.
But I guess youâd probably rather play the man than address that, huh.
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