Pebble has found a perfect niche
The Pebble Time is an amazing, charismatic, and nerd-sheik styled smart watch for everyone. The Apple Watch is too expensive for what it is. Android Wear is great but sometimes just as pricey. Neither the Apple Watch nor Android Wear offer cross-platform compatibility, which in my mind, is the killer Pebble Time feature. So how did the device due in first impressions? Actually pretty great.
Setting Up the Pebble Time and The Pebble Store
Pebble has done a great job making setup swift and painless. Turn the device on, download the Pebble Time app from the App Store, enable Bluetooth and pair from inside the App. New firmware update will automatically be installed and you are ready to roll.
From this point your can browse the Pebble Store to download additional applications and watch faces. More applications are updating every day to take advantage of the new e-paper color display and there are endless options for watch faces, even the ability to easily make your own!
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Additional applications can be downloaded to the Pebble Time. Some are timeline enabled, adding markers to the timeline interface of the device. Others are accessible from the Main menu by pressing the select button from the watch face.
At present some of my favorite applications are Uber, ESPN and of course Misfit fitness tracking. It is easy to develop applications for the device, with more and more features likely to come to the Pebble Time in the near to immediate future.
Notifications on iOS versus Android
The Pebble Time’s notification system is top-notch, but not perfectly capable on both platforms. Notifications on iOS are just that, notifications. Sure you can view what was sent, but for a response? A big lonely dismiss button. Notifications on Android provide a richer experience, with several options such as the ability to not only dismiss but also quick reply, reply by voice dictation, or snooze till later. This is due in part to Pebble being able to leverage the Android Wear application on Android and it’s features. While they say the features are in the works for iOS, it seems to me more of a limitation of iOS than anything else.
A Final Conclusion
Even with the notification pitfalls on iOS, do not let that steer you away. The Pebble Time still offers enough of a great experience with a great looking screen (depending on the environment), good notification and calendar integration, and a budding developer base eager to extend the Time’s feature-set.
In the neighborhood for a smart watch and have $199 to spare? Think about buying a Pebble Time.