Pebble as e-reader

[Apache]

Originally Posted by wodin

My daddy taught me to wind my watch every night before going to bed, then I got an LED watch that I had to change the battery every few months depending on how often I lit it up, then I got an LCD watch and the battery would last for a year or two, then I got a solar powered watch that I never had to change the battery on. Why in the world would I go back to charging da buggah up every week?

If the capacitor stops holding a charge you will have to replace it. And they are a lot more expensive than batteries.
Apache

[ilovejedd]

I have a Pebble and the screen is much too small for comfortable reading. It's okay for reading text messages and the like but certainly not for Les Miserables.

Unlike most folks here, I actually find the Pebble to be pretty convenient. Oftentimes, I have my phone either inside my purse, in a (tight fitting) jeans pocket, charging or underneath a mound of papers. Basically, not easily accessible. With the Pebble I can just view notifications, read SMS and screen calls from my watch. No need to take out the phone. The Pebble is also water resistant up to 165 feet so you could take it swimming (although I can't imagine getting signal that far below ). Besides, the price tag isn't bad. Costs about the same as a decent watch.

[Kumabjorn]

Please tell us more. Do you feel that it useable or us it more of a trinket? Do you need to spend a lot of time on it to have settings the way you like?

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Please tell us more. Do you feel that it useable or us it more of a trinket? Do you need to spend a lot of time on it to have settings the way you like?

Hmm, I'd say it's more a useful trinket? It's certainly convenient and set-up was pretty easy (paired with an iPhone). Not exactly a must-have but it's the only watch I've continuously worn for over a few months. Other watches I've gotten, I pretty much use for a month or so after which I tend to lose them and don't bother trying to find it. This one is useful enough beyond the time-telling functionality that I've missed it on the few times I've forgotten to wear it.

[BookCat]

As for the name, I have a cat called Pebbles, so it must be good!

(A bit off thread, sorry!)

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Please tell us more. Do you feel that it useable or us it more of a trinket? Do you need to spend a lot of time on it to have settings the way you like?

Fellow Pebble owner here...

For all practical purposes, I live in a cave, so I don't have a smartphone. Instead, my Pebble's paired with my iPad mini. Thus, I don't get notifications on it when I'm out and about (no wi-fi), but that aspect works just fine at home. What I like most is the ability to load up to eight custom watchfaces - in addition to the three that are part of the firmware - and switch between them at will.

This came in handy when I was at a convention last month and could let people scan my watch instead of taking a business card. (I built a one-off face that's just my name, the time, and a QR code that links to my online bio.)

As for reading on it...um, no. It's a 144-pixel (square) screen, straight black and white (no grayscale), and it's got a glossy finish. Not ideal for reading anything much longer than a tweet...and that assumes you find a way to load a book onto the thing. It just doesn't have the memory for it.

[ucfgrad93]

Can't imagine trying to read in such a small screen.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

Can't imagine trying to read in such a small screen.

No kidding. And even if you could cram a document onto it, there's no infrastructure to handle formatting. I mean, it's a watch - there's no HTML rendering engine, no ZIP manager, no file system...nothing that even the most basic ereaders take for granted. About the only way you could manage would be to strip out all the formatting and turn the book into a text file, then turn that into a custom app that you could then load onto the watch. Even then, you've got strict size limits; each app's binaries are limited to 24K with 96K of resources.

So, no - I'd have to say that trying to read a book via Pebble is a nonstarter. The only way I could even think of to make it remotely feasible would be, once the two-way communication API is finalized, for the smartphone to handle the formatting tasks and have the Pebble act as a tiny window into the document. Use the up button to go back a screen, the down button to go forward, and have an app on the smartphone that sends the proper fragment.

You'd be much better off just reading the book on the smartphone.

[Kumabjorn]

As a teacher i would imagine that this would be the ultimate cheat device for students.

[Robotech_Master]

I have a friend who has an RSS reader on his watch, so he can catch up with his feeds while not blatantly staring into his phone. That being said, I don't think the watch would really make a good e-reader either.

That being said, I've only had it for a couple of days but I can already tell it's going to be really convenient. Checking notifications while on my bike without having to dig the phone out of my pocket...pausing music after I get off my bike to walk into a restaurant without having to dig it out and unlock it...

As for the seven day battery life, many of the other smartwatches on the market won't even last a whole day. Seven is pretty darned good for all the things it does.

[murg]

Originally Posted by Robotech_Master

I have a friend who has an RSS reader on his watch, so he can catch up with his feeds while not blatantly staring into his phone. That being said, I don't think the watch would really make a good e-reader either.

So now he's blatantly watching his watch?

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

As a teacher i would imagine that this would be the ultimate cheat device for students.

As an old fogey I would imagine that the return of oral exams could counter that completely.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Phogg

As an old fogey I would imagine that the return of oral exams could counter that completely.

Good luck trying to push that through a budget committee

[LadyKate]

Goodness, I can't imagine how sore my wrist would be holding it in a position suitable for reading long enough to read a book!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Other watches I've gotten, I pretty much use for a month or so after which I tend to lose them and don't bother trying to find it.

How many watches have you owned? I have one watch which I've owned for over 30 years now. I put it on when I get up in the morning; I take it off when I go to bed at night. I've never lost it, nor felt any need to replace it. It's a good quality Swiss-made watch which keeps excellent time (so much so that the only occasions I ever adjust the time are when I go to a different time zone).

The only thing I ever have to do with it is get the battery replaced every few years.