As a lover of all things tech, the Pebble smart watch has been on my radar since its Kickstarter inception some time ago.
It wasn’t till recently that a friend (thanks Jess) lent me hers for a couple of weeks that I realised how much I loved it.
Having never really been a fan of a chunk of metal on my wrist, I was sceptical at first if even having something there was going to work for me. The rubber strap fits comfortably & feels great.
1. It’s waterproof!
Obviously my iPhone isn’t… Waiting for an important phone call or txt, and you can still shower and read the messages. I would however love to be able to send a quick reply from the watch – something I’m sure Apple’s watch will do.
2. Control Music.
Playing music from your phone, or through a Bluetooth device such as the car or Bose dock? You can keep your phone in your pocket and skip through songs from the watch!
3. See who’s calling or messaging
I love this one when I’m on a job, busy taking photos with both hands busy. A glance at the wrist and you can read messages without having to interrupt what you’re doing. This is also great for being silent, you can have your phone permanently on silent as you’ll always feel the watch vibrate.
4. Selfie remote
It wasn’t till a few weeks of having the watch that I realised you can use it to remotely trigger the camera on your phone. Married up with my tiny iPhone tripod, you can throw the phone anyway, jump in the shot and trigger the camera, video or a 2sec countdown photo!
5. Baby monitor
With Scarlett being 5 months old now (and getting cuter by the day!) she tends to sleep in places not confined to her bedroom. The studio, the car, our parents places? You can put your iPhone in the same room, and monitor the sound levels. While you can’t hear anything, you can see when there is a noise and a vibrate to notify you if this goes above a certain level – very cool.
6. QR Generator
The pebble can generate a QR barcode of anything you want. At the moment I’ve got one setup with my business card (with all my contact details embedded), and one of my subway loyalty card. I’m always forgetting my wallet, or ordering through their iPhone app – so with the card accessible from your watch, it’s with you everywhere. The local drive-in cinema issues tickets with a QR code, now without a ticket in hand I can show my watch to the attendant who scans the barcode right off my wrist.
7. Silent alarms
Not that I have to set an alarm too much (having said that – this week I have three red eye flights!) but when I do, being able to wake myself, and not my darling wife or daughter is a massive bonus. It’s also great if you need to remind yourself about something at a certain time, you know you won’t miss it – as your wrist isn’t going anywhere!
I’m really looking forward to the release of Apple’s watch! While the integration between iOS & pebble is good, I’m sure the iOS & watch will be even better!
