We have heard for a time concerning this tiny gadget and the increasing interest lots of people have shown, but exactly what is a smartwatch and what does it do?
Well, a smartwatch appears like a normal wristwatch but, besides showing the precise time, it comes with “smart” capabilities. barnklocka gps will need to connect it to a smartphone or tablet to be able to access the smart functions.
Some have called them an add-on to smarter gadgets.
So what can a smartwatch do?
Smartwatches include various configurations and applications but the most common features are the possibility to read emails, text messages, take pictures, become GPS and a lot more. (Note: At this time, the Pebble company has implemented about 5500 apps for his or her smartwatch.)
As a way to access the applications of other smart devices, the smartwatches usually connect via Bluetooth.
Note: Some smartwatches may not connect to all smartphones among others may lack compatibility to various operating systems (not all are appropriate for iOS and Android).
Why do I want a smartwatch?
If you don’t prefer to check your phone every five minutes and fancy the idea your watch may alert you when you receive emails, match important news, check your social feed or other important services you could have subscribed to, then the smartwatch may be the perfect device for you.
Basically you will be much less distracted than you’d be when checking a smartphone, you won’t be interrupted from your own work and when a significant notification arrives you should understand about it. Besides all of this, smartwatches are used extensively for their fitness applications.
Applications like RunKeeper will monitor your heartrate, count steps, measure your stress level and just how many calories have you burnt.
Hopefully we were able to capture your interest so let’s check out one of the greatest and non expensive smartwatches available, the Pebble Smartwatch.
Note: The Pebble SmartWatch took birth thanks to an extremely successful Kickstarter campaign that managed to raise over 10 million dollars in about five weeks.
Design and Display
At the initial glance, the Pebble Watch looks like a normal watch. It has a simple, yet elegant look, without being bulky or heavy. The casing is made of plastic and has a comfortable and sturdy strap.
It weighs 38g and its own dimensions are 50x32x11mm. On the right side you will discover the up-down and choose buttons and on the left side a single menu button plus a set of contacts for the magnetic power connector.
The Pebble Smartwatch isn’t fragile and is competent to withstand temperatures between 14 to 140F and will function even if it is submerged around 160 feet in water (that is great for explorers!).
The display includes a 1.26in 144�168 Sharp Memory LCD e-paper, it is monochrome and is covered by a plastic lens that may reflect light. Although the viewing angle is not a complete 180 degrees, you will be able to see notifications or any other running screen app without the backlight during the day quite easily.
Comparing to its competitors, the screen is a bit of a low point nonetheless it does its job properly.
Performance and Battery Life
The Pebble Smartwatch features an ARM Cortex-M3 processor and 512 KB on-chip storage that will be able to retain some apps and customizable watch faces. Besides the main specs, the watch includes a magnetometer, an ambient light and a three-axis accelerometer.
The apps should benefit from all this features and develop a great user experience.
Because of its tiny low-resolution display and the 140 mAH battery, the Pebble watch is competent to keep up to 5 days of extensive use and over weekly of occasional usage.
Note: Pebble watch doesn’t have a battery indicator.
To be waterproof, the Pebble watch could be charged by connecting a bespoke cable to the tiny magnets on the side of the watch.
iOS and Android
What’s really interesting relating to this watch is that it supports both iOS and Android platform.
After downloading the Pebble app, first we tested the watch alongside an iPhone. It was a bit of a hassle to make it run, as iOS doesn’t really seem like it tried to make a good management for Pebble but directly after we configured it properly, the watch worked perfectly along the iPhone.
We were able to download new watch faces or access contact support nonetheless it does seems like everything happened at the iOS level (iOS acted as a placeholder).
The Android experience is quite different. The settings with this platform seemed to be more set up and the apps made more sense. Comparing to iOS the Android seemed more open sufficient reason for a lot more applications to select from.