Pebble Time with Michael

Pebble Time with Michael

In the past, I was quite skeptical about the real usefulness of smartwatches. Weren’t they just annoying, distracting, and expensive devices that require constant charging? How much better would it be to own one when I’ve been happy with the functionality provided to me by just using my smartphone? So then, what are my conclusions now about the Pebble Time, my very first smartwatch, after owning and regularly using it for a little over 3 months?

First of all, after 3 months of living with it I now actually feel myself just taking my Pebble Time smartwatch for granted. It’s no longer a bright shiny new tech toy that I feel compelled to play with. It’s just there on my wrist. It’s always readily available whenever I need it and it’s always up to the challenge of getting my attention when there is an upcoming event, an email, a phone call, or a message that will likely require my attention. It also provides me with the current time, date, week day, current weather conditions, daily forecast, and battery status all from just a quick glance at its watch face.

Read moreMy 3 Months of Living with a Pebble Time

Pebble Time with Michael

I recently read a very interesting article. It was a review of the Apple Watch by Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

I particularly enjoy reading technology reviews by non-technical writers as they are usually very practical and down-to-earth in their evaluations. These writers aren’t easily blinded by the newest and niftiest technical do-dads. I found this review to be particularly interesting to me even as a Pebble Time owner as it came to a surprising conclusion as to what the author felt was the most valuable feature of the Apple Watch – the calendar. Or in Pebble Time terms, the Timeline.

Mr. Gingrich started off his review describing his experiences in trying to use the Apple Watch as an electronic boarding pass through TSA and airline boarding gates. He had some difficulty with this, which was not surprising to me. Prior to my recent retirement my job required me to fly virtually every week of the year and my experience with trying to use a phone as an electronic boarding pass was less than a success. The very reflective screen of a phone or smartwatch usually plays havoc with the laser scanners used by TSA and the airlines, and I soon gave up and went back to printing out paper boarding passes. I have a feeling Mr. Gingrich may soon do the same.

Read moreWhat’s The Most Useful Feature of the Pebble Time?

Pebble Time with Michael

Recently I had to perform a Factory Reset on my Pebble Time. It got me to thinking that writing an article on troubleshooting problems with the Pebble Time might not be a bad idea. So here it is!

Problems Encountered

Since I’ve owned my Pebble Time these past few months, I’ve really had very few problems with it. However, it hasn’t been completely trouble free. The types of problems I’ve encountered include: notifications that were never sent to my Pebble Time, notifications that have appeared in the past but are now not showing up on my Pebble Time, and incorrect notifications.

Read moreTroubleshooting the Pebble Time

Pebble Time with Michael

I’ve written here in the past regarding various ways to manage To-Do lists on the Pebble Time. I’ve talked about using the MyTimeline Tasker Plugin. I’m mentioned various Pebble Time apps, like Todoist. There are tons of other apps and techniques available to you for managing To-Do lists, but I think I’ve stumbled onto a technique that’s extremely simple and easy to use. It will work for either iPhone or Android users. It may not be for everyone, but you can consider it and decide for yourself if it will be usable for you. It works great for me and I’ve been using it for quite a few weeks now.

Read moreAn Extremely Simple Way to Manage To-Dos on a Pebble Time