Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have a bit of a geeky job, but I don't like to look like some dork from the Jetson's. (showing my age with that reference already!) Until now, all these smart-watches were pretty silly looking. I also found them a bit pointless. I mean, I've got a smart phone, why do I want all the same crap on my wrist? So, wrist phone/camera/email, etc.... all seemed "cool", but not with a gigantic watch that everyone is going to gawk at. I like to be a bit understated. So, here comes the Pebble Steel. I've got to say, I bought it on a whim and have been very pleased. Here's why: Just on the "looks", I was concerned. I've got really skinny wrists, and I was really worried it would look idiotic. Nope. It's a lot smaller than you'd think and it looks fine. I like to swim in the bay before work, so I need a waterproof watch. Shower & Sauna too. :) I also hate having to squint at screens in the sun. The paper-white is bright in the sun and lights up in the dark. Awesome. Now, there's been a lot of comments about functionality. This is actually an issue. My purpose for getting the watch was originally because I miss a lot of texts from my wife because I've got my phone on the charger at work while I have loud music on. I figured the little buzz on my wrist would fix that. (and it does perfectly). The thing that some people have been thinking is a problem (not being able to type responses, etc...), really is an advantage. There are a LOT of emails that come in which don't really need a reply to, or can be replied to later. If I have my phone open, I'm always responding, since it's right there. With the Pebble, I see it and then generally leave my phone in my pocket unless I REALLY need to respond. Just yesterday, I was on the bus and had my 3yr old on my lap. Buzz Buzz, glanced at my watch, it was a call from a crazy client I didn't want to talk to. So I didn't have to tell my kid to get off while I dug my phone out of my pocket. I DID get a text from my wife telling me to meet her at a Caffe, and I hadn't felt the buzz in my pocket, but did on the watch, so I got off in time and replied from my phone once my hands were free. So, notifications are very cool. It's an enhancement, not a replacement. There are also a ton of apps, more every day. I use one to check the tides (so I don't get swept under the GG bridge by surprise). You can even program it to do whatever other things you want. People have it controlling their home, etc... for me: weather, time, notifications, and controlling music (google play, pandora, ds audio, sound cloud, etc...) is awesome. The interface is really a lot like the old palm pilots. Yes, they're way gone into the history of gadgets, but it works. Honestly, I don't care if it is in DOS. I just like things to be easy and work. This is SUPER easy, Very professional looking, Very solid and just a good all around product. I'm super happy with it and the folks at Pebble should be proud of their work. ### UPDATE ### 6/26/15 It's been almost a year now, and I finally managed to break it. :) I suppose I'm a bit hard on it. While I am a big geek, and spend all day working on database systems. I start my mornings by having a swim in the SF Bay, then get out of the 55 degree water, take an extremely hot shower, and then spend 20 minutes in a sauna. Then, I've got 3 kids who insist on beating the living heck out of everything that looks remotely entertaining. Still, not a scratch on it, but the screen started getting some crazy lines through it. I emailed pebble, they asked for a picture and the serial number. A couple days later they sent me a link with a pre-paid postage label to send mine back and an email thanking me for the purchase of my new pebble at $0.00. No questions, no debate, not even a question of how I did it. just .... "OK, well, that looks broken. Here's a new one.". That's pretty cool. Unfortunately, I'm going bat-sh#t crazy without my watch! I'm missing phone calls and texts all the time. I guess I got too accustomed to having it. Also... for those of you with kids... you're going to love this. You can download pebble locker, which is an app that locks your phone when it gets out of blue-tooth range. So, if you've got a sneaky child who likes to snag your phone so they and their siblings can secretly watch netflix in their room, it's REALLY funny when I hear them all start to fight and realize that the phone just shut down their cartoon. HA!! a little daddy revenge. :) .... now, without my pebble, they've already caught me out several times. :( I'll send in an update once I get the new one. I'm not sure about the Pebble time. It looks pretty geeky, so I'm going to wait for the steel version to come out. Either way, I'm pretty pleased about pebble. Oh... one more thing... All the Apple people who made fun of my geeky watch are now buying the Apple Watch (because they have to). I've seen them show it to me and I've got to say, Pebble is better. It's not "cooler", it's not "fancier", but it's just better. Here's the obvious ones I saw. Yesterday, my Apple neighbor was showing me all the cool stuff it does... in the sun. Nope. I laughed as he started trying to cover it with his hand so we could see it. We ended up going inside so I could look at it. Nice. ### UPDATE ### 6/28/15 Ok, so here's the return status. Like I said, I've been super hard on the watch for almost exactly a year now. Swiming in the SF Bay and taking sauna's, etc... So, it finally started getting some lines across the screen and I submitted a request to return it on June 18th at 9:30am After filling out the return form that I got about 20 minutes later, it took a couple days before I got notified that I was getting a new watch. This morning, about 20 minutes ago at 11:00am, I actually got it. It arrived US Post, which is awesome, since OnTrac SUCKS. (I have 2 other things that have had "attempted delivery" on them, but I was in my office, so "attempted" is a stretch. Not even a note. Hmmmm) Anyway, I got the new watch, it automatically reloaded all the apps I had on the previous one. Beautiful. AND, within about 2 minutes, I got an email from one of my clients' new CEO about a new gig... an email that I would have completely missed if I hadn't had that little buzz, seen the message, and turned right back around to my office to give him a call-back. Nice. I'll continue the saga if things change. --Bye