First Week Review: Pebble Smart Watch

Two summers ago, the battery on my watch stopped, so I replaced it, but then found that my watch stopped again within a few days. I gave up on my watch and decided that I didn't need a watch as I have my phone with me all the time. Fast forward to last April when the Pebble smart watch appeared on Kickstarter. I was getting tired of having to pull my phone out of my pocket, so I became interested in it. The watch had 2 features that interested me; one it tells time and second, it would tell me when the phone rings. I've found that when my phone is in my pocket, I miss calls; people don't call me all that often, but I like to answer the calls. These 2 features sold me on the watch.

When iOS 6 came out, it added a Bluetooth profile called MAP which allows messages from the phone to the watch. This sold me even more on the watch.

So with these 3 features promised, I waited and waited (just like everyone else) for my watch to be delivered. Before receiving it, I read mostly positive reviews, but some negative comments. For me, I just wanted these 3 features and almost didn't care about anything else. From reading the specs and what people had to say, they indicated that the watch was big. I wasn't too concerned about this as I actually wore a Fossil Palm OS watch which was huge!

Now that I've had the watch a few days, I have mixed feelings about it. It does everything that I wanted it to do in terms of telling the time, letting me know when a text message arrives and when I receive a phone call. I've gotten some other notifications and now I want more; it appears that iOS only consistently notifies for messages, but inconsistently with other notifications. Pebble has documented a dance to get other notifications working, but that doesn't seem like a very good answer. Given that MAP support in iOS 6 is new, maybe Apple will add options to specify exactly which notifications will get passed through to MAP in the Bluetooth settings for the device as seen below.

The watch isn't the prettiest or cheapest watch on the market, but for the moment, it is fulfilling a need for me.

Pros

• It tells time.
• It lets me know when I get SMS or iMessages.
• It lets me know when the phone rings.

Cons

• It's big.
• Notifications other than SMS/iMessage/Phone are inconsistent (apparently an iOS 6 bug/issue).
• Drains the iPhone's battery a bit by having Bluetooth connected all the time.

Summary

If style is a main concern of yours, don't get this watch. If you want a completely bulletproof product, don't get this watch. The Pebble team is releasing updates fairly often to work out kinks and I think it will still be awhile before everything is worked out and issues settle down (like getting Apple to figure out what to do with notifications and MAP; there is a jailbroken hack that fixes this, but I'm not jailbreaking my device). The jury is still out of the watch's battery life, but it doesn't negatively affect my iPhone such that I'll probably be buying a Mophie juice pack Helium.

I'll definitely be wearing the watch while I wait for something better to come along; the rumors of an iWatch are interesting, but don't sound like a product Apple will bring to market anytime soon.

Thanks for the fix, Apple!

I few weeks ago I wrote about issues I was having with Bluetooth 4.0 interfering with standard Bluetooth, specifically my heart rate monitor was causing clicks on my Bluetooth headset while running. I filed an Apple Radar issue that was promptly closed as being a duplicate and the other one was closed as well, but Apple wouldn't provide me any information about when it would be fixed. Typically when I report bugs to Apple it either takes years from them to get fixed or they never get fixed (I still have a number of open bugs).

When Apple released iOS 6.1, I checked the update information and nothing about this issue was mentioned. However, Apple never documents all the fixes which is a bit annoying for a tech person like me, but understandable as it could show what security holes were patched or could get customers saying "that was my bug, but you didn't fix it". Knowing that there were likely lots of little issues fixed, I went ahead and tried my previous experiment of running with my heart rate monitor and Bluetooth headset. So far on three runs, I haven't noticed a problem! Was the issue fixed? I think it is still too early to tell, but so far it looks pretty good. Now if Apple had only told me in my bug report the OS version it was fixed in (since I'm a member of the developer program, they will tell me to test it in an unreleased OS version sometimes), I wouldn't be wondering.

Finding the perfect suitcase

About a year ago, I decided that the rolling suitcase I was using to travel was getting too cumbersome and I could make it through the airport easier with a small duffle bag. Last year I travelled 12 times (11 for work) and the bag worked well. However, the bag started hurting my shoulder and I started looking for a better solution.

Like most things I buy, I researched suitcases until I was blue in the face. I wanted one that would easily fit in an overhead bin and had 2 wheels. This turned out to be a huge challenge. First off, many manufacturers have switched to spinner type bags with 4 wheels. This type of bag makes a lot of sense for people going from house to car to airport to hotel and travel over smooth surfaces. This isn't always how I travel. When I've gone to San Francisco or Portland, I've taken public transportation and then walked a number of blocks over uneven sidewalks. The spinner bags would be harder to use, so I immediately ruled them out.

Finding a small bag also proved to be troublesome as different companies measure the bag dimensions differently. Some include the wheels and handles; others do not. I checked the websites of the airlines I've used in the last year (Alaska, Delta, and Southwest) to make sure the dimensions met the guidelines. I also found that some bags had a compartment for a laptop. This seems a bit ridiculous for business travelers (makes sense for airline crews) as most people that travel for business will drop off the luggage at a hotel or leave it in a car and take the laptop in a backpack or other bag into an office.

After much searching, I ended up getting a Travelpro Luggage Crew 9 20-Inch rolling bag as well as one from Costco. After evaluating the two (I could return the one I didn't like), I decided to keep the TravelPro. While it isn't perfect, it seems to work OK.

The TravelPro has the dumb laptop compartment which makes it fatter, but I have no use for it. If this was left off, it would be a better bag. However, the other aspects of the bag seem well thought out. It doesn't tip over and the handle and wheels work well. My Brenthaven MetroLite backpack has a way to easily slide the backpack on the handle of a rolling bag and that seemed to work well; however, it did a bit of extra weight on the arm that I was using to pull the suitcase. The suitcase easily fit in the overhead bin on my Southwest flights and rolled well through the airport.

Will this be the perfect bag for me? I have no idea; I just hope it lasts for awhile.

Proud of the award; not proud of the organization

Almost 20 years ago, I became an Eagle Scout. This took a lot of work and taught me leadership and many skills that help me all the time. I am extremely proud of my accomplishment and it is pretty apparent in my office where I have my Eagle Scout award hanging on the wall.

As most people are aware, the Boy Scouts of America has some facets to it that are extremely conservative especially when it comes to its views of gays and religion. The recent case of an Eagle Scout candidate being denied the award is deep rooted in religious views that seems to dominate some policies of the organization. Nowhere is it stated that gays can't be leaders and/or earn the rank of Eagle Scout. Some claim that being gay is not part of "to do my duty to god" or being "reverent". This brings religion into an organization that doesn't teach religion and should keep religious debate to adults and not bring Scouts into it.

This is discrimination and hatred pure and simple. It doesn't make the candidate any less deserving because of his views and really makes the organization look bad. While it will be too late for some Eagle Scout candidates, Randall L. Stephenson, the CEO of AT&T has vowed to end this discrimination when he heads the BSA in 2014; it can't come soon enough.

It is my belief that the concept of religion should be completely removed from Scouting as the only thing that religion seems to do is create controversy and hatred. However, as the organization doesn't specifically say what "god" is, it can be interpreted in many ways. I don't recall if the handbook talks about organized religion, but I also don't think that atheists should be excluded. Maybe their "god" is Mother Earth. Maybe it is family. Who knows, but to exclude people based on beliefs is teaching the wrong message.

The Boy Scouts should be ashamed of its practices; I, however, will not give up my Eagle Scout award and will continue to say that I am an Eagle Scout. I hope that things can change in the organization with the change in leadership.