The Pebble SmartWatch

In April of 2012 a young startup announced an idea on the crowd funding website Kickstarter for a elegant watch with the ability to directly communicate information to and from your phone. This simple idea became the most highly funded Kickstarter project to date with $10,266,844 pledged by 68,928 people. I unfortunately was not one of those 68,928 people and due to supply constraints could not purchase the SmartWatch through Pebble’s website. However, unashamedly I wanted to be apart of this new revolution in computing and my best friend eBay came to my rescue. My name is Brad and this is my story as a sell out eBay pebble backer.

In the beginning

On a cold day in March I proudly paid a premium to take a Pebble off the hands of one capitalistic citizen, my life hasn’t been the same since. Once Pebble arrived I was surprised to find Apple worthy packaging and a beautiful device inside.

Life Change

Many habits in life are hard to break, pulling your phone out of your pocket to check the time, emails, texts and notifications every few minutes happens to be one of them. My smartphone over the years has become somewhat like an extra appendage. I rely on it for almost everything. My connected life revolves in some way around communicating with this device in my pocket. What I never realized, was that a large portion of that communication was incoming content. The pebble quickly opened my eyes to this realization. The moment Pebble was connected to my phone I began receiving emails and texts on my wrist. Alerted with a subtle vibration I was able to leave my phone alone and glance at my wrist. What I began to realize is that Pebble is like the secretary you see in movies that serves as a gateway to the very important individual behind the office door, she helps determine if the incoming communication is worth her boss’s time or if he should remain unbothered.

The Nitty Gritty

Pebble has a beautiful e-paper display (not e-ink) that is easily readable in any lighting condition. The backlight can be activated with a simple flick of the wrist via the built in accelerometer. The display is made of plastic which according to the pebble website is scratch resistant. I however found it isn’t quite as scratch resistant as what you may be used to on your smartphone. After receiving several small scratches on the display through normal use and a lot of research on how to remove them, I purchased Polywatch Plastic Lens Scratch Remover and successfully restored this precious gem back to health. I then quickly purchased a Skinomi Skin screen protector and haven’t worried about scratches since.  Overall I found that the Pebble is extremely well made and comfortable to wear. In the infancy of wearables, the bar for realistic battery life has yet to be determined, however pebble fairs excellently at 5-7 days of use. There wasn’t any significant hit on the battery life of my smartphone either from having Pebble constantly connected via bluetooth. I charge my phone nightly and had plenty of juice when it came time to plug it in for the evening. After plugging my smartphone in to charge, Pebble continued to send me notifications from several rooms away.

Security’s Best Friend

Security has been on the minds of most technologists lately. We have seen fellow bloggers lose their entire life’s worth of photos due to a flaw in Apple and Amazon’s password recovery policies (recently fixed). We have seen popular services such as Vudu and Evernote require password resets because their customer databases were compromised. Enter Two-Factor authentication, the answer to what ails ya. Many companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Dropbox have implemented two-factor authentication to lessen these security threats. Two-Factor authentication typically has a slow adoption rate due to its inconvenient nature. It requires that you not only supply your password but also a “second factor” of verification such as a pin code texted to your mobile phone. This is where Pebble comes in. Since Pebble can receive text messages, two-factor authentication is a breeze! Now when logging into a web service with two-factor your secondary verification is conveniently sent to your wrist. It almost makes this normal inconvenience fun, almost James Bond-esk.

Although the Pebble is a revolutionary device, it isn’t perfect. In fact it seems fairly beta. To be fair the device isn’t shipping to non-Kickstarter backing customers yet and backers are aware of the implied beta nature of the product. I have however noticed over the last Month and a half, significant improvements in software with each bi-monthly firmware update.

Some of the current issues are phone OS specific. iPhone users can expect several issues that are due to the closed nature of Apples phone OS. With iPhone some users are experiencing 24 hour battery life instead of the advertised 5-7 days, though this was recently addressed with a software update. There is also a bug where Pebble often asks for permission in which if you press accept, pulls you directly out of what you are doing and into the pebble app. Caller ID for phone calls often does not work but a simple force close of the Pebble app and relaunch will fix it. Notifications from non-Apple apps have to be reconfigured every time Pebble is disconnected from Bluetooth, an annoyance that is fixed for jailbreakers with a downloadable tweak. These small issues are however not enough to hinder the hope of what this device could be and will become. None of these issues occur on Android.

The promise of this device is undeniable. With downloadable watch faces and the promise of full applications on the device, the future is bright for this one. I have tasted the sweet nectar that is wearable computing and I’m all in! I have a sense of freedom when I’m using pebble. Free to experience life instead of having my head constantly buried in my smartphone. The pebble may not be 100% perfect or have all of the features that a Star Trek lover might desire, but what it offers is a way to detach yourself from the smothering smartphone, take a deep breath and enjoy life. Pebble has recently released a SDK for creating your own watch faces with some amazing results thus far. Did I mention Pebble can run snake and tetris!! Pebble has me reading emails, texts, notifications, answering/declining calls, two-factor security mastering, and pausing/playing my favorite podcast (the cult cast of course) all without touching my greasy smartphone. My wife and kids thank you Pebble. Welcome to the future.

Wunderlist is a Wonder of Amazingness!!!

Wunderlist, the free to-do app from 6wunderkinder, is a free application that works on all major platforms. When it comes to to-do list management, I have tried them all. Wunderlist packs all the major features of the paid players without the price tag and the added bonus of platform agnosticism. With its ability to sync your “Buy Milk”, “Call Mom”, “Eat Bacon” to-do items gloriously across iPad, iPhone, Android, Windows, OS X and the web, it steals the “to-do list/productivity app” show.

Look Mom, Wunderlist and Siri are Dating

Recently the folks at 6wunderkinder released an update for Wunderlist. The update allows its customers to forward emails to me@wunderlist.com and have it automagically show up in their Wunderlist inbox with the contents of the message as notes to boot.

Then I had a glorious idea, why not have Siri ask Wunderlist on a date? Ok, not really, but Siri could tell Wunderlist I need to buy milk right?

As an iPhone user, moving to Wunderlist from the default Reminders app causes the loss of a major feature, Siri integration. If you use Reminders, Siri can easily add items to the various lists you’ve created. However, because Apple has not opened this feature to third party developers, it is missing in Wunderlist… or is it?

Siri Gets To Know Wunderlist

First we need to create a contact called “To Do List” or whatever you would like Siri to call Wunderlist… “McLovin”?

1. Open your contacts app and add a contact.
2. Add “me@wunderlist.com” as the email address
   NOTE: Make sure your default sending email address in the Mail app matches the one you used to sign up for Wunderlist. If it isn’t, you can easily update your email address in Wunderlist by opening the app’s preferences menu and changing it in the account tab. You can also do this by visiting their website.

The First Date

I remember when I gathered the courage to talk to the girl who would be my future wife for the first time. I was nervous with sweaty palms and had the confidence of a three year old. Luckily it doesn’t take that to get Siri and Wunderlist talking.

Simply tell Siri to send an email to “To Do List” or whatever you called your new Wunderlist contact.

Siri will then ask you for the subject of the email (this will be the name of the to-do item). She will then ask you for the message you want to send (this is where any pertinent notes will be added).

Now the magic happens. Siri sends out your message to Wunderlist who then adds the item mysteriously to your to-do inbox. Fantabulous! 

Final Thoughts

Wunderlist is an application that keeps getting better with every release. If you have tried it in the past and left it for one reason or another, give it another chance. Version 2 and its various updates have proven that you don’t have to empty your wallet to have a feature packed productivity tool. It is a joy to use and will improve your general work flow and productivity with little effort.

Links to Wunderlist

• Web
• OS X
• iOS
• Android Version of Wunderlist
• Windows

UPDATE**********

This hack no longer works after the recent update. For those who got it before their software update, DO NOT UPDATE!

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Thousands are currently waiting in line digitally for the new MailBox App that uses innovative techniques, getting you to inbox zero quicker.

For those that are impatient, and also have jailbroken their phones, you easily jump to the front of the line and begin using this great app NOW!!!

Here is how to do it…

What you will need:

1. A Jailbroken iPhone (You can go to http://evasi0n.com/ for more on this)
   
2. iFile from the Cydia app store
3. The MailBox App (http://mailboxapp.com/download)

Steps to Jump the Line

1. Open iFile and open the Applications Folder
2. Find the folder that MailBox.app is in
   (You should see a bunch of folders with Hash info. There are easier ways to do this, however just click on each folder until you find one that has MailBox.app in it)
   
3. Open the Library Folder
4. Open the Preferences Folder
   
5. Click on the plist com.orchestra.v2.plist
   
6. Jump the Line
   orchestra.velvet.room.allowed will be set OFF, turn it on
7. Enjoy MailBox App before your non-jailbroken friends
   

Show Notes:

2013 Predictions/Wish List
Wishful Changes in iOS7 (New iPhone and OS showing up in visitor logs)
Do Not Disturb bug/Advertisement
Fitness
Jawbone UP
Striiv

Movies
Hobbit

When I finally got fed up with how iTunes and iOS handled my 15+ feeds of podcasts, I went looking for something that could handle them, even if it cost some cash. (I don’t usually pay for stuff that Apple provides for “free”). After looking around, I found Downcast. I can’t remember why I chose Downcast, but I am glad I did. Sure there are other choices, but you cant go wrong with this.

Syncing/iCloud

This has got to be the #1 feature of this app. It was just recently perfected with iOS 6. It syncs all the podcasts, episodes, settings and playlist data right to iCloud. So if you are using multiple iOS devices with iCloud and boot up Downcast, you stay perfectly in sync down to the second. No more hunting around podcast chapters hoping to hear exactly where you left off. Also, if you wipe your device (which I do a lot, don’t ask), Downcast will restore all of that stuff.

Universal App

Get a new iPad for Christmas? You may have heard I did, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that when I loaded up this app, I didn’t get the “2x” button. Thats because they have made this app universal! Pay once, Play on all! and the iPad interface is great! Perfectly designed to give you all the data you need for a great experience.

Playlists

Listening to so many podcasts, it can be hard to keep track of which one is about what. Playlists will help with that. I myself only have one playlist: Unplayed. I use it to keep the shows in order of which they were released.

Streaming

Didn’t have time to download all of your shows before leaving the house this morning? You can stream them with no problem.

Versatility 

This app has so many intricate settings. I usually listen to my podcasts on 2x speed. Its perfect for getting through all of my spoken shows but thats no good when I listen to a music podcast. Downcast lets you change the speed of an individual podcast!

Video

If you watch video podcasts like I do, then this feature is perfect for you as well! What if you start out watching but are going on a run and want to keep the show going? Well if you were in iTunes/iPod, you would have to wait till your seated again. With Downcast, you just lock your device and the audio keeps going! (even in 2x mode).

I can’t give enough praise to this app. It literally gets me through my long drives. The features I mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg, there is SO much more. You can give it a shot here. Also, a little birdie told me that they are working on a desktop app. I can’t wait for that!

Subscribe in iTunes!

Show Notes
New iMac
Surface
Windows 8
Future of Operating Systems (Future VS Current interface)
Google Maps
Find my iPhone (Driving directions)

Movies
The Lone Ranger Trailer
Superman

Myth Busters
Macs don’t get Virus? Myth or Truth

Maybe 12/12/12 will go down as the day that balance was restored in the galaxy…well at least here on earth.

Just minutes ago, Google released its famed mapping tool back to the iPhone. Luckily, I was in my car when it arrived, so I got to use the new Turn by Turn Navigation. It is in beta, which means it’s still a work in progress, but it’s good…really good.

The voice is responsive and lowers the volume of music playing while navigating you to “Point B”. Its not the lovable Siri, but it will do. You also have the option to zip her lip in the app. (imagine that.) You can only make that settings change from the settings menu for Apple’s maps.

When you first open the app, after accepting those terms and conditions nobody ever reads, you are met with a standard login page for your Google or Gmail account. The app works great with Google’s 2-factor authentication. Logging in will get you in-sync with your search data and contacts, if you have them on their servers. You will get the standard “Can I access your location/contacts?” Select yes here so the GPS can start locating your device. The interface is about as clean and simple to use as a Google app could be on iOS. There’s the search bar for locating your local Starbucks, an arrow in the bottom left corner for getting you pointed in the right direction using the internal compass that all iOS devices have, and what’s this icon in the top right? Well it’s not-so-intuitive settings menu, but hey, it cant be perfect out of the gate right? There is some good stuff in there though. You can add your home and work address for easy navigating to those places. Something missing here is the ability to add additional locations that you may need to get to often. The gear in the top right corner will get you to even more options, like leaving feedback.

Google Maps is back!

Stay tuned for the review.