Really not missing much about the Apple Watch since I swapped back to pebble. But here are a couple of specific features that pop to mind.
Cover to dismiss/turn off backlight - Must admit I thought this was genious on the Apple Watch. Very natural gesture just to slap the watch to get the light off in a hurry. When you’re in the cinema and haven’t turned it off for example . Could be done with the new touch screen perhaps?
Lock when removed from wrist/pin code - another one the touch screen could help with. Dont really have anything all that security critical on my pebble but would be nice to have.
I’m not sure how the Apple Watch detects it’s still on your wrist though? Maybe could be done with the heart rate sensor?
I have to say that (personally) I would most definitely not want a PIN to be introduced to the Pebble - I don’t want any data that is useful to a hacker to be on a watch, nor an additional level of interaction to make a watch function when put on. In fact this is a big reason I came to really dislike my Apple Watch, because it randomly and frequently decided I had to re-enter my PIN.
Making it simple, and keeping it that way, is a true sign of genius!
Thanks, but I do know how technology works. What I don’t want - meaning am not interested in owning - is a device which contains functions which have no real benefit. More to go wrong. Otherwise, I’d stick to my Apple Watch.
I’ll stick with my opinion.
Well, ok, that might have sounded overy combative, and in the sense that I am not pleased at a personal opinion being countered despite the reasons given to support it, I suppose it was. But the point here is that Apple uses PINs in WatchOS to protect data that needs to be secured - stuff like Apple Pay card data, for example. Personally, I can’t see any reason Pebble would need to have such a protection, because the essence of these devices is that they are mere adjuncts to the user’s smartphones. Those are the devices (and their data) which need protecting, not the watch.
And yes, the option could be turned off, so you wouldn’t need a PIN, but then which fuctions exactly would Pebble disable to justify the PIN in the first place?
Then, there’s the issue of how much time and focus the dev team would have to spend tyo implement the ‘feature’ and what would be left to slide in such a small team to do so.
Then (finally) there’s accessibility for users with difficult medical conditions, such as Motor control, where touch screens are an absolute nightmare because they can’t hit the (non-tactile) buttons on screen with sufficient accuracy to make them workable. Adding layers of touch to an OS is not a solution to these users, but a problem. If we don’t really and absolutely need to go there, it is my opinion that we shouldn’t.
I think the main privacy concern is how Pebble deals with notifications. It stores the notification history on the watch which could give someone access to personal information. So there’s a couple things they could do:
Have notifications mirror the phone like every other watch on the market which would reduce the amount of information accessible at any given time. Optionally notifications could clear from the watch if Bluetooth is disconnected (i.e. the watch is stolen and taken away from the phone)
Have a pin code that needs to be entered whenever the watch is taken on or off. The pin can be entered via touch or with the use of buttons. I’m not actually sure if the watch actually can tell if it’s on someone’s wrist or not though.
Smartphones may be configured such that notifications don’t appear on the screen when locked. It is useful to also have this feature on the smartwatch because it is a feature on the phone. The feature on the phone would be rendered useless without it.
Any data that is mirrored from the phone should be protected.
I don’t know what you mean by this. Why would any feature be disabled if an option to set a PIN lock were to be added?
I agree. Core Devices should either hire more people to fill the areas they lack or slow down and really consider the best way to proceed.
Then… don’t make touch controls the only way to interact with the screen? That’s such a non-issue it’s barely relevant to anything that was said prior.
. Could be done with the new touch screen perhaps?