Pebble promised when they rolled out a new user interface that it would reach the first generation Pebble and Pebble Steel by the end of the year. They’re cutting it a bit close, but with two weeks to go they’ve finally announced that the original Pebbles could share in the new software with their Time siblings!
I updated my Pebble last night, and my first impressions are quite good. Timeline is fairly snappy, which is impressive on older tech. I think I like the new layout, where scrolling up shows you past events (calendar events, alarms that were set, missed calls, etc) and scrolling down from your watchface shows you future events (including scheduled alarms, which is nice if you’re the anxious type who lays awake and worries “Did I set the alarm? Am I SURE I set the alarm?” over and over again.) It also eliminated one of the few things that drove me nuts about the old Pebble interface, which was that scrolling up/down rotated your watchfaces. It’s highly unlikely that many users were swapping watchfaces so often that it needed to be a primary feature of the interface, so I’m glad to see it moved over to settings.
The Pebble Time app is also nicer than the original Pebble app. You aren’t limited in how many apps you can store on the Pebble any longer, and it lets you organize and manage your watchfaces and apps separately. It’s also far easier to play with notifications and fine-tune what gets sent to your Pebble. Pebble did suggest that Android users leave the old Pebble app installed for now, as some legacy apps were still being updated, and I’m hoping they communicate when it will be ok to uninstall it.
It’s too early to assess battery life impact, but I’m pleased so far. It’s good to see the original Pebble hasn’t been forgotten, and the new interfaces on both the app and the watch are far more intuitive than the old versions. If you’re ready to update your Pebble, just download the Pebble Time app and follow the prompts; the whole thing took about 15 minutes for me from start to finish.
For a refresher and more detail on Timeline, you can check out Pebble’s YouTube walkthrough.
Are you enjoying the benefits of the new Timeline? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!