Pebble Time users gets control of backlight, vibration and text size. It’s a very big deal.
This morning I awoke to a prompt to update my Pebble Time, which has given some new features that many users have asked for since taking delivery of their early Kickstarter Backer models.
The update has a number of, what some might consider minor, setting options – but to say that each of them makes a big difference in daily use is an understatement.
I like being able to change themes and fonts on my smartphones, wallpapers on my iMac desktops, even though it’s usually change for change’s sake. It’s also why every Pebble owner loves having access to thousands of third-party watch faces, rather than a fixed few that the manufacturer believes to be best.
Well now, at last, you can make adjustments to the simple things. Like how long the backlight stays on (up to eight seconds), the intensity of the backlight (reducing the washed out look indoors with the default setting), change the font size, and alter the intensity of vibrating alerts.
There are also a few other changes, detailed below.
Suffice to say, anyone who reviewed the Pebble Time and gave it a hard time for its somewhat disappointing indoor readability, or merely the washed out colours when backlit, may need to go back and revise some comments and perhaps make some adjustments to scores. Seriously.
The four new backlight intensities
While some colour schemes can still look a bit lifeless without a strong light source aimed at the display (making it so great when outdoors), it’s still considerably better. At night, the combination of a lower brightness and longer timeout will make ALL the difference.
Even if it does impact on the overall battery life, I can’t imagine anyone won’t be increasing the backlight timeout from the original three seconds. When you’re probably charging only every three or four days at worst, I doubt anyone will care about losing a few more hours in the grand scheme of things.
Perhaps I’ll change my mind when we hit winter and it’s dark half the day, but until then, it’s eight seconds for me thank you very much!
The ability to change font size on various screens is also another welcome addition, giving me the choice of squeezing more text on the screen at once (my preferred option), or for others to have larger text that’s easier to read at a distance or at speed.
The key point is choice, and I’m really thrilled that Pebble has given this update so soon after the watches went on sale to the general public. I also look forward to more updates and tweaks in the coming weeks and months.
You can find out more about the other changes, along with some nice photos of the Gold Pebble Time Steel on the Pebble Blog or check below.
Pebble Time Firmware 3.2 Release Notes
- New Backlight settings: Adjust intensity and time-out duration.
- New Font Size settings: Adjust the displayed font size in notifications, layouts, and other areas of the system.
- New Vibration settings: Adjust the vibration strength for notifications, incoming calls, alerts, etc. Default vibration setting is less strong than the previous default.
- Music (Android): Added support for most music players (e.g. Pandora, Spotify, Songza), improved display of track metadata, play/pause detection (app now displays separate pause and play icons to match current playback status).
- Notifications: A collection of improvements and fixes to enhance the notifications experience, including a new Dismiss All action.
- Bug fixes and stability improvements.
- To update: Select Menu » Support » Update Your Pebble within the Pebble Time app for iOS or Android.
Pebble Time App for Android 3.2.0 Release Notes
- NEW: Search bar to find saved apps and watchfaces in your My Pebble menu.
- NEW: Notification preferences are now preserved after updating the Android app to a new version.
- IMPROVED: Support for setting up long canned replies to notifications.
- Bug fixes and stability improvements to version 3.1.1.
- Download 3.2.0 from the Google Play Store.