Podolyan A. V., Sokolova N. O., Osadcha O. V.

Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University

NEW FUNCTIONAL CAPACITIES OF HAND GADGET

There are two reasons to wear a watch: fashion and function. Over the last 100 years, designers have been working furiously to create high-fashion watches but the function has basically remained the same: telling time. But now we can do more. Just recently we have seen some incredible advances in the watch functionality department, example is Pebble.

So, what is Pebble? It's not a smartphone for your wrist, as we have seen attempted before. In fact, it's far less complicated than you might expect – the lightweight device reads out basic text, lets you skip through music tracks and, of course, displays the time.

With this watch you can also do many things, for example: read texts or see who is calling you, or scan Twitter or VK feeds and yes, check the time, while walking through the park, barbequing a steak or, as he was doing when he conceived of the idea, riding a bike when his phone began to ring.

For many people it would be appropriate when they are running, or are on the subway, on metro, anytime when they want to see what’s on their phone without pulling it out of their pocket.

But there are some problems connected with its functionality. The functionality of Pebble is not on so level that we want. Creators must fix some bugs and optimize operating system.

As it is known, Migicovsky's company found money for their start-up. It has become popular to put forward their ideas on the site Kickstarter to collect the required amount to start producing and selling the product. So it was with the company Pebble Technology.

Migicovsky's company Pebble Technology launched a Kickstarter campaign on April 11, 2012, with an initial fundraising target of $100,000. Backers spending $115 would receive a Pebble when they became, effectively pre-ordering the $150 Pebble at a discounted price. Within two hours of going live, the project had met the $100,000 goal, it was something amazing. But in next six days, the project had become the most funded project in the history of Kickstarter, raising over $4.7 million with 30 days left of the campaign.

On May 10, 2012, Pebble Technology announced they were limiting the number of preorders. On May 18, 2012, funding closed with $10,200,000 pledged by 69,000 people.

There are some advantages of Pebble watch. The fact that Pebble can work a week without charge lies in the technology of electronic ink. Pebble and supports its processor ARM Cortex-M3 and the battery in 140mAch. On the small screen with a resolution of 114 * 168 is placed 20,000 pixels, so you can easily read the letter and read the time in different ways. The display looks good both indoors and outdoors. Practically without smartphone Pebble can’t do anything. To use it, you always will need a device to iOS or Android. All settings, updates, and the like, require a connection via Bluetooth smartphone. At Pebble is Bluetooth 4.0, due to which information is passed quickly, and the energy is lost very little.

All interaction between Pebble and smartphone goes one way – from smartphone to watch – with one exception. You can control the music on your phone: pause, turn on and switch tracks. But on the clock there is no volume control, which is probably substantiated lack of space under the buttons.

Synchronized clocks, all further settings are made from the application on your phone. You can, for example, set to receive notifications of incoming calls, messages (SMS, Google +, VK), reminders in the calendar. It is also possible to look the part of the email. To read the entire message and answer it, you get a smart phone. When the watch receive the notification mails, they vibrate, turn on the backlight for a few seconds and show a window with the text.

Though functionality of the device is still rather limited, given the fact that it has only just started, it was to be expected. But it would be great if the creator makes the Pebble more functional. We expect that creators will find new ways to improve the new technology.