this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2026
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Pebble
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For discussion of the Pebble smartwatch.
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This article is an ad. Good for Pebble, but shows how little integrity gizmodo have.
Oh all these tech sites suck ass
How would a good version of this article differ, in your view?
A review of the actual product.
Failing that an interview with someone who made the product.
Both are more substantial than this, which feels like a regurgitated press release tarted up with buy-me sprinkles on top.
They've made so many of those already.
"Tech journalism: product review or shut up" is an odd take, but okay. Also, the article was based on an interview they did with Eric. They buried that fact in the second paragraph.
Sure, but the vast majority of the things they say about the product are almost certainly quotes from the manufacturer, however they're not presented as such. So you can't tell the difference between product marketing and the author's opinion, because the author blurred the two together.
The article is not presented in interview form. It's presented as an advertisement for a product, disguised as an article.
I can't believe you made me do this but I count 17 obvious attributions to Eric across the 17-paragraph article. Sure, some paragraphs have zero and some have more than one, but these plus a bit of analysis from the author adds up to an honest accounting of what the new Pebble is doing, why it even exists, and why Gizmodo's tech enthusiast readers might want to know about these really niche, not-well-marketed products.
Gizmodo is 100% this type of content.
I looked into the Pebble, and it was not suited for my needs. It's still a smartwatch with a microphone. Everything I'd read about it seemed like a press release, but that sadly seems to be standard for anything with such a niche market. Maybe you'll find an independent review on a blog if you're lucky. I'm not sure if it's that these reviews aren't out there, or that search engines aren't finding them.
But if you don't have a microphone how could you use it like a walkie talkie to communicate with your mates as if you were spies???
On a serious note, at least this is open source, so you can inspect and understand exactly how it works rather than assuming the black box behaves as advertised, without doing something nefarious behind the scenes.
And if you're that bothered about that kind of thing being exploited against you, you should look into removing the hardware components. There are places that offer that as a service for phones (mainly removing cameras), so I'm sure some will do it for Pebbles. Assuming you don't want to DIY.