We’re generally not impressed by geeky personal gadgets, and the Pebble wearable technology is no exception. Moreover, we’re trying to reduce our inventory of distracting portable electronics for the cockpit. That’s why it was easy to shrug off the recently introduced interface between the Hilton WingX Pro7 navigation app and the Pebble Smartwatch. But valued readers rely on us to give this stuff a try before they buy, so we did. What’s one more USB charging cable in a drawer full of a hundred of them, anyway?
Data synch, alert
That’s the idea of the Pebble/WingX Pro 7 interface. The watch connects via Bluetooth to an iPad, iPod or iPhone and receives some of the data that’s displayed on the WingX app. Connecting could be a problem if you also connect to another device. Don’t expect the watch to display high-resolution mapping and weather data. That’s not the point or within the current capabilities. Pebble has a fairly utilitarian 1.26-inch e-paper display with a 144×168-pixel count, but a user interface that’s both intuitive and easy to work with, in our view. Battery life is impressive, with nearly a week of endurance per charge.