 Hi, I'm Dan Seifert with The Verge, and I'm one of the hyper-connected. I need to know what's going on constantly in my social networks and beyond. I can't miss an email, any Twitter favorite, or even any Snapchat. And if I miss a text message from my wife, well, that's a whole other ball of issues. And I need all of this immediately, without pulling my phone out of my pocket. The thing that solves all of these notification problems for me is the Pebble SmartWatch. It's an always-on, constant nag that alerts me to anything I tell it to. And right from my wrist, I can determine whether something's important or can be addressed later. The Pebble uses a standard 22mm wristband, so it's easily customizable. And since it works with both iOS and Android, that makes my life easy since I'm constantly having to change devices to work. Setting up the Pebble with an iPhone is pretty simple thanks to a recent app update for iOS 7. You just pair it with the phone over Bluetooth, and then download the app from the iOS App Store. From there, I can get virtually any push notification sent from my phone to my wrist. With Android, the setup is very similar. But if I want every app notification on my wrist, I need to download a helper app from the Play Store in addition to Pebble's official one. I like using one called Notification Center, but there are many options available, and there are a bunch of helper apps that extend more functionality to my Pebble. Like extra security for my phone. Setting up Gmail alerts is as simple as having the Gmail app display notifications on the lock screen of my iPhone, or checking the box next to Gmail in the Notification Center app on Android. On both platforms, the Pebble has other basic but useful features, like controlling music playback. And Pebble's open API has led to some more bizarre uses for the smartwatch. But for me, what's most important is the glanceful information. Sometimes the Pebble can feel a bit like a hat. It's not great for clearing notifications, for example. If I see an email on my wrist, I'm going to see it again on my phone the next time I pick it up. I'd also love for a way to delete or archive an email right from my wrist, so I don't have to process the email again later on. And look, sometimes the Pebble can be too good at keeping me updated. If I'm working on something with a deadline and I need to be heads down, the Pebble can be quite annoying interrupting me with every email that dings my inbox. In those cases, I tend to just take it off instead of going through the tedious process of disabling notifications. We're still at the cusp of a boom in wearable technology, and it's very likely that the Pebble and its competitors will be greatly improved upon in the near future. But here today, the Pebble serves a need in my workflow, and it's not something I would want to give up. It's not quite the Dick Tracy sci-fi future of computers on our wrists, but we're getting close.