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THE LIKES OF Apple Watch and Android Wear may be dominating the talk around smartwatches, but one company which has been much longer has announced its latest version.
Pebble, which started off life as a Kickstarter project and was popular thanks to its monochrome display and customisation, announced the latest version, Pebble Time, which will bring colour to its devices.
What it promises is a new colour e-paper display and microphone for responding to notifications, more than 6,500 apps and watchfaces on its store, and water resistance. More importantly, it claims to have more than seven days of battery life, which puts it ahead of its rivals which can last roughly a day.
The watch works by using a one-click method, allowing you to cycle through a timeline containing information like alarms, calendars, and apps.
Since it was announced at 3pm (Irish time) today, it’s already blasted past its target of $500,000 after obtaining 2,800 backers in the space of 20 minutes. And considering that the minimum pledge is $159 (€140) for a watch, that’s no mean feat (at time of writing, it reached the $1m mark and that figure continues to rise).
Unlike other Kickstarter projects, it expects to start shipping in May 2015 in time for the arrival of Apple Watch and a number of Android Wear smartwatches.
Pebble has sold over one million smartwatches since it launched back in 2012. It originally began life as a Kickstarter campaign where it raised $10.2 million. More details about Pebble Time can be found here.
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Looks like it’s direct from the 1980′s. Woo I have a calculator on my watch, ooh I have a remote control on mine. This is what I think of watches: http://youtu.be/xZOKUb2V-cg
Ha ha like the ones where you had to hid under a table to see it, had one of those
Watch out. Ron
I backed the original Pebble and I’ve backed this one too. Love my Pebble and I’m looking forward to the Time.
Might hang on til they launch the pebblei
Sounds like a must have. How did we manage before smart watches !
What a piece of crap. Doesn’t even have a touch screen. Does it even have GPS, health apps, anything worthwhile?
I have the precursor, the Pebble Steel. The point is that the phone does all the heavy lifting, so taking GPS for example your phone has GPS so a tracking app (I use Map My Tracks) can use this and the watch displays summary information (time, distance, average speed). There’s no benefit to the watch itself having GPS if your phone has it anyway. When I cycle I can see my time/speed/distance on my wrist, and can control the mp3 app on my phone too, without having to take my phone out of my pocket and fiddle around with it.
Touch screen would decimate battery life – Pebble lasts 4-7 days, would likely be 16-20 hours with touchscreen.
“Without having to take my phone out to fiddle with it”? Are you sure it’s your phone you are talking about? What do you do prey tell with all those seconds you save in your day? I’m intrigued.
You are a genius
Something to keep you going until Apple Watch 2 in 2016 perhaps.
or any other smart watch bar Apple which is technical inferior to every other smart watch.
have your say