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Pebble Unveils Pebble 2, Pebble Time 2, and Pebble Core Smartwatches (kickstarter.com)
Pebble on Tuesday unveiled its latest line of wearable devices. The company announced the Pebble 2 -- a sleeker successor to the company's four-year-old Pebble watch -- and the Pebble Time 2, which comes with a large colour display and steel frame. Both the devices are up on Kickstarter, and scheduled to be shipped later this year. The company also announced the Pebble Core, a square-shaped timepiece which supports 3G, GPS, and Bluetooth connections and lets users stream music using Spotify and make emergency calls without the need of a smartphone. The Pebble 2 and the Pebble Time 2 come equipped with heart-rate sensors, a feature that was missing from the earlier Pebble smartwatches. The Pebble Core runs Android 5.0 Lollipop, and also has a 4GB storage which users can use when they don't have a flash drive in handy. The Pebble 2 is priced at $99, whereas the Pebble Time 2 will cost you $169. The Pebble Core is priced at $69. Pebble's new devices will be up on Kickstarter for 36 days, should you feel the urge to support the company. However, it is worth noting that in within hours, Pebble has received more money than it had asked for.
One of the things I don't like about my Pebble Time is how small the display is. More real estate would allow more legible watch faces and apps.
Pray you get your watch around December or January. I was one of the very first to get in on pebble time steel and mine did not show until late October.
Just in time for them to announce, "your newwatch is obsolete! get the round one!"
I have since walked away to the land of apple watch as they still do not have voice control on pebble working for ios nor any text responses.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I was really excited when the Pebble was first announced. I was tired of taking my phone out of my pocket for every little message/alert and when I wanted to know the time. It was sleek, lightweight and seemed to have support for my iPhone. I never ended up buying one, mostly because I couldn't afford it or justify buying one, as it's kind of a luxury, I guess. This new model looks even sweeter, I might have to buy one. I don't think I have any use for the Pebble Core, but I think the Pebble guys got the smart watch right, unlike a certain fruit based company that made a mostly useless, but fashionable piece of hardware. It looks great in photos, but in real life, on your wrist, I think it's not very impressive, or useful. I hope these start shipping sooner than later so I can give it a whirl.
640k ought to be enough for anyone.
The screen is too dim.
Why should I care about this?
You absolutely shouldn't, but that doesn't mean other people don't.
They're obviously far inferior to the Apple Watch.
I don't think that's the point as far as Pebble is concerned. Not everyone needs all of the functionality of an Apple Watch. I have a Pebble Steel, and it does exactly what I need it to...passive notifications delivered to me with a battery life spanning multiple days. I don't need a color display, speech control, or a touch screen.
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
Smartwatches are the 2016 equivalent to walking around with a bluetooth in your ear 24/7.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
For their first device, sure. But at this point they're an established business - why should anyone basically just give them free money?
I see the point from Pebble's perspective - they are trying to avoid directly competing in the marketplace. But why would anyone buy into it?
#DeleteChrome
Is a rip of a 1940's comic strip tech.
I wonder if it'll be able to play lemmings.
wonderful 7 to 10 day battery. easy to read screen. built in health monitoring. excellent price. my only complain is that they didn't announce a steel model, which i still use. If i use a display that only updates once per minute and no notifications, battery lasts 2 weeks.
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
As much as I want to like Pebble, I just can't get behind their aesthetics. I feel this is an issue about most smart watches in general, but Pebble with their shape, bands, and plastic casings feel particularly toy-like in my opinion. I would love to see their screen technology in a more formal form. Their metal line is a step in the right direction, but still has a ways to go before I'd wear one to work.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
I find the Apple Watch inferior as its requirement to recharge everyday seems unacceptable to me, plus I believe the screen is not even on all the time, which is another no-go for my usage: a watch that tells time, and can notify me of messages, calls, and voice-recognise my answers.
Why should I care about this? They're obviously far inferior to the Apple Watch.
Having owned both Pebble* and Apple Watch, and I even much prefer the Apple Watch over the Pebble, um, no, it's not as clear-cut as you make it. Pebble is significantly cheaper, the battery life is waaaay better, and it works on Android. I mainly prefer the Apple Watch because it actually shows you the complete messages you get and not just the notifications on a screen that's much more readable.
For me the question of whether you want a smartwatch or not depends on how heavily you keep up-to-date with messages etc. Price and battery life are huge factors in that decision. Based on the questions people have asked me about smartwatches I'd more often recommend a Pebble Watch over an Apple Watch even though I think the Apple Watch is far more useful. So, yes, I do think you should care about this. It's always good to know about the alternatives.
* I"m only talking about the first gen Pebble, I haven't used the later ones.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
This is the interesting thing that kind of jumped out at me, perhaps because I've been known to tether a tablet to a phone via Bluetooth for lower power consumption.
This is starting to move towards the Personal Area Network, where you have one device with Internet access (phone or Core) sharing it via Bluetooth with other devices you're wearing (watch, Google Glass, etc.).
fencepost
just a little off
If you look at the videos, all of the devices seem kind of large still.
But the devices obviously have a draw to them, already nearly $3 million and just started. It's amazing how they can keep going back to the Kickstarter well, and pull up another bucks filled past the brim with cool clear funding.
I have to admit that even though I have the Time and ended up preferring the Apple Watch instead, I like the ideas Pebble has and the directions they are taking the product. Especially the pebble core seems like an interesting idea, almost like a portable Amazon Echo - the only thing I think is a mistake there is it should also have some kind of heart monitor, if they really mean for it to be used in exercise.
I' considering getting the Time 2 and the Core, but it;s nice to see Pebble will carry on whatever I decide.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I was wondering about the steel model myself, but looking at the specs it appears that the Time 2 is steel, though with a standard plastic band out of the box.
The description near the top of "about this project" on the kickstarter says:
"A premium heart rate enable stainless-steel smartwatch with an updated color display"
My current pebble supports standard watch bands, so I'd imagine the Time 2 will also. I've ordered a Time 2 and will just get a nice steel band for it (or take one off of one of my older watches).
The others are just new generations of Pebbles. The Core however is something altogether different.
It looks like a device to take the whole "talking to the network" functionality off of your "phone" and put it into is own displayless device. The implication of this is that there's now no need to "upgrade" this component constantly. The only time you'd need a new one is when there's a newer faster cell network tech you want to connect to. But even when that happens, its only a $69 upgrade.
If you want to do stuff like run apps, or surf the web, you can do that with a separate device, which you can "upgrade" whenever you want a new display technology. That device could have the form-factor of a phone, or a full-blown tablet, or something in-between. Whatever you want. But it now has nothing to do with a cell carrier whatsoever. The Cell carrier only interacts with your $69 Core unit.
This completely changes the way we (well, I at least) think about cellurlar tech. Its going to take some time to fully wrap my head around it.
The Pebble Core is the big news to me... Looks to me like the start of adding 3G to the watch so a Cell is no longer needed at all. Will be interesting to see if it ends up as being part of a watch band. Also wonder if it would pair with the older Pebbles... (Bet it will...)
For the Time 2 early bird, as of 11:15 there are "514 left of 10000" and I also discovered that this will set me back $169 plus another $15 for shipping.
I was going to jump on this but I couldn't find the formal specifications concerning watch dimensions, number of pixels, amount of storage. The early bird will be gone by the time I have this purchase fully triangulated, but I guess that's a formal element of the Kickstarter business model.
Once the early bird is gone, the discount for buying sight-unseen becomes even less attractive.
I have a non-circadian sleep disorder and my first Pebble watch was a big part of me finding a solution to control this. On that basis, it would be pretty easy for my to update my Pebble relationship. Unfortunately, Pebble doesn't focus much these days on their original hacker mojo. Instead you get promotional videos with rainbows in the background, and oblique filming angles so you can't really see how huge it looks on bikini girl's not-especially-slender wrist.
Moreover, now that I no longer need to custom program a 25.5 hour calendar day this is more a luxury (with an immense amount of nostalgia on top) than an essential purchase. I wanted to get one for my wife too, as a kind of thank-you gift for what she went through as I found my sleep solution. As someone who rides dressage, she has a way to make the watch look smaller on her wrist than it really is, up to a point.
Guess my appreciation gift will have to wait for the Pebble Steel Mini.
Update: At 11:30, now down to the last 106 on the Time 2 early bird.
I would pay ~$400 for a device like the core that had a built in unlimited 3g service (similar to the original kindles). I've actually been searching for something like the core for a while. I have completely stopped buying/using MP3's, 90% of my music consumption is streamed (sadly 10% is still radio). I'd love to be able to run and not have my cell phone with me.
The price of the core is very appealing but having to pay for a new sim card and/or switching a sim card out all the time is a big deterrent.
Dude, why are you spreading lies??
EVERYONE NEEDS AN APPLE WATCH! - yes, even people that already have one. iThings are magical.
Honestly I don't normally lash out like that but hate speed is something I oppose.
#justbecause
They need to put the GPS into the watch. Do that and I'll bite.
I have both an Apple Watch, and a Pebble Time (the last color model). The Apple Watch is much easier to read, even in direct sunlight - eiInk is a nice idea but is low contrast. Indoors even with the backlight I found the eInk super hard to read.
The newer Time at least has a larger display, perhaps it will be easier to read than the first model.
I figure with as much money as they have pledged already, they will for sure do a steel model.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Could not agree more on all points.
I have a first gen, and Pebble Time Steel (also kickstarter bought)- same deal, though the newer Pebble is "nicer" with the color screen.
I have my 2 pebbles, and an Apple Watch, and it's a seriously tough decision to decide which I want to stick with. The Apple Watch has some cool ass functionality available to it via Watch apps... better (for me) than the Pebble's available apps- but the Pebble (color, at least) looks pretty damn nice, gets the job done, and I don't have to charge the damn thing for over a week... And I honestly don't use all the Apple Watch apps I have any more than I use the Pebble ones, in spite of cooler ones being available... It's definitely a matter of personal preference, and it's definitely not clear cut which is... "Better"
I was not quite right, but it's absolutely not an LCD. It's e-Paper (not e-Ink). Otherwise it could not be always on with such a long battery life.
Example sentence from the article:
Electronic paper technologies have a very low refresh rate compared to other low-power display technologies, such as LCD.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"I don't trust any single security researcher" - by Coren22 ( 1625475 ) on Friday April 22, 2016 @09:46AM (#51963859)
Refresh my memory - HOW MANY 'sources' DID YOU HAVE? 1 - a NOBODY of 1 & only 1 (& you trusted that? EAT YOUR WORDS imbecile)
See subject: You said YOU don't trust only 1 source - all you HAD was 1 stupid (one that avoids me as they know I will smash them to bits as I have dozens of others LIKE them stupid enough to get in my way)...
By comparison?
I have over 60++ of FAR GREATER REPUTE that crushed you dimwit but you're always opening your mouth & inserting your FOOT stupid eating YOUR words vs. myself https://slashdot.org/comments....
APK
P.S.=> Face facts, you pitiful little wannabe LIMITED chump - I am YOUR "APKolypse" & you only did that to yourself as usual, stupid (& as to the rest of your bullshit? You DON'T DO ANYTHING @ ALL in the art & science of computing moron - prove otherwise (tough to do, hiding behind a FAKE NAME online like you, scumbag weasel))... apk