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How would you change the Pebble?
Talk about Kickstarter and, inevitably, Pebble will come up. The smartwatch received over $10 million in funding, and was one of the biggest success stories to come from the site. What's interesting, however, is that the minimalist aesthetic carries over into the feature set -- offering nothing more than the odd notification and music control, and yet nailing it totally. The aim of this discussion, however, is to ask what you think and feel about the unit now that it's been strapped to your wrist for the better part of a year? So why not head over to the forum and share your experiences.
The Daily Roundup for 04.15.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Pebble smartwatch hands-on (video)
It's hard to believe that nine months have elapsed since we first wrote about Pebble. The smartwatch quickly became one of Kickstarter's most successful campaigns -- raising $10 million in a few short weeks -- only to miss its original shipping date. We knew things were looking up when the device recently cleared the FCC and today at CES 2013, Allerta confirmed that Pebble will be shipping to its backers on January 23rd. We spent some time with the smartwatch here in Las Vegas and came away extremely impressed with the level of polish the company's achieved. Pebble's most visually striking feature is its colorful multi-layer polycarbonate face / bezel, which looks fantastic. The device is incredibly light (just 38.2g / 1.35oz) but still manages to feel solid. Build-quality is top-notch -- Allerta's clearly put a lot of care into the hardware. The sides and back are black and completely sealed (Pebble is water-resistant to five atmospheres). On the right side you'll find the up, select and down buttons, while the left side is home to the back button and a magnetic power connector, à la MagSafe. Speaking of which, battery life is rated for a lofty seven days per charge. More after the break.
Pebble watch gets updated to Bluetooth 4.0 before it even arrives
What are you going to do when you get an unprecedented response from your new Kickstarter project? You throw in some extra features to keep your new fans happy. Allerta, the same company behind the InPulse smartwatch, has announced that its new Pebble smartwatch will now arrive with low-power Bluetooth 4.0 compatibility. The watches will still interact with Bluetooth 2.1, but inclusion of the latest version should ensure a better degree of future-proofing, with a view to hooking up with wireless heart monitors in the near future. The new feature will be built into the watches ahead of its release and enabled with a later software update. Better still, the makers promise that these Bluetooth plans have been in the pipeline for a while and shouldn't affect the watch's launch date.
Pebble smartwatch raises $100,000 in two hours, retires on a beach
It always pleases us when interesting Kickstarter projects do well. Especially ones that fly as well as this. Just two hours after launching, the Pebble watch from Allerta landed $100,000 in pledges. Two. Hours. When you consider the phone-friendly e-paper timepiece was being offered at $115 a pop, that's a lot of individual supporters, and therefore pre-orders to fulfill. Of course, we like to think we played a small part in this story, but the credit ultimately has to lie with the product developers themselves, who clearly captured people's imaginations. And then some. At time of writing, the tally's run to well over $1 million with 36 days still to go.
Allerta intros Pebble smartwatch, inPulse's attractive younger sibling
Remember the inPulse Smartwatch? Say hello to its attractive younger sibling, the Pebble e-paper watch. Allerta's latest creation -- which is launching today on Kickstarter for $99 in three colors -- is "the first smartwatch to offer full iPhone and iOS compatibility". It features a 1.26-inch 144x168-pixel black and white e-paper display with backlight, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, four buttons, a vibrating motor and a three-axis accelerometer. The battery is expected to last more than seven days on a charge. Pebble receives call, email and message notifications from iOS and Android devices over Bluetooth. It supports downloadable watchfaces and activity-specific watchapps for controlling music, cycling, running and golfing. Allerta's even teamed up with Freecaddie to create a rangefinder app for over 25,000 golf courses worldwide. The timepiece can run several watchapps simultaneously -- these can be installed over Bluetooth using the Pebble App for iOS and Android (2.3 or higher) and developed using the Pebble SDK. Color choices include white, black, red and a fourth hue to be voted on by early backers of the project -- hurray to crowdsourcing. Pricing is $99 on Kickstarter today and $149 at retail later this year. Want more info? Check out the gallery below, then hit the break for the PR details and the Kickstarter link.
inPulse and WIMM One: the tale of two smartwatches (video)
We're no strangers to watches here at Engadget, but smartwatches -- tiny wearable computers capable of running apps with SDKs to match -- are still a rare breed. The best known examples are probably Fossil's Meta Watch, Allerta's inPulse Smartwatch and WIMM Labs' WIMM One, all of which are primarily targeted at developers. We recently had the opportunity to spend some quality time with both the inPulse (over the holidays) and the WIMM One (during CES), and despite some similarities, each smartwatch takes a completely different approach to running apps on your wrist. While neither product is quite ready for prime time, both show promise as "fourth screen" devices, even for those of us who don't normally wear a watch. So go ahead -- hit the break and find out how these wearable computers stack up.
Distro Issue 26: Smartwatch face-off, Ryan Block and more
Are you ready for a showdown? You're in luck! In the latest edition of our fine weekly, Myriam Joire tackles wrist-top computing, comparing the inPulse and WIMM One smartwatches. Also in this issue, Zachary Lutz takes the BlackBerry Curve 9360 for a spin; Dana Wollman puts HP's latest Envy 15 through the paces; and Joe Pollicino tries to keep Klipsch's Mode M40 headphones in place. If that wasn't enough to pique your interest, our former editor-in-chief, Ryan Block, returns to take on the Distro Q&A and Box Brown offers a comic look at becoming an iBooks Author. So go on and get to downloading!Distro Issue 26 PDFDistro on the iTunes App StoreDistro in the Android MarketDistro APK (for sideloading)Like Distro on FacebookFollow Distro on Twitter
inPulse Bluetooth smartwatch gets Facebook Places check-in app for Android (video)
Ever since Allerta released an SDK for its well-hyped inPulse smartwatch, it was only a matter of time before we start seeing more practical applications that take this Bluetooth peripheral beyond the BlackBerry ecosystem. For instance, the latest example comes from the inPulse's very own Lead Designer Eric Migicovsky, who happens to be a fan of Facebook Places and possibly an Android convert. Rather than having to pull out his Nexus One for every check-in, Migicovsky can now use his simple app on his inPulse to grab a list of nearby locations off the phone, and then check in with just a click of a button. Pretty neat, eh? For those interested, you can grab the project code off inPulse's website and get programming.
inPulse smartwatch turns programmable, and it can almost play Doom (video) (update)
Once upon a time the inPulse was a BlackBerry peripheral, but no more -- now, it's a fully programmable device-agnostic Bluetooth wrist computer. That's because its manufacturer Allerta released an SDK this week, which lets the 52Mhz ARM7 processor and 8Kb of RAM within display whatever you'd like on the 1.3-inch, 96 x 128 pixel screen. Like the time of day... or this tiny, practically unplayable 3D game. Yours for $149. Update: Sounds like reports of the demise of BlackBerry support for InPulse were greatly exaggerated! The new developer support for the device is very much as described above, but the company assures us that Blackberry connectivity is still a huge part of inPulse, and that the Blackberry Main App is currently available from the company.
inPulse Smartwatch for BlackBerry up for pre-order, ships in February 2010
Just as we'd heard, RIM decided to outsource the production of the planet's first BlackBerry watch, but that doesn't mean that devoted BB Messenger users won't be hankerin' for one. The inPulse Smartwatch for BlackBerry is being produced by Allerta, and now that it's official, we can safely say that it'll rely on Bluetooth in order to bring incoming emails, text messages and other alerts from your handset to your wrist (or your ankle, if you roll like that). As for specs, you're looking at a 1.3-inch OLED display, glass lens, full metal body, vibrating motor, microUSB port and a rechargeable battery that's good for around four days of "normal use." inPulse users will have to install a special BlackBerry application in order to pass along information, but those hoping to use their watch to actually send messages will be sorely disappointed. It's up for pre-order now at $149, and if all goes well, the first ones will ship out in February.
