That teasing little countdown timer on Pebble’s website has finally expired, and the announcement we’ve been waiting for has been made. Pebble today introduced Pebble Time, their next generation e-Ink smart watch.
This little guy distinguishes itself from the original with its color e-ink display. It makes for a much nicer-looking watch face which should enable many more possibilities than the monotone display of the original.
Battery life on Pebble Time is still exceptional, with the company boasting the ability to go a week without having to chart it up. That’s much more comfortable than the standard 1-2 days you’ll see for other smart watches.
Pebble Time integrates a microphone for you to be able to issue voice commands with several apps. It’s also water resistant, has standard 22mm watch band clips to be able to use whichever band you like.
Software wise, the updated Pebble OS will continue to support all of the apps that have been made for the original, though developers will have to do some work to upgrade their apps to look their best on the device’s color display.
They’ve also added a new feature called Timeline that will give you access to your apps in chronological order depending on what’s going on. If you get an email at 1:30PM, have a lunch meeting at 2PM, and an alarm set for 8AM the next day, you might see the email app, calendar app and your alarm app lined up in that particular order. It only makes sense for a time piece to construct its flow of activity based on, well, time.
And that’s Pebble Time. In a “back to the roots” move, the company decided to take to Kickstarter to allow early enthusiasts and developers to get in on the fun. The cheapest option for buying one is $159, which is an early access price. Its regular retail price will initially be set at $199 so you’re getting a pretty good deal by grabbing one through Kickstarter.
The page has only been up a short while and Pebble has already sold half of the stock available at that price so you won’t want to wait too long. They will have more units available at a discount after the $159 lot has been claimed, though you’ll have to fork up $179 (which is still cheaper than retail).
The company has raised $1.5 million to smash its $500,000 goal already so you certainly won’t have to worry about it not being funded, and you can expect the first units to begin shipping in May (barring any delays, of course). Be sure to head to Kickstarter and drop your dollars if you’re interested.
from Phandroid http://ift.tt/1BlUihm
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