Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com), a website started in 2009, allows upstart companies and inventors to post their ideas and allows the people of the internet to back their favorites by buying these products prior to their mass production. To date, the highest funded Kickstarter project (raising over $10 million) is the Pebble, a useful “smart watch.” Of course the idea of a technologically advanced watch is not a new idea. For example, the Dick Tracy communicator watch comes to mind and even Steve Jobs mentioned that a board of directors members would use the iPod Nano as a watch and music player in a September 2010 Apple event. Then, in 2012, Sony released the SmartWatch (http://store.sony.com/p/Sony-Android-Watch-Smart-Phone-SmartWatch-Bondwa...) that allowed specially designed apps to communicate information from your phone to the timepiece’s display. This SmartWatch was met with mixed reviews as it had a short battery life (possibly only a few hours depending on usage) due to its color screen and only worked with Sony & Android smart phones.
Like it's Sony predecessor, the Pebble pairs to one’s phone via Bluetooth. Then, according to the designers, it displays notifications from your phone, such as, caller id, email, calendar alerts, Facebook messages, etc. Also, this watch utilized uniquely designed apps with the exemplars being one to control the music player on your phone and another to act as a display for a bike computer, again, when your phone is along for the ride. Most importantly, the Pebble has been promised to be the answer to the failings of past designs. To improve battery life, it utilizes an electronic paper display, as does the Amazon Kindle or Barnes and Noble’s Nook, to have an estimated 7 days of power. Intelligently, the Pebble’s designers set it up to function with both the iPhone and Android platforms, thereby, increasing its overall level of usefulness.
While the Kickstarter project for the Pebble successfully closed on May 18, 2012, the Pebble is available for pre-order (http://getpebble.com). The current price is $150 and comes in the five following colors: Jet Black, Arctic White, Cherry Red, Orange, and Grey.
Pebble has begun shipping today to their initial backers from Kickstarter. As soon as my Pebble arrives, I will write an additional review detailing its functioning in daily life.
