Pebble (watch)
 | |
| Also known as | Pebble |
|---|---|
| Developer | Pebble Technology, Corp., Pebble Devices, Corp in California. |
| Manufacturer | Foxlink Group in Taiwan |
| Product family | Pebble |
| Type | Smartwatch |
| Generation | 1 |
| Release date | January 23, 2013 |
| Introductory price |
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| Discontinued | December 7, 2016 |
| Units sold | 2,000,000+ as of December 2017 |
| Operating system | Pebble OS; uses a customized FreeRTOS kernel. Can communicate with Android and iOS apps using Bluetooth. Portions of Pebble OS are closed source. |
| CPU | STM32F205RE Cortex M3 CPU |
| Memory | RAM 128 KB (84 KB OS, 24 KB app, 12 KB background worker, 8 KB app services) |
| Storage | Pebble Time series: 50 slots for faces/apps stored on watch, infinite can be loaded from the connected phone. Pebble Classic series: 8 slots for apps/watch faces, 100 KB per slot for a total of 800 KB user accessible space. |
| Display | 32-millimetre (1.26 in) 144×168 pixel Sharp Memory transflective LCD |
| Graphics | Pebble Classic/Steel: 1-bit black-and-white transflective LCD; Pebble Time: 64 (6-bit) color e-paper. |
| Sound | None |
| Input | 4 buttons 3-axis accelerometer with gesture detection magnetometer and ambient light sensor, microphone on Pebble Time models |
| Camera | None |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 2.1 and 4.0 LE (used for iOS 7 notifications) + EDR |
| Power | 130 mAh, 7 days (assuming c. 20–30 notifications a day, and a per-minute updating watchface) |
| Current firmware | Version 4.3 |
| Dimensions | Pebble: 52 mm × 36 mm × 11.5 mm (2.05 in × 1.42 in × 0.45 in), Pebble Steel: 46 mm × 34 mm × 10.5 mm (1.81 in × 1.34 in × 0.41 in) |
| Mass | Pebble: 38 g (1.34 oz), Pebble Steel: 56 g (1.97 oz) (with default watchband attached) |
| Successor | Pebble Time (both normal and Steel variants) |
| Related articles | fitbit |
| Website | pebble.com |
Pebble is a discontinued smartwatch developed by Pebble Technology Corporation. Funding was conducted through a Kickstarter campaign running from April 11, 2012, through May 18, 2012, which raised $10.3 million; it was the most funded project in Kickstarter history, at the time. Pebble began shipping watches to Kickstarter backers in January 2013. Pebble watches can be connected to Android and iOS devices to show notifications and messages. An online app store distributes Pebble-compatible apps from many developers including ESPN, Uber, Runkeeper, and GoPro.
A steel-bodied variant to the original Pebble, the Pebble Steel, was announced at CES 2014 and released in February 2014. It owns a thinner body, tactile metal buttons, and a Corning Gorilla Glass screen. It comes in 2 variations: a black matte finish and a brushed stainless steel finish, with both a black leather band and a matching steel band.
In 2015, Pebble launched its second generation of smartwatches: the Pebble Time and Time Steel. The devices were similarly funded through Kickstarter, raising $20.3 million from over 75,000 backers and breaking records for the site. In 2016, Pebble shut down their subsequent Time 2 series watches and refunded Kickstarter backers, citing financial issues.
On December 7, 2016, Pebble officially announced that the company would be shut down and would no longer manufacture or continue support for any devices, nor honor any existing warranties] Pebble's intellectual property was purchased by Fitbit, a wearable technology company specializing in fitness tracking, who also hired some of the Pebble staff. Further clarification on the transition timeline and efforts to render Pebble OS and its watchfaces/apps more self-sufficient was posted to the Pebble Dev Blog on December 14, 2016. Support for the Pebble app store, online forum, cloud development tool, voice recognition, and voice replies ceased in June 2018, although support for some online services was restored by the unofficial "Rebble" community.
Features
Hardware
The watch has a 32-millimetre (1.26 in) 144 × 168 pixel black and white memory LCD using an ultra low-power "transflective LCD" manufactured by Sharp; it contains a backlight, vibrating motor, magnetometer, ambient light sensors, and three-axis accelerometer. It can communicate with an Android or iOS device using both Bluetooth 2.1 and Bluetooth 4.0 (Bluetooth Low Energy) through Stonestreet One's Bluetopia+MFi software stack.Bluetooth 4.0 with low energy (LE) was not initially supported, but was later added through a firmware update in November 2013. The watch is charged through a modified USB-cable that attaches magnetically to the watch to maintain water resistance capability, with a reported seven-day battery life.Water-resistance was added during development based on feedback from Kickstarter backers. The Pebble has a waterproof rating of 5 atm, which means it can be submerged down to 40 metres (130 ft), and has been tested in both fresh and salt water, allowing the user to shower, dive or swim while wearing the watch.
Software
As of February 2014, the Pebble app store contained over 1,000 applications. Applications included notification support for emails, calls, text messages and social media activity; stock prices; activity tracking (movement, sleep, estimates of calories burned); remote controls for smartphones, cameras and home appliances; turn-by-turn directions (using the GPS receiver in a smartphone or tablet); display of RSS or JSON feeds; and hundreds of custom watch faces.
The Pebble was originally slated to ship with its apps pre-installed, including a cycling app to measure speed, distance, and pace through GPS, and a golf rangefinder app supporting more than 25,000 courses. These apps use data received from a connected phone for distance, speed and range information. More apps are downloadable via a mobile phone or tablet, and an SDK is freely available. Not all apps were pre-installed when the watch was originally shipped, but CEO Eric Migicovsky announced on January 9, 2013, that updates for the watch's operating system would be released every 2–3 weeks until all features were added.
Pebble integrates with any phone or tablet application that sends out native iOS or Android notifications including from any app, including text messaging and phone call apps.
The watch's firmware operating system is based on a FreeRTOS kernel and uses Newlib, the STM32 Peripheral Lib, the Ragel state machine compiler, and an unnamed UTF-8 Decoder.
Gadgetbridge is an alternative companion application for Android. It is open source, does not require account creation, and supports features such as notifications, music playback and watch application installation/removal.
Linux users can access the Pebble using libpebble's tools enabling experimental alpha level services with several Linux distros including the Maemo OS Nokia N900. There is also a commercial app called Rockwatch for the Meego Linux OS Nokia N9 that provides services including managing the Pebble's firmware and apps running on the watch.
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