Pebble introduced what would be considered to be the first modern smartwatch a couple of years ago. The Pebble smartwatch was a device made out of plastic with a smallish screen which didn’t display any colors and wasn’t touch enabled either. Still, users could get notifications from social media and it could display text messages, emails or incoming calls when it was paired with a smartphone, using a Bluetooth connection with Android or iOS devices. Users could interact with these notifications with the physical buttons on the side of the watch and it also integrated some sensors which allowed for activity tracking, plus the hardware was waterproof. A second watch was introduced shortly after called Pebble Steel, which was essentially the same smartwatch, but this time, the watchcase was made of steel and it featured an overall more premium look.
This year, the company changed things quite a bit when they introduced the Pebble Time which featured a 64-color e-paper display to retain the seven-day battery life and the hardware was a little thinner and it integrated a microphone. Following the company’s tradition, a premium version called Pebble Time Steel became available a few months later. The real news was the new software that ran on the new watches, which was dubbed Timeline UI. With the information from several apps organized in past, present and future sections. The new software is compatible with the earlier apps and the new colorful watch faces. A few months ago, their first smartwatch with a round screen was announced it’s called Pebble Time Round and it features the same software.
The company always stated that this new UI would be available for the older smartwatches and now they have communicated that it will be available as an opt-in beta starting in December. Apparently, the software runs really well on the older hardware, so this is a chance to bring new life to these older devices. People are still buying the original Pebble and Pebble Steel, so it’s good to know that they will get updated. This shows real commitment from the company towards the community that helped Pebble to become what it is today. Eric Migicovsky, Pebble’s CEO said that those who bought the older hardware were the ones who bet on Pebble, “they put their money on Pebble and we want to make sure we can do right by them”.