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Pebble Time/Kickstarter
fast riser
This smartwatch only took 30 minutes to raise €1 million on Kickstarter
It helps that it’s from the makers of one of the best smartwatches out there.
THE LIKES OF Apple Watch and Android Wear may be dominating the talk around smartwatches, but one company which has been much longer has announced its latest version.
Pebble, which started off life as a Kickstarter project and was popular thanks to its monochrome display and customisation, announced the latest version, Pebble Time, which will bring colour to its devices.
What it promises is a new colour e-paper display and microphone for responding to notifications, more than 6,500 apps and watchfaces on its store, and water resistance. More importantly, it claims to have more than seven days of battery life, which puts it ahead of its rivals which can last roughly a day.
The watch works by using a one-click method, allowing you to cycle through a timeline containing information like alarms, calendars, and apps.
Since it was announced at 3pm (Irish time) today, it’s already blasted past its target of $500,000 after obtaining 2,800 backers in the space of 20 minutes. And considering that the minimum pledge is $159 (€140) for a watch, that’s no mean feat (at time of writing, it reached the $1m mark and that figure continues to rise).
Unlike other Kickstarter projects, it expects to start shipping in May 2015 in time for the arrival of Apple Watch and a number of Android Wear smartwatches.
Pebble has sold over one million smartwatches since it launched back in 2012. It originally began life as a Kickstarter campaign where it raised $10.2 million. More details about Pebble Time can be found here.
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