It’s barely been two months after the announcement that Pebble would return with new watches, and they’re already here – well, sort of. Pebble has announced two new watches for preorder, the Core 2 Duo and the Core Time 2. The former is effectively a Pebble 2, upgraded with new internals, while the Core Time 2 is very similar, but comes with a colour e-ink display and a metal case. They’re up for preorder now at $149 and $225, respectively, with the Core 2 Duo shipping in July, and the Core Time 2 shipping in December.
Alongside this unveil, Eric Migicovsky, the creator of Pebble, also published a blog post detailing the trouble Pebble is and will have with making smartwatches for iOS users. Apple effectively makes it impossible for third parties to make a proper smartwatch for iOS, since access to basic functionality you’d come to expect from such a device are locked by Apple, reserved only for its own Apple Watch. As such, Migicovsky makes it explicitly clear that iOS users who want to buy one of these new Pebbles will are going to have a very degraded experience compared to Android users.
Not only will Android users with Pebble have access to a ton more functionality, any Pebble features that could exist for both Android and iOS users will always come to Android first, and possibly iOS later. In fact, Migicovksy goes as far as suggesting that if you want a Pebble, you should buy an Android phone.
I don’t want to see any tweets or blog posts or complaints or whatever later on about this. I’m publishing this now so you can make an informed decision about whether to buy a new watch or not. If you’re worried about this, the easiest solution is to buy an Android phone.
↫ Eric Migicovsky
I have to hand it to Migicovksy – I love the openness about this, and the fact he’s making this explicitly clear to any prospective buyers. There’s no sugarcoating or PR speak to try and please Tim Cook – he’s putting the blame squarely where it belongs: on Apple. It’s kind of unreal to see such directness about a new product, but as a Dutch person, it feels quite natural. We need more of this style of communication in the technology world, as it makes it much clearer that you’re getting – and not getting.
I do hope that Pebble’s Android support functions without the need for Google Play Services or other proprietary Google code, since it would be great to have a proper, open source smartwatch fully supported by de-Googled Android.
I’m always somewhat surprised that these devices seem to require or relate so close with another device. I would expect a smart watch to be able to work independently. Are there smart watches for people without a smart phone?
There are watches with SIM cards so you don’t need a phone to access the internet. There are also watches with a full version of Android
https://fullandroidwatch.org/
Thanks for sharing. I’m curious whether this is not too much either though. Having a wrist navigator seems quite useful at least.
jgfenix,
Yes, there are watches with data SIM connections. However the form factor is the ultimate limiter.
I have a watch like that. However after realizing it is just a means to make some money to T-Mobile with nothing tangile in return I cancelled my data line, and use it tethered to the phone only.
Why?
Anything larger than checking a calendar, or tracking exercise requires some sort of of phone anyway.
Might wanna to rethink the name of one of these. Core2 Duo is an Intel CPU. An obsolete one, but it’s still trademarked.
darkhog,
I’m not sure what the deal is here, but sometimes companies end up sharing names in different markets. For a long time I didn’t realize these were two different companies.
https://shop.hersheys.com/
https://www.hersheyicecream.com/
Also reminds me of the deal between apple the computer company and apple the music company. Apple, the computer company, lost several lawsuits relating to using the apple trademark in the music industry when they agreed not to.
https://www.cultofmac.com/news/today-apple-history-apple-goes-war-beatles
Also, calling your smartwatch the “Core 2 Duo” is a perfect way to have searches for it return a sea of pages referencing an obsolete CPU.
Holy shit, one month of battery life!
I get close to that with my Amazfit T-Rex 2 watch, about 3-4 weeks between charges. It’s primarily a fitness watch but it has health monitoring and all the notification and control features of the watches that last half a day before dying. If not for already owning this one, I would be interested in the new PebbleOS watches. I had a couple of Pebbles back in the day and they were great watches.
Some Garmin watches can get close to that, even the Amoled ones. They’re relatively limited in smartwatch capabilities and they tend to be big, almost comically big watches though.
I’ve ordered mine. I had the fitbit version. And it was the best watch I’d ever had,until it got google’d. When it finally saw it last tick, there was no equivalent on the market. Thank goodness for repebble!
Cool but not for me, i do not trust digital depth meters nor digital barometers. I go mechanical and ill pay almost any price to have a analogue clock that does not tick.
NaGERST,
That’s an interesting preference. What is the main con of digital in your eyes? Just the battery or are you saying it is less accurate/more failure prone for some reason?
I could see plenty of people liking retro mechanical tech as a matter of style, although digital watches should be much more accurate using less energy than a mechanical one. Airlines use digital barometers (do they have mechanical backups?). I appreciate that there may be a big difference between a rigorously certified sensor and whatever cheap sensor that goes into a watch, haha.
The digital barometers are as you say in watches use more power, and so does the screen of most modern digital watches also mechanical watches are easier to fix and have higher second hand value, some mechanical watches look so incredibly nice so i think my preference is also an asthetic one. If i compare my sisters apple watch that has to be charged very often, a single clock battery lasts for years in a mechanical clock and is dirt cheap to replace. the power usage of the digital barometers in airplanes (some have analogue ones as backup as well) does not have to have the same low power requirements and can be made with bulkier parts.
Digital watches have of course the ability to sync with the atom clocks so they are definitely more accurate in terms of keeping the correct time. But mechanical clocks are pretty accurate as well if it is well made.