pebble

Showing 3 posts tagged pebble

iWatch

John Gruber thinking out loud about John Battelle’s assertion that Apple could cut the company off by restricting necessary iOS remote access:

But I think the way Apple could most hurt Pebble is not by changing the SDK, but by releasing its own linked-to-your-iPhone wristwatch gadget. (Imagine, say, an iPod Nano with Pebble-like features and a LunaTik-style strap.)

At first, it’s sort of strange to think about how many of the huge tech-related Kickstarter projects have revolved around watches and iOS devices in some way. (Remember that LunaTik started with Kickstarter at first also.) But actually, it’s not that strange at all. 

These successes say that there’s clearly a big demand for something along these lines. Add to the equation products like the Jawbone Up and the Nike FuelBand and things start to get really interesting.

Will Apple make a wrist device? I don’t know. But they should at the very least be thinking about it.

All I know is that at least 50 times a day I reach in my pocket to see why my phone just buzzed. A new email? A DM? An iMessage? Some sports score alert? Instagram? Path? Facebook? Foursquare?

I reach into my pocket, pull out my iPhone, turn on the screen, see the notification, then turn off the screen, then put the phone back in my pocket. 

Imagine if I could just look at my wrist? 

Pebble gets us close to this dream (which is why I bought one and you should too), but not fully there. Maybe Apple opens up new device APIs, or maybe they build that new device themselves. I’d be fine with either.

Kickstarter's $300M Year

I remember Kickstarter first really coming on my radar two years ago when Diaspora, the would-be open Facebook alternative, shot past $50K in crowd-sourced funding.

They would eventually raise over $200K — the power of the Internet, and all that. 

Oddly enough, looking back, it now reminds me a bit of The Hobbit. When Bilbo finds the Ring, you think: oh magic ring, kind of cool. But actually the Ring is the story, you just don’t realize it at the time. 

Everyone, including myself, focused on Diaspora. Kickstarter was the story.

The Pebble watch has now raised over $5.5 million dollars on Kickstarter. The original funding goal was $100K. It still has 28 days to go. 

“This feels like just the beginning,” says Captain Obvious.