Yesterday, Pebble teased on its website that it will be making a surprise announcement and it did today, launching a fresh batch of smartwatches and fitness trackers on Kickstarter. The company announced two new heart-rate enabled smartwatches i.e. a $99 heart rate-enabled Pebble 2 with a black and white e-paper display, and a premium $169 stainless steel Time 2 with a color display and a longer battery life. Pebble has also announced its first non-smartwatch device, called the Pebble Core.
The company says that it decided to include heart rate tracking because the company believes fitness tracking has become the third pillar of smartwatch functionality, alongside notifications and basic communications. The new Pebble 2 smartwatch is thinner and lighter than the original Pebble and has a Corning Gorilla Glass coating. It also has a built-in microphone. Meanwhile, the Pebble Time 2 combines features of the Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel smartwatches.
Perhaps the most interesting announcement today was the the Pebble Core, a tiny cube-sized computer that’s meant to work with a Pebble smartwatch and take the place of a smartphone. The Core can take a SIM card to get 3G cellular service and it contains a GPS tracker and a microphone. The buttons on the Core can be programmed to perform a variety of tasks, such as hailing an Uber or opening a garage door.
The campaign crossed its $1 million Kickstarter goal within hours of its launch. To learn more or to back the project, hit up this link.
