Shop fast: These new pebbles with 1-month battery life will not be available long

Although Pebble ceased operations just over 8 years ago, many fans have still labeled their wounded watches every day. Many Pebble fans have been waiting a long time for someone to publish new hardware that matches what they have become fond of Pebble watches, and today the former CEO of Pebble has increased to that occasion. Eric Migicovsky announced a new hardware company called Core Devices Today and it brings to the market to Smartwatches With the famous Pebble software and design, but dramatically improved battery life.

Who are core units?

Back in 2016, Fitness Tracker Brand Fitbit bought intellectual property and trademark rights to Pebble, which was later transferred to Google after the acquisition of Fitbit. As a result, Eric Migicovsky cannot legally sell new watches under the Pebble brand. However, he can sell new watches that are compatible with Pebble’s operating system under a new technology brand, hence the formation of core units.

The reason he is able to build new watches running Pebble OS is because Google at the end of January released Pebble Watch -Kilde code. This included the source code for the app frame, see faces and features such as alerts, media checks and training tracking. With this code, developers can build new watches that not only retain most of the functionality of former pebbles, but also support existing apps and see faces built for Pebble OS. This is especially important because it allows new hardware to use the existing library with over 10,000 apps and see faces built for Pebble OS over the years.

Anyway, the question remains: Why go through all these problems? Migicovsky’s reason for To build new Pebble Watch maker is that none of the existing smart watches on the market meet his full criteria. His ideal smartwatch should have these five features:

1. An always on e-paper screen
2. Long battery life (at least 1 week)
3. A simple and beautiful design
4. Physical buttons to navigate the user interface
5. Choppable firmware

With this criteria in mind, Migicovsky put out to create new watches for themselves and for other Pebble fans, and culminated with Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2.

Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 have pebbles -like hardware, but much better battery life

The Core 2 duo and Core Time 2 are the first two smart watches from Core Devices, and they are basically modernized versions of Pebbles final hardware. The Core 2 duo can be thought of as the modernized version of Pebble 2, the last smart watch that Pebble ever sold. Meanwhile, Core Time 2 is basically the modernized version of Pebble Time 2, a watch that Pebble was forced to cancel before being ever sent to buyers.

From the outside, the Core 2 duo and Core Time 2 see identical with many pebbles from old ones, with their simple, square designs and several physical buttons. Modernization comes from internal changes that allow the new watches sports much better battery life and new features. Migicovsky says both bells can last up to 30 days on a single charging, a quadrupled battery life from the original slate with pebbles. He attributes this improvement to progress in Bluetooth -tag technology done in the almost 10 years since the Last Pebble Watch release.

Both watches add speakers for the first time on a pebble so they can send out sound. This will allow developers to make apps such as output speech, such as a Chatgpt client. The watches also have linear resonance actuators, a type of vibration engine that is calmer and stronger than the eccentric rotating mass engines (ERM) in the original watches. The Core 2 duo adds a barometer and compass, while Core Time 2 adds a touch screen.

Despite the emphasis on physical button navigation, the inclusion of a touch screen, as Migicovsky points out, is to enable new features such as complication interactions. Migicovsky hopes the developers will create new watch faces with complications that show information at an instant, but can also be tapped to open the affiliated app. When I asked Migicovsky if he was planning to use the touch screen for other aspects of the operating system, he told me that his team will look at gradually incorporating touch support, but that he does not want the core hour 2 to be a “phone on a wrist.” The clock’s buttons are still the intended way to navigate the user interface.

The main differences between the Core 2 duo and the core time 2 are the size and nature of the screen, as well as the materials used to construct the frame. Although both have an always-on-mail screen with the same memory-in-pixel-reflective LCD technology used in Garmin watches, the Core 2 duo has a smaller, 1.26-inch black-and-white screen, while Core Time 2 has a larger, 1.5-inch 64-colored screen. The Core 2 duo also has a cheaper polycarbonate frame, while Core Time 2 has a more premium metal frame. As a result, the Core 2 duo costs $ 149 while Core Time 2 costs $ 225.

The Core 2 duo is sent from July, while Core Time 2 is sent from December. Both watches send all over the world, but only in limited quantities due to limits in parts. They can be pre -ordered now solely on Repebble Store – Migicovsky says none of Watch wants a retail. The team cannot produce enough watches to send to anyone who showed interest in January, so Migicovsky recommends placing a pre -order now to secure a watch, as advance orders can be canceled for a full refund before the clock ships.

When both watches ships, Migicovsky hopes to publish a companion app for both Android and iOS. His team will also publish an updated SDK that developers can use to create new watch faces or apps. Developers can also download the Firmware source code and create their own operating systems for the watches that are compatible with existing Pebble apps.

Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 specifications