So let's say you're the CEO of a highly touted startup that's just clearing the runway, when Google announces that it's creating an ecosystem in your product category that you're not part of. What do you do? One thing you and your investors do is give an optimistic interview to a publication that's as high on the journalistic foodchain as you can manage. Say, Fortune … [Read more...]
CES: Pebble Watch Upgrades to Metal
Pebble, the pioneering smart watch, moved modestly upmarket at CES, debuting watches made of stainless steel, with metal and leather watchbands. The Pebble Steel will run the same apps (and the company officially announced the app store we wrote about a couple of weeks ago). Other than the metal housing, the main differences are the use of Gorilla Glass and the inclusion of a … [Read more...]
Pebble Watch: Product of the Year — Part 2
The Pebble watch may have been the first big hit of the consumer wearables space and the first big hit of Kickstarter. When Pebble's campaign hit in 2012, it was hugely oversubscribed -- a big vote for a technology and product that was, well, kind of uncertain. People put down their money anyway. The watch shipped in early 2013, and it was ... OK. A geek totem, certainly. … [Read more...]
Pebble App Store Gets Ready to Launch
The Pebble watch is a nice hack and an unobtrusive totem of coolness, but it's been a little hard to justify the cost. Other than displaying interesting watch faces and telling you when you've got emails or phone calls, the Pebble doesn't really do much. That looks like it will change early in 2014. Pebble has announced the opening of its appstore. The appstore will give … [Read more...]