Skip to main content

Pebble ships its first batch of watches – Did you order one?

pebble shipsCheck out our full review of the Pebble smart watch.

Its been eight months and users have poured more than $10 million in crowdsourced funding on Kickstarter, but the folks behind Pebble are finally shipping their critically acclaimed smartwatch, following through with a CES promise they made earlier this month.

Pebble’s team posted its 30th update to its Kickstarter page, and noted that while some kinks need to be ironed out before additional units are shipped, the first watches should be arriving on 500 of it backer’s doorsteps in the next week or two. If you ordered a black Pebble watch, you’ll probably be among the first recipients of the watch since the team is manufacturing one color at a time – black was the most popular color of the five offered colors. Despite setting expectations high, the Pebble team has found out that it’s actually impossible to manufacture all the colors at once.

The team does still have a long road ahead with fulfilling a total order of 89,000 Pebble watches. Its manufacturing center is able to pump out between 800 and 1,000 watches on a daily basis. Assuming that the manufacturer runs at its full production capacity, it may take up to four months before the final promised Pebble leaves the factory, technically speaking. But it’s more complicated than that.

Assembled Pebble watches are flown to distribution centers based out of the United States for U.S. orders, and Hong Kong for orders outside of the U.S. so there’s a five to seven day delay. Even if Pebble’s manufacturer encounters a major hiccup during the manufacturing process you’ll eventually get your watch. The team is somewhat hopeful it may be able to bump up the production capacity to to 2,400 watches a day.

There’s additional Pebble news to be had alongside news of the first batch of watches. The anticipated Android app will be available to download tomorrow, January 24, and the iOS app is still in the notorious Apple App Store review process. So if you happen to get your hands on a Pebble before the iOS app goes live, the team writes in the blog post that you “will be able to do notifications/Music control but will not be able to install watchfaces or upgrade to the latest PebbleOS until the app appears in the App Store.” Apple app reviewers are known for being extremely fickle about the details in an app before it’s pushed to the App Store, so there’s no telling when the app will be available. We’ll just have to keep our eyes open for that announcement.

While we haven’t reviewed the Pebble watch, we were impressed when we tried it out at CES earlier this month. The wait may be excruciating, but it should be worth it.

Editors' Recommendations

The Google Pixel Fold may not be as expensive as you thought
Alleged renders of the Google Pixel Fold in black.

Google’s long-in-development foldable phone — the Pixel Fold — is reportedly eyeing a late June launch. A recent leak predicted that the Pixel Fold will hit the European shelves priced at 1,700 Euros, which equates to roughly $1,800 based on current conversion rates. That’s not easy to digest, especially for a first-gen foldable phone and considering Google’s own shaky history with its Pixel hardware and software.
But it appears that the Pixel Fold’s price won’t be inexplicably exorbitant at all. Leaker Yogesh Bear shared on Twitter that the foldable phone could actually cost anywhere between $1,300 and $1,500. Assuming that turns out to be true, the Pixel Fold could undercut the Samsung Galaxy Fold 4 and its successor by a healthy $500.

In fact, such an asking price would put the Pixel Fold in roughly the same ballpark as the higher storage configurations of phones like the Galaxy S23 Ultra and Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max. Of course, Google won’t be able to match the asking price of foldables from Chinese brands, but it would at least look competitive in the Western markets.
Now, a price of around $1,300-1,500 makes a lot of sense. First, the biggest deterrent for foldable phones is their high asking price. There’s a reason Samsung managed to sell bucketloads of its flip-style foldable phones because they cost nearly half vis-a-vis the phone-tablet hybrids in the Galaxy Z Fold series.

Read more
6 years later, the iPhone X still does one thing better than the iPhone 14 Pro
iPhone X.

I’ve been an iPhone user since the very beginning, starting with the original iPhone. You know, the one with the 3.5-inch display that was perfect at the time, making it super easy to use a phone with one hand? As the years go by, the iPhone — and every other smartphone out there — just get bigger and bigger. We now have phones that with almost 7-inch displays, and honestly, I don’t understand how anyone can comfortably use these giant phones — especially if you have smaller hands!

With the iPhone, we’ve gone from 3.5-inch to 4-inches, then 4.7-inches to 5.8-inches, and now the standard 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch of the iPhone 14/iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Plus/iPhone 14 Pro Max, respectively. I personally use an iPhone 14 Pro as my primary device, and while I have gotten used to the 6.1-inch size over the past few years, I still think it’s too big. In fact, the last perfect size iPhone was the iPhone XS with the 5.8-inch display ... and I really wish Apple would bring it back.
5.8 inches was a perfect middle ground

Read more
Latest Apple Pencil is down to its cheapest-ever price
Someone using an Apple Pencil with the 10th Gen iPad.

If you just grabbed a new iPad, be sure to pair it with the Apple Pencil. It will help you get the full utility out of your expensive new device. This week is actually the best time you could buy one of the best styluses out there. Right now the stylus is only $89, $40 off its usual price of $129. There's never been a better discount on this Apple Pencil on Amazon. If the price isn't enough to convince you, let us tell you why you'll love the Apple Pencil.

Why You Should Buy the Apple Pencil 2nd Gen
Because it can be a little confusing, it's always a good idea to read our guide on which Apple Pencil works with which iPad. You can also get a little help using iPadOS's Scribble feature, which is incredibly useful when you have a stylus handy. Basically, it's a great way to leave notes for yourself about onscreen content or reading, but you will need an Apple Pencil, either 1st Gen or 2nd Gen. Either way, this deal that offers the Apple Pencil 2nd Gen for cheaper than ever is the perfect time to get yourself ready to scribble.

Read more