Pebble goes off wrist with Core, dedicated running gadget

That's what I thought, an upgraded and packaged version of Photon & Electron[1].

But Pebble needs to get serious about openness if they want this thing to catch on. There are already dozens of companies trying this on Ali-Express, Indie-Gogo, Kickstarter, etc.

It is not enough to be "developer friendly", they need an API that gives open access to all the hardware, including Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS controllers. They promised an Bluetooth LE API on Pebble for the end of 2015 and we have nothing so far.

https://www.particle.io/

> The Pebble Core is what the Raspberry Pi should be - a fully functional computer so small it fits on a keychain.

Oh... wow... that's very exciting if this is what it is... but then why not market it as such (a competitor to the Pi) instead of a very limited/specialized accessory to a not super exciting watch?

I have plenty of Pis (well, 4) and always wish they were smaller, and had wifi / bluetooth / 3g out of the box; I would buy what you just described in an instant.

(As it's currently described by Pebble, though, it's not that enticing. Maybe we just need to wait.)

Edit: it is actually described as a micro computer on the KS campaign, but buried way down into the page; it's not even immediately clear one can buy the Core without the watch; doesn't it deserve to be marketed independently?

Core is not extensible at all in terms of adding hardware to it. I don't see many people using Pi with only GPS and cell data and accelerometer and not connected to anything else.

I read your post on twitter and absolutely loved it. But Pebble needs to make it accessible. Maybe a special dev version (not everybody will need/want to hack their Core).

I love it when a product gets a new use through mostly a marketing change rather than anything technical.

Your Garmin can't play mp3s.

>As a runner, I really don't see the point.

You can send a SOS and listen to spotify.

I don't like anything on my wrist or arms when I run. Maybe I can clip this somewhere on me that is not noticeable.

As a fellow runner I freeking love this idea! I've been a Nexus user since the Nexus One and have rolled through the One, Four, Five and now Six.

Running for 3+ hours was iffy with any of those devices because they'd eat their battery. Want to take your phone on a kayaking trip? Well sorry, guess you need a drybox and an extended battery!

As a fellow runner as well, I keep searching for that "perfect" device to replace my phone for my runs. For races I just have a basic Garmin, but for training runs I love having my phone on me for music, podcasts, emergencies, and endomondo (training app).

I think the Core is a step in the right direction, depending on how extendible it is with 3rd party apps. I love that the GPS is in such a small device and that it doesn't seem to suck the battery too much (as advertised at least). Sucks it doesn't have LTE as music streaming over 3G is painful to say the least. 4GB isn't much space to store music or podcasts either. While I'd love to ditch my phone for runs this doesn't allow me to do that quite yet.

Yeah I know back in the day we would just run with our little Casio watch, but I'm spoiled now :)

As a runner, I love my Garmin (since the latest Forerunners introduced bluetooth sync, decent battery life, and reasonable time to GPS lock). But I'd like a watch that has a real map and can play music over bluetooth earbuds.

According to DC Rainmaker, when combined with the watch you'll get this information on your wrist as well.

So now it's a <$170 device that has optical HR and GPS. It may not have some of the Garmin features (ANT+ is a maybe, GLONASS isn't included), but it adds a headphone output, connectivity and I suspect it will ultimately have a stronger app ecosystem.

If they've implemented optical HR well, it could be a very compelling alternative to the less specialised Garmin devices.

I have a Garmin watch (forerunner 220) and it is a bit frustrating how limited it is for the price and how Garmin segments their watches. Example: there is no bike mode so if I ride my bike it messes up my records, etc. instead of changing one bit in the data and the model that does this is hundreds more (at the time). There were also lots of issues with auto pause, pace smoothing and the like. Finally it only has 2 custom screens, another arbitrary product segmentation limitation.

I love Garmin hardware as it is super reliable. Software is more meh.

Also with this we get a music player which obviously would be suboptimal to have a cable hanging off my wrist (though Bluetooth could be cool but a bigger battery hog). This could also be interesting to monitor running form at some point too.

I don't fancy running with my 5.7" phone, to be honest.

If you don't want to bring your big expensive smart phone with you while running, this could be an alternative. But as a runner I love having my pace on my wrist watch - it has fundamentally changed how I run. So I think they missed the boat on this (because it doesn't apply to me) but in reality there are a lot of runners who don't care about pace and might love such a device.

And additionally I don't like taking my phone with me - not because it is big but because after a few miles I can't directly interact with it via the touch screen because my fingers are too sweaty. So they might be on to something if the UX of the device turns out to be nice.

I actually wanted exactly this, because my gigantic smartphone would probably be uncomfortable to run with strapped to my arm.

However, my SO introduced me to the Flipbelt, and that kind of solved all the problems.

Many runners don't like carrying a heavy smartphone during exercise. The iPod shuffle form factor does have a certain appeal to those.

The bad news (for pebble) is that runners have been using wrist mounted gadgets literally for decades (HRM watches go back to the 1980ies), so they are trying to leave the wrist in the single market where wrist-worn computers are actually established.

I was looking at Pebbel the other day as sort of an entry into the smartwatch world for one.

Running and sleep tracking were secondary reasons. I'm glad I chose not to buy as I would have remorse with the "new version" of sorts being presented on Kickstarter.

Nobody wants to run with a phone on them. It's not comfortable at all.

How is this a submarine piece when the author is emphasizing layoffs?

This has nothing in common with Facebook or Twitter timelines.

First, pebble's timelines has nothing at all to do with Facebook or Twitter's concept of timelines in terms of what content appears there.

Second, this is just one thing they've released today. You should check out the new watches. I'm not sure why that isn't on the front page. They are a much larger leap forward and a significant price drop to boot.

> Seems Pebble has lost their direction. Their original product was excellent. A information UI on your wrist.

Yeah, I agree. Mind you - I still love Pebbles; I'm a happy owner of Time, upgrading from the Classic. But I liked them much better when they were about "information UI on your wrist" - i.e. a tool. Now it seems to be marketed as a toy for people obsessed with sports. I don't like that direction personally (and I sadly accept I'm probably not the target audience anymore).