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Pebble adds iOS 7 notifications; smartwatch now shipping globally for $150

Pebble adds iOS 7 notifications; smartwatch now shipping globally for $150

By Anupam Saxena | Updated: 7 November 2013 16:40 IST

The Pebble smartwatch, which started out as a Kickstarter project, has received a big update with support for iOS 7 notifications. The company has also announced the release of version 2.0 of the Pebble SDK for developers who can create apps that have direct access to the web.

Pebble says that it is now fully integrated with iOS 7 and works seamlessly with the iOS Notification Center. This implies that any notifications that users have enabled in Notification Center on their iOS 7 device will appear on their Pebble.

These include notifications beyond calls, texts and emails, such as Calendar, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Flickr, Dropbox, WhatsApp, and Flipboard, among others.

Users can also easily pick and choose which updates they want to see on their Pebble smartwatch. According to the company, a new Pebble app for iOS will enable this functionality and is under review by Apple.

The company informed that it has sold 190,000 Pebbles worldwide, with users downloading 2 million apps and faces across 2,200 of them. It also informed that more than 50 companion apps are available for Pebble on the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store with more than 10,000 developers working on them.

Pebble is now offering all five colours of its smartwatch at getpebble.com and for a limited time, offering free priority shipping worldwide. The watch is available at a price of $150.

Pebble has also announced the launch of Pebble SDK 2.0, enabling developers to build better Pebble apps. The SDK includes four new APIs, Javascript, Accelerometer, Data Logging and Persistent Storage. The APIs allow developers to make Pebble apps that interface directly with the web (real-time weather, transit info, location check-in), access the accelerometer (health/fitness monitoring and gesture-based remote control), log data even when disconnected from the phone (health/fitness tracking), and store information on the watch (high scores for games, settings), as per Pebble.

Pebble also announced that it is working on new watch apps with partners like iControl, Foursquare, GoPro and Yelp.

The Pebble smartwatch was developed by young Canadian inventor Eric Migicovsky who couldn't find conventional funding to make the watch. He asked for money on Kickstarter, the biggest "crowdfunding" website. The fundraising was a blowout success and Migicovsky raised $10.3 million by pre-selling 85,000 Pebbles. The watch entered mass production in January 2013.

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