The Pebble Watch has returned, thanks to new company Core Devices setup by Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky. After weeks of teasers the new rePebble store went live on March 18 with two new smartwatches available to pre-order.
There’s new names for the watches, the first of which is the Core 2 Duo with a 1.26-inch black and white display, priced at $149.
Migicovsky says it’s basically an upgraded Pebble 2 with battery life being improved from seven days to a mighty 30 days. Considering many color screen smartwatches need a daily charge, the potential ability to go almost a month between topping up will likely appeal to those interested.
“We also added a speaker, linear actuator motor, compass and barometer, and improved the buttons” Migicovsky says.
The second watch is the Core Time 2 which features a 1.5-inch color display and costs $225. Again this has taken inspiration from an old Pebble watch, the Pebble Time 2.
As Migicovsky explains, additional features over the original Time 2 include “a speaker and touch screen, and boosted battery life.” For Pebble fans, you’ll note the design is a little different between the original and the new Core-branded wearable. That’s because the top glass is flat rather than curved this time around.
The original Pebble Watch arrived on the wearable scene back in 2012 with an e-paper display and chunky design. It smashed its Kickstarter goal, but four years later the company was sold to Fitbit (which Google then went on to acquire) and production on its watches ended.
However, that all changed at the start of this year, when Google made PebbleOS (the software which ran the original Pebble watches) open-source. This allowed Migicovsky to reclaim the operating system and develop the Core wearables we see now.
The new Core 2 Duo is set to start shipping in July 2025, while the Core Time 2 won’t start shipping until December 2025. However, there’s no guarantee you’ll receive your order.
As part of the ordering experiencing you need “understand and acknowledge” a number of caveats;
That’s because Eric is personally funding the project, so there will likely be various milestones which will need to be passed to get physical products into the hands of buyers.
And if you’re an iPhone owners, there’s an additional disclaimer you’ll need to accept before placing your order.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.