The Pebble E-Paper Smartwatch Is Back. Just Don't Call It Pebble

Nearly a decade after its demise, smartwatch maker Pebble is back—sort of. Today, the company's founder, Eric Migicovsky, has unveiled new hardware running open source PebbleOS. However, since Google owns the Pebble trademark, these are not Pebble smartwatches. Instead, say hello to the first watches from a new brand called Core Devices: Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2. For a brief history lesson, Pebble skyrocketed to fame in 2012 through a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign. The company's smartwatches had e-paper displays and arrived ahead of the first Apple Watch, offering wearers the ability to see notifications, create custom watch faces, and even access an app store—all with battery life that lasted a week despite an always-on screen. But the company scaled too quickly and then didn't meet its sales targets, eventually deciding to sell to Fitbit. A few years later, Google bought Fitbit, which meant it owned Pebble's assets. The original Pebble smartwatches didn't die off—Fitbit ... Read full article.