iOS 6 Update and iPhone 5

Bit of news: Apple released an update to iOS this week. iOS 6 is available for free on all the phones that Pebble supports (iPhone 3GS and up). We’ve had access to iOS 6 through the iOS Developers program for the last few months, and we’ve been testing our software with both iOS 5 and 6. The big news in iOS 6 is a new Bluetooth profile calledMAP. We’ve integrated a MAP receiver into Pebble, but we still have a bit more testing to do with the iPhone 5. So far it’s working really well! There is no reason Pebble should not work perfectly with iPhone 5.

Samples from our Plastics Factory

I mentioned in Update 17 that we were about to start the injection molding process. Creating molds or ‘tools’ is hard, literally. The process involves carving a Pebble-shaped cavity out of hard steel blocks and even with our accelerated schedule, it took 6 weeks. We had to make separate tools for each of the pieces of the watch (buttons, case, lens, strap).

After weeks of work, we ran the first test shots of the mold. It’s awesome to see the long, hard work of our industrial designer, tool designers and mechanical team pay off.

This is an important step towards mass production. Steve, our industrial designer, is in Taiwan right now evaluating samples which are literally hot off the presses. We think they look great for first shots, though we’ve got a bunch of tweaks to make to ensure that all plastic components work and look perfect. The only color we’ve made so far is black because we can’t afford the down-time needed to fully clean the tool. As soon as we have samples in other colors, we will post pictures.

We will leave color selection open past Sept 30 at account.getpebble.com (Entries can be submitted past Sept 30 now). We will email all backers before closing color selection.

Case assembled with lens and strap (but missing buttons)

Top and bottom of the case

Tons of buttons!

Steve, our industrial designer, was on-site in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and took a bunch more photos (full album).

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Progress

In parallel to the plastics work, we’ve made several revisions of the circuit board. With each revision we eliminate more bugs and improve the design. In response to a problem we had with the antenna, we created 3 different potential designs and then prototyped and tested each sample extensively inside an anechoic chamber. The best design prevailed and we’ve integrated that solution into our PCB.

Roadmap

We’ve got the whole team working extremely hard on Pebble, but there is a lot of work left to do.

Software Development

On the software and firmware side, we’re in the process of strenuously testing Pebble’s ability to receive new updates wirelessly via a smartphone. This means that even after you receive your Pebble, you can update the software on your watch simply by tapping a button on your phone. Our software team is also busy writing the underlying code for Pebble’s customizable user interface, as well as the apps, like watchfaces, notifications and more, that run on top of the Pebble operating system.

Testing

Now that our plastic manufacturing process is up and running, we’re able to make lots of test units and iron out the kinks in the software, as well as the hardware manufacturing process. We’ve designed a strenuous test plan that will put Pebble through its paces. Right now (before we go into mass production) each aspect of the design, from water resistance to button presses to battery lifecycle, is being tested. Then when the factory is in full production mode, every single watch will be tested to be in compliance with our quality requirements.

SDK

(This section has been reposted on our forums for discussion)

The last update we’ve published about Pebble’s Software Development Kit (SDK) was in June, when we described what the Pebble Android SDK would look like and launcheddeveloper.getpebble.com. Since then we’ve been pretty quiet on the subject.

I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about our roadmap towards creating an awesome developer environment on Pebble. At the moment, we’re focusing 95% of our software effort on writing the base operating system and features for Pebble, on top of test routines that run in our factory. The sheer amount of work is enough to keep our 5 person software team quite busy. We feel it’s important to build a strong foundation that’s highly usable for both users as well as developers.

Part of that foundation is the ability for Pebble to easily run third-party apps. We’ve built this into the core architecture of our OS. The following is our plan to enable developers to create software that works with Pebble. Please keep in mind that this is a roadmap, we’ll be releasing more info over time.

• Android SDK: It’s easy to integrate new or existing Android apps with Pebble. Our SDK uses intent messaging, allowing other apps to push messages, notifications or even sports data to Pebble. As soon as Pebble ships, developers will be able to use the API calls described on developer.getpebble.com to integrate their apps with Pebble

• Notification API: Web developers will be able to add Pebble integration to their webapps as well. We’re building an OAuth 2.0-enabled endpoint linked to thePebble Account system. After asking Pebble users to authenticate, Notification API-enabled webapps will be able to push notifications, alerts and other data directly to a Pebble. The API takes care of all the communication between the web, phone and Pebble.

• Watchface SDK: All the tools needed to create your own custom watchface for Pebble. This is our first experiment with 3rd party code running directly on Pebble’s microcontroller. Developer tools and documentation are the most difficult part of this SDK stage.

• iOS SDK: Things are a bit more complex on iOS. There is no simple method for doing interprocess communication between apps. We’re pursuing a few different options. We’re confident that the solutions we’re building will work.

• Expanded Native SDK: At this stage we’ll expand the featureset of the native development platform introduced with the Watchface SDK. Think games, sleep trackers, remote controls and other more complex apps.

Thanks for bearing with me through this long update. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email kickstarter@getpebble.com. Thanks again for backing Pebble!

Eric + Pebble Team

Hi Pebblers,

Due to extraordinary interest from our backers, we’ve decided to introduce a 5th Pebble colour option: Grey! Here’s the current state of the Pebble rainbow:

Here’s a render of the new Grey Pebble [not pictured: the 49 shades of grey that didn’t make the cut]

Pebble Account website

In order to keep track of every single backer’s shipping information and color selection, we created a  Pebble Account site. An invitation has been sent to the same email address that you used on Kickstarter when you backed Pebble. You can find the email in your inbox by searching for an email

From: kickstarter@getpebble.com 

Subject: Your Pebble Order – Enter shipping info and color selection

Inside that email there is a special link that invites you to create a new password for your Pebble Account. If you can’t find that email in your inbox, check your spam filter as message may be misclassified. If you can’t find it, make sure thatkickstarter@getpebble.com is on your safe-email list and then request a password reset here.

Using the Pebble Account website, you can choose your Pebble’s color, enter your current shipping address and pay any shipping fees that were not included in your pledge on Kickstarter. You have until Sept 30, 2012 to select which color you’d like. As for your shipping address, please enter your current address into the system. You can return to account.getpebble.com at any time before your Pebble ships and change your address if you move.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: When is Pebble shipping? A: We have not announced a shipping date. As soon as we are 100% confident we can ship by a certain date, we will announce it right here on our Kickstarter Updates section.
• Q: I’m getting an error “The Invitation Token is Not Valid” A: You may have already clicked the link. If you can’t access your account, you can reset your password on this page
• Q: What if I move? A: We will email you before we ship your Pebble so you can change your address if necessary at account.getpebble.com.
• Q: Help! I can’t access my old email account. A: Please email your new address and your old email address, with your Amazon payment ID from the payment confirmation you received on May 19th to kickstarter@getpebble.com
• Q: Can I add more Pebbles to my order? A: You can place new pre-orders at www.getpebble.com but they will not ship with your Kickstarter rewards.
• Q: Does upgrading to a Color option change my place in the shipping order? A: No.
• Q: Can I upgrade from Jet Black to a Color Pebble? A: Yes, you can pay $15 USD and upgrade to a Color Pebble.
• Q: What service do you use for shipping? A: We’re planning on shipping via the postal service (eg. USPS).
• Q: Will you mark the package as a gift or mis-state the value? A: The value on each package will be at least $99 USD.
• Q: Can I get a white band for my Orange Pebble? A: We are shipping the orange Pebble with a Black band. We may offer the option to purchase an extra white strap at a later date.
• Q: What does the Grey (and other colors) look like in Real Life? A: We are working hard on plastic samples. We’ll post pictures as soon as we get them.
• Q: Can I pay shipping or upgrade using Paypal? A: No, the system only accepts credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discovery, JCB, Diners Club) or US debit cards.
• Q: I pledged X and I only get the choice for Y watches! A: Please send us an email and we’ll fix it. It may take us a few days to work our way through all our emails though.

If you have any questions, please email kickstarter@getpebble.com

Tidbits from around the Pebble world

• Shipping test has been working out well. We sent 120 test shipments to a few backers around the world to test our logistics provider and optimize the process to ensure that packages arrive safely, quickly and with as few fees as possible to our backers.
• Backers, you’ve been asking about the backlight! We’ll post a video on our social media accounts (twitter/Facebook/Vimeo) showing it off fairly soon
• Andrew is in Taiwan right now working on our production test plan (among other things). Here are the latest pics
• Here’s a short video of a pug-based screen saver/graphics test on a pre-production Pebble. This is NOT the real strap, just a random sample I had on-hand.

As usual, we’ll continue posting small updates in between our Kickstarter Updates onTwitter.com/pebble, Facebook.com/getpebble, Pinterest.com/getpebble and responding to questions on the Pebble Forum.

Thanks again for backing us, Pebblers!

Eric + Pebble Team

Voter’s Choice

Without further ado, I’d like to present the Voter’s Choice color….Orange! It won with almost 2000 out of more than 10,000 qualified votes.

I think it looks pretty snazzy! The exact color appearance may vary from this rendering as we work with our plastics supplier. And if you don’t like orange, don’t worry! As a color backer, you’re entitled to pick any of the (now) 4 color options for each one of your Pebbles: Black, White, Red or Orange. We will send out a survey to request your selection later on in the project.

Manufacturing Update

The Pebble team has been bouncing back and forth between Palo Alto and Taipei a lot over the last 6 weeks. The factory that we selected has an R&D facility in Taipei while their main manufacturing and assembly locations are in China. Andrew, Steve and I have all travelled separately to Taipei to oversee the transition between the design and manufacturing stages of the project. In terms of our schedule, we’re sticking pretty closely to an aggressive timetable we put together at the end of May (remember our first timetable was created before we launched on Kickstarter, when we were expecting to manufacture just 1,000 Pebbles). While we won’t be able to start shipping Pebbles in September, our current schedule has us on track to go from manufacturing zero to 15,000 Pebbles per week as soon as possible.

Eric checking the power consumption of Pebble’s backlight module

We’re currently in a phase called Engineering Verification. During this phase, the factory produced samples of the entire product. We’re currently evaluating each individual component (case, lens, circuit board, charge cable, etc) and we’ll tweak the design as necessary. The design needs to be nearly perfect before we move into a phase called ‘tooling’ during which the factory creates hardened steel tools for injection moldingPebble’s plastic components.

Prototype Lens

Remember our tiny printed circuit board (PCB) design from Update #15? Here it is in real life attached to our custom PCB test fixture.

Another key component in our design is a flexible printed circuit (FPC). See that empty space in the middle? That’s where the battery fits in. 

Pebble Case samples getting their buttons installed

High resolution versions of each image will be available on our Pinterest page shortly.

Thanks!

Eric + Pebble Team

Hi everybody!

Quick update before the Canada Day long-weekend.

Color Selection

We’ve started accepting color suggestions. So if you’ve got any ideas for cool Pebble colors, here’s how you can get your voice heard! The best way to send us your color is with the hex color value. Don’t forget to create a memorable name, then send your suggestion to us via

• Kickstarter comment page
• Tweet @pebble with hashtag #colormypebble
• Post on our timeline at Facebook.com/getpebble

After you post your suggestion, we’ll create a render of Pebble using your suggestion and post it on our Pinterest page. If you like someone else’s color combination, be sure to repin, tweet, like or generally talk about it!

Next week, we’ll be sending out an email to all backers of a color pebble with a link to the color voting survey, taking into consideration all the suggestions that we’ve received.

PCB Layout Complete

A major milestone is complete…we’ve created the final design for our printed circuit board (PCB). This is the main electronics board that contains all the integrated circuits and passive components that make up Pebble. It’s double sided…so that 3D render above is just one side! The wires coming out the bottom are from the vibrating motor.

This is close to the actual size of the board. It’s roughly the size of the ‘tab’ key on a MacBook keyboard.

Android Developer APIs

Pebble was at Google IO this week. We used the opportunity to start the conversation with developers around our Android APIs. If you’re interested, you can learn more atdeveloper.getpebble.com. This is just the beginning of our developer outreach, we’ll be releasing other sections of our SDK over the coming months.
Eric + Pebble team

Hi Pebblers,

Just wanted to share our game plan for the summer. We’re putting together a lot of moving pieces:

Status

Steve from Pebble, Herman and David (from Dragon) in the middle of a plastic molding discussion

• Factory bring-up: working with our factory to finalize the design of each individual component and subsystem of the watch, moving towards the first factory-made prototype of Pebble
• Component sourcing: orders have been placed for all electronic components on the board multiplied by 85,000!
• Software: a whole bunch of new software engineers joined our team very recently. They’re working on things like the user interface and interaction design (read: what the buttons will do and more!), Pebble’s Software Development Kit (SDK) and APIs for developers, and our iOS and Android apps.

Updates

Instead of keeping you wondering when we’ll post our next update, we’d like to make a commitment to post an update (at least) once every three weeks.

So that means three weeks from now, we’ll have posted our next update. We’re looking forward to sharing all kinds of cool things with you during the next few months including updates from the factory, links to developer information, screenshots of the iOS and Android app as they take shape, preview videos of Pebble in action showing off the interface, announcement of new app partners and more! One thing I want to say up front: we are not planning on announcing any new dates or timeframes relating to manufacturing. This is our first major production run and we don’t want to start making promises like ‘next week we’ll have the first samples!’. We’ll update you as much as possible, but we won’t be mentioning dates.

We’re also posting updates on Twitter @pebble and Facebook. These updates are official (from the Pebble team) but the final word about Pebble is always in an update. So if there is any confusion, the updates on Kickstarter will always be correct.

Color Selection

For all the backers of a color Pebbles…this is what you’ve been looking forward to! In an update (as well as email) we’ll be publishing a webpage where all color Backers will be able to vote on a color from a short-list of colors that we’ve seen people talk about on our comments, forums, Twitter, Facebook, other websites and more. Your vote will not tie your Pebble to that specific color…if you don’t end up liking the Voter’s Choice color, you’re free to choose one of the other 3 colors (Arctic White, Jet Black or Cherry Red).

Hiring

Pebble is hiring! We’re looking to meet an experienced Developer Evangelist and hopefully convince him or her to join our team. If you are programmer who has written APIs, consumed a lot of APIs and/or really really enjoys talking with other developers about APIs…we’d like to meet you! Please email us at jobs@getpebble.com with your experience in this area, links to github/twitter/blog etc.
Thanks!

Eric + Pebble team

Hi Pebblers,

Quick checkin from our boarding gate. Andrew (lead engineer), Steve (industrial designer) and I (Eric) are about to head off on a trip to China. We’re flying to Hong Kong, then crossing over into the Dongguan area. We’ll be checking in with the factories that are helping us bring Pebble to life.

Pebble is sold out!

After we posted on Tuesday, it took about 26 hours for the remaining Pebbles to sell out. You guys move fast! For those who didn’t get one, you can still sign up here to find out when more Pebbles will be available.

Pebble + Twine

We partnered with Twine, one of the most awesome Kickstarter projects ever. Check it out at http://supermechanical.com/twine/

More soon!
Eric + Team