Latest Pebble update decouples the smartwatches from online servers

With Fitbit’s acquisition of Pebble, one of the biggest concerns was whether Pebble watches would still work in the future, especially since its smartwatches software is mostly cloud-based. To help address that, Pebble released an update that’ll decouple the wearables’ dependence on cloud services. This means when Pebble’s servers shut down, users will still be able to side load apps and new firmware to the smartwatches. Of course this doesn’t address yet questions about how messaging, weather, and dictation features (which are all cloud-based) will work moving forward. But at the very least, the smartwatches can work even when Pebble gets fully absorbed into Fitbit.

Source: The Verge

Pebble smartwatches to still work through 2017

If you thought your Pebble smartwatch will be bricked following the acquisition by Fitbit, that isn’t quite the case. Your wearable will still work through the end of next year. Everything from the SDK, APIs, mobile apps, and appstore will be up and running. And Pebble plans to keep these devices running as long as possible. According to a post on its blog, “Our first action to preserve the Pebble experience far into the future will be to update our mobile apps, loosening their dependency on a patchwork of cloud services (authentication, analytics, app locker, etc.). Expect this update in the coming months. The mobile app updates will ensure the operation of core Pebble functions, even with cloud services discontinued—they won't break functionality.”

This upcoming update won’t affect the functionality of Pebble Health. This feature feeds information directly to the Pebble mobile app, Apple HealthKit, and Google Fit. As for features that rely on third-party services (dictation, messaging, weather, etc.), Pebble is still evaluating these and will be making a decision of how long these features will continue to work.

Source: Android Central

‘Super Mario Bros.’ game inspires track your step-counting app on Pebble

Want to know how many steps you take in a day? The Steps With Mario app gives you a fun way to count your steps. It takes you right into the world of our favorite plumber duo, Mario and Luigi, from the game Super Mario Bros. It shows you how close you can get to saving the princess, which is said to be 3.4 miles. Stay moving and we’re sure you can reach that in no time. We’re not getting the port of the game yet on mobile so this is as close as we can get for now.

Source: The Next Web

Pebble Time gets update to let Android users initiate text conversations

Using your Pebble Time before you’re allowed to reply to messages sent to you first. Now, Android users can start text conversations through the Pebble Time watch without pulling out your smartphone. The latest update introduces this new Send Text app, which Android users can access if they have the latest Pebble Time app on the phone and the latest software for the watch. If you have both, you can then just dictate the text to the watch or select one of the pre-written messages to send. It’ll show your contacts alphabetically by default or you can pick your favorite users to send messages to.

Source: SlashGear