So long, Pebble
It’s the end of the road for a company which made history in 2012 as the most successful Kickstarter campaign to date. Smartwatch maker, Pebble, which raked in over $10 million for its first smartwatch, then another $20 million just last year for the Pebble Time, is no longer.
The company is getting scooped up by Fitbit, though we don’t yet know for how much. We do know, however, that Pebble has a significant amount of debt, which could explain why the company is shutting its doors.
Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky published a blog confirming the shutdown, saying that he’s proud many members of Team Pebble would be joining the Fitbit family to continue their work on wearable software platforms.
Pebble watch support and warrantees are being withdrawn, and if you own a Pebble, it’s up to Fitbit whether they keep it updated. Also, anyone who backed a Pebble 2 and hasn’t already shipped their watch shouldn’t expect it to arrive, but refunds will be issued, Migicovsky said.
Do not taunt the iPhone 6
Apple has responded to reports that some iPhone 6 phones have spontaneously caught fire, saying it has conducted its own investigation and determined the fires were caused by external damage. Another way of reading that is: “No, we don’t have a fatal flaw like the Samsung Galaxy Note 7.”
A consumer watchdog group in Shanghai reported that eight iPhone 6 devices had spontaneously combusted, but Apple says that the fires weren’t caused by defects, rather damage inflicted on the phones and batteries by their users. So, yeah, it’s YOUR fault if your iPhone 6 goes up in flames in your pocket. It is not your fault, however, if your iPhone 6 or 6S battery has terrible life and prematurely shuts off. That issue is well documented, and it actually spurred a recall in China earlier this year.
That’s a lot of PlayStations
Finally today, congratulation to Sony PlayStation, which just achieved a major milestone today, having sold over 50 Million PlayStation 4 consoles. Sony credits its best Black Friday in history, no doubt thanks to the introduction of the PlayStation 4 Pro and a new slim PlayStation 4 model. Meanwhile PlayStation VR isn’t exactly flying off shelves.
Research data group SuperData expected about 2.6 million units to have been sold by now, but the real figure comes in at about 750,000 which may still sound like a lot, but that’s a 28 percent shortfall.
