About Time! The new color Pebble Time will ship in May — Check out the new features

Pebble, maker of the popular Pebble and Pebble Steel smartwatch, has revealed a new model, and also returned to the scene of its original triumph – Kickstarter. It’s called the Pebble Time, and it sports a color e Ink screen, but it still promises an impressive 7-day battery life. The watch looks very similar to the image of a Pebble with a color screen that was spotted by 9to5Mac just one day before its official introduction.

Updated on 05-05-2015 by Malarie Gokey: Added in news of  shipping plan and new hands-on videos showing features.

Pebble’s using Kickstarter to fund its next watch, and estimated the Pebble Time will ship in May. A recent update to the campaign states that mass production kicked off in the beginning of the month, so early backers should get the device before May is over, as originally promised. Some may get the Pebble Time during the first week of June instead, though.

Related: Pebble Time campaign hits $20 million

The Pebble Time quickly zipped past its $500,000 funding goal in just 17 minutes, hit $1 million in about half an hour, and shot up above $3 million before noon on the day of its launch. Kickstarter confirmed that the Pebble Time hit $1 million faster than any other project in history.

Pebble is the fastest project to ever raise $1 Million on Kickstarter. ~30 minutes: https://t.co/bUWViWal6a @Pebble @ericmigi

— Kickstarter (@kickstarter) February 24, 2015

In addition to the always on, color E Ink screen, the new Pebble has a built in microphone, so you can respond to notifications with your voice. Voice responses work with most Android apps, including SMS, Hangouts, Gmail, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and many more. However, those with iPhones will find that voice responses won’t work with Gmail notifications at the moment, though Pebble promises that will change soon. The company posted a new video showing the device in action. It also highlights the new Timeline interface, which is explained in the following section.

You’ll also be able to store all the apps and watch faces you want on your Pebble Time, as the 8 app limit has been removed. A new sports app will bring you MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAAF, and NCAAM scores on the go, and voice responses will work with Android notifications that can be responded to with text.

Related: Forget the Appel Watch — It’s all about the Pebble Time

The watch has step tracking and vibrating alarms, just like you get with most fitness trackers. To top it all off, Pebble says the Time is compatible with all of the 6,500 apps and watchfaces that already exist for the regular Pebble and Pebble Steel. However, developers will need to update their apps to support color.

In terms of design, the Pebble Time is a tad slimmer than the previous Pebbles, coming in at just 9.5mm thick. It’s water resistant, just like the old Pebble watches, and you can use any 22mm watch band you want. The Time will come in three color options to start – black, white, and red. Any watch bought on Kickstarter comes with a special engraving, too, so you can say that you were one of the few, the proud, the Kickstarter backers.

However, perhaps the coolest thing about the new Pebble is its timeline interface. As Pebble explains it, “Now your notifications, news, reminders and events are laid out chronologically instead of being trapped inside separate apps.” You simply scroll through your notifications with the buttons on the side, and see everything laid out before you chronologically. There is also easy access to quick actions.

Related: Read our review of the Apple Watch

The timeline is the “new app menu,” Pebble says, and it will load and cache apps whenever you need them. Pebble software is still an open platform, and developers can design new apps to suit it. Pins can be placed on timelines to help keep track of evolving stories, like sporting events, deals, traffic, and the weather.

Pebble says that the interface will show you ‘Past, Present, and Future events you care about right from your watch,” adding that timeline pins will work for calendars, sports scores, and weather at launch. More features will be added as time goes on.

The Pebble is one of the few cross-platform smartwatches on sale, with the majority of other examples running Android Wear so are incompatible with the iPhone. The Pebble Time is no different — It will support iPhones with iOS 8 and Android phones with 4.0 and up installed.

As of 10:30 a.m. EST on January 24, Pebble had already exceeded its fundraising goal of $500,000 by a long shot, and the campaign finally closed out at $20 million. The smartwatch isn’t up for preorder yet, but you can sign up to get notified on Pebble’s site.

Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky had already said we should look out for new software and hardware this year, and in the days leading up to the Time’s launch, Pebble released a software update for its Android companion app, enabling Android Wear notifications, and wider support for earlier versions of Android itself.

Updated on 02-24-2015 by Malarie Gokey: Added in news of the color E Ink Pebble Time smartwatch launch on Kickstarter. Later added news of new funding records.

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What We Know About Google’s Mobile Friendly Algo Roll Out So Far

We are now a day into the Google Mobile Friendly Algo, and most people are reporting that there just isn’t a lot to see, at least not yet.

Dr. Pete Meyers from Moz, who tracks all noteworthy changes in the search results for Mozcast reports that everything seems average without noticeable shifts.

Day 1 Mobile Update flux is dead average. No clear shifts in "Mobile-friendly" tag. Deeper dive into data later today.

— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) April 22, 2015

And this seems to be pretty close to what other people are reporting as well.

However, Barry Schwartz believes it just started rolling out minutes ago (9am PST Wednesday)

But… Glenn Gabe & Paul Macnamara think not.

@rustybrick I just checked dozens across sites and countries and categories and nothing has changed. I hope you're right, but…

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 22, 2015

@glenngabe @rustybrick I'm seeing the same as Glen across multiple sites in multiple countries. I see no changes whatsoever.

— Paul Macnamara (@TheRealpmac) April 22, 2015

In other words, we just aren’t sure yet

We do know that the roll out is expected to happen over the period of about a week, but many expected to see some sort of changes by now, especially for something that is expected to disrupt more results than Panda and Penguin combined and have a greater impact than the HTTPS signal.

Google itself reported that they have seen a 4.7% increase in mobile friendly sites – something I expect went even higher as people were trying to make changes right up to the deadline.

Google also released their own Q&A about the changes, but if you have been keeping up on the news, there isn’t anything new that they added.

If you still have questions about the algo, we covered everything in detail in our Google Mobile Friendly Algo Guide.

Bottom line, keep watching, particularly for the Mozcast data from Dr. Pete Meyers since they use a much larger sample size.

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Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland.

She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, ClickZ and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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