Definitely getting a piece of this

So I'm really excited about a new piece of technology that will be coming out later this year that I have decided to invest in, along with over 66,000 other people. What makes this all possible in the first place is the use of a web-based crowd sourcing investment portal where inventors, artists and so forth can display what they want to create. These creators can indicate how much money they're looking for and by what date and indicate to potential investors what they get as a reward depending upon the level of investment they choose. The investment portal is called Kickstarter.

In this particular case I was notified of an existing small technology company that has designed their sophomore product. It's a watch, and if you know me, you know how bloody obsessed I am with watches. This watch is special. It's called Pebble. It's a smart watch, intended to connect via Bluetooth to a smart phone, such as an Android phone or an iPhone. The watch essentially becomes an extension of your smart phone.

The reason this is a big deal, is because unlike most other watches, this watch is under complete configurable control via a special app that resides on your smart phone. This means that if your smart phone can do something, your watch can participate in that functionality as well. Not only will the watch alert you in the same manner that your smart phone does, but the app controlling the watch on your phone allows for any number of watch faces to be applied to your watch. You can even use your watch to control some functions of your phone such as changing songs. Because a software development kit is available for this watch, if you have any programming experience you could technically create your own functions for your own watch. Apparently there will be an app store for this watch, which of course over time will offer more and more functions that your watch can perform. For me, this is beyond exciting. I have invested enough to achieve the reward of getting two of these watches when they are produced starting this September. I'll let you know what it's like once I get it. If you are interested in learning more about this product, just visit kickstarter.com and search on the word pebble (or follow the link above). They were originally just looking for a $100,000 investment by the middle of May, and as of this writing they were already over $10.1 million pledged. I think this speaks to the potential for this product to become one of the most popular new devices of 2012. Unfortunately, they have stopped offering any more watches to pledgers - probably because they have exceeded their initial investment request by a factor of 100. So if you want one, you'll need to wait until they are offered to the public. Estimates say they'll sell for $150.