Pebble E-Paper Watch for Android And iPhone Sets Kickstarter All-Time Record With Over $5 Million In Pledges

Kickstarter is getting to be the only way to launch an audacious project. It seems like very time you turn around, a new Kickstarter drive has set a record and raised millions of dollars. It was just last month that Double Fine Adventure reached $3.3 million to make a game. Now the Pebble e-ink watch has become the top project on Kickstarter with more than $5 million in donations.

  

The Pebble is a smart-looking watch with an e-ink face that does the mundane stuff like tell the time, and tell you what day it is. When paired with a compatible mobile device, it becomes a completely different, and more interesting fashion accessory. The Pebble will pair over Bluetooth to control music, get notifications, caller ID, and it will even pull the full text of messages. The list of stock functions is very cool, but the Pebble will also be extensible with apps. There is a Pebble SDK, and the company plans to deploy an app store of sorts.

It's not too late to risk your hard-earned cash on this device, if you're so inclined. Despite smashing the original goal of $100,000, the folks at Pebble Technology have 29 more days to solicit donations. $115 gets you one of the first batch of Pebble watches, which will reportedly sell for over $150.

For a history of Kickstarter record-breakers, check out this blog post - it's quite fascinating to watch the site's popularity skyrocket over the years.

[Kickstarter]

HTC One X Drop Test – This One’s Painful To Watch [Video]

By now, many of you have had your eye on the HTC One X since it was released in Europe a few weeks ago. For us here in the states, we’re simply waiting until May 6th for the device to arrive on AT&T before we have decide if we’re going to pony up the cash for it. But whenever buying a new device, there’s often one question that sits in the back of everyone’s mind. One that not too many people are brave enough (or have pockets deep enough) to find out the answer to. How well can this device — the HTC One X in this case — survive a drop? It’s almost too painful to even think about.

Well, the boys at HTCPedia were brave/crazy enough to find out the answer to this question by subjecting their HTC One X to a variety of common drop scenarios, first one at hip height, then the more unlikely shoulder height drop, and finally, the worst scenario that could ever befall a device, that 1 in 6 chance a phone actually lands flat on its screen. How well did the HTC One X perform? This one’s hard to watch.

Dropping your brand new device onto cold, hard pavement is a very real possibility that most owners will experience at some point in their handset’s life. What’s funny is even the sound of a device hitting the ground is almost universally identifiable, sending shivers down the spine of anyone who cares about their phones as much as Android fans do. It’s almost like dropping a child.

Did the results in this video surprise you at all? I think there’s very few devices that could survive a flat, face-to-the-ground fall like that. The good news is, screen replacements are becoming cheaper and local repair shops that replace them are becoming more common. It’s not even the cracked screen I’m so worried about, even the slightest blemish anywhere on my device is enough to drive me to drink. Anyone else?