Pebble took the tech world by storm when it launched as a humble concept on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter. Though it was a Kickstarter blockbuster, it's been hampered by shipment delays. The first shipments are finally trickling out into the world and reviewers are getting a taste of this "smart watch."

The basic idea behind the smart watch is that it syncs with your smartphone to display information on your wrist. Pebble uses an e-ink display and can sync with iPhones and Android devices to display things such as caller ID information, incoming texts, emails, social networking messages or what song is currently playing (you can use the watch to skip or search for songs too). The watch can also display multiple clock faces but the real secret is Pebble's ability to work with smartphone apps. The company is currently working on one for cyclists to use a phone's GPS to display distance and speed on the watch as well as an app for golfers that would turn the Pebble into a rangefinder. More apps are promised shortly.

The initial reviews for the smart watch were generally positive. In addition to working reliably as advertised (not something that can always be taken for granted with a crowd-funded piece of hardware), reviewers were excited by the potential for future apps. Beyond noting your speed, the Pebble could easily double as, among other things, a fitness tracker. This latent versatility, and not the watch's rather pedestrian styling, has excited its initial reviewers.