Google recently open sourced Pebble and today, Repebble has put some of the watches up for preorder.
Wearing a Pebble Time steel right now, and I’m cautiously optimistic for this.
can it play tetris
I still have my circa-2016 email confirming my pledge for the Time 2 Silver, which ultimately got cancelled just before the fulfillment date due to Pebble selling out to Fitbit.
While I loved my original Pebble back then, I would really want something similar to look and function of the T2S so will watch this project in hopes it too is resurrected
due to Pebble selling out to Fitbit.
Due to Pebble going bankrupt, and managing to sell its software assets to Fitbit to gain just enough money to refund the kickstarter pledges and pay off it’s biggest debts.
Subscriber paywalled. I am so unbelievably sick of these.
I backed the original pebble on kickstarter and it’s what got me into smart watches. Happy they’re coming back and that they’re open source.
Edit: if I’m remembering correctly wasn’t there some server that the original pebble used that shut done that ended up knee-capping it? Wonder if there’s anything server-side being used here that could do the same.
Pebble still works thanks to the Rebble project. Everything else is free, but the dictation and weather services require a monthly $3 subscription to use as those are the parts that have rather hefty API call costs.
Though the experience is miserable on iOS. That’s entirely all thanks to Apple.
What makes it miserable on iOS?
The Pebble app was removed from the App store, so you have to manually sideload it every 7 days.
And:
Here are the things that are harder or impossible for 3rd party smartwatches (ie non Apple Watches) to do on iPhone:
- There’s no way for a smartwatch to send text messages or iMessages.
- You can’t reply to notifications or take ‘actions’ like marking something as done.
- It’s very difficult to enable other iOS apps to work with Pebble. Basically iOS does not have the concept of ‘interprocess communication’(IPC) like on Android. What we did before was publish an SDK that other apps (like Strava) could integrate to make their own BLE connection to Pebble. It was a clunky quasi-solution that other apps didn’t like, because it was hard to test (among other things)
- If you (accidentally) close our iOS app, then your watch can’t talk to app or internet
- Impossible for watch to detect if you are using your phone, so your watch will buzz and display a notification even if you are staring at your iPhone
- You can’t easily side load apps onto an iPhone. That means we have to publish the app on the iPhone appstore. This is a gigantic pain because Apple. Every update comes with the risk that a random app reviewer could make up some BS excuse and block the update.
- Because of iOS Appstore rules, it would be hard for us to enable 3rd party watchface/app developers to charge for their work (ie we can’t easily make an appstore within our app)
- Getting a Javascript engine to run in PebbleOS forced us to go through many hoops due to iOS — creating a compiler inside the Pebble iPhone app that in itself needed to be written in (cross-compiled to) JS to work with Apple’s restriction on downloadable code can only be JS
- As a Pebble watch/app developer, using the iOS app as relay to the watch sucks since the “developer mode” terminates every few minutes
https://ericmigi.com/blog/apple-restricts-pebble-from-being-awesome-with-iphones
I recently did out my old 401B after the screen fell off my Galaxy Active2. It charged right up and still lasts about a week.
Finding a new band was a PITA because of the weird segmented hinge bit but one person was selling diver bands for it on Amazon (I think it was Amazon)… Really not bad for a watch from a decade ago.
Edit: Yes, you can still use them without the OG servers being up, look up ‘Rebble’ (rebble.io)
Is there any company that let’s you export your health tracking data in a non proprietary format and doesn’t charge you a monthly subscription to use your smartwatch’s health tracking features?
Garmin allows you to export data to a csv file. I’m not sure if it’s all data because I haven’t used it, but I know it’s simple.
Withings
One pro of Withings is that they’re French, so their policies on data in general are pretty great.
One con of Withings is that they’re French, so it’s not actually pronounced how you think.
Fuck I want that so bad.
No NFC ??? Whyyyyyyyyyy
Basic payment options would be sick
Pebble sounds cool but i really dont like square watches(except the retro casios and gshocks) and now its owned by google so thats shit as well.
Google dumped the Pebble OS code on GitHub when this whole “rePebble” thing (not Rebble) started. Now there’s a new phone app coming out soon (or out now, depending on your platform and abilities) that handles old and new Pebbles and modern phone platforms.
None of this is from Google.
I think Google just owns the software because the product page for these watches say the guy invested his own money to get these produced.
…and now its owned by google so thats shit as well.
Google acquired it back in 2021, this move to open source it is a good thing.
Made another post but it was removed for…reasons. Migi says you shouldn’t expect your Pebble to last >5 years.
It reads to me like he’s saying that if you expect 5+ years without maintenance if it’s more than $100, you should look at a different product.
The top comments are someone saying that after five years they needed to repair it due to battery failure, and the founder saying the repair process is the same.Five years is longer than the average lifespan of a liIon battery. Expecting to be able to skip repairs that long is unreasonable for a $150 product.
It reads like the founder actually giving realistic expectations. A $150 product will likely need repairs to last longer than five years, and you’ll be disappointed if you expect otherwise.
Can you point to a similar product that costs about as much that fits your criteria?
It doesn’t read to me like you will have to replace the battery, it reads to me like he’s saying don’t expect the device itself to last >5 years.
How does that read to you like him saying it’s not replaceable?
Have you tried reading the rest of the comments?
Sure have!
He told someone not to buy it if they expect more than five years without repairs. That person seemed to think spending more than $100 should get them a product that lasts a lifetime, and was irritated the founder said he thought it was pretty good that a piece of low cost consumer electronics made it five years before needing repairs.
What part of that says to you that it’s not reparable or won’t last five years?
The comment that Eric replied to saying “please don’t buy this” mentioned nothing about repairs. It was entirely about overall longevity of the device.
In the context of him saying the device is repairable, the top comment talking about repairing it, and the comment in question replying to that thread, it seems a bit weird to say “he didn’t say it in this comment, so the comments where he says it’s repairable don’t count”.
Where’s my round?
How’s navigation with Pebbles? If I start bike navigation in Google Maps on my phone, can I get turn-by-turn directions on the watch, and does it not suck?
There is an Android and a companion Pebble app (“Nav me”) that reads the Google maps notifications (“In 300 meters turn left onto Jefferson Street”) and displays them on the watch. The remaining distance until the next navigation instruction decreases real time. Nothing fancy like minimap view, but can be useful in some situations.
There was/is a companion app called PebbleNav/NavMe that worked okay-ish, as long as you could survive with “Turn left in 100 metres to x street” type instructions with no map view (not really something you can do with 144x168 pixels).
I’ve pre-ordered the Core Time 2.
Pre-orders are something I never usually do, but given this is essentially just an improved version of an existing product, as opposed to a Kickstarter, I feel more confident. And I can cancel the preorder at any time (plus I’ll see reviews of the cheaper model before the Core Time 2 ships).
The price made me wince, though. It’s very expensive for the functionality. Technically cheaper than the original watches adjusted for inflation, but that ignores the current-day smartwatch market. Still, I loved the Pebble, so I think it’s worth it.
I pre ordered, and I’m usually annoyingly loud about not pre-ordering. That being said, i love my pebble time. I Kickstarted it back in the day, and it still works but the battery is weak. I could replace the battery, but i want more devices like this, so I’ll put some money in and eat Ramen for a few weeks.
Pre-ordered one immediately. I miss my old Pebble Time Steel so much. Part of me wishes there’s one with that design but I’ll take what I can get.
Eh. I prefer the PineTime watch. It was like 25€+shipping and customs and it does everything I need, is fully open-source – it displays weather info, time, date, heart rate (although not very well), and has timer, stopper, etc.
I’m still very confused about why we needed PebbleOS for this. It’s been like 10 years and no one could come up with any comparable software? They whipped up the hardware design in a few months.
To anyone reading - this person is intentionally obtuse.
PebbleOS was sold to Fitbit, Fitbit sold to Google, Google made PebbleOS open source this year. It couldn’t have been made before.
Because good software is hard. The PebbleOS is a gem, and no, no one could in 9 years.
PebbleOS was awesome, though. Such a well thought out system for end-users, and it already has tons of apps. Developing for it (in C!) is also super easy because it has an amazing SDK.
From what I’ve read from Eric since this relaunch was announced, he just wants a new pebble and so do some of the userbase. This project isn’t really intended as a viable, polished product. Rather it’s a niche thing made for a Core audience of nerds.
Disclaimer: I’m one of the nerds this is intended for. I instantly pre-ordered a watch because it’s a pebble. I7
he just wants a new pebble
I’m sure that’s what he wants you to believe.
I had a Pebble Time Steel and it was the best watch I’ve ever head. I want another Pebble. So does Eric. So I gave him money to make me one.
Yeah, I get that. My question is why Eric (or literally anyone else) didn’t just re-make the Pebble (or similar) under a different name at any time in the last 10 years? Why did they wait for the OS to be open sourced instead of just making a new one?
Making a new OS isn’t easy as others have said, but it’s also helpful that Pebble OS has a bit of a following. There are still people who are very vocal about how much they love/loved their pebble watches. Making a new OS that’s inspired by PebbleOS would be met with more skepticism than just releasing a watch with an OS that people already know that they like.
Assuming that he made no major changes to the software, pebble fans almost already know what they’ll be getting out of this product. You couldn’t say the same for a watch with a new OS.
Some reasons:
- It’s a lot of work no one wants to do given there are half-decent proprietary alternatives
- Eric wasn’t sitting twiddling his thumbs
- The corporate landscape wasn’t nearly as hostile to users until the last few years
Methinks you underestimate the complexity.
And all the other watch makers I’ve looked at are not doing, or even considering, what Pebble did.
Methinks you underestimate the complexity.
Maybe I do. But there are dozens of Chinese no-name companies who developed entire smartwatch ecosystems.
Dozens? Name three, and be sure to include number of aps in each ecosystem.
I’m sure there are dozens of Chinese smart watches, but most that I’ve seen are white-labels and sorely missing an ecosystem.
Really? I came across you again. Still acting in bad faith, huh? The founder Eric likes his Pebble watches, and wants to make it again. What is with you and your lack of understanding? How hard is that to believe?
Okay so now you’re not only acting in bad faith but following me around to harass me. You’ve been blocked. Goodbye.
I randomly came across you and saw the tag I left you. Lol
“No you” really? Are you a child?
Probably. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t usually make dumb decisions with money, but when there’s a potential pebble involved you could sell me an idea of one and I’d go for it. Especially after all this time.
What’s the huge thing about it? I don’t know nothing about the product and an curious as to why somebody would be that hyped about it.
It might be one of those “you had to have been there” moments. It’s 2014, Obama was reelected, Uptown Funk was on the radio (there used to be this thing called FM radio), and there you are - a happy young thing reading texts on your watch in broad daylight, right the middle of a conversation. You felt like a cucumber straight from the freezer.
I know all that sounds slightly laughable now, but there is an undeniable yearning for that zeitgeist compared to where we ended up.
Yeah, I feel you. There was a time, some ten years ago, when computers / the web / tech in general were actually great and not those emshittyfied things we have to use now. There are too much people that are just compliant enough to use every shit that gets shoved down their throat, to the loint that it os damn hard to boycott all the shitty thing and not be effectively Amish.
I never had one (but did want one, just financially couldn’t justify it at the time), but it would have a great fit for me. I just wanted a watch to tell the time, and display my phone notifications plus vibrate to alert me to them. That would have been legitimately useful for the job I was in at the time which was challenging to carry a phone (but it was nearby in my bag).
Now, I have no use for any of that. But I am now interested in a heart rate monitor that doesn’t hoover my data to replace my old dedicated Polar heart rate monitor (which also told the time, but I only wore it exercising), so the more expensive model is tempting!
After Pebble got bought up and went under, I kept mine a good while. It eventually died or I lost the charger, I forget. I’ve had ‘modern’ smart watches since then, and they all just stressed me out and were too fiddly. I need buttons.
I’m not really interested in tracking calories burned or heart rate changes myself, so I preordered a cheap one in black like I used to have. Annoying that I’ll probably have to pay an extra import duty on it, but I miss wearing a watch and this one is worth supporting - for the thing itself, but also because it’s a meaningful story to me.
It’s just a smartwatch that does some basic things right. The software is simple, it has buttons for control, it only does the very basics of smartwatching. There are no bells and whistles.
Most of all, to me, it just feels right. It always did. Other smartwatches I’ve had were all too demanding of my attention.
Fair enough. I feel the compulsion myself.
I want one, but I don’t know what I’d do with it. It’s hackable, it pairs with a phone/tablet/etc.
I’m just trying to figure out what it can do for me. My lack of imagination annoys me.
I use my autopebble with tasker. Scripted a few things, like find my phone, load my audiobook, messages, etc. Used to have Google Home messages and lights and stuff, but I stopped using smarthome stuff for the most part. Mostly I use it for music control and weather and time though.
I also scripted a weird one that I could enter my feeling level at work throughout the day (1-10) and based on the average at tthe end tasker would play one of three songs when I got in my car at the end of work (only within a time range and if bluetooth was connected to car)
