- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
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- 30-day battery life
- open source OS
🫨
Does it use just standard watch bands? It looks like it, but I didn’t see it mentioned.
One of the things I find ridiculous about other smart watches is that they use proprietary bands. When I found out that people are paying $60+ for a silicon band for an Apple watch, it blew my mind. Also that people put screen protectors or cases on their Apple watches because their $500+ watch doesn’t even have a crystal lens, and is prone to scratching.
Yes, the announcement blog post states they use standard 22mm watch bands, as the original Pebbles did.
Is that typical? I guess Apple sells watch bands at that price, but I’ve never bought a $60 Apple branded watch band. With the ubiquity of Apple Watches it’s not hard to find inexpensive Apple Watch bands even if they are proprietary. I don’t think that’s the case for other smartwatches, though.
Open Source “OS” ? Did they intentionally forget a statement or two around someone else’s IP ?
Anyone of the github contributors care to explain what their repo’s content will exactly be? https://github.com/pebble-dev/pebble-nonfree
Likely binary blobs from vendors like Debian’s non-free-firmware.
We will see, unless there is an “official” announcement of some sort for the exacts contents of that github repo prior to preorder closing.
The current README contents do not do justice.
You do you, but the OS is here.
I’m pretty excited about this; my Pebble Time was the best watch I’ve even owned - smart or otherwise.
That said, I don’t think I’m going to be preordering this given how badly the last Pebble Kickstarter went. For those who weren’t around at the time, Pebble (whose CEO is behind this venture) built his whole business around Kickstarter. The first 2 generations were wildly successful, but for the third generation they massively overextended themselves trying to get hardware into mainstream retailers, prioritised building stock for retail channels (because contracts) and ran out of cash before shipping for the majority of backers who had bankrolled this whole thing. Eventually everyone who hadn’t had their orders fulfilled got a refund, but that was only because FitBit decided to buy them. Eric seems like a nice guy and great at the technology - and I’m not saying that I could run a business any better - but I think I’ll wait until there is stock on hand for me to buy outright before I hand over my cash
From their FAQ, emphasis mine:
You shouldn’t get one if…
You need a perfectly polished smartwatch. This project is a labour of love rather than a startup trying to sell millions of watches. There may be some rough edges (literally). Things will get delayed. Some features will not be ready at launch. Things could break. Things could not last as long as you’d like. The only thing we can guarantee is that it will be awesome and a lot of fun! Every time you look down at your watch, you will smile
So yeah, I’d say your take is pretty accurate. At least they’re honest lol
My concern isn’t that things will get delayed, it’s that I’ll give them my money and get nothing in return
Understandable, which is why I’m choosing to not preorder. However, they also have a full refund policy that’s good until your unit is being prepared to ship, and several notifications leading up to that point. One of the best ways to handle preorders I’ve encountered.
That’s. Uh… the entire idea of a kickstarter.
It may crash and burn. Don’t want that, don’t back anything on kickstarter.
The idea is that you judge each Kickstarter venture on its likelihood of doing that vs actually delivering.
… so I shouldn’t use the CEOs history of bankruptcy and failed a Kickstarter when judging if I think it is going to succeed or not?
He also screwed a lot of the employees on the way out from Pebble, and he also bailed on Beeper the minute it got complicated. Sold it to Matt Mullenweg a year or two after getting pimp-slapped by Apple because he had no real plan for what to do if Apple started banning the devices he was using as Matrix bridges. He gave up after like three days, it was honestly genuinely pathetic. This was a paid service and he fucked it all up for anyone using iMessage on it.
I have personal experiences with Beeper that make me less than trust Eric Migicovsky, and I really don’t think he seems like a “nice guy.” He actively sucks, doesn’t have plans for sustainability and then sells it all off to someone else at a personal profit while the people doing the actual work get fucked out of a job.
Beeper is an instant messenger software that enables using a variety of chat services and protocols all from the same application. It was created in 2020 by Eric Migicovsky, Brad Murray and Tulir Asokan
On December 5, 2023, the company released Beeper Mini, an Android app that can send messages through Apple’s iMessage instant messaging service.
Beeper Mini was downloaded more than 100,000 times within two days of launch. After the release, Apple repeatedly blocked Beeper Mini from sending messages through iMessage, and Beeper updated the app multiple times to circumvent Apple’s blocks.[18] On December 21, 2023, Beeper issued its last update to Beeper Mini, which requires users to access an iOS or macOS device to enable the app to send messages through iMessage.[20]
That timeline is crazy. It’s a chat app for years. It breaks into iMessage and gets crazy downloads. Then 16 days later they’ve given up. Four months later he sells the whole thing.
Yeah, he seems to have a bad habit of bailing on his pet projects once they become “difficult” partially because he never seems to have an actual plan to get them to financial stability. It’s why I’m so hesitant to have any hopes for this reboot of Pebble after he bailed on it the first time around.
What’s the gist of your “personal experiences with Beeper”?
I was very excited when Beeper was first announced and I got on the wait list.
I finally got onboarded, and this was when you still had be walked through the setup by one of the Beeper employees.
I got into the Zoom meeting, and got a warning that it was going to be recorded. I had not, up to that point, had ever been disclosed that it was going to be recorded. I declined to join the meeting and sent a follow-up email with some pertinent privacy related questions, especially since in the case of some of the Bridges that were being used for this service essentially meant Beeper would have access to my credentials. They would later create a more secure system, but it was not very secure early on.
My main question regarded Micigovsky’s past in selling Pebble and I asked what gaurantees of the privacy policy were being made in regard to a potential sale of the company (considering it eventually got sold, I guess a good question to ask), and what, if any, promises were being made for the privacy policy to stay unchanged through a sale.
I never got a response to my questions. Not being told I was going to be recorded, and not ever getting an answer to reasonable privacy policy questions led me to never signing up for the service.
Yep im also going to wait til its out to make a judgement call.
Ditto, even though I’m in the market to replace my smartwatch since the buttons fell off.
I am wearing my OG Kickstarter Pebble right now, 12 years and still getting 8 days battery out of it.
I think I will be getting a new Core Time 2
Edit: added picture
Wow, mine died years ago.
It has the screen tearing issue, which can’t be fixed because it is one of the original ones which are glued together.
I have to have it on the analogue watch face so the screen refreshes every second. But it has outlasted the 4 other watches I tried.
I’m using a Garmin these days. Much battery life but I miss my old Pebble.
I have a few times I rotate through. can’t wait for some new hw
Why would they choose to name the watch “Core 2 Duo” when that’s the name of an Intel processor? And why are both watches a “2” variant? They need a new marketing person.
when that’s the name of an Intel processor?
It’s totally a reference to that, it has to pretty much… Why? Idk, nostalgia? Duo as in black and white maybe
The two colours of the first Intel MacBook by Apple, which had Core 2 Duo processors…
Quite an hommage indeed
That was my first thought as well. “Intel gonna sue somebody.”
Core 2 Duo is also a terrible name from Intel in the first place. I did place my repebble order, hopefully it will serve me well.
Wait, the basic version has a compas and barometer without a heart rate monitor, but the more expensive one has a heart rate monitor and no barometer or compass? Why?
He wasn’t going to add compass because most people don’t use it, but then he added it to the Core 2 Duo as a favor to a friend who helped on that version and wanted a compass in it.
Because that’s the feature people actually want. The biggest use of these watches is having an active heart rate monitor, as evident by even most of the cheaper watches having them.
Pebble is now playing a gambit, whereby they think they will sell more of the premium model to people who will be using it for exercise and health reasons.
Either that, or the hardware chosen specifically separates the heart rate monitor so that vendors strike a better deal with the factories to get specially designed chips.
Either way, someone is getting taken for a ride.
Pebble is now playing a gambit, whereby they think they will sell more of the premium model to people who will be using it for exercise and health reasons.
There’s an explicit line in their site that says these are not made to be fitness trackers, and that garmin are good for that (or some other brand, can’t remember). It would be very odd to say that if it was their target.
Dammit, I wanted to use this as a fitness tracker like garmin
Edit: found this
Software features
Each watch runs open source PebbleOS. This enables all the baseline Pebble features like receiving notifications, timeline, watchfaces, alarms, timers, calendar, music control, basic fitness tracking, etc.
You’re looking for a fitness or sports watch. That’s not what we’re making. From what we hear, Garmin watches are great for runners/cyclists/triathletes!
https://ericmigi.com/blog/introducing-two-new-pebbleos-watches/
For fitness its probably decent but Garmin seems to have placebo sleep tracking. In order to get anything remotely accurate the sleep tracking algorithm has to be compared to a lot of polysomnograph data. But because companies don’t want to spend any more than they need to sleep tracking is usually just tacked on. Garmin hasn’t shown a good track record in this regard.
If it’s open source, could someone potentially develop an app for it to control devices in home assistant? Would love to be able to control my room lights from my watch, and don’t think it’s possible on my Xiaomi watch fit 3 connected to gadgetbridge.
I recognize that there would also need to be work done in the app to support this as the watch only supports BLE
There are a couple already, e.g. https://github.com/Willow-Systems/pebble-home-assistant
What’s even cooler is that the nRF52840 chip that they will use has ZigBee support, which theoretically means it can talk to your network directly if software supports it
Lol, fml. Guess I’m buying a Repebble.
It’s open source.
For anyone looking for a similar device in the interim (long battery, open source) the PineTime is a great device.
This is neat but the selling point for me with the Pebble is the e-ink display. If repebble fails though, my next watch will be a Pine. Hopefully my Versa 2 holds on for a bit longer 🤞
Got a PineTime for Christmas and so far been very pleased with it. I found the PineTimeStyle watchface and it’s been a bit like coming home to Pebble, but I do miss the wide array of watchface choices and effortless customization.
I missed out on the 1st gen pebble but had a buddy who loved his. Y’all may be talking me in to checking this new one out.
And agreed on the pine faces. I’ve been of half a mind to learn how to make them so I could have more variety.
Only thing missing is NFC. If it had it I would get it in a heart beat
This
Price seems kinda steep for a device that doesn’t have sleep/SpO2/Stress and HRV tracking capabilities
I am wondering/hoping if another company will step up and make a PebbleOS based watch with these capabilities.
As someone very excited for this watch, the battery life with an always on display is more important to me than a sp02 sensor (Btw it will do sleep tracking). That and the button navigation are the killer features. The watch shows me what I need to know when I need to know it, always has the time on, and I can navigate it and control media playback without having to look at it (since buttons are consistent). I want a smart watch to be a good watch first then being smart is the second priority, and the pebble is the only watch I’ve ever had that gets those priorities right for me. Every other smart watch I’ve used sacrifices something I value to fit more features that I dont value as much. The pebbles have just gotten it right for me.
That said, the watch also isn’t for everyone, and a lot of people are OK charging their watch every day if it means they also get every feature they want.
Regarding charging - I charge my huawei watch fit 3 (that I got for like $150) every 2 weeks or so
I probably will end up getting the pebble as it appears I can interact with it on home assistant. Rough that I may have to wait till December though, it looks like
Anyone remember the screen tearing issue that fucked basically 100% of screens from pebble? I remember.
I went through every single pebble that came out and never had this issue…maybe I got lucky?
It was really only the OG Pebble and the Steel. It was resolved by using a different screen connector in the Pebble 2 and Time.
I’ve had multiple OG’s over the years and each have developed the tearing issue. It’s a fairly easy fix if you’re comfortable opening electronics, but obviously that’s not going to work for every customer of a mass market product…
How does this compare to pine64? I want a privacy focused watch if at all possible
I’m with you on this. If it could come with a privacy-respecting smartphone app hosted on F-Droid, that would be so great.
Gadgetbridge supports pebble
Awesome!
I just pre-ordered one, but the price made me wince 😬
I was thinking of getting this but the focus is mainly for fitness. I think a garmin would be better for my purpose though because I honestly don’t know what I would do with this watch
Yeah for the same price as the color option you could get a Garmin Vivoactive on a sale.
Idk if garmin allows you to download your data in an easily accessible format but I would expect Pebble to do it and I expect a nice ecosystem of user-created apps based on that
How are they allowed to give it the exact same name as an Intel CPU line?
I’ve got a Core 2 Duo around here somewhere…
Man I might have to get one of these…I don’t mind my FitBit, but since being gobbled by Google, I don’t need another data point for Google to feed off.
