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Google recently open sourced Pebble and today, Repebble has put some of the watches up for preorder.
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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
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?
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.
Withings
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.
That’s good to know, I liked the MIP display watches I saw from Garmin, but the only model with that display seems to be their most expensive watch
I think the forerunner 55 is MIP. It’s not a smart watch and it’s their base level running watch. I had one before I upgraded to the 265 and I loved it. Off the top of my head, I know it gives you sleep data, heart rate, data, stress level data, a HRV, VO2 max. Max. Maybe some other things. Along with the standard steps and Miles moved or kilometers moved.
Seems like it can be connected to your phone to see notifications and control music using the Garmin app, do I guess it’s smart enough for me, that plus health monitoring and long battery life are all I need, and it’s more affordable than other smartwatch’s as well. Does Garmin charge a monthly subscription to use the health monitoring? And does it allow you to export the health data?
The 255 is also MIP and is basically the same as the one I have (265). The 265 swapped out the display for an amoled display.
No their app is free. You can access via your phone and on the web. Fyi music control on the Garmin is a bit clunky, but it works.
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?
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.
Torn between this and a bangle.js 2, if I need a smarwatch at all
Having used both, personally I highly preferred the Pebble over the Bangle JS.
Pebble was solid software, good designs and it all just worked simply and did what I needed. I also thought the Pebble Time Round was near perfect in design and execution. I’m not a fan of the geeky look of the normal pebble and bangle watches (or the apple watch look).
The Bangle was fun to dev for, and I love that it exists, but it all felt like a dev project. Not a finished product. Granted it was early on in the project so I’m sure it’s in a better place now.
They both have similar capabilities. I say go with whichever you think is going to fit what you need a smartwatch to do.
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.
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.
…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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
Because good software is hard. The PebbleOS is a gem, and no, no one could in 9 years.
It has the entire ecosystem of apps.
They didn’t need it, it was just the tipping point
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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.
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Okay so now you’re not only acting in bad faith but following me around to harass me. You’ve been blocked. Goodbye.
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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.
Fair enough. I feel the compulsion myself.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Isn’t there any way to pre-order without a credit card? I guess I’ll have to wait until other payment options are available…
I still can’t believe that no one else has made a smart watch with physical buttons and low energy use that has surpassed the pebble after all this time. I’m still cautious that this venture will pan out, but honestly there really hasn’t been a smart watch released that matches my use case. Sleep tracking makes no sense if I have to charge the watch daily, as I’d probably charge it over night. Media control with screen buttons is awful. Fossil came close with their hybrid smart watch, but the layout of the media controls made no sense and couldn’t easily be used without looking at the watch. Just let me check my calendar and texts and skip through ads in podcasts, and last over a week of battery and you will have my money.
Garmin watches come close?
Honestly daily charging isn’t the worst I just usually charge my watch when I’m in the shower and getting ready in the morning pop it back on when I’m done and I’m good to go.
Don’t love the closed-in ecosystem but Garmin watches with MIP display do almost all you just said.
- Touch screen + also Buttons for 100% touch-free interaction
- Battery life of around 3 to 4 weeks (depending on what you are doing)… more with the Solar models
- Media control is there, but don’t really use that
Podcast ad skipping sadly not a thing.
Price might be an issue though. The top end models with all the whistles come at a smartphone flagship price point.
The Garmin Instinct is what I switched to when my Pebble died. Recently upgraded to the Fenix.
You can absolutely skip ahead through ads with the music controls. Automating it would be the job of the app.
You are right. I think I read that wrong. I thought automatic segment skipping like YouTube SponsorBlock. You definitely can fast forward using buttons.
My Garmin Forerunner 245 Music does all that I’d say
The benefit if the core repebble watches are that they have 1 month of battery life, they’re cheaper, and they are open source
Of all possible names, they’re really using “Core 2 Duo”? I feel like anyone who has been following tech long enough would immediately think of the Intel processor when hearing that name.
It’s a play on words of core 2 do-over
Just waiting for an IP lawsuit to happen there
