We're bringing Pebble back
731 comments
·January 27, 2025tomaskafka
Awesome! The first Pebble absolutely fascinated me by having a hackable, C-running watch on my wrist.
I vividly remember spending days fine tuning the heuristics of a simple step detection algorithm in the first watchface where I thought “seeing your daily step count next to time sure is awesome”. And later, tens of thousands of people thought so as well - this was one of the signs what the health-tracking wrist device is about to become.
It was incredible that even the first model allowed you to run a 30 samples per second accelerometer sampling and classifying the movement, 24/7, and still lasted days. No other watch offers a similar level of hackability.
And as the time progressed, Pebble became the first platform to get Weathergraph - my graphical weather watchface.
Weathergraph was then ported to Garmin (as Pebble shut down), and then to Apple Watch widget (as it became a capable platform with the introduction of standalone watch-apps in watchOS 6), and then to iOS app & widget, where it now lets me live a life of indie developer, after a serie of corporate design/PM/dev jobs.
Thank you for that, Eric & Pebble team.
I still keep the developer edition Pebble with my name printed on the back (great touch!) in my shelf and heart, and will always remember Jon Barlow, one of the best and most helpful developer advocates I ever encountered.
And kudos to the whole dev team. The watch and companion app was rock stable, always staying connected, the calendar always being in sync, watch apps installed quickly and reliably - the things that 10x larger companies struggled with for years were nailed here almost from day one.
Godspeed!
PS: What a mishap to shut the company down shortly after a release of Pebble 2. It nailed the experience of a lightweight watch, with the most contrasty BW reflective screen I have seen, and buttery smooth animations (while Garmin still renders menus in like 8-10 fps on their MIP screens 10 years later). So small and lightweight, I’d love everyone to try it on, and compare with 2024 smartwatches.
brokenengineer
> And as the time progressed, Pebble became the first platform to get Weathergraph - my graphical weather watchface.
> Weathergraph was then ported to Garmin (as Pebble shut down), and then to Apple Watch widget
Thanks for bringing Weathergraph to life. I found it on the Pebble and used it religiously until I experienced enough challenges with Rebble to switch to a Garmin watch. I was thoroughly chuffed when I saw that you had brought Weathergraph along with you.
Are you saying I'd have to get an Apple Watch to get the third-generation Weathergraph? ;-)
ilrwbwrkhv
Indeed, I forgive Google about 40 of their killed projects for giving us pebble in return.
eitland
Forgiven, yes, but I still cannot trust them.
A decade of messing with my search results (they only cannot do that anymore since I switched to Kagi) and the killing of Google+ (still interested if anyone have alternatives. Despite its problematic start it became the only social network I ever enjoyed).
akho
not the reader though
dingaling
It's strange to see the naivety around Reader.
If Facebook had created it, people would recognise the initiative to gate-keep, regulate and curate the Wild West of RSS. "They're trying to keep you inside their walled garden!"
chr15m
Never forget.
szundi
not the reader indeed
thebruce87m
What happens when they kill it again?
ksenzee
Open source licenses are irrevocable. You can quit providing the source, but you can't sue someone for using a copy they already took.
hinkley
40 down, 400 to go.
jakecopp
> Weathergraph was then ported to Garmin (as Pebble shut down), and then to Apple Watch widget
I don't think I was a particularly early user of Weathergraph - but when I finally had to retire my Pebble Time I only considered platforms that had your watchface.
Thanks very much for the attention to detail!
tomaskafka
Thank you!
smvanbru
I loved weathergraph. Was my favourite watch face on my pebble and garmin, until my eyes got too old and I couldn't read the smaller text anymore. Now I use a watch face for older guys like me, but miss the graph.
tomaskafka
Thank you! I'm sorry - it's tricky to put in all the data, plus the Garmin app is now hard to maintain as it ran into a memory limit on older watches (they are very tight + a need to cache a large chart), and much of code simplicity has been sacrificed to make it run. I should probably try a re-do as newer watches and language features remove a lot of constraints.
iglio
Hi Tom, I just tried to donate on https://weathergraph.app/garmin, but was met with an error in your paypal integration. I've sent you a support email.
tomaskafka
Thank you, replying!
angristan
Weathergraph is the best weather app I've ever used, thank you so much for it!
tomaskafka
Thank you! I hope to keep it that way :).
hinkley
There was a post here a couple weeks ago about smart phones with a very fancy reflective display and I immediately thought how good that would be on something like a pebble.
mrinterweb
I noticed my mouth had been hanging agape for a while while reading this. This is huge news. I feel like Pebble is the smartwatch that got it right the first time. So many smartwatches try to replace the phone instead of being an extension of the phone. Pebble seemed to better understand what is important than most smartwatches by being the extension of the phone, a focus on battery life and always on displays.
Vampiero
I literally just bought a LTE watch because I hate phones, I never use mine, and I keep forgetting it anyway. I'd rather have a watch with an eSIM
amelius
I would do this too, but in some venues you have to pay by scanning QR codes, which makes it impossible without camera.
And I don't want this:
https://wristcam.com/blogs/learn/do-apple-watches-have-camer...
weberer
They have QR payments, but no NFT? That doesn't seem right.
stronglikedan
> you have to pay by scanning QR codes
I've never encountered that, but that sounds like a venue that doesn't want my money anyway.
nejsjsjsbsb
Would you wear a Pebble too?
insane_dreamer
The Withings ScanWatch was the right fit for me. Unfortunately the HR sensor stopped working recently and the water resistant seal broke, and it's out of warranty, so it's in a drawer. But IMO that was the right idea: analog time, discrete notifications, ppg/ekg sensors, 2-week battery life.
morsch
I like my Fossil watch. Similar to Withings, less health features, marginally smarter. Analog watchface in front of an eink display, 3-4 weeks battery life. Of course they got discontinued as well.
teetertater
These are truly the best! And I've done a lot of research. Nowadays there are some smaller luxury brands that are closer with feature parity but not quite. The original Fossil team spun off to develop some kind of general watch platform, so I'm hopeful we'll see a remake by the time my fossil kicks out.
martin_a
Mine broke down but I got it repaired by Fossil after some time for 60 Euro. Meanwhile I bought a Garmin, now the repaired Fossil sits in a drawer. Not sure what to do with it. Maybe gift it to someone, but softwarer support is probably getting worse.
ost-ing
I have one, I use it nearly every day, battery can last upward of a whole month. They stopped updating the original model though which is frustrating because newer models have more features, but im almost certain the hardware is virtually identical.
I would like more transparency on how long each device gets updates for, similar to how Apple handles their products.
lopis
I don't like analog watches. I wish there was a watch like the basic casio I use but smart, but not huge and rugged like a G-Shock. If pebble releases a modern version of their watch, I might finally buy a smartwatch.
Cadwhisker
I released a free watch face for the FitBit Versa (pre-Google) which emulated a Casio-style LCD. I can't remember the name, but you can get paid ones which look decent:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.azya.fitbi...
Y_Y
I haven't made one myself because last I checked it was a hassle to ship, but this might be what you're looking for, F91-W exterior with minimally smart replacement innards.
filoleg
What are you looking for in a smartwatch?
Casio has smaller G-Shock smartwatches (not just the giant circular ones) that track your activity, heartrate, etc. But if you want smartphone notifications, then yeah, sadly you are out of luck.
I am totally with you overall, though. I feel that if someone were to nail it, it would be Casio.
bobbylarrybobby
Sounds like a Garmin Forerunner (255? 265?) with a custom watch face might fit the bill.
pjmlp
Amazfit watches.
sureglymop
I love my Withings watch but I wish I didn't have to use their app and could instead get the data directly. I tried to reverse engineer their bluetooth based protocol in the past but didn't get far because I don't have much experience with bluetooth.
I then looked at what http requests their app makes which was more straightforward and actually interesting but still not what I wanted... I hope I will find the time to try again soon.
insane_dreamer
Their app syncs with the Apple Health app (which is better), so that's what I use (and one reason why I like Withings)
swiftcoder
I really like the Withings, but I've killed two of them in about a year each (shattered the face on one, failed seal leading to water ingress on the other). Meanwhile I have a draw full of older watches/smartwatches that are all in perfect working order, so this feels like build/QC problems specifically on their end.
Cadwhisker
I prefer technology that hides from view, so the Withings watches suit me as well.
The biggest downside is that the battery does not seem to be user-replaceable, so the 1 month of run-time I used to get slowly fades down to about a week or two after a couple of years of use. I can't go away for more than a week now without bringing the charger.
Y-bar
I agree (a ScanWatch 2 owner here) that batteries should be user-replaceable. And that the fact that it is missing from my watch is a negative thing.
However, it is a very minor thing when the battery lasts as long as it does. If it holds 80% capacity like most other batteries today at 300, or more, cycles it would take over 10 years for the battery to degrade significantly considering each cycle is up to 30 days.
Peanuts99
Mines 8 years old at this point (so old it's a Nokia branded one) and it still lasts 3-4 weeks. I wonder why it's held up better?
andrewblossom
Have you reached out to them? I've found their customer support even for out-of-warranty items to be fantastic.
insane_dreamer
I hadn't; I should try.
abcd_f
The idea is nice. The implementation is a bit gaudy design-wise (subjective, granted) and flakey on the hardware side, with the HR sensor accuracy being the main issue.
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gonzo41
You should have a look at he Garmin instinct 2x. They've nailed it.
abraxas
Bah! They nailed what exactly? It's so mofing complex to use I hurled it at a wall (literally) and then gave it away to my son. A $600 CAD watch that I could not stand to use without seething.
brian-armstrong
You might want to invest some of that money in anger management classes
Steltek
I have a Garmin Instinct 2. They definitely did not nail it. It's horrible in all respects. It's HUGE, physically painful to use, and the UI must have been written by 10 different teams who weren't talking to each other.
xyst
The Apple Watch Ultra has worked wonders for me in terms of battery life and “always on display”.
My only wish is for an easily serviceable battery.
swiftcoder
> The Apple Watch Ultra has worked wonders for me in terms of battery life
It's not really playing in the same ballpark, though, is it?
48 hours of battery life is indeed very good for an Apple Watch, but I used to charge my Pebble maybe once a week, and my Withings Scanwatch about once every 3 weeks...
maccard
They don’t have to be the same to allow for the same freedom. Personally a 36 hour battery is just not a problem for me - I charge my watch when I shower and occasionally for 15-30m before bed. I’d be taking a real watch off during those times anyway.
I’d much much much rather have a device with a 2-3 day battery life that’s more powerful than one than runs for 2 weeks. 2 weeks gets into the “will I have to charge my watch randomly today” category of use, which is exactly the same problem a lot of people have with EV’s
shinycode
And not that expensive :(
djur
The Fitbit watches are the closest thing I've gotten to a Pebble (and I'd be wearing a fitness tracker anyway), but they're way more locked down.
dariosalvi78
BangleJs is totally hackable
amatecha
Pretty sure I yelled something like "yoooo no way!!" :D too awesome.
nym3r0s
The primary use for a smartwatch for myself (and many of my family, friends) is fitness and health tracking. Card payments, notifications, WatchFaces etc. are all secondary.
Basically what Whoop is doing with their strap - but minus the subscription model. I know a ton of people who tried the whoop but felt it was extremely pricey and didn't have the accuracy of an apple watch.
I would be happy to pay ~$400-500 up front for hardware that integrates with Apple Health and provides solid, reliable health tracking without a need for a subscription.
And by health/fitness - features expected would be sleep tracking, activity (gps), heart rate, Sp02, skin temperature sensors, fall detection. Then secondarily - additional things like ECG/EKG, apnea, AFib detection
The in-accuracy of some of the devices in the market is why I still choose to remain with my Apple Watch.
This youtube channel may help understand a consumer's perspective on health accuracy - https://www.youtube.com/@TheQuantifiedScientist
qzx_pierri
I have a Garmin Forerunner 255 (which does everything you requested and much much more). I used to be a Fitbit guy, and the sleep tracking and data is 10x better than Fitbit, with no subscription. The battery life is about 20 days.
The Forerunner 255 can be found on Amazon right now for $250.
Mind you, I also used to own an Apple Watch. Garmin is the best, and second place isn't close.
aucisson_masque
If you had checked the link on the comment you answered, you would have seen that he reviewed the forerunner 255 (and if that matters all Garmin watch) and found out that their heart rate accuracy and sleep analysis suck. All of them, some more, some less but nowhere near as good as apple watch or a very few Huawei watch and maybe the latest Google watch.
caleb-allen
I have the Forerunner 945 and it's the only thing that has ever filled the void left by Pebble. Garmin is so good.
2color
Same here. It's the best smart watch I've had.
coryfklein
Can someone explain the point of the health tracking features for watches? I have an Apple Watch and I do exercise regularly, but I found that the annoyance of starting and stopping workouts was bothersome so I turned the feature off.
Is it about inducing more exercise? Or is it the timer aspect that it records how long your workout is? (in which case I don’t understand why it’s so much better than a stopwatch?)
For me, and those around me, the fitness feature seems vestigial and has very little impact on actual fitness levels of the individual.
bluGill
A few years ago my mom looked at her smart watch (fitbit in her case) and it said she did 4 hours of aerobic exercise that day and her heart was elevated. She worked a retail job, so while on her feet all day, it was not aerobic. She immediately went to the doctor despite no other symptoms and they found cancer (which was then treated and so she is alive today). It isn't clear how much longer it would have been before that cancer was detected, but it would have been longer and so treatment would have been delayed which is generally bad.
parpfish
Is this in the US? Because i can’t fathom just being able to casually drop in to visit a doctor like this. Any time I need to talk to a doctor, I have phone tag with their understaffed receptionist for a few days, then we set up an appointment 4-6 months in the future.
dspillett
I walk and run on trails a fair bit¹ so my watch is mostly a route planning/tracking/recording tool.
When training for something I will often at least consider its recommendations and those are based partly on the health readings as well as the training load it has tracked from treks/runs. Though TBH other than that the health tracking is unimportant compared to it being a GPS device that can track for a day or more constantly without needing to talk to a phone (which sits in my pack/pocket in low-power mode to conserve battery unless/until I need it for something). A don't even tend to pay attention to the heart-rate stats (though I do know people who use those features to directly guide their training).
I know a few people whose use pattern is very similar to mine, near identical in fact, so I think it is fairly common amongst people who walk and/or run more than the average person.
----
[1] Less than I'd like ATM, the rest of life like ill family and my own burn-out² are getting in the way, but I'm getting myself back into it
[2] The key reason I'm trying to get back at it: herfing myself around the green stuff³, is something I find beneficial to my mental state as well as physical.
[3] or even the “mostly brown stuff” as it can be this time of year.
coryfklein
Can you unpack a little more by what you mean when you say you use the watch to plan your route? Do you mean to say you're using the watch – with that tiny display – to choose whether you run over hill A or around town B?
And what is the point of the tracking? Do you take time out of your day to review your past runs for some reason? My completely uninformed self is imagining a person sitting at their desk thinking, "Oh yeah, that was a good run. Look at that part where I turned the corner onto Market Street! Hah, I remember that, good times." And realize this sounds so ridiculous I must certainly be misunderstanding the point of the tracking.
nym3r0s
I believe the value add is a combination of both factors - ability to measure and (as a consequence) induce more exercise.
An example here is how I made sure my parents are getting their exercise in by making completing their Move rings and 10K steps every day. This pushes them to take a walk in the evening instead of doom scrolling / watching TV.
Another example - Check trends like resting heart rate to see if my body has fully recovered from covid19, SP02 at night indicating potential sleep apnea etc.
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BigGreenJorts
I've been a Strava user from before the fitness trackers were big and using a watch to track location instead of my phone is pretty big for me. The additional biometric data (namely heart rate and blood oxygen levels) are a plus. I've also had life long difficulties with sleep, and the sleep data is nice to keep my physical experiences grounded in reality, "Why am I so tired today, I slept so well. Oh no, actually I only slept 5 hours last night."
On the note about how annoying it is to start and stop activities, I strongly agree, tho quick start and auto track have eased the pain a lot for me. I cycle everywhere and really like to keep track of the total distance I do in a month and my watch just automatically tracks that for me.
barnabee
For me:
- Measuring resting heart rate, SpO2, etc. passively and tracking these over time and the impact of my fitness regime on them
- Sleep tracking
- Tracking pace and heart rate on a run, ride, etc. and (a) using it to manage my pace during the activity; and (d) use it to measure how my performance changes over time
- Navigation and tracking when hiking/skiing
I don't have so much interest in the tracking during, say, a gym workout.
I agree with the GP about wanting a subscription-less Whoop as I like to wear "real" watches so a band on the other wrist is perfect ("double fisting" watches VC-style is not an option I'm willing to entertain). I did like my Pebble enough to include it in the rotation of "real" watches though, too.
pandaman
It's very useful for aerobic exercise (running, swimming, cycling etc), where you want to pace yourself and keep your heart rate and/or speed/tempo in a certain range.
erikig
Also, you can set your watch to auto detect and start your workout tracking with a a subtle notification.
coryfklein
Now that you mention it, I have used it for this purpose myself! I turned it on when I was on the elliptical because I wanted to calibrate on what running in "Zone 2/3/4/5" felt like. And once I'd done that once I didn't really need to do it again, though I expect it will be helpful to recalibrate every few months as my capacity changes.
servercobra
It's very helpful for race training. Speed work targets various paces, endurance I want to hold a certain pace over time, etc. I (and many people) have a tendency to go much too fast for long distances, so pace targets help me stay where I should and be able to go the distances I want. When I was just getting started I didn't use much technology, but training's gotten a lot easier with my Apple Watch.
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mrzool
> I would be happy to pay ~$400-500 up front for hardware that integrates with Apple Health and provides solid, reliable health tracking without a need for a subscription.
That price point would make it unaffordable for the majority of the world’s population. Shouldn’t we try and make health monitoring and fitness tracking more accessible? That was one of Pebble’s biggest benefits.
orzig
You have to start somewhere, and then economies of scale can work their magic. The most inspiring example in the last 30 years is probably photovoltaic solar panels.
jgalt212
True, but people who tend to prioritize personal health also tend to be richer than the average bear.
mtlmtlmtlmtl
Well yes, because prioritising personal health is expensive.
High quality, healthy food is much more expensive per calorie than hyperprocessed, high calorie/low micronutrient, carcinogenic food. Gym memberships are pretty expensive, even without any of the personal coach and flex location fluff. And for someone with a lower paying job, time is more scarce as well, in addition to the job itself likely being more harmful to health. And of course, health care is expensive, and even if you live somewhere with socialised medicine, access to specialists is a lot easier and more expedient if you can afford to pay extra.
It's not like poor people don't care about their health, they just have fewer options and less time to spend on it. I support anything that can bring more options to more people.
toss1
Of course, lower cost is almost always better.
But just because advanced devices with (currently) costly components have higher costs is no reason to not create them.
If something works and meets a need, the costs of components and manufacture usually come down as engineering and manufacturing progresses on the learning curve and competition comes into play. (Not true when there is a captured market where extractive pricing becomes the norm, but those are the exception in consumer goods)
bdavbdav
Surely a Garmin is what you want? No subscription, 7 day+ battery life, smart watch features are there but largely secondary.
hugs
I wear a Garmin watch every day. It's great. But... I don't love the high price and the fact that the battery isn't easily replaceable. (Feels like Garmin would rather you buy a new watch instead.) There's a huge lane for Pebble to be the torch bearer for the Right-to-Repair movement (especially given it's whole story arc so far.)
Neikius
Can you use Garmin without their proprietary app? And if not, is it at least working without some sort of cloud services?
Too many products nowadays are bound to some sort of online checks and that is even worse than "battery not replaceable". The second is much easier to circumvent than the first (dependence on cloud infra). And ofc the data security. I will never be comfortable with giving corpos my medical data.
patanegra
It sounds a lot like you might appreciate Garmin watch, too.
scrapcode
My thoughts were that he was describing my Garmin Fenix pretty closely. GPS on-device means I can use all features un-tethered from a phone. I don't use the sleep tracking so I'm not sure how well it does in that arena compared to the competition.
nym3r0s
It was an option I considered, but the accuracy of the sensors was way worse than apple for the price.
KerryJones
Based on what data? I've found them to be as accurate or more accurate (and the data I've seen says the same) except around sleep tracking, where Garmin is worse. But it's not hard to create a function to correct for that if you really care about it, it is good enough unless you need vanity metrics
nradov
That's an odd objection. Garmin's optical heart rate sensor accuracy might be slightly worse than Apple's under certain limited conditions, depending on how you test. But anyone who really cares about precise heart rate uses a chest strap anyway.
dakiol
It would bother me so much to track my health on a daily basis. Too much paranoia. It’s like looking at the stock price every day. I much prefer to track my health twice or so per year.
nym3r0s
I agree that a single outlier is more stressful - but many times these aren't medical grade devices anyway so the actual data you're looking for is the trend (not the absolute values.
A solution could be to measure it but not really track / visualize it day to day.
BigGreenJorts
Dollar cost averaging health metrics :)
Arelius
I sort-of feel like maybe Pebble isn't for you, it had always been the smartwatch in a world of fitness trackers.
I'm almost the opposite for your, Notifications, then watch functionality, and card payments are primary for me. For me, fitness, and health tracking are barely secondary.
Which, IMO, is what I've always loved about Pebble, it was a smartwatch first.
nradov
An SpO2 sensor can be nice to have but it's useless to most people. A healthy person near sea level will always have an SpO2 near 100%. It's only really useful to people with medical conditions like sleep apnea, or athletes at high altitude. And even then you won't be able to get continuous monitoring. Current wrist SpO2 sensors require the wearer to hold still for a while in order to get an accurate reading.
I turned mine off to save battery life.
vermarish
I love the animation when you click "No" on "Do you want a new Pebble?". So extra.
ctkhn
Gotta be honest I feel like Garmin is the perfect balance of pebble vs apple watch
seanhunter
Garmin is the perfect solution if you want a smart watch with a gps that takes 5mins to possibly sync 50% of the time and a touchscreen-only interface that doesn’t work if it gets wet or say sweaty. Ie during most of the activities it’s supposedly designed for.
When I got a garmin smartwatch I was astounded by how poor the basic ux is in almost every single way. If I’m swimming, how do I stop my work out? The touchscreen doesn’t work because it’s wet. I have to do some sort of double click of the button. No that’s pause. Maybe triple click - no that didn’t do anything. Maybe hold the button? Now it wants to delete my whole workout.
And the GPS sync thing amazes me. I put up with this problem when I was using garmin GPSs for accurate time sync for servers back in the 1990s, but 25+ years later for them not to have figured it out when literally every other GPS device does it just fine completely blows my mind. Apple watch? I want to go for a walk/run/whatever I hit go. If I move during the 3-2-1 countdown nbd it figures it out. Garmin I want to do it I hit go, it tries to sync the sattelites. If I move during this process it starts from scratch. Sometimes the sync takes 30 seconds or so. Annoying but not impossible to live with. Most of the time however the sync takes 30seconds or so and just fails. Also annoying but whatever. Some of the time however the sync takes a few minutes and then fails. And if I move at all during this, it gives me a message saying it’s going to have to start again and starts from scratch.
And to add insult to injury the thing has a custom charging plug with the socket on the back of the watch. It has a ridge and two spikes that physically press into my wrist making it actually painful to wear. So bad.
timanderson
Opposite experience here. Went from Apple Watch to Garmin, couldn't be happier. Never had an issue with the charging point chafing, it is recessed and no problem. Buttons to start/stop/pause/resume activity work as expected, so much better than trying to swipe and tap the Apple Watch screen especially in wet conditions. GPS sync never been an issue for me, you can start an activity before it syncs and it figures it out.
eps
> And the GPS sync thing amazes me.
If the watch was recently synced with the app to get current GPS ephemrides, it gets the lock within seconds. Otherwise, it may take much longer just like any other GPS device with outdated ephemerides.
primozk
Which Garmin to you have? This isn't my experience. And you have option to buy Garmin watches with actual buttons, I agree the touch-screen only are useless.
bdavbdav
What garmin is this? My Epix (just a Fenix 7 with a fancy screen) seems to hit GPS near instantly, and you can disable the touchscreen. AFAIK it’s only the very basic ones / fashion smartwatches that are touch only (or touch and one or two buttons)
haltcatchfire
I've been using Fenix 5 and then Fenix 7 for many years now and I don't recognize any of the points you're making. I might agree on the awful charging port, but that's fixed by getting one of the cheap charging "pads" from Amazon.
sneeze-slayer
Garmin instinct fixes this. Rugged, physical buttons with a battery life that last weeks. It's true about the special charger, but there are also usb-c adapters.
lloeki
This may be model/generation dependent.
I've had such issues with my Forerunner 735xt (from the very start), but ever since I upgraded - or seen friends using - newer hardware, these issues have entirely disappeared.
e.g I've traced sync issues to some problem in the BT stack: forcing a disconnect/reconnect made it sync without fail. GPS was slow to lock because of low storage thus no AGPS data.
The situation with "new" hardware is completely different.
GPS lock is ~instant, by the time I get out of my RF bunker of a home I have a lock by the time I have moved the arm to press the start activity button.
Sync is subsecond usually, and takes mere seconds when it "catches up" due to phone being away from watch for a while.
Touchscreen is handy sometimes but a mere occasional bonus convenience in specific occasions: the main input mechanism is squarely buttons. I mean touch for watches is kinda braindead as an input mechanism since a finger covers so much of an area, obscuring a quarter of the screen.
UI and menu organisation felt very odd at the beginning, but after a while I started understanding how and why it's laid out this way.
It is a very alien interface at first but it absolutely makes sense, and the amount of things one can do straight from the watch is insane. I mean you can never ever sync the watch to Garmin Connect and still have a massive amount of features. It's essentially completely autonomous, something I used to great effect when their system was brought down because of IIRC a malware attack.
Gasp0de
You must have gotten a weird Garmin that doesn't suit your needs then. Why did you get a Garmin with a touch screen, when you really wanted buttons and Garmin offers watches with buttons?
And I believe the GPS sync is necessary when you don't have an internet connection on the watch.
rafaelmn
I really like vivomove looks but after buying lux as a gift for my wife I think I will steer clear. App was bad, syncing issues, she wore it for a while because she liked how it looks but I think she has not charged it in over a year because of how much the experience sucks compared to apple watch or even withings.
I have a withings scanwatch right now, the app is nice, ecosystem is nice - but accuracy is very underwhelming.
I would pay 1k for a watch that
- is hybrid with subtle watch aesthetic and minimal display/vibration for notifications
- has Apple watch level metric accuracy
- has week long battery life
- ideally would have replaceable battery but not a deal breaker if warranty is 3 years
synecdoche
2 short taps on the top button on Garmin Venu Sq 2 when swimming is the default activity. It counts laps automatically. It can be setup to display 2—4 statistics during the swim. Now if someone could explain what the other thing is that appears for a few seconds when changing direction at the wall in the pool is, and how to disable it, that would be useful. Two counters, one in large font and below one in small font. Typically they start at, or are, 0.
asdff
I can't get over garmins predatory business model. The way they bin their products by activity is terrible if you have multiple hobbies. All of these devices are just a gps reciever, screen, battery, yet they sell it to you a dozen different ways for $500+ a pop usually because why unify the software and make it easy for the consumer?
bdavbdav
That’s just marketing surely? Is there any activity that you’d want, apart from diving, missing from a fenix/epix?
wingerlang
> why unify the software and make it easy for the consumer
I honestly believe that selling them as separate products is easier. Both for the company who can focus in on the advertising, and for 99% of the customers who can go straight to their hobby.
That being said, it does look like the very first watch on their website is specifically in its own multi-sport category.
david422
There are some models that basically do them all - fenix, epix etc.
WD-42
I like my instinct, but Garmin is so locked down, less hackable than even an Apple Watch.
teruakohatu
You can download the SDK and side load applications. No annual developer fee. Not sure how it’s more locked down.
knifie_spoonie
I'm curious why you're saying it's less hackable?
I've written my own little app for my Garmin watch, and I didn't need to get permission from them or pay them anything.
HumblyTossed
Less hackable in what way? I've found it's tremendously easier to write a watch face for the Garmin than the Apple Watch. I know, I've done it (and if you, like me, don't want to share your watch face, leave it in Beta all the time).
Levitating
The Instinct 2 has an SDK and a sort of app store. I must admit that adding real new functionality is hard, but it's something at least.
tylervigen
Did you randomly bring this up, or are you saying this because you see a Garmin redirect when you click "No"?
I ask because I get directed to the Apple Watch homepage.
Chilko
Oh interesting, I got directed to Pixel Watch
Levitating
I absolutely love my Garmin instict. It has an always-on display and a battery that lasts for nearly a month.
I mostly use it for reading my calendar, weather, notifications and time. Occasionally I use it for exercise.
But what it also excels at is GPS. I use it as a backup navigational tool when sailing. It has also prevented me from getting lost when running in the woods a number of times.
Steltek
My Pebble Time Steel finally bit the dust so I turned to a Garmin Instinct. I can't stand it. The button placement is totally random and legitimately painful to use. The Garmin software focuses on fitness activities to the exclusion of everything else.
I recoil at having been tempted by the more expensive Garmin watches. What a waste of money that would have been!
m_kos
You could always sell it. <hint hint>
abraxas
I just gave away a very expensive Garmin to my son. Its feature set is to dream of. Its user interface is hot garbage. When I'm out on a hike or in the pool trying to just measure my fsking laps I need a single click option or something. Their paradigm of "button 1, button 3, button 5, long press button 4, button 1 again to confirm. Now you can push off the wall in 3... 2... 1" is beyond fucking stupid.
Does anyone at Garmin actually practice sports? For a company with such great hardware they really need someone competent on the UX team. Throwing everything into more and more menus and submenus is not working.
The specific watch I'm criticizing is Garmin Instinct 2x solar. The name is very ironic because there is nothing intuitive about using that watch. Like, at all.
foobarchu
On the positive side, I adore that they sell (sold?) the forerunner series with all physical buttons and no touchscreen. Garbage software, but being able to click through by muscle memory instead of dealing with a touch interface in sunny conditions is essential to me. Fitbits and apple watches have just always been too reliant on the touch method for my liking.
The software is pretty crap though, and forerunner in particular is way too locked down towards running activities.
llimllib
I don't swim, but I have done thousands of runs with my series of garmin watches and I can say that the UX for them is spectacular, everything is in a sensible place for me to do without thinking.
Not sure what problems you've had with it specifically
jorvi
To be honest, that is not a problem unique to.. well.. any domain-specific company's tech stack.
Raymarine their marine GPS navigation units are supposed to be very intuitive, but they lack so many "that would have been nice" features, and their UX has stuff where various buttons have click / double-click / hold / hold 2s / hold 10s, all to access different functions. Some of it isn't even written down in the manual.
hparadiz
All this plus not being able to see any data while offline. Super useful when you're 13,000 feet up on a mountain somewhere.
jeffbee
My Garmin has a dedicated hardware button that says "LAP"
Moldoteck
Don't some Garmin watches support long press app launch?
alex-korr
What are you even talking about? Garmin has an auto start/stop feature for lap swimming. All you need to do is single press top right button once to start the session and press the same button to stop and then another button to save it. It will literally do everything else for you automatically.
soxocx
On the iPhone I get redirected to the Apple Store page for the Apple Watch. Nice humor.
Findecanor
I got a tiny bit offended by the assumption that I'd rather have an Apple Watch.
I'd think the ideal for me would instead be something in-between a Pebble and a Sensor Watch. Something hackable with more battery life, that is a watch first (and a smartphone notification screen never). I wonder how far I could go towards that goal with the upcoming Pebble hardware and rewriting the OS kernel to sleep more.
bean-weevil
I interpreted it as an intentional insult :)
jacobgkau
I think it's just a static redirect, it sent me to the Apple Watch page in Firefox on Linux. But I also wondered if it would shuffle between a few different brands or something (I guess not).
splonk
Looks it tries to identify Apple devices and goes to Pixel for everything else.
const platform = navigator.platform || '';
const userAgent = navigator.userAgent || '';
const isAppleDevice = /iPhone|iPad|MacIntel/.test(platform) ||
/iPhone|iPad|Mac OS/.test(userAgent);
// Set redirect URL and message based on device
const redirectUrl = isAppleDevice
? 'https://www.apple.com/watch'
: 'https://store.google.com/product/pixel_watch_3?hl=en-US';
HaZeust
It looks like:
- Chromium browsers (tested in Edge, Chrome, Brave) go to Pixel Watch,
- Android devices go to Pixel Watch,
- Apple devices go to Apple Watch,
- Firefox brings you to Apple Watch.
It might also be randomized, but that's what my tests got me, and only the Firefox one doesn't make humorous sense.
null
cjonas
I got redirected to pixel
eloisant
The feature I use the most on my smartwatch is paying.
So if they can bring contactless payments to their new Pebble they have my attention, otherwise it's useless to me.
ZeWaka
There exists 'smart bands', which can be applied to any (generally non-smart, obviously) watch that uses normal pin-style watchbands. They have a contactless chip in them that can store one card. My traditional watches use them, though I had to custom-make one of the bands to be in a style I wanted.
ryukafalz
From what I've seen these aren't available in the US, unless I've missed one. (I would be very interested if so!)
NikolaNovak
That is awesome... Any links? Any risk vectors I may be missing?
gvurrdon
It's a major use of the watch for me also, but something like a Pebble 2 HR would tempt me to abandon payments. Do you have any links to examples of these bands you've found useful?
miki123211
How do those handle user authentication and card installation?
I assume you need support from your bank for the former and PINs for the latter?
jsheard
I wouldn't count on that, getting every bank on board is a massive undertaking. Even Garmin Pay and Fitbit Pay (before it was folded into Google Wallet) have/had huge gaps in their coverage, especially outside of the US.
urbandw311er
You could cut out the chip from a debit card and glue it to the back of the pebble?
jsheard
It's not quite that easy since the NFC antenna extends beyond the chip.
Still doable though, as demonstrated by Bobby Fingers: https://youtu.be/NF4VJJKTjy8?t=825
edarchis
The amount of us who clicked no is amazing. I loved my Pebble Time but I'm going to give money to yet another Kickstarter and have it be killed shortly after.
echelon
Feels a little bit salty to send customers to Google's competitor given the fact that Google provided the exit and also liberated the code. They didn't have to do that.
A better "thank you" to Google would be to direct people to Fitbit.
erohead
Good call, I just changed it to send to pixel watch if opened on Android or Windows!
alex_young
I think it’s perfect actually.
Google used to (still?) have a page internally where if you clicked on “I don’t care about security” it sent you to the jobs page of a competitor that had suffered a notable breach.
Very on point.
wlesieutre
I thought they killed FitBit and are doing Pixel Watch again instead
Reason077
> "A better "thank you" to Google would be to direct people to Fitbit."
Fitbit has already gone off to the great Google graveyard, unfortunately.
shaklee3
no. they just released the Fitbit ace
wkat4242
It's just a joke I think. But yeah linking to the pixel watch would have been nicer.
cryptozeus
why not redirect to google watches specially if the team is from goodle !
rzazueta
I LOVE My Pebble and even got Rebble working on it not long ago to revive it.
However...
If you want to make it TRULY HACKABLE as you claim, you will not encumber it with cloud dependencies like you did last time. Let ME self host my own Pebble server if I choose. Go ahead and default to your servers and sell services and whatever, but let me host my own and switch the base URL to my own domain, preferably with open source software and simple APIs, without requiring me to go through your servers.
That way, even if this attempt also doesn't pan out, those of us willing to do the work will at least still have the functionality we want. I get the whole VC "lock them into required cloud services for life so we can make endless subscription revenue" model, but it's absolutely corrupt.
And, Eric, I know you know that - you have a hacker's heart. Please listen to it.
erohead
I'm 100% with you! No VCs this time...no mandatory cloud subscription. But I'm not really sure that this fear is grounded - before we sold to Fitbit we 'unlocked' the Pebble mobile app so you could use it with any cloud you wanted, including self hosted. So...it already meets your definition
follower
Oh! Also: I'd be really interested for you to expand on "I think I’ve learned some valuable lessons[0]".
The 2022 updates gave an interesting insight into how your perspective had changed in regard to your initial thoughts and I'm interested to know if another three years has lead to further perspective changes.
I found Andrew Witte's remark of particular interest with regard to "...we allowed early success [...] to mask the fact that we never gained a good understanding of what our actual customers valued the most. We lucked into having made something people wanted (the original Pebble) and, IMO, never really were able to figure out exactly why it was successful. So it was hard to reproduce that success."
----
andrewflnr
Possibly that's a good thing to mention on the homepage. :)
saidinesh5
This is really good news!
Wishlist for the next device:
More sensors: heart rate, spo2 and ecg...
flakeoil
Please, not too many sensors. Long battery life and small size and low weight is more important. All the other smartphones and fitness watches have these sensors so get one of those instead.
Maybe a HW interface to attach other sensor modules could be an option, but could also easily become a distraction and pull down the overall experience.
[Edit] A wireless i/f (bluetooth, LP RF) is of course better to use as interface to any peripheral sensor modules.
donjoe0
Never cared about Pebble's fitness/health tracking and never used it. I don't need my health reported to me in numbers every day, I'm not a performance athlete nor a hospital patient. Living my personal life trying to hit some numbers dictated to me by some app sounds like a horrifying idea, like a second work life at home.
_Algernon_
I prefer accurate sensors over many sensors.
My last watch would measure my heart rate to be in the 140s while sleeping. I have since slept with a chest strap heart rate monitor and do not in fact have a medical condition.
Granted, that was a cheap watch, but I still don't see the use case of a smart watch for health tracking versus phone+100$ chest strap.
I believe the usefulness of these kinds of devices for health tracking is vastly overstated due to lack of accuracy.
Neikius
Well I for one agree here. Some good sensors would be nice. Otherwise why even have a smart watch? Just get a regular. But there will be a tradeoff, there always is and we cannot have everything. At this point in time I will settle with something that is open and builds a healthy ecosystem.
follower
TL;DR: Succinctness has never been my strong suit? :)
----
> But I'm not really sure that this fear is grounded - before we sold to Fitbit we 'unlocked' the Pebble mobile app [...].
If I'm reading OP's comment & your reply correctly, my impression is there's potentially a fear of either (a) "re-locking"; or, even just (b) "new thing not unlocked"--and, I think, you're saying that (a) isn't going to/can't happen?
On closer reading I think you might also be saying that (b) isn't going to happen because "new thing" is still going to use the previous unlocked app and/or maybe a new unlocked app? But, if that's the case, I only really saw that possible interpretation after a much closer re-read.
(Alternatively, maybe I just didn't weight sufficiently strongly the FAQ: "Will it be exactly like Pebble?" "Yes. In almost every way.")
More broadly (outside the positive example of your specific track record with regard to OGPebble & the app unlocking), given the landscape of the past 1.5+ decades littered with even just recent examples such as Spotify's Car Thing, Google's Stadia controller, Bambu Labs, and pretty much every phone ever[0][0a], I think it would be a stretch to consider the fear to be entirely ungrounded.
Particularly if some portion of the device firmware etc and/or server software is still going to be closed source.
In terms of strength of confidence in the potential of achieving a "desired open outcome/ongoing experience", I imagine the ordering from least to greatest trust required by product purchasers is something like: "completely open & unlocked from the beginning", "legally binding commitment/escrow for open & unlocked on 'exit'", "word/reputation for open & unlocked on 'exit'", through to "amorphous hope for largesse/noblesse-oblige/benevolence/other-fancy-latin-phrase for positive outcome at some unspecified future time".
And, um, trust in general might be slightly lacking these days, for some reason. :)
Anyway, IMO FWIW.
----
On a slightly different note, while reading comments in the various PebbleOS/RePebble threads I've been contemplating what has changed with regard to the consumer electronics hardware market compared to, say, fifteen plus years ago.
Certainly the "hope" of Android bringing the Power & Freedom of "Linux on Desktop" to "Linux on the Phonetop"[1] from the early 2000s seems to have been completely abandoned[2] but on the other hand Framework[3] exists and the Steam Deck[4] exists.
Perhaps the two most surprising things related to this "control over personal devices" topic from recent history:
(1) the discovery 1-2 years ago that it wasn't just irascible curmudgeons like me wanting to have control over the devices in their lives[5] but a much younger generation was also looking to "dumb phones" in a conscious effort to exert some control over the impact of such devices on their lives.
(1.1) aside: the attraction of similar demographic(s) to audio cassette tapes on the other hand, I totally don't "get" but by now I'm starting to suspect this state may now be primarily driven by the desire to not accidentally make cassettes uncool by "getting" it. :D
(2) noting over the past year or so the significant increase in the number (or even the mere presence) of YouTube comments from gamers remarking that they have just, or, want to, move from Windows to Linux. Gamers. GAMERS! The same demographic who previously would ruthlessly mock anyone who dare suggest such a move might be possible[6] let alone desirable...
This might all just be the biased perspective of a jaded idealistic optimist[7] but it's not nothing. Unless it is.
Approaching consumer electronics hardware with this trend as a guiding force may also not be the way to run a financially sustainable hardware business but on the other hand, what if?
----
BTW I noticed in one place on the page (https://repebble.com/) the text states:
* "(which purchased Fitbit, which had bought Pebble)"
and in another it states:
* "before the company's IP was sold to Fitbit in 2016".
I mention this because the difference is a nuance that has seemed to be significant in other times/places, so thought it might have unintentionally slipped through proof-reading--even if of no real consequence now. :)
----
Also: Hello! (Again. :) ) This was unexpected news, for sure.
Left another "short" note for you here (in case you've not encountered it organically): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42856930
----
[0] Yes, yes, Fairphone exists.
[0a] Televisions!
[1] Irony? Satire? Sarcasm? *shrug*
[2] Speaking of small phones, this still remains of interest: https://smallandroidphone.com/
[3] I so want to know what category Framework's "Next Thing" is in--primarily because what's seemingly the "most obvious" category for them to move into also seems the most "unlikely" by any reasonable measure. So to find out would be to either be surprised by a category I hadn't considered or surprised by the audaciousness of their next goal.
[4] Hand-waving away for now any problematic aspects of its current context.
[5] See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42848761 & https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42845574 (non-pejorative :) )
[6] Yes, yes, every PlayStation fan-persoin runs BSD.
[7] I do like the phrase "user-respectful technology" as used here: https://rebble.io/2025/01/27/the-future-of-rebble.html
lolinder
So much this. Learn from Framework: Sell the hardware at a price point that makes your business sustainable without needing a cloud component to push you over into profitability.
Yes, it will lock out people for whom that price is unacceptable, but now more than ever your real customer is serious hackers, and we are collectively more than fed up with the cloud and subscriptions. Framework and Nabu Casa need to be your models here, because your customers are overwhelmingly their customers.
NoahKAndrews
Pretty much all of the cloud stuff has been reimplemented with open-source code by the community! See rebble.org.
bcraven
rebble.io is the correct address
ClassyJacket
I second this. I'll be very hesitant to buy in if it's locked to a cloud service. And people are waking up to this, with the Bambu controversy and all. Please don't make this mistake.
Neikius
I keep looking for a decent watch. And phone. And there is just nothing available. Everything gets encumbered with this and that cloud. This and that app. Mandatory policies, apps, surveillance and eventually subscriptions or selling of your personal data.
I don't think we will be getting this in our "free market". It would need to be mandated by state for manufacturers to use open APIs. There is just no incentive for them to offer those otherwise.
mattogodoy
I came to say exactly this. I could not have stated it better. As a Pebble power user back in the day, who owns 3 watches and pledged in the Kickstarter to get the new Pebble that sadly never saw the light of day, the only way I'm coming back is if every piece of this puzzle is open source. And by this I mean:
- Servers: I agree with you. Make a default "cloud" owned by Pebble, but give us the ability to self-host it. NO SUBSCRIPTIONS, NO ADS, NO PRIVACY INVASION, PLEASE.
- PebbleOS: This is already a reality, and I'm very happy that it's happening.
- Mobile apps: Make them open-source! Let us play with them and you'll benefit of the fixes, improvements and innovation of the community.
- Hardware: It would be fine for me if the hardware was not open. As long as I can install my own firmware on it and have full control of it, I'm happy.
I think I speak for most of us when I say that I'm sick and tired of not owning my stuff. In the dystopic world we're living in, with enshittification at it's peak, an open, hackable, and truly owned device would feel like a breath of fresh air.
You have a real opportunity here, Eric. Please use it :) Best of luck!
blobbers
When micropayments fail to annoy sufficiently, just turn them into microsubscriptions! Try 3 days for 30 cents!
-- agree with you rzazeuta!
ericd
Ooh yeah, big bonus points if it integrates easily with eg Homeassistant.
scottydelta
This is great news. In the last few years, I have upgraded my apple watch couple of times hoping to accept even marginal improvements to battery life and hackability but every time I stop using it seeing how it's still not what I am looking for.
I tried keeping my pebble alive for so long even after it's demise, I bought 2 Pebble Time when a few were still available on ebay.
I remember writing my first integration from scratch to control room lamp using my Pebble watch. I hacked it together by getting a wifi socket and programming a web-server hosted on my raspberry-pi.
Here is the DEMO video I made 8 years ago: https://vikashbajaj.com/pebble.mp4
My pebble watch would call an app on my phone, in turn the app would make a request to the webserver and the webserver would then make a query to the wifi socket to toggle it.
It lagged a bit but it got the job done. I could connect anything to these wifi sockets and control any appliance with my Pebble time. This was before hackable smart hubs were a thing.
oli-g
> My pebble watch would call an app on my phone, in turn the app would make a request to the webserver and the webserver would then make a query to the wifi socket to toggle it
When you ask your programmer husband to turn on the light
brk
Looking forward to checking it out!
I still have this email in my inbox from 2011, after a posting here on HN about your launch:
Subject: You bought the first one! BODY: Congratulations...
Great to see this happening again, best of luck!
erohead
Thanks for being there at the beginning!
xanderlewis
That’s really cool.
minimalengineer
Great device — lasted 4 years, woke me at 5 AM without disturbing my kids, and handled notifications well. Battery life was about a week, and it was swim-proof. That said, it was cheap... I hope this new version isn’t part of the “dumb” device trend where people spend $500 just to detox, thinking the price will force commitment.
OccamsMirror
At the same time, I hope it's priced high enough so that the company can thrive without taking external funding. PE and VC fuck everything up.
wvenable
Developing the for the Pebble was a lot of fun. There was a Pebble hack-a-thon recently (recent being 2 years ago) and I finally got around to finishing a project that I started a decade earlier:
https://github.com/codaris/pebble-cpp
It might even become relevant again!
Pebble had an ingenious design for its watch apps. Despite the watch having a limited processor and even more limited RAM, it could accommodate several apps, each boasting a lot of capability.
Each Pebble app was comprised of two components: one that resided on the watch and another on the phone. Users could install these apps from Pebble's dedicated app store, and the same app was compatible with both iOS and Android. Pebble brilliantly bypassed Apple's app install restrictions and cross-platform compatibility challenges by executing the on-phone portion within the platform's JavaScript engine.
If you wanted to create a weather application, the phone component of the app would be written in JavaScript and retrieve weather updates from the Internet, which would then be conveyed to the watch's C-based app for display. Watch apps could also have a settings page that was implemented in HTML.
I have always been impressed by of the cleverness and simplicity of this design.
tomaskafka
Oh, my memory is hazy here, but if I remember right, at the beginning Apple didn’t let them download executable code (companion js) to the app, so they just took a javascript code from every app in the pebble store, bundled it into Pebble iOS app, and updated it every few days with a fresh code.
Can anyone confirm?
KatharineBerry
That is exactly what we did.
Bonus fact: we didn’t actually read the bundled code - we downloaded it from the internet and ran it as usual. But a server-side check ensured you could only get the JavaScript we’d bundled.
Or at least it did until we eventually quietly turned off the check, when Apple stopped paying attention.
tomaskafka
Oooh, clever :). Just dash quickly when the Sauron's eye looks in another direction :)).
ir3k
Forgot the year of the Linux. It's the year of Pebble! I had a blast on last Rebble hackathon creating watchface named pRebble inspired by Pebble original UI design which I found amazing in how it manifested through work of designers within limitations and constrains of this platform. I can't wait to explore it even more on second hachathon. Looking forward to see Pebble rising from the ashes \(^-^ )
girvo
My Pebble Time Round is still the single best piece of tech I have ever owned and used, and I miss it every day.
If it can be brought back, I’d pay whatever is necessary, and I’d love to contribute now that I’ve spent many years doing embedded firmware development professionally!
eiiot
I still use my PTR daily! See https://rebble.io/ :)
mazambazz
Even though I haven't used one in a really long time, the Pebble Time still stands out to me as something I wish I still had.
It's an absolutely shame that Pebble was so innovative and functional, but couldn't reach mass market. But, I am extremely excited and happy that the Pebble team can start it again. I don't like Google for many things, but, I am grateful that the open-sourced PebbleOS. What a joyous day!
TeMPOraL
> It's an absolutely shame that Pebble was so innovative and functional, but couldn't reach mass market.
I think trying to reach "mass market" - or specifically, the market of people who are into fitness and sportsball - is largely what killed them. I'd like to believe that they could've catered to existing userbase a bit longer, grew a little more slowly but sustainably by doubling down on an idea of an ergonomic, battery-efficient, programmable smartwatch extension - a tool, not a toy.
Alas, maybe the whole thing was over once Apple, and Samsung got their marketing wheels spinning.
Avamander
> Alas, maybe the whole thing was over once Apple, and Samsung got their marketing wheels spinning.
Totally possible, like Nokia vs the iPhone. Difficult to say for sure though, seeing vendors like Fitbit and Garmin still operate in the same space.
TeMPOraL
Not as ergonomic, no e-paper, and not hackable. They're fitness gadgets, not tools.
blackdisk
I think the ethos if the tech world is "grow as fast as possible or die" but there should be more companies that create good products and make a profit catering to a small demographic. 2 million customers is nothing to sneeze at.
BlueTemplar
I'm still using it, in fact to the point that it's probably the biggest factor why I have been procrastinating on still staying on Android rather than trying alternatives like PinePhone.
That the OS has been open sourced is great news (though it's sad it was on GitHub... and hopefully other communities around Pebble will spring up outside of platforms (article only mentions Discord and Reddit)).
zokier
Pebble Time (Steel) Kickstarter is the only crowdfunding I truly regret missing out on. I remember seeing it at the time, but I think the reward levels I wanted were sold out or something.
Even in retrospect it seems weird that it failed the way it did.
lclc
On the GitHub it says: > Proprietary source code has been removed from this repository and it will not compile as-is. This is for information only.
Not sure how much use it is?
agloe_dreams
They list out what the proprietary bits are. All of it is third party gernical hardware interface libraries that they do not own. Bluetooth stack, etc. All stuff you can rewrite easier today.
The Magic of pebble was the UX of the OS and it's extensive hackability. All that magic is OSS now.
Thank you, Google. You didn't have to, but you did. We (the Pebble team and community) are extraordinarily grateful.
I wrote a blog post about our plans to bring Pebble back, sustainably. https://ericmigi.com/blog/why-were-bringing-pebble-back
We got our original start on HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3827868), it's a pleasure to be back.