It's great to see them coming back! I adored my Pebble(s). 2 fun stories: Pebble supported 3rd party watch faces based on a file. There was a great little site that let you use a visual UI to...
It's great to see them coming back! I adored my Pebble(s). 2 fun stories:
Pebble supported 3rd party watch faces based on a file. There was a great little site that let you use a visual UI to build the file and, if done from your phone, upload it right to the watch. Once, when out at midnight beer launch, I made a custom face for the beer and won a little keychain from the brewery. My Apple watch could never.
Once time in 2014, I ran into some Pebble engineers at an ice cream shop in Palo Alto, they spotted my watch, they bought my scoop! Fun, weird little Silicon Valley moment.
Bad ending: by refusing the call for an open-source smart watch, you have doomed the project to be once again bound to Google, forevermore. EDIT for the sake of this comment not being just a joke:...
Bad ending: by refusing the call for an open-source smart watch, you have doomed the project to be once again bound to Google, forevermore.
EDIT for the sake of this comment not being just a joke: I initially dismissed smart watches as a gadget (why would I need a watch to display more than a clock/date/chronometer?), but if we start from the premise that I could effectively build my own UI on its display, that might become compelling enough for me to consider it. The e-ink display would also be important to avoid the "can't see the screen because the sun is too bright" problem that is all too common with many displays used outside.
Just so you know, there are already e-ink smart watches on the market today. They're not quite as nice as Pebble was, especially because most of the ones I have seen are meant for programmers to...
Just so you know, there are already e-ink smart watches on the market today. They're not quite as nice as Pebble was, especially because most of the ones I have seen are meant for programmers to tinker with, but they're there for those who want them.
It's not electrophoretic ("e-ink"), it's basically RLCD. A "transflective LCD", I'm not familiar with the specific differences between transflective and RLCD.
The e-ink display
It's not electrophoretic ("e-ink"), it's basically RLCD. A "transflective LCD", I'm not familiar with the specific differences between transflective and RLCD.
Whilst at least partially a joke, considering Google's surprisingly altruistic move in open sourcing PebbleOS and being chill with previous community efforts, I could imagine having enough...
Whilst at least partially a joke, considering Google's surprisingly altruistic move in open sourcing PebbleOS and being chill with previous community efforts, I could imagine having enough goodwill to actually promote (in a minor way) Google's own replacement product.
I'm perhaps more excited about the update from Rebble, because they've been putting in work for years now to keep Pebbles alive, so they probably have the best infrastructure for supporting it,...
I'm perhaps more excited about the update from Rebble, because they've been putting in work for years now to keep Pebbles alive, so they probably have the best infrastructure for supporting it, and they might already have code to support the chips in Pebble that Google has (sigh) redacted.
I was building a real-time operating system a few years ago, and had the opportunity to deep-dive into Rebble. What a great OS! Was far better than anything else available at the time. And open...
I was building a real-time operating system a few years ago, and had the opportunity to deep-dive into Rebble. What a great OS! Was far better than anything else available at the time. And open source!
Pebble fell into the same trap that a lot of venture-backed HW fell into (including my org). Basically everyone told them to grow fast to build the new vertical (which is VC strategy for literally every company), and continue to raise venture funds every 2 years. HW was a venture darling for a couple of seasons and then they moved onto the next narrative, leaving Pebble with no way to capitalize their huge team. It was not a failure of the product, it was a failure of the capitalization structure.
I’m hoping they take a more thoughtful approach this time around.
Put me down as "cautiously intrigued". I've written before on here about my feelings about Pebble. Given renewed interest and an open source companion app, I'm much more likely to pull out my old...
Put me down as "cautiously intrigued".
I've written before on here about my feelings about Pebble. Given renewed interest and an open source companion app, I'm much more likely to pull out my old Time Round than buy a new watch (especially if new production runs are brightly-colored original or Pebble 2-styled; that's perfectly fine, but not really my aesthetic). But given those things, I'd still give it just even odds with continuing to wear my current watch. I like my current dumb watch. It's definitely a better watch than the Time Round.
All a bunch of stuff that I hadn't thought I would have to consider again, I guess. Which is exciting in its own right, whether I change any of my habits as a result or not. =)
Amazing news! I'm still running an old Pebble after I broke 2, bought this one used, then replaced the screen and battery I think from Aliexpress. App is getting long in the tooth, so this will be...
Amazing news! I'm still running an old Pebble after I broke 2, bought this one used, then replaced the screen and battery I think from Aliexpress. App is getting long in the tooth, so this will be incredible if it happens!
Still rocking a Pebble Time nearly 10 years after the original launch -- the original tragically succumbed to water damage while applying a screen protector, but I have a backup. I love the slim...
Still rocking a Pebble Time nearly 10 years after the original launch -- the original tragically succumbed to water damage while applying a screen protector, but I have a backup. I love the slim minimalist look, the watchface, the tactile does-what-it-needs-to functionality, the multiday battery life. If this team can somehow resurrect that form factor (or at least make it much easier to build from parts), I'd make it a day 1 purchase.
This brought me out of lurking to say I miss this watch so much. Mine fell out of use when the app/os integration lagged behind, but it was still my favourite watch to date.
This brought me out of lurking to say I miss this watch so much. Mine fell out of use when the app/os integration lagged behind, but it was still my favourite watch to date.
Gadgetbridge worked (as of a few years ago when I last used it), and supported most of Pebble's features (all the ones I used, but not necessarily all), but it was a big pain in the ass to use....
Gadgetbridge worked (as of a few years ago when I last used it), and supported most of Pebble's features (all the ones I used, but not necessarily all), but it was a big pain in the ass to use. You had to extract apps and watchfaces for sideloading, and nothing was as smooth or polished as with Pebble's app.
I love my Pebble Time. It's still on my desk, and I still wear it sometimes. It's a great nerdy gadget, and I remember it was super easy to make small apps in JavaScript(!). My og Pebble died when...
I love my Pebble Time. It's still on my desk, and I still wear it sometimes. It's a great nerdy gadget, and I remember it was super easy to make small apps in JavaScript(!). My og Pebble died when the charging ports rusted away after wearing it at the pool, and I got it replaced under warranty just a few weeks before the company shut down.
There are tons of great watchfaces, it shows phone notifications, let me control my music player, and the battery lasts longer than my phone's. I don't want anything more from a smartwatch. I'd love to see them back from the grave!
As a person that stopped wearing a watch before smartwatches became a thing, the pebble is the only smartwatch I was tempted by, however when I finally looked into it I learned they'd already gone...
As a person that stopped wearing a watch before smartwatches became a thing, the pebble is the only smartwatch I was tempted by, however when I finally looked into it I learned they'd already gone out of business. So admittedly the idea of being able to purchase a new one is pretty tempting.
I loved my pebble and wore it for several years until it died. That said now that I've moved to an apple watch, I'm not entirely sure I want to go back to something more basic. I find charging my...
I loved my pebble and wore it for several years until it died.
That said now that I've moved to an apple watch, I'm not entirely sure I want to go back to something more basic. I find charging my watch every day isn't nearly the pain in the ass I thought it would be, and I actually get a lot of use out of more advanced features I thought would be unnecessary.
Very excited for this! I had a Pebble when I was younger and it was the only smartwatch of those I've owned that I ever used for a long period of time. Everything else was too big, too heavy, or...
Very excited for this! I had a Pebble when I was younger and it was the only smartwatch of those I've owned that I ever used for a long period of time. Everything else was too big, too heavy, or just too unwieldy.
I also absolutely loved the creativity in the community watchfaces and making my own. While I've since switched back to a normal dumb watch, if/when this launches I'll definitely be in line to pick one up!
I’ve never owned a Pebble, my only smartwatches have been Apple Watches. That said, if battery life on these rebooted Pebbles (whatever they end up being called) manages to be multiple weeks, I...
I’ve never owned a Pebble, my only smartwatches have been Apple Watches.
That said, if battery life on these rebooted Pebbles (whatever they end up being called) manages to be multiple weeks, I might just be swayed to switch. I bought an Ultra 2 almost entirely for the improved battery life and have found even that a very noticeable improvement from the Series 8 I had been using prior.
Aesthetics are another important thing, though. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea but I really love how my Ultra 2 looks with the matte black body and metallic orange highlights, and I hope this new company offers someting similar.
this is great news, but in the same, the 2HRs I have are absolute shit quality compared to the OG kickstarter and retail line. Hopefully he can figure out the buttons and bring the former glory...
this is great news, but in the same, the 2HRs I have are absolute shit quality compared to the OG kickstarter and retail line.
Hopefully he can figure out the buttons and bring the former glory back to market. Pebbles were/are the best.
It's great to see them coming back! I adored my Pebble(s). 2 fun stories:
Pebble supported 3rd party watch faces based on a file. There was a great little site that let you use a visual UI to build the file and, if done from your phone, upload it right to the watch. Once, when out at midnight beer launch, I made a custom face for the beer and won a little keychain from the brewery. My Apple watch could never.
Once time in 2014, I ran into some Pebble engineers at an ice cream shop in Palo Alto, they spotted my watch, they bought my scoop! Fun, weird little Silicon Valley moment.
Lol declining the offer has a surprising twist
Bad ending: by refusing the call for an open-source smart watch, you have doomed the project to be once again bound to Google, forevermore.
EDIT for the sake of this comment not being just a joke: I initially dismissed smart watches as a gadget (why would I need a watch to display more than a clock/date/chronometer?), but if we start from the premise that I could effectively build my own UI on its display, that might become compelling enough for me to consider it. The e-ink display would also be important to avoid the "can't see the screen because the sun is too bright" problem that is all too common with many displays used outside.
Just so you know, there are already e-ink smart watches on the market today. They're not quite as nice as Pebble was, especially because most of the ones I have seen are meant for programmers to tinker with, but they're there for those who want them.
It's not electrophoretic ("e-ink"), it's basically RLCD. A "transflective LCD", I'm not familiar with the specific differences between transflective and RLCD.
I've got some investments in RLCD 😁 It's definitely not gonna take over anything mainstream but it feels like really underutilized tech ATM
Whilst at least partially a joke, considering Google's surprisingly altruistic move in open sourcing PebbleOS and being chill with previous community efforts, I could imagine having enough goodwill to actually promote (in a minor way) Google's own replacement product.
I'm perhaps more excited about the update from Rebble, because they've been putting in work for years now to keep Pebbles alive, so they probably have the best infrastructure for supporting it, and they might already have code to support the chips in Pebble that Google has (sigh) redacted.
I've been stubbornly wearing a Pebble Time since 2015 (switched to a steel in 2022) and this is best news I could have hoped for
Still wear my Pebble Time Round to this day! It's treated me well for almost a DECADE!
I was building a real-time operating system a few years ago, and had the opportunity to deep-dive into Rebble. What a great OS! Was far better than anything else available at the time. And open source!
Pebble fell into the same trap that a lot of venture-backed HW fell into (including my org). Basically everyone told them to grow fast to build the new vertical (which is VC strategy for literally every company), and continue to raise venture funds every 2 years. HW was a venture darling for a couple of seasons and then they moved onto the next narrative, leaving Pebble with no way to capitalize their huge team. It was not a failure of the product, it was a failure of the capitalization structure.
I’m hoping they take a more thoughtful approach this time around.
Put me down as "cautiously intrigued".
I've written before on here about my feelings about Pebble. Given renewed interest and an open source companion app, I'm much more likely to pull out my old Time Round than buy a new watch (especially if new production runs are brightly-colored original or Pebble 2-styled; that's perfectly fine, but not really my aesthetic). But given those things, I'd still give it just even odds with continuing to wear my current watch. I like my current dumb watch. It's definitely a better watch than the Time Round.
All a bunch of stuff that I hadn't thought I would have to consider again, I guess. Which is exciting in its own right, whether I change any of my habits as a result or not. =)
Amazing news! I'm still running an old Pebble after I broke 2, bought this one used, then replaced the screen and battery I think from Aliexpress. App is getting long in the tooth, so this will be incredible if it happens!
Still rocking a Pebble Time nearly 10 years after the original launch -- the original tragically succumbed to water damage while applying a screen protector, but I have a backup. I love the slim minimalist look, the watchface, the tactile does-what-it-needs-to functionality, the multiday battery life. If this team can somehow resurrect that form factor (or at least make it much easier to build from parts), I'd make it a day 1 purchase.
This brought me out of lurking to say I miss this watch so much. Mine fell out of use when the app/os integration lagged behind, but it was still my favourite watch to date.
Could gadgetbridge not handle your pebble? What app features would you be missing that you'd need?
Gadgetbridge worked (as of a few years ago when I last used it), and supported most of Pebble's features (all the ones I used, but not necessarily all), but it was a big pain in the ass to use. You had to extract apps and watchfaces for sideloading, and nothing was as smooth or polished as with Pebble's app.
I love my Pebble Time. It's still on my desk, and I still wear it sometimes. It's a great nerdy gadget, and I remember it was super easy to make small apps in JavaScript(!). My og Pebble died when the charging ports rusted away after wearing it at the pool, and I got it replaced under warranty just a few weeks before the company shut down.
There are tons of great watchfaces, it shows phone notifications, let me control my music player, and the battery lasts longer than my phone's. I don't want anything more from a smartwatch. I'd love to see them back from the grave!
As a person that stopped wearing a watch before smartwatches became a thing, the pebble is the only smartwatch I was tempted by, however when I finally looked into it I learned they'd already gone out of business. So admittedly the idea of being able to purchase a new one is pretty tempting.
I loved my pebble and wore it for several years until it died.
That said now that I've moved to an apple watch, I'm not entirely sure I want to go back to something more basic. I find charging my watch every day isn't nearly the pain in the ass I thought it would be, and I actually get a lot of use out of more advanced features I thought would be unnecessary.
I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this.
Very excited for this! I had a Pebble when I was younger and it was the only smartwatch of those I've owned that I ever used for a long period of time. Everything else was too big, too heavy, or just too unwieldy.
I also absolutely loved the creativity in the community watchfaces and making my own. While I've since switched back to a normal dumb watch, if/when this launches I'll definitely be in line to pick one up!
I’ve never owned a Pebble, my only smartwatches have been Apple Watches.
That said, if battery life on these rebooted Pebbles (whatever they end up being called) manages to be multiple weeks, I might just be swayed to switch. I bought an Ultra 2 almost entirely for the improved battery life and have found even that a very noticeable improvement from the Series 8 I had been using prior.
Aesthetics are another important thing, though. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea but I really love how my Ultra 2 looks with the matte black body and metallic orange highlights, and I hope this new company offers someting similar.
this is great news, but in the same, the 2HRs I have are absolute shit quality compared to the OG kickstarter and retail line.
Hopefully he can figure out the buttons and bring the former glory back to market. Pebbles were/are the best.