Very disappointing for this backer that the Time 2 will never come out. It makes you wonder where the kickstarter money went.
[deleted]
Pebble's next step
31–40 of 457 posts
Re: Pebble's next step
#32Wow this is even worse than expected from the previous news articles... If they're winding down all support and warranties, PLEASE release as much of the watch operating system code as possible! I know some of the IP was sold, but if Fitbit won't be continuing support please help those of us who love our current watches keep them going!
Re: Pebble's next step
#33> Warranty support is no longer available for Pebble watches. That's not very nice.
Also not super legal, probably. I'm sure if you have a problem, you could argue that Fitbit needs to handle it.
Re: Pebble's next step
#34As someone who quite likes their time steel and who was patiently waiting for their time 2 this is incredibly frustrating. No other watches do what I want so I guess my foray into smart watches is over. It's a shame too because I appreciate the convenience it offers but I probably won't miss it much after a couple of weeks
I have an OG pebble steel and it does everything I currently want in a smartwatch. I don't expect it will stop working for some time, and I plan on using it as long as possible.
Has anybody managed to make a nice dissection of the device to see if it's possible to reimplement it ?
Re: Pebble's next step
#35That's a real shame. The search for a small Spotify-enabled device continues.
Re: Pebble's next step
#36But I thought Fitbit was exiting the wearable market?
"Last week, Fitbit reportedly sent job offers to about 40% of Pebble’s employees, most of them software engineers." https://bgr.com/2016/12/07/pebble-kickstarter-refund-time-2/ Apparently they're not that interested in hardware.
Re: Pebble's next step
#37Wow this is even worse than expected from the previous news articles... If they're winding down all support and warranties, PLEASE release as much of the watch operating system code as possible! I know some of the IP was sold, but if Fitbit won't be continuing support please help those of us who love our current watches keep them going!
That's Fitbit's call. Would be a great way to retain some product/brand loyalty among its supporters though!
Re: Pebble's next step
#38I guess their latest Pebble version didn't get the sales they expected. Definitely surprising that they weren't able to sell the company - they had the brand and a loyal customer base. As an owner of a Pebble Time, I was impressed by the integrations, simplicity of design, and battery life. I wonder went wrong - hopefully, there will be some type of post-mortem on these "various factors" over the next few weeks.
> Definitely surprising that they weren't able to sell the company
They sold their liabilities to Fitbit . Wasn't Pebble valuated billions of dollars a few years ago? Something went terribly wrong.
Re: Pebble's next step
#39As someone who quite likes their time steel and who was patiently waiting for their time 2 this is incredibly frustrating. No other watches do what I want so I guess my foray into smart watches is over. It's a shame too because I appreciate the convenience it offers but I probably won't miss it much after a couple of weeks
I agree with this being frustrating. I had to explain to so many people that even though my watch doesn't have a SIM card, integrated 4G, GPS or a memory card slot for music it is still exactly what I wanted. Pebble watches do what smart watches should do, without trying to be a tiny phone on your wrist.
I guess I can only dream, but I hope they some day open up parts of it so that the phone app can continue working even with changes to Android/IOS down the line (if Fitbit doesn't want to keep the old Pebbles alive).
But with that said, a smart watch makes me feel hyper-connected. Putting it in quiet mode (and/or taking it off my wrist) every now and then is liberating and definitely makes me more productive.
Re: Pebble's next step
#40> Pebble devices will continue to work as normal. No immediate changes to the Pebble user experience will happen at this time.
> Pebble functionality or service quality may be reduced in the future.
That's very unfortunate. How much of Pebble relies on some online service? Is it still possible to install apps/updates without their infrastructure?
For companies that don't open source their stuff by default, it would be so nice if there was some kind of escrow service where upon dissolution of the company (sale, bankruptcy, etc) the required software to keep their hardware going would be released. I suspect the problem is while it's a win for consumers, not enough would care: the mass market is not going to only buy products that have this escrow service, and at the same time, it's handcuffs for the business, likely complicating a sale or liquidation of the company, and possibly turning investors off.
I hope the Pebble doesn't become a complete wristbrick, but it's always a shame to see perfectly good hardware crippled because there's no longer a piece of software running entirely outside the consumer's control.