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We're bringing Pebble back

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Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#301

Post by Avamander »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #248
Avamander wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Not as ergonomic, no e-paper, and not hackable . They're fitness gadgets, not tools.

Certainly.

I think openness is vital for such a (new) platform or ecosystem in general. The ecosystem has certainly gotten older by now, especially compared to when Pebble first started, but in my opinion a lot of the organic growth has been stunted. It's too difficult to try new things, find new useful applications and to innovate with all these walled _wearable_ gardens.

I still miss a few things the Pebble had but my Apple Watch doesn't. Which in turn makes it feel less like a tool and more like a gadget.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#302

Post by charlieok »

cool, seems like the ideal device for something like Circa Solar as watch face

  https://www.circa.bio/
Although as far as I can tell, Circa Solar isn't open source. But maybe there's another similar thing that is?

I always liked the idea of an "apparent solar time" watch face, and never did find a way to do that with Apple Watch.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#303

Post by sen »

gerdesj wrote: post #293
modeless wrote: post #282

Reposting the comment I made when Fitbit acquired the hollowed-out shell of Pebble, which still applies today: I liked Pebble as a company because they knew how to make just the right engineering compromises to make their product work. The smartwatch everyone wants has a battery that lasts for weeks, a high contrast always-on color screen visible in daylight and total darkness, no bezel, and a round case only a few m…

I bought a watch in 2003 or so and it cost about £120. I have never worried about powering it - the face is a solar power trickle charger. I can barely generate enough vitamin D for myself but my watch can power itself from the sun here! My watch's time is accurate to within my perception. I run a little fleet of stratum 1 NTP devices and I set my watch roughly bi-annually, whether it needs it or not! The day of week…

It wouldn’t be HN without a comment like this.

“Why even use the internet? You can live just fine without it. Pen and paper doesn’t crash like a computer does. Electric lights? Candles are fine.”

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#304

Post by HumblyTossed »

modeless wrote: post #282

Reposting the comment I made when Fitbit acquired the hollowed-out shell of Pebble, which still applies today: I liked Pebble as a company because they knew how to make just the right engineering compromises to make their product work. The smartwatch everyone wants has a battery that lasts for weeks, a high contrast always-on color screen visible in daylight and total darkness, no bezel, and a round case only a few m…

> The smartwatch everyone wants has a battery that lasts for weeks,

I have both a Garmin and an AW S10. I really don't get why Apple doesn't get this. They insist on putting over powered SOCs in their systems and then shrug off the battery life with, "well now you can charge it to 80% in 30min!" Sure, but that still sucks.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#305

Post by [deleted] »

gerdesj wrote: post #293
modeless wrote: post #282

Reposting the comment I made when Fitbit acquired the hollowed-out shell of Pebble, which still applies today: I liked Pebble as a company because they knew how to make just the right engineering compromises to make their product work. The smartwatch everyone wants has a battery that lasts for weeks, a high contrast always-on color screen visible in daylight and total darkness, no bezel, and a round case only a few m…

I bought a watch in 2003 or so and it cost about £120. I have never worried about powering it - the face is a solar power trickle charger. I can barely generate enough vitamin D for myself but my watch can power itself from the sun here! My watch's time is accurate to within my perception. I run a little fleet of stratum 1 NTP devices and I set my watch roughly bi-annually, whether it needs it or not! The day of week…

[deleted]

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#306

Post by modeless »

gerdesj wrote: post #293
modeless wrote: post #282

Reposting the comment I made when Fitbit acquired the hollowed-out shell of Pebble, which still applies today: I liked Pebble as a company because they knew how to make just the right engineering compromises to make their product work. The smartwatch everyone wants has a battery that lasts for weeks, a high contrast always-on color screen visible in daylight and total darkness, no bezel, and a round case only a few m…

I bought a watch in 2003 or so and it cost about £120. I have never worried about powering it - the face is a solar power trickle charger. I can barely generate enough vitamin D for myself but my watch can power itself from the sun here! My watch's time is accurate to within my perception. I run a little fleet of stratum 1 NTP devices and I set my watch roughly bi-annually, whether it needs it or not! The day of week…

For me the #1 feature of a smartwatch is it allows me to take out my phone a lot less and keep it entirely silent without missing important calls or texts. I can filter down my notifications to just the essentials and when one comes in I feel the vibration on my wrist and can tell at a glance if it is important or not. My phone never makes a sound, not even vibration.

Other things I enjoy are having weather/stock prices on the watch face, using Android's "Extend Unlock" feature to reduce the overhead of unlocking my phone, turn-by-turn directions displayed during navigation.

The fitness sensors/features are just toys IMO. I'm convinced people spend money on fitness trackers in a vain attempt to guilt themselves into exercising, rather than because they're actually useful. Unfortunately the market for "exercise guilt trip talisman" is larger than the market for "small, comfortable phone companion" and so nobody makes a watch without protruding sensors anymore.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#307

Post by Steltek »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #289
modeless wrote: post #282

Reposting the comment I made when Fitbit acquired the hollowed-out shell of Pebble, which still applies today: I liked Pebble as a company because they knew how to make just the right engineering compromises to make their product work. The smartwatch everyone wants has a battery that lasts for weeks, a high contrast always-on color screen visible in daylight and total darkness, no bezel, and a round case only a few m…

> " The smartwatch everyone wants has a battery that lasts for weeks, a high contrast always-on color screen visible in daylight and total darkness, no bezel, and a round case only a few mm thick. " The Garmin watches that have a MIP (Memory In Pixel) display already cover most of that, provided you avoid using some of the more power hungry features that the Pebbles never had anyway. What is the Pebble Watch's value…

Compared to _Garmin_? The Pebble UI and OS will run circles around it. Intuitive, fast, and amazing.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#308

Post by aristofun »

Amazfit Bip was an amazing watch (even if not strictly “smart”) with near ideal balance of battery life, features and screen.

Unfortunately the company wasn’t smart enough to develop this direction and followed the leaders like apple with their shitty smartphone-on-hand rather than real watch philosophy.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#309

Post by cmrdporcupine »

"I don’t envision raising money from investors, or hiring a big team."

How does one do this, though? Is he planning on self-financing presumably out of some personal wealth? I've been working in this industry for almost 30 years and I still can't figure out how people are making things happen that aren't of the "Hey VC, I went to Stanford, I'm going to make Uber, give me money bags" variety

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#310

Post by HumblyTossed »

modeless wrote: post #306
gerdesj wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a watch in 2003 or so and it cost about £120. I have never worried about powering it - the face is a solar power trickle charger. I can barely generate enough vitamin D for myself but my watch can power itself from the sun here! My watch's time is accurate to within my perception. I run a little fleet of stratum 1 NTP devices and I set my watch roughly bi-annually, whether it needs it or not! The day of week…

For me the #1 feature of a smartwatch is it allows me to take out my phone a lot less and keep it entirely silent without missing important calls or texts. I can filter down my notifications to just the essentials and when one comes in I feel the vibration on my wrist and can tell at a glance if it is important or not. My phone never makes a sound, not even vibration. Other things I enjoy are having weather/stock pri…

> The fitness sensors/features are just toys IMO.

Not completely wrong, however they're very useful for tracking trends and that's a useful thing to do.

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