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Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

ericmigi.com

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Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#31

Post by michaelmior »

dewey wrote: post #3

The mentioned blog post ( https://rebble.io/2025/11/17/core-devices-keeps-stealing-our... ) is a pretty great example why using Discord as your main communication tool for an open source project is the wrong choice. The only way to read about the decisions ("Shortly after, Core forked PebbleOS1 away from public maintainership. Back in June, they said that they would merge back periodically2;") is to read the manual t…

There are solutions such as Answer Overflow[0] that allow public indexing and search of Discord content that solve this problem.

[0] https://www.answeroverflow.com/

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#32

Post by abhorrence »

mcny wrote: post #25

> I disagree. I’m working hard to keep the Pebble ecosystem open source. I believe the contents of the Pebble Appstore should be freely available and not controlled by one organization. I hate to say this but I have to agree with Eric. I want to side with Rebble But they are clearly misguided. The goal should not be to have an ongoing revenue stream for Rebble. The goals should be If and when Eric sells out again, th…

I think your points 1 and 2 are exactly spot on. And, assuming that both Rebble's and Eric's are being relatively forthright, that Eric is the one that is actually trying to come to an agreement that accomplishes that. Whereas Rebble is taking the position of "only we can be trusted".

And with all the people replying to the original Rebble post with "I'm canceling my preorder", I'm pretty worried that Rebble has created a self-fulfilling prophecy situation. :(

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#35

Post by BoredPositron »

roughly wrote: post #7
BoredPositron wrote: post #5

Now I am glad I didn't order a new one. Drama everywhere nowadays.

The difference between this product (and other open source-style projects) and every other product you purchase is all the drama’s happening out in the open. Google, Apple, and Amazon all have the kind of infighting that would embarrass the Sun King’s court, it’s just all kept inside the palace walls.

Yes, and all I said is that I am glad I didn't order one so I have one less optional drama in my life.

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#36

Post by tonetegeatinst »

BoredPositron wrote: post #5

Now I am glad I didn't order a new one. Drama everywhere nowadays.

I sort of agree. I am using gadget bridge with my old watch and while it works fine in general...the step tracker,and calories burned seem really inconsistent.

The heart rate and oxygen saturation seem accurate compared to other devices measuring it.

I wouldn't mind a new watch that was more expensive than my current one if it was more accurate and had better setup compared to how I had to pair my current device. I'm not talking google watch or apple watch, but sub $300 device.

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#37

Post by eptcyka »

joelhaasnoot wrote: post #27
kstrauser wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. If they’d said “hundreds, or maybe thousands of dollars”, ok, sure. But that just cannot possibly be an inherently expensive service to host.

There is also weather and voice recognition services. If implemented with third party APIs those costs can add up.

Cool, it is imperative those services are not operated at a loss. If you choose to do charity, you best make peace with the fact that you will never get either the time nor the money back.

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#38

Post by dbl000 »

its-summertime wrote: post #24
roughly wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between this product (and other open source-style projects) and every other product you purchase is all the drama’s happening out in the open. Google, Apple, and Amazon all have the kind of infighting that would embarrass the Sun King’s court, it’s just all kept inside the palace walls.

There is drama for Watchy, but I don't think there is any for BangleJS (other than being a bit iffy on iphones)

What's the drama with Watchy? I wasn't aware of any but I didn't play with mine that much either.

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#39

Post by quantumwoke »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #19
radlad wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The subscription fee was what enabled them to host these services. From their blog post, they mention spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on infrastructure and software. I expect that the connections and skills involved in running the Rebble web services don't directly translate to creating a hardware product. That said, I think you are right that Rebble is feeling left out - and that it is hard to figure out e…

I'll be totally honest: I have no idea what they possibly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on. That seems totally absurd and reckless.

Developer time?
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