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Pebble Watch software is now open source

ericmigi.com

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Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#131

Post by ddlsmurf »

paxcoder wrote: post #100
mid-kid wrote: post #99

For some of us software freedom enthusiasts it is worth noting that PebbleOS contains some proprietary blobs for some peripherals in the watch[1]. This is not just firmware you upload to the peripheral but also properietary .a libraries that run on the main core. Though to be fair to OpenDevices, this is source code they don't have acces to either. [1]: https://github.com/coredevices/pebbleos-nonfree/tree/57a94e2...

So not 100% open source. Thanks for the info

Well the Pebble specific parts are. This is an unfortunate state of affairs from hardware manufacturers, they are very late to the open source game, if at all.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#133

Post by paxcoder »

ddlsmurf wrote: post #131
paxcoder wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So not 100% open source. Thanks for the info

Well the Pebble specific parts are. This is an unfortunate state of affairs from hardware manufacturers, they are very late to the open source game, if at all.

From the article:

>Another important note - some binary blobs and other non-free software components are used today in PebbleOS and the Pebble mobile app (ex: the heart rate sensor on PT2 , Memfault library, and others). Optional non-free web services, like Wispr-flow API speech recognizer, are also used. These non-free software components are not required - you can compile and run Pebble watch software without them. This will always be the case. More non-free software components may appear in our software in the future. The core Pebble watch software stack (everything you need to use your Pebble watch) will always be open source.

100% should mean 100%

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#134

Post by noman-land »

I'm very not in the smart watch game but a fully open watch with a bunch of sensors and connectivity sounds very appealing. However, I find square watch faces to be extremely unattractive. What's the latest in open watches with round faces and relatively thin profile?

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#135

Post by t0bia_s »

jmcphers wrote: post #108
njovin wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hijack, but are there plans to re-manufacture the Pebble 2 Duo in black? I was one of the pre-orderers that was offered either a refund or a white version and chose the refund because I really had my heart set on the black and don't want a color screen. I'm also an OG Pebble enthusiast, although sadly my old one is long gone.

Eric has made it clear that the Pebble 2 Duo was always going to be a limited run because it was made mostly of leftover components and there's no reasonable path towards making new copies of those components. > Pebble 2 Duo is sold out! We are not making more. https://ericmigi.com/blog/how-to-build-a-smartwatch-software...

That's really disappointing! I want BW eink screen, I'm not interested in colour version at all.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#136

Post by apparent »

noman-land wrote: post #134

I'm very not in the smart watch game but a fully open watch with a bunch of sensors and connectivity sounds very appealing. However, I find square watch faces to be extremely unattractive. What's the latest in open watches with round faces and relatively thin profile?

Eric has hinted at wanting to build a round Pebble (like the Pebble Time Round, presumably), so hopefully things will go well with the initial batches and we'll be graced with the presence of a PTR in time for Christmas 2026.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#137

Post by zorgmonkey »

Larrikin wrote: post #118

A little surprised there has been no mention of the app being Kotlin multiplatform. https://github.com/coredevices/mobileapp I had heard of many smaller apps using Kotlin for their iOS app, but this may be the biggest all in multiplatform app I've seen. It would be awesome if there may eventually be support for writing Pebble apps in Kotlin.

Pebble watches run on Cortex-M microcontrollers which have less than 1MB of flash storage and RAM, I like Kotlin multiplatform but getting it to run on them is extremely unlikely. I assume that for the foreseeable future Pebble apps will be only written in languages which are traditionally used for MCUs like Rust and C\C++

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#138

Post by apparent »

t0bia_s wrote: post #135
jmcphers wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eric has made it clear that the Pebble 2 Duo was always going to be a limited run because it was made mostly of leftover components and there's no reasonable path towards making new copies of those components. > Pebble 2 Duo is sold out! We are not making more. https://ericmigi.com/blog/how-to-build-a-smartwatch-software...

That's really disappointing! I want BW eink screen, I'm not interested in colour version at all.

Out of curiosity, what's the downside of color? The screen on the new watches is also substantially larger. AFAIK there's no discernible battery life penalty for the color watches (even with the larger screen).

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#139

Post by rav3ndust »

I plan on picking one of these new Pebbles up in the next batch. I loved my original Pebbles (I still have my old Time Steel). Before the Pebbles came back and PebbleOS open-sourced, the only real open smartwatch option we had around that I'm aware of is the PineTime, which I currently wear every day rocking Infinitime.

Will be fun to pick up one of these again and be able to hop back and forth between it and the PineTime! Great stuff, Eric and team.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#140

Post by Valodim »

user_7832 wrote: post #128
niwtsol wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for posting this, it really gave me an answer to the "huh, how did all that drama from last week play out." IMO rebble jumped to some conclusions and felt robbed/cheated by what Eric was doing. With Eric going above and beyond to open source everything, I really feel he is trying to live up to what the original promise of pebble was. It is cool what rebble did to keep the pebble community alive, and I get t…

> Eric is doing is like the best possible outcome Slight correction, apparently Eric posting one of those WhatsApp screenshots was not okay with the person on the other side (who iirc is a rebble guy), who added that those grievances he had were taken out of context in the screenshot. The pebble (or rebble?) subreddit had this in the comments if anyone wants to read more. As always, the truth appears to lie somewhere…

Eh. imo this is a hard moral high ground to claim if you publicly (and falsely, as we now know) accuse someone of a crime and threaten legal action in a blog post
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