Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pebble Production: February Update

repebble.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 167 posts

Re: Pebble Production: February Update

#101

Post by dag11 »

beratbozkurt0 wrote: post #7

I'm curious, what sets it apart from other watches? The design look nice

For me, charm and character.

I was an original Pebble Kickstarter wearer from 2012, then got the initial Time, then the first Android smartwatches (Moto 360!) then basically every Apple Watch from then to now. Even used Google Glass a few months in 2013.

I like my wearables. I use features on my Apple Watch constantly: NFC payments, voice reminders, fitness and sleep tracking, make my iPhone yell out so I can find where I put it, etc.

But not a single damn wearable I've had has captured a fraction of the charm the original Pebble and Pebble Time had. Their UIs are low-res by modern standards, and greyscale or largely solid colors, but wow.

Dug up some videos as reference. Here's one that highlights what the core system UI aesthetic is like. Notice the transitions as you use the UI. I remember it feeling really snappy too, and it feels great to use a UI that moves like that with physical tactile buttons, as opposed to scrolling a Digital Crown or using the touch screen on an Apple Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdRENEQcymQ

And aside from the system UI, the community of apps that existed for it back then and no doubt will continue to grow now has a lot of charm too. The creators of all the apps are making them out of love, not to be a Top 10 on an Apple app store. And they don't exactly have a strong cohesive system UI to comply with unlike Apple. Human Interface Guidelines are wonderful for phones and tablets and for serious app ecosystems I depend on, but watches are Not That Serious as far as I'm concerned so the individuality and love within each app just fills me heart with joy every time I look down at my wrist.

Re: Pebble Production: February Update

#102

Post by bigstrat2003 »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #80
poisonborz wrote: post #72

So the Pebble Duo was a one time thing based on the cache of old parts they found? Why... A lot of people would like a cheap small thin plastic watch. Most fans went after Amazfit Blips after Pebble went out for a reason.

Yup. I actually strongly prefer the look of the duo and consider the time to be ugly. Was fairly annoyed when I got an email saying that actually they can't deliver the watch I bought and would I like to pay more for the ugly one. (Although, some other folks on HN who did get a duo said it had quality issues, so I guess I dodged a bullet)

Yeah I also find the time pretty ugly. I actually had a pre order for it, but cancelled when they revealed the final design (which was very much not to my taste, whereas I liked the preliminary design). I know Eric really likes it, and probably others do too, so I don't see it changing, but I would really like something of the more sharply rectangular design of the original Pebble. It looked so cool.

Re: Pebble Production: February Update

#103

Post by wlesieutre »

Fiveplus wrote: post #27

The return of com.getpebble.android.provider.basalt is a very nice development. It revives the legacy plugin ecosystem overnight without requiring original developers (many of whom may be long gone) to push updates. Moving the app store native and switching iOS weather to WebSockets are also solid wins for latency, but I'm most curious about the package ID reclamation. Has anyone else successfully recovered a dormant…

I'm sure it helps that the owner of the pebble package ID is Google, assuming all the developer accounts were part of the original Fitbit acquisition, and then Google acquiring Fitbit.

I see they haven't handed over https://pebble.com though, that still forwards to Google's smartwatch lineup.

Re: Pebble Production: February Update

#104

Post by fc417fc802 »

billfor wrote: post #58

Can this do NFC/tap to pay? That's all I use my smartwatch for....

Since this is hackernews, I'll point out that you can use a solvent to remove the card part of a credit card leaving only the chip plus antenna. Then embed in a new housing of your own design.

Re: Pebble Production: February Update

#105

Post by stavros »

richardlblair wrote: post #100
stavros wrote: post #67

I'm really excited about the Index. I don't love that it's disposable, but I really like the UX. I couldn't wait, so I made my own (obviously not a ring, but airtag-sized), and it's amazing. I have it in my pocket, I take it out, speak a little note, and it goes off to my AI assistant for whatever needs doing. That and the AI assistant have really changed how I operate day to day. I'm super excited about the Index, a…

I too am very excited. I had a voice recorder laying around and have worked that into my workflow over the past few months. Although, my AI assistant is a cobbled together set of python scripts. What are you using for your AI assistant?

I made my own, as I thought OpenClaw was a bit too insecure:

https://github.com/skorokithakis/stavrobot

I love it, it's amazing. I want to add a small section to the README about how to use it well (how to manage memory and the database, basically), but it's just fantastic. It has had basically zero bugs, as well.

Re: Pebble Production: February Update

#106

Post by zikduruqe »

billfor wrote: post #58

Can this do NFC/tap to pay? That's all I use my smartwatch for....

This. I seldom leave the house with an iPhone, and my Apple Watch with cellular is my primary "mobile" device. I want to leave the Apple ecosystem as my devices age out, and the one thing I would love to have is an NFC ring or bracelet to replace my Apple Watch.

Re: Pebble Production: February Update

#107

Post by justanotherunit »

stavros wrote: post #105
richardlblair wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too am very excited. I had a voice recorder laying around and have worked that into my workflow over the past few months. Although, my AI assistant is a cobbled together set of python scripts. What are you using for your AI assistant?

I made my own, as I thought OpenClaw was a bit too insecure: https://github.com/skorokithakis/stavrobot I love it, it's amazing. I want to add a small section to the README about how to use it well (how to manage memory and the database, basically), but it's just fantastic. It has had basically zero bugs, as well.

Interesting, would you mind sharing your architectural setup? How does your index communicate to your agent server, what is the main agent framework/engine used?

Sounds like a cool concept to speak into your watch/wearable which automatically saves or performs tasks on the fly.

What is the general execution time from:

Prompt received -> final task executed?

Re: Pebble Production: February Update

#108

Post by apparent »

usrnm wrote: post #40
saidinesh5 wrote: post #26

> Also, don’t expose it to hot water (this could weaken the waterproof seals), or high pressure water. It’s not invincible. Aahhh. Finally the mystery of how my old pebble died is solved. Hopefully . One fine morning, the display came off. It was supposed to be waterproof and there was no puffed up battery either.

How hot is hot, though? Boiling hot or taking it to a hot shower?

He seems to say not in a hot tub, but IIRC I've seen him say that showers are OK. Maybe it's because showers don't submerge the watch, even if the temp is similar? That is, the watch itself wouldn't heat up nearly as much in the shower as it would in a hot tub or bath.

Re: Pebble Production: February Update

#109

Post by stavros »

justanotherunit wrote: post #107
stavros wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made my own, as I thought OpenClaw was a bit too insecure: https://github.com/skorokithakis/stavrobot I love it, it's amazing. I want to add a small section to the README about how to use it well (how to manage memory and the database, basically), but it's just fantastic. It has had basically zero bugs, as well.

Interesting, would you mind sharing your architectural setup? How does your index communicate to your agent server, what is the main agent framework/engine used? Sounds like a cool concept to speak into your watch/wearable which automatically saves or performs tasks on the fly. What is the general execution time from: Prompt received -> final task executed?

So basically there's a /chat endpoint that goes to the LLM (a Pi agent), which has access to call specific tools (web search, SQL execution, cron) but doesn't have filesystem access, so the only thing it can do is exfiltrate data it can see (pretty big, but you can't really avoid that, and it doesn't have access to anything on the host system). There's a Signal bridge that runs on another container to connect to Signal, a Telegram webhook, and the other big component is a coding agent and a tool container. The coding agent can write files to a directory that's also mounted in the tool container, and the tool container can run the tools. That way you separate the coder from everything else, and nothing has access to any of your keys.

You can't really avoid the coder exfiltrating your tool secrets, but at least it's separated. I also want to add a secondary container of "trusted" tool that the main LLM can call but no other LLM can change.

This way you're assured that, for example, the agent can't contact anyone that you don't want it contact, or it can read your emails but not send/delete, things like that. It makes it very easy to enforce ACLs for things you don't want LLM-coded, but also enables LLM coding of less-trusted programs.

Re: Pebble Production: February Update

#110

Post by tanin »

nine_k wrote: post #97
tanin wrote: post #96

Is there a watch that looks like Pebble or Garmin Venu (e.g. small and square) that is good for navigation? I want to walk and look at the watch to see which direction to go next. It would be great for traveling in a foreign city.

At a different angle: can there be a "watch face" that shows a bit of map, and directions, while the proper navigation app is running on the phone?

Yup, I want to set a destination, walk, and only look at my watch for direction.
Post reply on HN