[flagged]
Pebble Watch software is now open source
121–130 of 236 posts
Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source
#122So is the FORTRAN75 compiler, but it’s still being used.
Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source
#123Also includes news about a new Appstore, which can probably be seen as a reaction to the stories from last week: We’ve created our own Pebble Appstore feed (appstore-api.repebble.com) and new Developer Dashboard. Our feed (fyi powered by 100% new software) is configured to back up an archive of all apps and faces to Archive.org (backup will gradually complete over the next week). Today, our feed only has a subset of…
I read the drama last week, and after seeing this, I have to side with Rebble. I think they kept the community alive since Eric M cashed out and Fitbit shut it down. As the stars have aligned in recent years, Eric revives Pebble, but if Rebble wouldn't spend all the effort maintaining the app store, his consumer base would be much smaller and it would be much harder to bootstrap again. With Repebble (Core Devices) an…
From Eric’s previous blog post, he did not “cash out”:
> I earned almost nothing from Pebble Tech Corp. I paid myself a $65,000 salary each year. I did not get any payout through the asset sale.
Eric also made a pretty detailed writeup a few years ago about what drove the failure and acquisition of the original Pebble company: https://ericmigi.com/blog/success-and-failure-at-pebble
Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source
#124[flagged]
Please don't post grumbly swipes like this on HN. The guidelines ask us not to be curmudgeonly. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source
#125[dead]
Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source
#126For 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...
I don't really know that this is avoidable without buckets of work and probably legal issues on behalf of core's (or anyone's) engineers- it's really just something that plagues hardware in general.
Hell, lots of sensors/etc these days are running fairly complicated software that's totally opaque.
Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source
#127[flagged]
Please don't post grumbly swipes like this on HN. The guidelines ask us not to be curmudgeonly. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Ok Rumi. It's my opinion if you don't agree just say I don't agree. Im doing you a favor by giving you an alternative more truthful reality. If you prefer to be in bliss then that's fine but stop acting so sleazy.
Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source
#128(Un)related new post made by rebble today: https://rebble.io/2025/11/24/rebble-in-your-own-world.html Doesn't address the multiple feed support for the app store, and seems to be calling Eric to action a few times, but it would be too much of a coincidence that these two posts come out so close to one another.
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 in the middle, and while this does appear to be more of miscommunication than malice, it's a bit disappointing to me overall.
Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source
#129(Un)related new post made by rebble today: https://rebble.io/2025/11/24/rebble-in-your-own-world.html Doesn't address the multiple feed support for the app store, and seems to be calling Eric to action a few times, but it would be too much of a coincidence that these two posts come out so close to one another.
Also I'm Eric's post rebble is only mentioned a single time. I first thought it was zero! Good for Eric.
Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source
#130I look forward to a year or two from now when there will be dozens of pebble clones just rolling out of factories for the price of a midrange Casio watch.
This along with valve's hardware announcement is quite a shot at all the entreched hardware manufacturers.