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Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

ericmigi.com

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Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#131

Post by margalabargala »

int_19h wrote: post #126
apparent wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If they're not soliciting donations from you I'm not sure why you'd care about their federal tax status. Well, if they portray themselves as a "nonprofit" then most people who read that will think they are a 501c3, which is almost always the case. I don't know why they don't qualify for that status (if they don't), but it's possible that it's a reason I would care about when deciding whom to side with on issues lik…

It's not "almost always the case". It may be the case for nonprofits that people donate to , but in general there are quite a few 501c4 around, for example, and there are many others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/501(c)_organization#Types

The list may be long, but most other categories are extremely narrow. There are very few into which Rebble could fit.

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#132

Post by margalabargala »

pavon wrote: post #92
margalabargala wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did some digging in a reply to a sibling comment. Basically, they are not a 501c3. They are a Michigan state specific nonprofit. My original comment was made after a 501c3 search turned up nothing. I don't know why they would decline to be a 501c3 and instead only be a Michigan nonprofit.

The 501c3 tax exception is specifically for charitable organizations, and the law and IRS interpretations exclude a number of groups that would colloquially fall under that description. On top of that there are many groups who aren't doing charitable work, but want to reinvest all revenue back into the organization and not be beholden to shareholders (private or public).

That's not true. Charitable organizations are just one of many groups that qualify as a 501c3.

Groups dedicated to scientific, literary or educational purposes also quality.

The reason this is a problem is that Rebble is using their being a "non-profit" as a point of advertisement but there is essentially no difference between someone owning a for-profit company, and someone controlling and heading a non-profit company where they set their own salary and are not a 501c3.

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#133

Post by margalabargala »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #115
apparent wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh that seems very odd. And it's strange (and possibly misleading) to say you are a "non-profit" under these circumstances. Any chance they recently changed status, and it's just not showing up yet?

Just FYI. 501(c)(3) is not the only federal nonprofit designation. I have dealt with 501(c)(7) (basically a club), and I suspect there are others.

There are a lot, but most of them are extremely narrowly defined. There are not many into which Rebble could fit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/501(c)_organization#Types

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#134

Post by IshKebab »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #96
tomaskafka wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am one of the developers who did make Pebble apps - here's a screenshot with the Pebble version of Weathergraph on Eric's watch: https://x.com/weathergraph/status/1959253197664469246 Today is the day I found out Rebble is claiming the ownership of my app's binaries. All I can say is that they don't have it.

[flagged]

Yeah that's not how copyright works.

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#135

Post by gr__or »

asadm wrote: post #112

It seems Rebble has no moat here. The end devices are all controlled by Pebble which can point them to any store they want. That must be making Rebble upset?

bit of a narrow focus point isn't it? this is a project that lives on despite the economics, throwing garden-wall-lingo in there feels a bit gross tbh

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#136

Post by zimpenfish »

stavros wrote: post #104
pseudalopex wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never heard someone say bulk downloading and data extraction wasn't scraping if it used volatile storage.

When have you seen someone scrape data for volatile storage?

I've got several bots that scrape various places for transient information which isn't stored anywhere but merely transformed and then posted to the Fediverse and/or notified to my phone.

(I suppose you could argue that the information ending up in a post or notification is "non-volatile" storage but honestly? People will laugh at you.)

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#138

Post by comfydragon »

iamevn wrote: post #107
Animats wrote: post #97

Pebble was a smart watch which was not tethered to a phone, talked to the cellular network directly, and had battery life problems, correct? Apple's smart watch was tethered to a phone, so it needed less power. It's going to be interesting to see what happens when solid state batteries become available and increase how much energy you can store in a watch. They're high cost, but if you're powering a watch, not a car,…

Pebble smart watches are tethered (to an android/ios device via bluetooth), do not talk to a cellular network, and have had an especially good battery life because of that and their low-power displays which are always on and visible with external light, only turning on the backlight when you are using it (e.g. hitting buttons or after giving the watch a little shake). afaik, every Pebble watch has had a significantly…

I think most of the battery life improvement is the much more power-efficient SOCs available. The original Pebble used an STM32 processor and a TI Bluetooth chip, where nowadays having BLE integrated into the SOC is table stakes.

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#139

Post by stevage »

SuperNinKenDo wrote: post #108
stevage wrote: post #106

Seems like there is a commercial agreement between the two parties, but it somehow doesn't capture everything they need. They're relying on some kind of unspoken agreement but now they don't trust each other. they should make a new agreement.

Dunno if you saw the previous post about the situation, but seems that attempts to do so for months have not born fruit, and only led to more trust breakdown.

Yep. I'm sure glad I'm not a current or aspiring Pebble owner..

Re: Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

#140

Post by Groxx »

Zetaphor wrote: post #50

If you're looking for an alternative to all of this, the BangleJS v2 is both cheaper and more hackable than the Pebble watches. It doesn't tick all of the same boxes, but it's performed well for me over the last 6 months. Here's what it offers: * Screen is fully visible under direct sunlight * With the screen always on the battery lasts me well over a week * Heart rate monitor * EXTREMELY hackable, everything can be…

I'm mostly happy with mine as a replacement.

But it is absolutely nowhere near as polished a user experience as Pebble was. I have had constant disconnects for months at a time with Gadgetbridge, loads of edge-case bug-like behavior that is in fact documented but in a weird location that nobody would look at or consider reasonable behavior, three hardware failures in three years (I'm still using one of them with a busted vibration motor), and on-device UX and tap accuracy and freezing that really only works out if you're sold on everything else about the device.

I haven't found anything else I'd recommend for a Pebble fan though, it really is the closest. I'm begrudgingly happy with it because I have no better alternative, not because it's an actually-good product.

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