What is new since last time is AI. Can Pebble act as interface here? Or would that be the wrong fit and its niche should remain the same?
We're bringing Pebble back
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Re: We're bringing Pebble back
#202Ooof, no hardware schematics? Also missing datasheets? This projects seems like a very tall task to me without these fundamental missing pieces. Will Google release them soon or am I looking the the wrong place?
This project is started by a pebble founder, doesn’t seem like too tall of a task to me
Re: We're bringing Pebble back
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bah! They nailed what exactly? It's so mofing complex to use I hurled it at a wall (literally) and then gave it away to my son. A $600 CAD watch that I could not stand to use without seething.
You might want to invest some of that money in anger management classes
If a smartwatch requires anger management classes in order to use successfully, that might indicate something about the watch. :P
Re: We're bringing Pebble back
#204Ooof, no hardware schematics? Also missing datasheets? This projects seems like a very tall task to me without these fundamental missing pieces. Will Google release them soon or am I looking the the wrong place?
IIUC, the plan is to manufacture something completely new that runs Pebble OS. It seems likely that at least one chip they used in the original pebble is no longer available in large quantities.
Re: We're bringing Pebble back
#205Could you add social media links that aren't on X (preferably Bluesky or Mastodon)? I'd love to follow the project, but not enough to use X.
Re: We're bringing Pebble back
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't swim, but I have done thousands of runs with my series of garmin watches and I can say that the UX for them is spectacular, everything is in a sensible place for me to do without thinking. Not sure what problems you've had with it specifically
Getting into the swim app itself takes a couple of different buttons presses. But then it tries to be both too smart and too stupid at the same time. All I wanted to begin with was lap counting with a big number on the centre of the display. Can't configure it and can't even start to get it to count laps without some ceremony of setting up interval training and it only gets more convoluted from there. It's useless fo…
I don't think you're being serious. I have had several Garmin watches and this is not an actual problem. I do both pool swim and open water activities and it's very easy to count laps. Sometimes I set up structured workouts but that's completely optional.
Re: We're bringing Pebble back
#207Love this! After my Pebble I tried an e-ink "Watchy" from SQFMI ( https://watchy.sqfmi.com/ ) thinking that the battery life would be great but the battery only lasted a few days. I've been wearing a Bangle 2 ( https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js2 ) which feels closest to recreating my Pebble. It has super long battery life and feels a lot like my Pebble did, but doesn't have the polish of the pebble UI and animations…
I've never worn a pebble, but I also have a banglejs 2 and I really love the watch for it's hackability.
I've written my own watchface and a couple of other apps and made changes to a number of existing apps, it's really simple because you can always test your code changes live on the watch while keeping it on your wrist. There's an IDE that connects to it using Bluetooth and the code can be modified during runtime
Lthere's also a great community of hackers and tinkerers that steadily improve the watch.
It might not have the same polish as the pebble had, but it makes it up in hackability. I can only recommend getting a banglejs2 (battery life is also pretty great, I get about 10 days with regular use)
Re: We're bringing Pebble back
#208I don't understand the excitement. It's just a watch. Whatever you get at the end of this is probably going to be overpriced and underwhelming.
It's a watch many people already used and very much enjoyed, so it should be understandable that people are excited about it making a return.
I'm not aware of any other watch that fills the same niche (open & extendable, e-ink, long battery life, usable standalone).
Re: We're bringing Pebble back
#209I love the animation when you click "No" on "Do you want a new Pebble?". So extra.
The feature I use the most on my smartwatch is paying. So if they can bring contactless payments to their new Pebble they have my attention, otherwise it's useless to me.
I wouldn't count on that, getting every bank on board is a massive undertaking. Even Garmin Pay and Fitbit Pay (before it was folded into Google Wallet) have/had huge gaps in their coverage, especially outside of the US.
Re: We're bringing Pebble back
#210The Apple Watch is just okay but sells like 25x per year Pebble's entire lifetime sales. I guess people love their Pebbles but this seems like a lot of effort for something most people probably don't want.
Who cares? As tonymet said, something doesn't need to be a huge market to be a viable business. Truthfully I would say that many problems in modern American business culture can be traced back to the false belief that one has to turn their business into a huge affair selling to masses of people constantly.
Of course it doesn't have to be huge, I just think the Pebble probably isn't worth resurrecting compared to trying something new and more interesting.