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Google open-sources the Pebble OS

opensource.googleblog.com

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Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#211

Post by fennecbutt »

erohead wrote: post #14

Thank you, Google. You didn't have to, but you did. We are all are extraordinarily grateful. I wrote a blog post about our plans to bring Pebble back, sustainably. https://ericmigi.com/blog/why-were-bringing-pebble-back We got our original start on HN ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3827868 ), it's a pleasure to be back. If you're interested in getting a new Pebble, check out https://rePebble.com

Oh this is awesome. Are you involved with repebble directly?

I still have my time round in a drawer somewhere. I moved to a galaxy watch, which is great for being able to play Spotify offline, GPS etc, but like all modern smart watches is terrible for bloat and a screen that's responsible for like 70% of the power draw.

It's really disheartening that the average consumer only sees the shiny oled and slick animations and doesn't think at all about the inconvenience of charging at least once a day...

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#212

Post by fennecbutt »

girvo wrote: post #46
cmdtab wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty cool. Have you ever thought about designing pebble to look more like a traditional watch but e-ink based?

That’s basically what the Pebble Time Round was, and it was phenomenal!

Pebble watches used a Sharp transflective LCD MiP Memory in Pixel display, meaning that the back surface of the LCD was slightly reflective for daylight reading, with front lighting for night.

Memory in pixel means that each pixel remembers its current state, saving on a lot of power budget because the bus/LCD controller is completely shut down, it essentially only uses power to update the display. Versus a traditional LCD or oled where you need to send it data at x refresh rate continously, meaning the high power draw bus and controller are constantly slurping power.

Even though eink has gotten better I still wouldn't use it for something like this, the refresh rate is still a tad too slow, the controllers are always proprietary weirdness with crazy voltage waveform magic to clear the display properly, resulting in that ugly multiple flashing that most eink/epaper displays do.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#213

Post by tesseract »

markus_zhang wrote: post #209
tesseract wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was based on FreeRTOS, but FreeRTOS at the time was extremely bare bones and only provided a preemptive scheduler, task management, and synchronization primitives. Everything else (memory management, I/O, ...) had to come either from whatever libc implementation was in use, or be built from scratch.

Thanks, does that mean early FreeRTOS is a good beginner project for OS study?

In my opinion it's not always the most readable codebase, due to some idiosyncratic style choices, but it definitely has the advantages of being small and focused.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#214

Post by markus_zhang »

tesseract wrote: post #213
markus_zhang wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, does that mean early FreeRTOS is a good beginner project for OS study?

In my opinion it's not always the most readable codebase, due to some idiosyncratic style choices, but it definitely has the advantages of being small and focused.

Thank you!

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#215

Post by mcny »

pbmonster wrote: post #201
mcny wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is different people want different things. I for one want at least all day battery while using only about 60% of the capacity so realistically two full days battery from a single charge. I then want to be able to set a max charge limit of 80% beyond which the phone won't charge and have the phone die at 20%. Ideally, I also want the phone to be able to work off the wall meaning if the phone is plugged in to t…

Serious question, when was the last time you degraded the battery of a phone enough to warrant replacement? I got a Xperia XZ2 compact in 2018, and used it daily util a month ago. It made it through a day of regular use until the very end, when I had to retire it because of issues with software updates. Modern-ish Li-Ion batteries can take thousands of full cycles.

I have some seriously bad luck with spicy pillows. I had a nexus 4 and 5 that had their battery swollen. Also an iPhone 6 and a Poco X3 pro. Also, a ZTE z959 and moto E4. I don't want a spicy pillow. I'd rather the phone turn itself off before the battery swells up but ideally it should automatically disconnect the battery and keep running off of the wall unless it is too hot, in which case, it should shut itself off.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#216

Post by Alive-in-2025 »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #178
Alive-in-2025 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, better would have been investing in it and making it better. At least they didn't produce some awful spy on you thing that had nothing to do with p and called it pebble

Pebble was dead long before Google got to own this IP.

Do you think they have a future? I love the idea of a watch I can write simple little apps on. I looked at garmin, it was more challenging. the apple watch just has such a short battery life, I can't stand to charge it so much
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