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Two new PebbleOS watches

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Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#281

Post by nosrepa »

NAHWheatCracker wrote: post #241
Zetaphor wrote: post #239

As someone who was a huge fan of the original Pebble series, it's hard to get excited about this offering when compared to the alternatives available today with more features and a cheaper price. I'm currently wearing the BangleJS v2 [0] which has the following going for it, all for $90USD: * 1.3 inch 176x176 always-on 3 bit colour LCD display (LPM013M126) with backlight * Full touchscreen (6H hardness glass) * GPS/G…

> all written in Javascript Pass.

Pebble 's user created apps and watch faces are all JS.

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#283

Post by DecentShoes »

greetings wrote: post #36

Are there any plans for a circular screen? I would love one of these devices, but the screen feels like it may be bulky on my wrist.

I don't understand this in the slightest. There's no advantage whatsoever to a round screen, but tons of disadvantages. Why not make your phone screen round? Why not make your computer screen round? Your TV?

Please, Core, resist the temptation to enshittify yourself with another useless round screen.

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#284

Post by theodric »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #274

i expected the price to be cheap, like the original pebble. it's trying to make a cheap product into a niche product with kind of premium price, 150$ and 225$ for a watch is already pretty high. The people who can afford it, they already got apple watch.

Disagree, with the following reasoning:

1. IIRC the first Pebble was $99, and the one after it was $149. We're a decade on, inflation is rampant, and the new devices are evidently intended as lower volume products. $149 seems OK to me in 2025. $225 seems OK as well for the color unit, but I don't feel like waiting until December, and can't justify buying two watches. I put my money down for the $149 unit. We'll see how much it ends up being by the time it's on my wrist in Ireland. My current "smart" watch is a Mi Band 6. I'm on screen no.2, strap no.3, and shortly battery no.2: all told, I certainly have $100 invested in it by now, even though it cost me 42 Swiss Francs ($45?) to buy initially.

2. There are other hacking-friendly watches out there, but they do not have the depth of app ecosystem that Pebble did/does. I think those thousands of watchfaces and applications ready to fire on day1 are worth something. This is not a net-new smartwatch environment, it is an established if a bit aged standard that is being polished back up for the modern world.

3. I'm the target market, but I definitely don't have an Apple watch because it doesn't work with Android devices, and I absolutely detest iOS (and am increasingly frustrated with Apple's blatant cash grab-ism vis-a-vis RAM and flash prices on their computers to the point that I've pivoted back to Linux devices).

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#286

Post by noname120 »

repeekad wrote: post #277
aucisson_masque wrote: post #274

i expected the price to be cheap, like the original pebble. it's trying to make a cheap product into a niche product with kind of premium price, 150$ and 225$ for a watch is already pretty high. The people who can afford it, they already got apple watch.

Apple Watches start at $250 and up to over $1k, pebbleOS offers way more functionality and 10x battery life, they’re not overlapping audiences

Do Pebble watches have GPS, cellular, and almost medical-grade sleep analysis? Are they rated for 50m underwater?

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#287

Post by dag11 »

repeekad wrote: post #277
aucisson_masque wrote: post #274

i expected the price to be cheap, like the original pebble. it's trying to make a cheap product into a niche product with kind of premium price, 150$ and 225$ for a watch is already pretty high. The people who can afford it, they already got apple watch.

Apple Watches start at $250 and up to over $1k, pebbleOS offers way more functionality and 10x battery life, they’re not overlapping audiences

I had an original Kickstarter Pebble, a Pebble Time, and am probably ordering this new Pebble, but I have to say you have it the other way around. Apple Watch has 10x the functionality in this comparison, but they're both delightful devices and I'm excited to have a Pebble back in my rotation!

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#288

Post by MostlyStable »

delecti wrote: post #150
margalabargala wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything appears to point that way, yes. This thread is full of people complaining how these aren't like their preferred watches, in terms of design, face shape, no GPS, etc. I think this is a much more valid criticism in that their expensive flagship watch is not like their cheaper watch.

> This thread is full of people complaining how these aren't like their preferred watches Which is funny to me because that's explicitly the point. > These watches are not made for everyone. We want to be upfront with you about what to expect. It's probably the most frustrating part of smartwatches. Everyone has a different list of mandatory features, and few seem to accept that their list isn't universal. Unlike pho…

>unlike phones where just about all of them have just about all the features

I knew my preferences were niche, but I didn't think they were that niche. There hasn't been a phone with even half my ideal feature list (that works in the US) in probably close to a decade, and even if I abandon my more niche "nice to haves", there are essentially no new phones, and that's even before I add in that I'd really like it to be relatively repairable. And yes, there _used_ to be phones that had my entire feature list, so it's not a completely crazy list. It's just that phone makers have converged a pretty standard feature list with not too many companies coloring outside the lines. If you want that particular feature list, then sure, everyone has "all the features", but there is a whole universe of additional features that phones could (and some did) have, that they no longer do.

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#289

Post by noname120 »

apparent wrote: post #48

I'm pleased the pricing is so low. I did some math and if they're making 10k of these (not clear if that's each or all together), there's not a ton of money to be made. Assuming $100 average profit, that's a $2M for 20k watches. Given the work opportunities that the founder and other employees have, that's not a lot of money for them to make in a year, and it comes with significant risk. Basically seems like this is…

I'm highly skeptical that they will sell 20k units at that price point.

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#290

Post by LeifCarrotson »

999900000999 wrote: post #184
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calls? Or just emergency texts? The closest thing to what you probably want is the Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/698632 Discontinued, but young for Garmin devices and still available if you're willing to pay irrational amounts of money. It doesn't make audio calls out, but can receive audio messages (to Bluetooth headphones) and send/receive "emergency" text messages either to the Garmin e…

I've come across this. I really would like calling too. There's a lot of daylight between I lost my phone and need to call a cab, and send a helicopter. Right now I have an LTE smart watch, but the battery is optimistically about 24 hours( on a good day ).

With the Garmin emergency contacts system, you can set up arbitrary messages to send to your emergency contacts. One of mine is "I'm OK, but need you to come pick me up".
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