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Google open-sources the Pebble OS

opensource.googleblog.com

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Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#31

Post by LeifCarrotson »

jsheard wrote: post #10
zitterbewegung wrote: post #3

This is pretty awesome. I had a Pebble but the battery went out and was sad to see that you had to buy used / refurbished. Being epaper and lasting for so long the best part of it was that it just managed notifications with my phone. I moved on to the Apple Watch from my brother (series 0) and it took awhile for the Apple Watch to have its killer application which was a fitness tracker.

You can still get watches which use the same MIP display technology as the Pebble and run similar "smart-ish" software with very long battery life. They tend to be marketed more as fitness/sports watches rather than smartwatches though.

MIP and e-paper are not exactly the same.

I love my transflective MIP Garmin Fenix watch, but it's not nearly as high-contrast as my wife's Kindle, which uses a reflective MIP e-paper display.

I would be an ideal candidate for a rePebble if I were not as happy as I am with my Garmin - though with their recent changes to inReach plans, crazy prices and lackluster features on the Fenix 8, and trend towards AMOLED displays (away from their roots, chasing the Apple watch market) they're not looking as amazing as they once did.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#33

Post by 9283409232 »

Philpax wrote: post #26
9283409232 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which Pebble are you bringing back? I ask because Pebble 2 was the sweet spot for me with a heart rate monitor but the heart rate monitor is not in this repo.

They don't have permission to open-source that code: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42845102

I know. That is why I'm asking which Pebble. Nothing is stopping them from writing a heart rate driver but I don't know what the plan is.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#34

Post by jabroni_salad »

tucnak wrote: post #17

To somebody who's completely out of the loop, hears about Pebble for the first time—why is this big news? Are we going to see novel software written for defunct hardware, or is the hardware going to evolve now that the software is open?

It's one of the original smart watches. What really sets it apart from modern ones is the e-ink display and dead simple interface (just a few buttons, no touchscreen). This simplicity means that it continues to do what it does well and doesn't really feel like it has aged badly. Certainly I would rather wear a pebble than a gen 1 Samsung watch or moto360.

It's a delightful bit of kit that was sadly abandoned by owner and it's nice that they are open-sourcing a dead product instead of just leaving it to rot like so many other electronics are.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#35

Post by CuriousCosmic »

bri3d wrote: post #18
CuriousCosmic wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - ARM CMSIS It's worth noting that CMSIS itself is open source but some of the drivers for this hardware probably were not.

Old versions of CMSIS had a weird "only for use with ARM hardware" license header, which also carried through into most BSPs. I don't think this was resolved until around CMSIS 4, so it might just be a matter of front porting since it looks like normal STM32 stuff which is mostly permissively licensed now.

Yeah. And ngl porting up to newer versions of CMSIS isn't too terribly hard. I'm looking at porting up to CMSIS 6 soon and it doesn't look like it'll be that bad either.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#36

Post by bberenberg »

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

Happy to hear about this. My mood tracker [0] for Pebble was the only one that has ever worked for me. Would love to have a comeback.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37221576

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#37

Post by maxyurk »

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

the site asks if you want a new pebble and if you click "no" you're redirected to apple watch website LMAO

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#38

Post by jsheard »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #31
jsheard wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still get watches which use the same MIP display technology as the Pebble and run similar "smart-ish" software with very long battery life. They tend to be marketed more as fitness/sports watches rather than smartwatches though.

MIP and e-paper are not exactly the same. I love my transflective MIP Garmin Fenix watch, but it's not nearly as high-contrast as my wife's Kindle, which uses a reflective MIP e-paper display. I would be an ideal candidate for a rePebble if I were not as happy as I am with my Garmin - though with their recent changes to inReach plans, crazy prices and lackluster features on the Fenix 8, and trend towards AMOLED displ…

I think you're mixing up e-paper (generic term for non-emissive reflective displays) and e-ink (the trademark for a specific type of e-paper display). The Pebble used a MIP LCD, just like Coros and Garmins MIP models, it never had anything in common with the e-ink displays used on Kindles.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#40

Post by hexxeh »

9283409232 wrote: post #24
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

Which Pebble are you bringing back? I ask because Pebble 2 was the sweet spot for me with a heart rate monitor but the heart rate monitor is not in this repo.

The HRM aspect is mostly a small binary blob that ought to be fairly straightforward to re-integrate. The far larger issue is the lack of a Bluetooth stack.
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