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Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

repebble.com

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Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#321
post #269

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 concerning batteries and waste batteries Article 11 Removability and replaceability of portable batteries and LMT batteries 1. Any natural or legal person that places on the market products incorporating portable batteries shall ensure that those batteries are readily removable and replaceable by the end-user at any time during th…

We regularly get contacted by people in Europe who want to buy our product, but we haven't been providing support due to the cost of certs, and other regulatory needs (medical/wellness device).

We want to help people in the EU, but with laws like replaceable batteries, it's going to push us further and further away from being able to do that.

Our product is designed to be refurbished, but not user-replaceable.

At the same time, how many products do people give up on because of battery life, and is this a non-issue with future battery chemistries?

Do people replace their phones because the battery isn't good anymore, or is it more likely they've broken the screen, cameras, etc to the point where it doesn't make sense to replace those anymore? Or they just want the newest thing?

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#322
post #269

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 concerning batteries and waste batteries Article 11 Removability and replaceability of portable batteries and LMT batteries 1. Any natural or legal person that places on the market products incorporating portable batteries shall ensure that those batteries are readily removable and replaceable by the end-user at any time during th…

There's an exception for "appliances specifically designed to operate primarily in an environment that is regularly subject to splashing water, water streams or water immersion, and that are intended to be washable or rinseable". This ring is described as water-resistant, so I wonder if it would be allowed?

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#323
I wonder why they added this to the finger rather than adding this capability to the watches they are already making? One handed operation is one reason, though I'd think a UX could be designed to make this an app on the watch, rather than a stand-alone device.

Seems like overkill, particularly when other rings do bio-metric tracking, so is this focused on a big enough problem to want to solve?

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#325

The only thing that matters here is how good the transcription is. You absolutely have to save the recording. You also have to enable the user to connect to their own transcription service and preserve the recording for that if yours sucks or is not trusted. People have accents. Third party transcription vendors can sell data. Do not mess this up. Enable users to add their own trusted transcription. If we want to giv…

Already a part of it. Recordings are saved (on the sync device) in case a transcript is a bust.

Yes, but they mention there will be a subscription plan for their cloud-based transcription. If you want an open platform of devices - ensure users can use a range of transcription providers for quality and security.

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#326
post #269

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 concerning batteries and waste batteries Article 11 Removability and replaceability of portable batteries and LMT batteries 1. Any natural or legal person that places on the market products incorporating portable batteries shall ensure that those batteries are readily removable and replaceable by the end-user at any time during th…

Its going to be interesting to see what will happen with Airpods and the like…

Apple will proudly announce that they've invented the replaceable battery.

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#327

I wonder why they added this to the finger rather than adding this capability to the watches they are already making? One handed operation is one reason, though I'd think a UX could be designed to make this an app on the watch, rather than a stand-alone device. Seems like overkill, particularly when other rings do bio-metric tracking, so is this focused on a big enough problem to want to solve?

They explicitly address this in the article:

"Initially, we experimented by building this as an app on Pebble, since it has a mic and I’m always wearing one. But, I realized quickly that this was suboptimal - it required me to use my other hand to press the button to start recording (lift-to-wake gestures and wake-words are too unreliable). This was tough to use while bicycling or carrying stuff."

This interacts directly with the Pebble App, so I would be shocked if the watches never get an equivalent app.

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I sympathize with the intent of the law, this is a great example of why it's dumb. There's no possible way you could make that ring, in a reasonably ring-sized form factor, with today's manufacturing processes in such a way that an end user could replace it.

If this law pushes back against the idea that it's ok to make endless tech products which are essentially future rubbish as soon as you buy them, then I think that's a good thing. Perhaps products like this just shouldn't exist until we have better ways of dealing with the remains.

Who gets to choose what products are future rubbish?

Even if you think this product is a waste of resources, why is THIS waste of resources something we should stop, but not other, bigger wastes? Should we outlaw flying somewhere when you could take a train? The fuel spent on a short flight wastes way more resources and damages the environment much more than this smart ring does. If we are willing to ban this piece of tech because it is a waste, couldn't the same arguments be made about a short range flight?

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I sympathize with the intent of the law, this is a great example of why it's dumb. There's no possible way you could make that ring, in a reasonably ring-sized form factor, with today's manufacturing processes in such a way that an end user could replace it.

If this law pushes back against the idea that it's ok to make endless tech products which are essentially future rubbish as soon as you buy them, then I think that's a good thing. Perhaps products like this just shouldn't exist until we have better ways of dealing with the remains.

If the battery lasts for two years its exceeding the useful life of many other products already, some of which of have higher environment cost for manufacturing and disposal.

The law has chosen poor proxies for lifespan and impact.

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#330
post #269

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 concerning batteries and waste batteries Article 11 Removability and replaceability of portable batteries and LMT batteries 1. Any natural or legal person that places on the market products incorporating portable batteries shall ensure that those batteries are readily removable and replaceable by the end-user at any time during th…

We regularly get contacted by people in Europe who want to buy our product, but we haven't been providing support due to the cost of certs, and other regulatory needs (medical/wellness device). We want to help people in the EU, but with laws like replaceable batteries, it's going to push us further and further away from being able to do that. Our product is designed to be refurbished, but not user-replaceable. At the…

> Our product is designed to be refurbished, but not user-replaceable.

Why?

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