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Two new PebbleOS watches

ericmigi.com

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Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#491

Post by utopcell »

diggan wrote: post #103
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…

> 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 Reading through the terms on the shop page, it seems they're preparing to (maybe) raise the prices at any time, and they'll ask you to pay more before shipping, if they end up raising th…

that said, the site offers full refunds up until shipping (which is going to be a while from now).

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#492

Post by LeifCarrotson »

SSLy wrote: post #450
wlesieutre wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I charged my S6 last night - it’s been running 22 hours - and it has 17% charge left. That’s at about 4.5 years old. I don’t run it at high screen brightness though.

disable hours-in-sunlight, it's a battery gobbler.

Switch to a MIPS transflective or e-paper display as on a Pebble or Garmin, OLED and LCD displays on Apple and Samsung watches look pretty indoors (when they're not turned off to save power) but are hard to read outside (without excessive brightness) and are battery gobblers.

Just charged my Garmin Fenix for the first time in... 9 days (it was down at 18%, could get a few more days but it makes me nervous), most of the battery use went to some 11 hours of GPS activity recording and heart rate recording. Could get 30 days if I turned off the features the Pebble doesn't have.

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#493

Post by zacmps »

drdec wrote: post #483
efdee wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diabetics have a sensor on their bodies that speaks Bluetooth. It talks to their phones (running eg. xDrip). The phone then communicates this to the watch. My wife is a diabetic and this kind of stuff, while it seems minimal, makes a big difference for her quality of life.

So it is just a better way of accessing information collected from another device?

Correct

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#494

Post by wlesieutre »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #492
SSLy wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

disable hours-in-sunlight, it's a battery gobbler.

Switch to a MIPS transflective or e-paper display as on a Pebble or Garmin, OLED and LCD displays on Apple and Samsung watches look pretty indoors (when they're not turned off to save power) but are hard to read outside (without excessive brightness) and are battery gobblers. Just charged my Garmin Fenix for the first time in... 9 days (it was down at 18%, could get a few more days but it makes me nervous), most of t…

I used to have a Pebble Time and agreed the battery life with those displays is nice, but honestly it doesn't bother me to put it on the charger every evening.

The only real benefit a longer battery life would have is not needing to bring a special charger if I go out of town for a few days, but I solved that years ago using a power bank that has qi and watch charging pads on it as my travel charger.

If anything, I'd switch back to a Pebble or similar because the Apple Watch does too much and I don't want that much gizmo on my person all the time. But the Pebble reboot products don't do it for me design-wise.

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#495

Post by ajolly »

margalabargala wrote: post #44
apparent wrote: post #33

This blog post [1] makes it seem like the cheaper model has a barometer and compass, but the more expensive one does not. Anyone know if that is true? 1: https://ericmigi.com/blog/introducing-two-new-pebbleos-watch...

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.

The issue I'm seeing is many people were expecting the watch that was advertised in the old Kickstarter.

The "pebble 2" from the Kickstarter -> "core 2 time" The "pebble 2 time" is nowhere to be found.

(The pebble 2 time was supposed to be the same underlying hardware, but a much classier case, slightly different form factor). They look much more like a normal watch, versus the pebble style feels like a geek toy.

I still get compliments on my pebble time round to this day!

I've been wearing my

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#496

Post by ajolly »

apparent wrote: post #383
OoTheNigerian wrote: post #382

I bought 2. I understand this is a semi experiment and will not expect the warranty or certainty that an Apple will give. This is to support the possibility of making an alternative become viable. Question for Eric, is there a way to ensure charging works with USB? Please don't make us carry yet another cable. Thanks.

The month-long battery life ensures you won't have to carry another cable. From the 360° shot on the product page, these appeare to use a proprietary cable, like almost all other smartwatches.

To be fair the Pebble "proprietary cable" is simply applying five volt voltage to the back of the watch.

I'm definitely ended up on vacation without the cable and just cut the ends off a USB cable to charge my watch.

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#497

Post by ajolly »

nelblu wrote: post #482
kmacdough wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vague question, as privacy means different things to different people, but its very hackable, so as long as you're running Android you should be able to make it work how you want. By default it uses the Pebble App for sync. You can decide whether that meets your privacy needs or you want a custom app. Someone has probably shared how to do what you want. See the other trending HN post for Apple compatibility (TL;DR it…

Thanks. Sorry if it was vague. Basically my first preference would be to not have any need to connect to a mobile phone (so no android or apple). And if that is not possible it is preferable to connect via de-googled Android. I guess I need to find out whether Pebble App sync works on GrapheneOS, and whether Pebble App sync requires internet/data permission - just trying to make sure the data doesn't leave my phone.

You need a mobile phone since they don't have internet access directly.

After that you should be totally fine, what are you hoping for your smartwatch to do? I primarily use my pebble for notifications from my phone to show up on my watch which doesn't require any sort of external access.

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#498

Post by ajolly »

Zetaphor wrote: post #252
Steltek wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original blog post for the revived Pebble was very clear about the design goals and it drove home something quite clearly: this is not going to deliver a laundry list of features or support all possible lifestyles. It will be focused on doing a few things well because there's a need for a modern Pebble not met by existing watches. I have a Bangle2 and while it's super fun, I think it perfectly illustrates the poi…

As someone who only ever cared about a handful of features (HR, sleep, steps, notifications), the BangleJS is definitely the superior offering imo. It does everything my Pebble did, it's cheaper, and it's been open source since day one rather than first requiring an acquisition and resurrection. Obviously different strokes for different folks, Eric is great and I wish him and the team over at Rebble (hi ishot!) all t…

What's the software like? One of the biggest reasons I'm still using my pebbles is Notification Center, which has the most control over watch notifications that I've ever seen, likes being able to set regex filters and get very fine green control about what notifications get sent to my watch their vibration etc)

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#499

Post by ajolly »

DecentShoes wrote: post #283
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.

The pebble time round was the stylish version of the Pebble Time, you lost battery life and a smaller display but you got a significantly thinner sleeker watch.

I daily drive the pebble time, but wear my round for dates or when I want to be a bit more stylish. I still get compliments on it to this day.

Re: Two new PebbleOS watches

#500

Post by ajolly »

Vurdentium wrote: post #97
QuantumNoodle wrote: post #71

As someone who has exclusively worn a pebble since it was crowd funded, I am trilled. I love purpose built devices[0] that don't attempt to do everything. I don't need a watch that does everything, just triage notification and perform time related activities and get out of the way. Pebble has always fit that niche. The fact that I can hack on it and mold it to my needs has been icing. I have some sincere questions on…

Can you tell me if the Pebble can do this... On my Samsung Galaxy watch, if I get a notification from my Unifi security cameras, for example, I get a little thumbnail image appear on my watch. There's no special app on my watch, just the app on my paired Galaxy phone. Will it do this? Or would I just get a text notification? I don't understand smart watches well enough to know how much they are doing themselves vs ho…

Use the Android pebble app "Notification Center" and it should be able to do that for you.

(Notification Center gives you extreme amounts of control over what to send to the watch how it gets displayed, etc. It's the reason I'm still daily wearing my pebble watches)

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