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We're bringing Pebble back

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Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#581

Post by follower »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #309

"I don’t envision raising money from investors, or hiring a big team." How does one do this, though? Is he planning on self-financing presumably out of some personal wealth? I've been working in this industry for almost 30 years and I still can't figure out how people are making things happen that aren't of the "Hey VC, I went to Stanford, I'm going to make Uber, give me money bags" variety

> Is he planning on self-financing presumably out of some personal wealth?

This may be relevant context for your question: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/09/technology/beeper-messagi...

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#582

Post by pbmonster »

weberer wrote: post #572
amelius wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would do this too, but in some venues you have to pay by scanning QR codes, which makes it impossible without camera. And I don't want this: https://wristcam.com/blogs/learn/do-apple-watches-have-camer...

They have QR payments, but no NFT? That doesn't seem right.

Outside the US, third party payment apps are popular, since they often don't require a credit card. But since Apple refuses third parties access to the NFT hardware, those apps almost universally have to use QR payments. It works OK, because most payment terminals have a display with sufficient resolution for a QR code anyway.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#583

Post by zem »

suddenclarity wrote: post #501
zem wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well, more compellingly, why can't I get a phone with a physical notification light any more?! amazingly useful feature on my galaxy nexus from back in like 2012, but I've never been able to find another phone with it. not to mention a 5.5" phone with a flagship chip in it. I'll even forgo the camera quality.

I'm not very knowledgeable about current models but isn't that the whole USP for Nothing Phone? There are multiple lights so you can customize unique patterns for both contacts and apps.

nice, hadn't heard about that one!

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#584

Post by thebruce87m »

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #407
tomaskafka wrote: post #194

Awesome! The first Pebble absolutely fascinated me by having a hackable, C-running watch on my wrist. I vividly remember spending days fine tuning the heuristics of a simple step detection algorithm in the first watchface where I thought “seeing your daily step count next to time sure is awesome”. And later, tens of thousands of people thought so as well - this was one of the signs what the health-tracking wrist devi…

Indeed, I forgive Google about 40 of their killed projects for giving us pebble in return.

What happens when they kill it again?

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#585

Post by coryfklein »

dspillett wrote: post #573
coryfklein wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone explain the point of the health tracking features for watches? I have an Apple Watch and I do exercise regularly, but I found that the annoyance of starting and stopping workouts was bothersome so I turned the feature off. Is it about inducing more exercise? Or is it the timer aspect that it records how long your workout is? (in which case I don’t understand why it’s so much better than a stopwatch?) For…

I walk and run on trails a fair bit¹ so my watch is mostly a route planning/tracking/recording tool. When training for something I will often at least consider its recommendations and those are based partly on the health readings as well as the training load it has tracked from treks/runs. Though TBH other than that the health tracking is unimportant compared to it being a GPS device that can track for a day or more…

Can you unpack a little more by what you mean when you say you use the watch to plan your route? Do you mean to say you're using the watch – with that tiny display – to choose whether you run over hill A or around town B?

And what is the point of the tracking? Do you take time out of your day to review your past runs for some reason? My completely uninformed self is imagining a person sitting at their desk thinking, "Oh yeah, that was a good run. Look at that part where I turned the corner onto Market Street! Hah, I remember that, good times." And realize this sounds so ridiculous I must certainly be misunderstanding the point of the tracking.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#586

Post by bdavbdav »

coryfklein wrote: post #515
nym3r0s wrote: post #500

The primary use for a smartwatch for myself (and many of my family, friends) is fitness and health tracking. Card payments, notifications, WatchFaces etc. are all secondary. Basically what Whoop is doing with their strap - but minus the subscription model. I know a ton of people who tried the whoop but felt it was extremely pricey and didn't have the accuracy of an apple watch. I would be happy to pay ~$400-500 up fr…

Can someone explain the point of the health tracking features for watches? I have an Apple Watch and I do exercise regularly, but I found that the annoyance of starting and stopping workouts was bothersome so I turned the feature off. Is it about inducing more exercise? Or is it the timer aspect that it records how long your workout is? (in which case I don’t understand why it’s so much better than a stopwatch?) For…

What kind of exercise? I run, row, lift and do various group PT classes. Running it’s essential for pacing and target HR Zones, same for rowing, and on the group PT they’re very variable in terms of what they’re targeting, and it’s good to know if I’m short on (an)aerobic workouts.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#587

Post by follower »

wkat4242 wrote: post #112

Soooo.. I loved my pebble. And I still have my Kickstarter one. I don't think I'd still want one now though. My Samsung smartwatch does a lot more. Heartrate, ECG, payments, GPS. And with an acceptable battery life too. Ps so Eric Migikovsky works for Google now? I thought he was working on beeper.

> Ps so Eric Migikovsky works for Google now? I thought he was working on beeper.

AIUI the connection to Google here is that Google acquired the rights to Pebble OS (when Google acquired FitBit (after FitBit had previously purchased the rights to Pebble OS from Pebble Technology before it closed)).

As Google has now released the code under an Open Source license, Eric (with no connection to Google) is now seemingly planning to build something utilizing the newly opened source.

(Further context is that some other people who formerly worked for Pebble do now work for Google and were involved in the process of getting Google to release the Pebble OS source under an Open Source license.)

Eric commented re: Beeper here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42845776

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#588

Post by [deleted] »

nym3r0s wrote: post #527
coryfklein wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone explain the point of the health tracking features for watches? I have an Apple Watch and I do exercise regularly, but I found that the annoyance of starting and stopping workouts was bothersome so I turned the feature off. Is it about inducing more exercise? Or is it the timer aspect that it records how long your workout is? (in which case I don’t understand why it’s so much better than a stopwatch?) For…

I believe the value add is a combination of both factors - ability to measure and (as a consequence) induce more exercise. An example here is how I made sure my parents are getting their exercise in by making completing their Move rings and 10K steps every day. This pushes them to take a walk in the evening instead of doom scrolling / watching TV. Another example - Check trends like resting heart rate to see if my bo…

[deleted]

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#589

Post by coryfklein »

pandaman wrote: post #519
coryfklein wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone explain the point of the health tracking features for watches? I have an Apple Watch and I do exercise regularly, but I found that the annoyance of starting and stopping workouts was bothersome so I turned the feature off. Is it about inducing more exercise? Or is it the timer aspect that it records how long your workout is? (in which case I don’t understand why it’s so much better than a stopwatch?) For…

It's very useful for aerobic exercise (running, swimming, cycling etc), where you want to pace yourself and keep your heart rate and/or speed/tempo in a certain range.

Now that you mention it, I have used it for this purpose myself! I turned it on when I was on the elliptical because I wanted to calibrate on what running in "Zone 2/3/4/5" felt like. And once I'd done that once I didn't really need to do it again, though I expect it will be helpful to recalibrate every few months as my capacity changes.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#590

Post by amelius »

stronglikedan wrote: post #580
amelius wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would do this too, but in some venues you have to pay by scanning QR codes, which makes it impossible without camera. And I don't want this: https://wristcam.com/blogs/learn/do-apple-watches-have-camer...

> you have to pay by scanning QR codes I've never encountered that, but that sounds like a venue that doesn't want my money anyway.

It happens a lot in societies where people know and trust each other.

Often you can even buy drinks by scanning a QR code, paying, and then grabbing a drink from the fridge. With nobody else involved.

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