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We're bringing Pebble back

repebble.com

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Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#591

Post by barnabee »

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…

For me:

- Measuring resting heart rate, SpO2, etc. passively and tracking these over time and the impact of my fitness regime on them

- Sleep tracking

- Tracking pace and heart rate on a run, ride, etc. and (a) using it to manage my pace during the activity; and (d) use it to measure how my performance changes over time

- Navigation and tracking when hiking/skiing

I don't have so much interest in the tracking during, say, a gym workout.

I agree with the GP about wanting a subscription-less Whoop as I like to wear "real" watches so a band on the other wrist is perfect ("double fisting" watches VC-style is not an option I'm willing to entertain). I did like my Pebble enough to include it in the rotation of "real" watches though, too.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#592

Post by BigGreenJorts »

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…

I've been a Strava user from before the fitness trackers were big and using a watch to track location instead of my phone is pretty big for me. The additional biometric data (namely heart rate and blood oxygen levels) are a plus. I've also had life long difficulties with sleep, and the sleep data is nice to keep my physical experiences grounded in reality, "Why am I so tired today, I slept so well. Oh no, actually I only slept 5 hours last night."

On the note about how annoying it is to start and stop activities, I strongly agree, tho quick start and auto track have eased the pain a lot for me. I cycle everywhere and really like to keep track of the total distance I do in a month and my watch just automatically tracks that for me.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#593

Post by ksenzee »

thebruce87m wrote: post #584
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What happens when they kill it again?

Open source licenses are irrevocable. You can quit providing the source, but you can't sue someone for using a copy they already took.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#594

Post by hmmm-i-wonder »

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…

I really hope you get your wish, I share it.

I gave up with tracking because the short life of a smart watch meant many of the more critical times (sleep/sleep tracking) would be interrupted by charging or dead batteries. I just want a band/strap that is focused on sensors and battery life WITHOUT a subscription.

Until that happens I'm staying out of the ecosystem entirely.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#595

Post by [deleted] »

jgalt212 wrote: post #542
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yes, because prioritising personal health is expensive. High quality, healthy food is much more expensive per calorie than hyperprocessed, high calorie/low micronutrient, carcinogenic food. Gym memberships are pretty expensive, even without any of the personal coach and flex location fluff. And for someone with a lower paying job, time is more scarce as well, in addition to the job itself likely being more harmf…

> High quality, healthy food is much more expensive per calorie than hyperprocessed, high calorie/low micronutrient, carcinogenic food. Largely true, but frozen vegetables are inexpensive. And they are healthier than fresh vegetables. Veggies are the key to good health for the poor.

[deleted]

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#596

Post by follower »

xyst wrote: post #243

> PebbleOS is now open source > Proprietary source code has been removed from this repository and it will not compile as-is. So much for “open source”. Must have been some nasty telemetry in this OS.

> So much for “open source”

In the given context "Proprietary source code" seems to potentially primarily mean third-party proprietary source code which Google doesn't have the rights to re-license.

There's further discussion about what was removed & potentially why here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42845102

TL;DR: Hardware support library source/blobs from CPU/MCU hardware vendor(s) with restrictive license/distribution constraints.

(Some of which may no longer apply to more recent versions of the vendor code in question.)

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#597

Post by nickorlow »

I'm excited and hope that the open-source nature of this leads to an ecosystem of a lot of different devices all running similar software. I'd kill to have a garmin-esque pebble with fitness + gps tracking.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#598

Post by BigGreenJorts »

coryfklein wrote: post #585
dspillett wrote: post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

I cycle and I'm certainly taking time to review past bike rides. Especially the fixed routes I have. I'm seeing the speed overall, but also reviewing segments that are hard, address specific skills/challenges, or where I hit my top speed typically. I try to compare this to sleep and diet changes between specific rides, but am also keeping track of general trends (typically my goal is faster over time, but there are some nuances to that.)

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#599

Post by coryfklein »

bdavbdav wrote: post #586
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…

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.

I guess I'm not so scientific? I do similar exercise as you (minus the PT), though my goal is mostly to avoid being sedentary, so as long as I feel like I'm pushing myself I feel good.

I did use the watch once to see what each HR zone feels like and I thought that was a useful calibration, but as a normal dude where fitness is just one small aspect of my life I wouldn't buy an Apple Watch specifically for that feature.

I'm not saying it can't be helpful with fitness, but responding to OP saying that fitness/health is the primary feature for themselves and many of their family/friends. For me, the primary features are:

1. Telling time

2. Putting my notifications on my wrist

3. Starting timers with Siri

4. Setting up reminders with Siri

Surely there are folks where the fitness features provide the critical marginal feedback that gets them up and moving, to the point where owning vs not owning the watch is a big deal!

But reading the comments here, it sounds like it's very useful for people who are quite scientific about their fitness (HR zones, tracking, etc), and tangentially useful (rings remind folks to get off the couch/stand) for other folks at risk of a sedentary lifestyle. It doesn't all add up to me as "fitness is the main reason many people use the watch!"

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#600

Post by valicord »

hmmm-i-wonder wrote: post #594
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…

I really hope you get your wish, I share it. I gave up with tracking because the short life of a smart watch meant many of the more critical times (sleep/sleep tracking) would be interrupted by charging or dead batteries. I just want a band/strap that is focused on sensors and battery life WITHOUT a subscription. Until that happens I'm staying out of the ecosystem entirely.

Garmin is what you're looking for. Battery lasts 1-2 weeks. No subscription.
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