We're bringing Pebble back • Hacker News Board

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#621

Post by immibis » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 5:14 PM UTC

starkparker wrote: post #579

mattmaroon wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reader died because people were switching to social media. Reader also had no vendor lock in at all. There’s no network effect like Facebook. There’s no massive infrastructure demands like Google. No corporate sales process like Oracle, Microsoft, etc. You could very easily create a competitor and after it died, few even tried to replace it. I miss it but not enough to find another RSS reader. You’re never really the…

> Reader died because people were switching to social media. Which especially sucks, because its friend-of-a-friend model for making comments visible on shared items was better for discovering interesting people, constructively limiting the social impact of popular posts, reducing the dangers of unintentionally poor posts, and disincentivizing trolling than any social network has implemented since. For the few people…

The Fediverse is a bit like that. Anyone can post replies on things, but they don't spread through the whole network, only to people who are following the replier, and people on the replier's server, and the person who posted the thing being replied to.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#622

Post by nradov » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 5:14 PM UTC

nym3r0s wrote: post #570

patanegra wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds a lot like you might appreciate Garmin watch, too.

It was an option I considered, but the accuracy of the sensors was way worse than apple for the price.

That's an odd objection. Garmin's optical heart rate sensor accuracy might be slightly worse than Apple's under certain limited conditions, depending on how you test. But anyone who really cares about precise heart rate uses a chest strap anyway.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#623

Post by hmmm-i-wonder » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 5:15 PM UTC

valicord wrote: post #600

hmmm-i-wonder wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'll take another look at them thanks.

I'd still prefer a band over a smart watch. When I initially looked at them they were very bulky and only had a few days battery life, but its been a while.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#624

Post by insane_dreamer » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 5:17 PM UTC

andrewblossom wrote: post #559

insane_dreamer wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Withings ScanWatch was the right fit for me. Unfortunately the HR sensor stopped working recently and the water resistant seal broke, and it's out of warranty, so it's in a drawer. But IMO that was the right idea: analog time, discrete notifications, ppg/ekg sensors, 2-week battery life.

Have you reached out to them? I've found their customer support even for out-of-warranty items to be fantastic.

I hadn't; I should try.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#625

Post by insane_dreamer » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 5:18 PM UTC

sureglymop wrote: post #465

insane_dreamer wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Withings ScanWatch was the right fit for me. Unfortunately the HR sensor stopped working recently and the water resistant seal broke, and it's out of warranty, so it's in a drawer. But IMO that was the right idea: analog time, discrete notifications, ppg/ekg sensors, 2-week battery life.

I love my Withings watch but I wish I didn't have to use their app and could instead get the data directly. I tried to reverse engineer their bluetooth based protocol in the past but didn't get far because I don't have much experience with bluetooth. I then looked at what http requests their app makes which was more straightforward and actually interesting but still not what I wanted... I hope I will find the time to…

Their app syncs with the Apple Health app (which is better), so that's what I use (and one reason why I like Withings)

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#626

Post by nradov » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 5:19 PM UTC

trabant00 wrote: post #525

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…

If you watch TheQuantifiedScientist you must have found out by now that optical sensors on the wrist have no chance of ever being accurate enough for health and fitness tracking. No matter how much they massage their algorithms they simply don't have the right sensors at the right positions on the body. At the same time the fitness features add cost, bulk, the uncomfortable sensor bump and cost battery life. The orig…

I've watched it and TheQuantifiedScientist is totally missing the point. Current optical sensors on the wrist are plenty accurate enough for general health and fitness tracking. If you don't believe me then you can literally count your pulse with your finger and compare against the watch: very close. Optical sensors aren't great for high-intensity training so for those activities everyone knows you need to use a chest strap if you want accurate data.

For a more practical take on heart rate accuracy see the DC Rainmaker reviews instead.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#627

Post by jhatax » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 5:28 PM UTC

parpfish wrote: post #612

bluGill wrote: post #576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US. There are walk in clinics all over that take people first come first serve (once in a while the receptionist says no way and sends you to an ER where they take people in priority order). Generally they are open 9am-8pm 7 days a week, though it varies by location. These are called urgent care and for are things that you need urgent but non-emergency care for - you typically get an antibiotic or some such treatment…

Wait… you’re saying she went to urgent care and that urgent care did a cancer screening? Urgent care is great, but they usually don’t have MDs. There are nurses that can give you stitches or a course of antibiotics but a cancer diagnosis is way out of their expertise

Every provider / system is different. My wife is a physician who works urgent care shifts over the weekend to serve patients as described above. These are in addition to her M-Friday routine. She is part of the Kaiser system. This is systemwide for Kaiser, so my wife’s weekend engagement isn’t a one-off.

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#628

Post by VoxPelli » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 5:28 PM UTC

XEditer wrote: post #400

I was a huge fan of the Pebble. Had an original Kickstarter model and a Pebble Time (well, I still do, but they need battery surgery). Loved the epaper/10-day life design so much more than the Apple Watch. I'll be first in line for a new generation watch! Be great if you could get @Pebble onto BlueSky, for those of us who have left Twitter/X.

+1 on Bluesky, either that or Mastodon, so odd to still have to use a highly political and controversial platform like Musk’s Twitter to follow people and projects like these.

Relying on Twitter is a liability, not a feature :/

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#629

Post by VoxPelli » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 5:31 PM UTC

jcoder wrote: post #362

Excited for this—was NOT expecting it to tell me to follow them on Twitter after signing up! That one sure hits different than the last time…

Completely agree! Felt like such a refresh right up until the suggestions to follow on the Musk platform – it’s basically the same as suggesting to follow on Truth Social nowadays, only that Musk has more money than Trump could ever dream off

Re: We're bringing Pebble back

#630

Post by akho » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 5:32 PM UTC

mattmaroon wrote: post #560

akho wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reader made tons of people use RSS who otherwise wouldn’t, and who now don’t. It did not live long enough to become a villain (though it certainly would have — there is no reason why G wouldn’t have added recommendations, an algo feed, and all it brings). Therefore it’s remembered well.

Reader died because people were switching to social media. Reader also had no vendor lock in at all. There’s no network effect like Facebook. There’s no massive infrastructure demands like Google. No corporate sales process like Oracle, Microsoft, etc. You could very easily create a competitor and after it died, few even tried to replace it. I miss it but not enough to find another RSS reader. You’re never really the…

Reader died because Google was switching to social media, not because people did.

> It would have been hard to make that product evil.

You can just treat RSS data as content to bring in new users, while building your lock through other means. Sharing, recommendations, algo feeds, commenting, and, eventually, posting. Then apply demands to RSS feeds, leveraging your audience, and lock out new ones.

This is all very easy and the playbook is well understood at this point.