Google open-sources the Pebble OS • Hacker News Board

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#71

Post by bombcar » Mon, Jan 27, 2025, 9:40 PM UTC

coldpie wrote: post #30

bix6 wrote: post #22

Can anyone comment on Google’s Business reasons for doing this? Is this actually an act of goodwill or is this a commodity, antitrust, etc. play?

Given the original Pebble folks are using this to spin up a re-launch ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42845185 ), my guess is the Pebble folks just know someone on the inside at Google who managed to get the lawyers to sign off on it.

From my experience in large (and small) companies, trying to get something that is internally dead open sourced is usually not a huge fight against people saying no, just a laundry-list of things that need to be done before everyone will sign off on it.

One motivated person at a decently high enough level can get it pushed through, as long as whoever the person making the decision asks about it says, 'eh, ok.'

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#72

Post by freedomben » Mon, Jan 27, 2025, 9:40 PM UTC

RobotToaster wrote: post #50

skort wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It feels like they deliberately sat on it until it's almost completely dead.

Fortunately you don't need to go on your feelings, because people involved have told us exactly what happened. RePebble guy (Eric) reached out, asked them to open source, they spent a ton of effort to get it releasable, and did just that.

Unless you think everybody involved is lying.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#73

Post by tadfisher » Mon, Jan 27, 2025, 9:42 PM UTC

_2d30 wrote: post #52

skort wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Pebble went bankrupt because no one bought their products. Their assets were acquired by Fitbit. Fitbit did not continue to produce the Pebble products for which there was very limited demand. Google then later acquired Fitbit.

They sold 2 million units, which is nothing to sneeze at for a Kickstarter-funded project. What they miscalculated was the demand for the Pebble Time, for which they spent too much money on R&D and marketing to justify the results. They should have iterated on the original design, making it cheaper, smaller, and longer-lasting. Instead they tried to go upmarket and compete with the Apple Watch, with predictable results.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#74

Post by sushid » Mon, Jan 27, 2025, 9:44 PM UTC

skort wrote: post #29

spencerflem wrote: post #5

Don't say it often, but this is very nice of Google and they really didn't have to. Credit where it's due

[flagged]

They didn't have to do this. They didn't even acquire Pebble outright, they acquired it through Fitbit, and Pebble was just a part of Fitbit's portfolio from a previous acquisition.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#75

Post by ClassyJacket » Mon, Jan 27, 2025, 9:44 PM UTC

girvo wrote: post #46

cmdtab wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty cool. Have you ever thought about designing pebble to look more like a traditional watch but e-ink based?

That’s basically what the Pebble Time Round was, and it was phenomenal!

Pebble Time used an LCD display just like every other Pebble

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#76

Post by ashirviskas » Mon, Jan 27, 2025, 9:44 PM UTC

Latty wrote: post #20

erohead wrote: post #14

Thank you, Google. You didn't have to, but you did. We are all are extraordinarily grateful. I wrote a blog post about our plans to bring Pebble back, sustainably. https://ericmigi.com/blog/why-were-bringing-pebble-back We got our original start on HN ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3827868 ), it's a pleasure to be back. If you're interested in getting a new Pebble, check out https://rePebble.com

I did wear my Pebble until it died, and then never found another smart watch worth it for me. Will keep an eye on this for sure.

May I ask why it was so special for you? As I did not participate in all the hype and now I'm a happy owner of a Garmin watch and it does seem like it is closer in specs to Pebble than most other smartwatches. Other than the openness.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#77

Post by abhishekjha » Mon, Jan 27, 2025, 9:45 PM UTC

Aren't floating point comparisons frowned upon? https://github.com/google/pebble/blob/main/src/libc/math/flo...

I guess you can freeze some compiler options to give you consistent results.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#78

Post by ClassyJacket » Mon, Jan 27, 2025, 9:49 PM UTC

zitterbewegung wrote: post #3

This is pretty awesome. I had a Pebble but the battery went out and was sad to see that you had to buy used / refurbished. Being epaper and lasting for so long the best part of it was that it just managed notifications with my phone. I moved on to the Apple Watch from my brother (series 0) and it took awhile for the Apple Watch to have its killer application which was a fitness tracker.

Every Pebble model used an LCD display. It being epaper has to be one of the most pervasive myths in tech history. It was a low powered, reflective LCD, so it did improve on other LCDs in those areas somewhat, but it wasn't eink technology.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#79

Post by freedomben » Mon, Jan 27, 2025, 9:51 PM UTC

erohead wrote: post #14

Thank you, Google. You didn't have to, but you did. We are all are extraordinarily grateful. I wrote a blog post about our plans to bring Pebble back, sustainably. https://ericmigi.com/blog/why-were-bringing-pebble-back We got our original start on HN ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3827868 ), it's a pleasure to be back. If you're interested in getting a new Pebble, check out https://rePebble.com

Neat, I'm super excited! I've hoped the PineTime would be the new Pebble, but hasn't really materialized (though, it has gotten pretty good! despite being a little awkward).

I actually held off from buying a Pebble back in the day because the software wasn't open source and I was worried about getting dependent on a product I had no control over. (Yes, I see the vicious Tragedy of the Commons wrapped up there, but still gotta make the optimal choice for me). I'm beyond stoked to see this movement! And it being open source, I have no such qualms. If they are affordable enough, I'll probably be gifting these out on the regular so expect to sell at least a dozen or two :-D

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#80

Post by girvo » Mon, Jan 27, 2025, 9:54 PM UTC

ClassyJacket wrote: post #75

girvo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s basically what the Pebble Time Round was, and it was phenomenal!

Pebble Time used an LCD display just like every other Pebble

Quite, but a transflective one (from Sharp, I believe) which gave it a lot of the benefits of daylight readability while being much much easier to program for and work with.