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Pebble Watch software is now open source

ericmigi.com

71–80 of 236 posts

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#71

Is there a vibration mechanism? That’s a must-have in a watch for me.

There is, but I would set expectations lower than Apple's "taptic engine" where they designed their own hardware with a team of engineers and a bazillion dollars.

One of the recent development updates mentioned adding a global "vibrate on hour" setting which historically had to be implemented as an option by the specific watchface you're using.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#72
post #4

Also includes news about a new Appstore, which can probably be seen as a reaction to the stories from last week: We’ve created our own Pebble Appstore feed (appstore-api.repebble.com) and new Developer Dashboard. Our feed (fyi powered by 100% new software) is configured to back up an archive of all apps and faces to Archive.org (backup will gradually complete over the next week). Today, our feed only has a subset of…

I read the drama last week, and after seeing this, I have to side with Rebble. I think they kept the community alive since Eric M cashed out and Fitbit shut it down. As the stars have aligned in recent years, Eric revives Pebble, but if Rebble wouldn't spend all the effort maintaining the app store, his consumer base would be much smaller and it would be much harder to bootstrap again. With Repebble (Core Devices) an…

I'm surprised by this comment; after the drama last week and after seeing this I fully have to side against Rebble.

The nature of driving a healthy open source centered ecosystem is that you don't control it under your iron fist: you make good contributions, users _and_ companies are able to use them in all new ways which comply with the licensing terms. And it seems that RePebble is going way beyond the licensing terms requirements, but bending over backwards to honor Rebble here when they aren't actually required to.

I just can't imagine what people want from RePebble if not this: they are being maximally open, making it so all of everything would be able to continue if they went out of business tomorrow, while also actively enabling people to continue using Rebble's store and paid offerings. Should they be forcing users to use Rebble's offerings (instead of making things even more open) as a reward for doing a good job bridging the dark age?

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#73
post #57

(Un)related new post made by rebble today: https://rebble.io/2025/11/24/rebble-in-your-own-world.html Doesn't address the multiple feed support for the app store, and seems to be calling Eric to action a few times, but it would be too much of a coincidence that these two posts come out so close to one another.

through all of this, it really feels like rebble didn't know what they want (as they say). the future collaboration with eric also sounds like they don't know what they want. they want a third party mediator for... something. Eric was already prepared to pay them per user, which seemed generous to me to begin with.

It sounds to me like Rebble (the board + community) should figure out what they want before trying to proceed, lest they further waste time and good-faith negotiating capital. like are they unhappy with the previous payment rate per user? or something else?

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#74
post #4

Also includes news about a new Appstore, which can probably be seen as a reaction to the stories from last week: We’ve created our own Pebble Appstore feed (appstore-api.repebble.com) and new Developer Dashboard. Our feed (fyi powered by 100% new software) is configured to back up an archive of all apps and faces to Archive.org (backup will gradually complete over the next week). Today, our feed only has a subset of…

I read the drama last week, and after seeing this, I have to side with Rebble. I think they kept the community alive since Eric M cashed out and Fitbit shut it down. As the stars have aligned in recent years, Eric revives Pebble, but if Rebble wouldn't spend all the effort maintaining the app store, his consumer base would be much smaller and it would be much harder to bootstrap again. With Repebble (Core Devices) an…

You are not really factoring in all the work on the hardware, much of the software, and the entirety of the financing, which is being done by Eric and the Core Devices team.

If Rebble wants to take the risk and put out a smartwatch, there is nothing stopping them. Infact all of the open sourcing work Core Devices has done gives them a good starting point.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#75
post #32

"Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, You hereby grant to Core Devices and to recipients of software distributed by Core Devices a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute Your Contributions and such derivative works.…

Please note our CLA explicitly include a clause to require Core Devices to distribute all contributions under an OSI-compatible FOSS license (e.g. GPLv3). So no contributions can be 'stolen'. https://ericmigi.notion.site/Core-Devices-Software-Licensing...

But OSI-compatible FOSS licenses include pushover ones like MIT, so even though you couldn't steal all of the contributions to make a proprietary fork, any other company then could.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#76

I'm excited that the back will screw off so we can replace the battery. I'm curious about waterproofing. Will that hold? Will we need to replace a gasket or other parts, in addition to the battery?

The watch is only listed as water resistant, not waterproof. I don't know if he's said anything specific about the Time 2, but for the 2 Duo (same target water resistance rating) he's written about the water resistance here: https://ericmigi.com/blog/pebble-2-duo-is-in-mass-production . He says you shouldn't take the watch swimming, shouldn't expose it to hot water like a shower (weakens the glue and eliminates the water resistance), and shouldn't expose it to high pressure water. They seem designed mainly to protect against incidental splashes rather than any serious water exposure.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#77
As someone who has been working on a pair of smart glasses running RTOS, and having to make companion apps for both iOS and Android, I am very interested in reading your approaches to a lot of the same problems I have faced. There's not a lot of information out there on these topics.

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#78
This is great news! I know the new Pebble has a small team and is focused on being a long term sustainable enterprise. This should help with that goal quite a bit.

I received my Pebble 2 Duo about a month ago, and it is awesome. Nice job and thank you! I feel 10 years younger :)

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#79
My current smartwatch is $7 I got from the thrift store. Not only does it offer everything an Apple Watch offers, but it also measures blood pressure (surprisingly accurate) and has a small flashlight, and I charge it once every 3 weeks. The only issue is its app is limited and you can’t customize anything besides the watch faces and the wrist strap. So having that, it’s really hard to compete if you are just going to offer another smartwatch, which is a great strategy to open source the software and allow customization, even on the hardware level to some degree. Myself and a lot of people would be interested to have that!

Re: Pebble Watch software is now open source

#80
I see a future where FOSS designs for consumer products compete with commercial releases.

It will take far more sophisticated micro-manufacturing (like 3d-printing but different tools handling more types of materials).

Get the jacket in your exact size with the best materials. Benefit from having incrementally improved from the original (for example under arm vent zipper angle improved). All of it unbranded or custom branded.

Seems hard to believe annual released, mass manufacturing will compete.

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