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Google open-sources the Pebble OS

opensource.googleblog.com

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Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#81

Post by girvo »

organsnyder wrote: post #58
girvo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I backed a Pebble Time Round Gold on the last Kickstarter, which was cancelled when Pebble was acquired. Somehow the devices ended up on Amazon, and I snagged one there. It's a phenomenally stylish device.

My white 20mm one with a brown leather band started more conversations than anything else I’ve ever owned and used, which was surprising but neat :)

Unfortunately mine got stolen and broken, which is a shame. I wonder how hard they are to buy today, and how difficult battery replacements for them are…

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#82

Post by hnlurker22 »

devrand wrote: post #68
mavamaarten wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. They did buy it and just let it die. They were so far ahead of the competition at the time.

It was dead long before Google was involved. Pebble filed for insolvency back in 2016 with Fitbit acquiring much of the assets. It was dead at this point. 5 years later Google bought Fitbit.

Looks like there is money in the business of hyped-dying startups. First Pebble, then Beeper, and now Pebble again.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#83

Post by mcny »

Zigurd wrote: post #66
coldpie wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, maybe we can come at this from the other angle. We can't have small phones because bigger is always better, right? So how about a HUGE 5" screen smartwatch that just happens to be a perfectly functional standalone phone if you discard the wristband?? Instant best seller!

A better use of flexible screens than folding devices. Fitting under the cuffs of men's shirts is a constraint. I dictate most text entered on my phone, so a squishy typing surface wouldn't be so bad. Camera position could be tricky.

Problem is different people want different things. I for one want at least all day battery while using only about 60% of the capacity so realistically two full days battery from a single charge. I then want to be able to set a max charge limit of 80% beyond which the phone won't charge and have the phone die at 20%. Ideally, I also want the phone to be able to work off the wall meaning if the phone is plugged in to the wall, it should use power from the wall and not constantly charge and discharge the battery.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#84

Post by elevatedastalt »

People passing cynical comments at Google need to understand that at a big co like Google, something like this doesn't 'just happen'. It probably happened because some passionate L6/L7 engineer wanted to do it and pushed through the bureaucracy to get approvals for it, probably largely on their own time (by which I mean that this was at best a side-project for them and at worst a distraction that was losing them favor with their bosses). At every point in the process, they probably had to justify what they were doing to their leads, to lawyers, to privacy reviewers, who had no real stake in it and so had nothing to lose by saying No. They almost certainly won't receive any career progress out of this and would risk a setback if something slips through the cracks (such as some unredacted proprietary information).

They did it because they felt it was the right thing to do. Good things happen through the actions of individuals like this. We should acknowledge and celebrate it when they do, anti-big-tech cynicism can wait.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#85

Post by cortesoft »

mavamaarten wrote: post #32
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

Yes and no. They did buy it and just let it die. They were so far ahead of the competition at the time.

They bought Fitbit, not pebble

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#86

Post by Gigachad »

girvo wrote: post #80
ClassyJacket wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

At the cost of looking very dull and washed out.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#87

Post by Gigachad »

abhishekjha wrote: post #77

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.

I've only done a little bit of arduino programming, but for that you had to import a whole library for floating point math which took a huge amount of space, and many chips didn't even have hardware support for it.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#88

Post by Gigachad »

jabroni_salad wrote: post #34
tucnak wrote: post #17

To somebody who's completely out of the loop, hears about Pebble for the first time—why is this big news? Are we going to see novel software written for defunct hardware, or is the hardware going to evolve now that the software is open?

It's one of the original smart watches. What really sets it apart from modern ones is the e-ink display and dead simple interface (just a few buttons, no touchscreen). This simplicity means that it continues to do what it does well and doesn't really feel like it has aged badly. Certainly I would rather wear a pebble than a gen 1 Samsung watch or moto360. It's a delightful bit of kit that was sadly abandoned by owner…

The pebble did not have an e ink display, It was just a low power LCD.

Re: Google open-sources the Pebble OS

#89

Post by jayde2767 »

elevatedastalt wrote: post #84

People passing cynical comments at Google need to understand that at a big co like Google, something like this doesn't 'just happen'. It probably happened because some passionate L6/L7 engineer wanted to do it and pushed through the bureaucracy to get approvals for it, probably largely on their own time (by which I mean that this was at best a side-project for them and at worst a distraction that was losing them favo…

Maybe...the cynic in me says that someone feels this needs to be preserved because it will become another Google relic in favor of something newer, or more shiny. Or likely something written in Go...just a guess on my part...
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