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I wish them the absolute best of luck and hope they stay firmly in their niche.
I’ll be sticking with my mechanical and dumbquartz watches personally, got more than enough gadgets by now…
I was thinking of getting this but the focus is mainly for fitness. I think a garmin would be better for my purpose though because I honestly don’t know what I would do with this watch
Yeah for the same price as the color option you could get a Garmin Vivoactive on a sale.
Idk if garmin allows you to download your data in an easily accessible format but I would expect Pebble to do it and I expect a nice ecosystem of user-created apps based on that
as much as I loved the original Pebbles (and love the design of these too), I think basically the world has moved on… for this kind of money, I am buying a Garmin watch with GPS, HR, etc. but I hope there will be a group of enthusiasts and wish all the luck to the company with sales. more options are always better :)
I haven’t moved on. Pebble Time Steel was the best watch I’ve ever had. I’ve been using Fitbit since the death of Pebble and they never got as good as Pebble was. If Repebble hadn’t shown up, I’d probably be going Garmin after the inevitable death of Fitbit. But now that the choice is between Garmin and a hackable open source Pebble with 30 days of battery life… Repebble wins for me. ☺️
Fitbit was pretty bad. My wife had it and after the 3rd rma she just didn’t bother anymore.
I have a PineTime now and she basically claimed it as her own so I’m back to wearing analog watches.
I’m being horribly pedantic here but analog is just the display, you can have a highly computerized analog watch, or a purely mechanical digital watch!
out of curiosity what’s your favorite analog watch (by anyone’s definition) you own?
too bad its a US based company
Wait, the basic version has a compas and barometer without a heart rate monitor, but the more expensive one has a heart rate monitor and no barometer or compass? Why?
He wasn’t going to add compass because most people don’t use it, but then he added it to the Core 2 Duo as a favor to a friend who helped on that version and wanted a compass in it.
Because that’s the feature people actually want. The biggest use of these watches is having an active heart rate monitor, as evident by even most of the cheaper watches having them.
Pebble is now playing a gambit, whereby they think they will sell more of the premium model to people who will be using it for exercise and health reasons.
Either that, or the hardware chosen specifically separates the heart rate monitor so that vendors strike a better deal with the factories to get specially designed chips.
Either way, someone is getting taken for a ride.
Because that’s the feature people actually want. The biggest use of these watches is having an active heart rate monitor, as evident by even most of the cheaper watches having them.
Seriously, even my $30 PineTime has a heart rate monitor.
I’ve never once used a compass on my watch, mostly because the phone it’s attached to is a much better compass and even has its own barometer built-in. Plus it’s a pain to use a compass on a watch because you have to hold your whole arm up.
Pebble is now playing a gambit, whereby they think they will sell more of the premium model to people who will be using it for exercise and health reasons.
There’s an explicit line in their site that says these are not made to be fitness trackers, and that garmin are good for that (or some other brand, can’t remember). It would be very odd to say that if it was their target.
Dammit, I wanted to use this as a fitness tracker like garmin
Edit: found this
Software features
Each watch runs open source PebbleOS. This enables all the baseline Pebble features like receiving notifications, timeline, watchfaces, alarms, timers, calendar, music control, basic fitness tracking, etc.
You’re looking for a fitness or sports watch. That’s not what we’re making. From what we hear, Garmin watches are great for runners/cyclists/triathletes!
https://ericmigi.com/blog/introducing-two-new-pebbleos-watches/
For fitness its probably decent but Garmin seems to have placebo sleep tracking. In order to get anything remotely accurate the sleep tracking algorithm has to be compared to a lot of polysomnograph data. But because companies don’t want to spend any more than they need to sleep tracking is usually just tacked on. Garmin hasn’t shown a good track record in this regard.
I just pre-ordered one, but the price made me wince 😬
- 30-day battery life
- open source OS
🫨
Open Source “OS” ? Did they intentionally forget a statement or two around someone else’s IP ?
Anyone of the github contributors care to explain what their repo’s content will exactly be? https://github.com/pebble-dev/pebble-nonfree
Likely binary blobs from vendors like Debian’s non-free-firmware.
We will see, unless there is an “official” announcement of some sort for the exacts contents of that github repo prior to preorder closing.
The current README contents do not do justice.
You do you, but the OS is here.
Does it use just standard watch bands? It looks like it, but I didn’t see it mentioned.
One of the things I find ridiculous about other smart watches is that they use proprietary bands. When I found out that people are paying $60+ for a silicon band for an Apple watch, it blew my mind. Also that people put screen protectors or cases on their Apple watches because their $500+ watch doesn’t even have a crystal lens, and is prone to scratching.
Yes, the announcement blog post states they use standard 22mm watch bands, as the original Pebbles did.
Is that typical? I guess Apple sells watch bands at that price, but I’ve never bought a $60 Apple branded watch band. With the ubiquity of Apple Watches it’s not hard to find inexpensive Apple Watch bands even if they are proprietary. I don’t think that’s the case for other smartwatches, though.
The Bangle.js is around too.
I’m pretty excited about this; my Pebble Time was the best watch I’ve even owned - smart or otherwise.
That said, I don’t think I’m going to be preordering this given how badly the last Pebble Kickstarter went. For those who weren’t around at the time, Pebble (whose CEO is behind this venture) built his whole business around Kickstarter. The first 2 generations were wildly successful, but for the third generation they massively overextended themselves trying to get hardware into mainstream retailers, prioritised building stock for retail channels (because contracts) and ran out of cash before shipping for the majority of backers who had bankrolled this whole thing. Eventually everyone who hadn’t had their orders fulfilled got a refund, but that was only because FitBit decided to buy them. Eric seems like a nice guy and great at the technology - and I’m not saying that I could run a business any better - but I think I’ll wait until there is stock on hand for me to buy outright before I hand over my cash
From their FAQ, emphasis mine:
You shouldn’t get one if…
You need a perfectly polished smartwatch. This project is a labour of love rather than a startup trying to sell millions of watches. There may be some rough edges (literally). Things will get delayed. Some features will not be ready at launch. Things could break. Things could not last as long as you’d like. The only thing we can guarantee is that it will be awesome and a lot of fun! Every time you look down at your watch, you will smile
So yeah, I’d say your take is pretty accurate. At least they’re honest lol
My concern isn’t that things will get delayed, it’s that I’ll give them my money and get nothing in return
That’s. Uh… the entire idea of a kickstarter.
It may crash and burn. Don’t want that, don’t back anything on kickstarter.
Honestly that is something I’ve always been ok with on Kickstarter. But it’s 50% scams now of people who never intended to deliver anything in the first place and Kickstarter is taking a lot of steps to protect the scammers in this. The only reason I ever back anything on there anymore is because of campaigns by companies I trust will at least try. I trust Pebble will try, so I personally am very tempted.
The idea is that you judge each Kickstarter venture on its likelihood of doing that vs actually delivering.
Understandable, which is why I’m choosing to not preorder. However, they also have a full refund policy that’s good until your unit is being prepared to ship, and several notifications leading up to that point. One of the best ways to handle preorders I’ve encountered.
He also screwed a lot of the employees on the way out from Pebble, and he also bailed on Beeper the minute it got complicated. Sold it to Matt Mullenweg a year or two after getting pimp-slapped by Apple because he had no real plan for what to do if Apple started banning the devices he was using as Matrix bridges. He gave up after like three days, it was honestly genuinely pathetic. This was a paid service and he fucked it all up for anyone using iMessage on it.
I have personal experiences with Beeper that make me less than trust Eric Migicovsky, and I really don’t think he seems like a “nice guy.” He actively sucks, doesn’t have plans for sustainability and then sells it all off to someone else at a personal profit while the people doing the actual work get fucked out of a job.
What’s the gist of your “personal experiences with Beeper”?
I was very excited when Beeper was first announced and I got on the wait list.
I finally got onboarded, and this was when you still had be walked through the setup by one of the Beeper employees.
I got into the Zoom meeting, and got a warning that it was going to be recorded. I had not, up to that point, had ever been disclosed that it was going to be recorded. I declined to join the meeting and sent a follow-up email with some pertinent privacy related questions, especially since in the case of some of the Bridges that were being used for this service essentially meant Beeper would have access to my credentials. They would later create a more secure system, but it was not very secure early on.
My main question regarded Micigovsky’s past in selling Pebble and I asked what gaurantees of the privacy policy were being made in regard to a potential sale of the company (considering it eventually got sold, I guess a good question to ask), and what, if any, promises were being made for the privacy policy to stay unchanged through a sale.
I never got a response to my questions. Not being told I was going to be recorded, and not ever getting an answer to reasonable privacy policy questions led me to never signing up for the service.
Yep im also going to wait til its out to make a judgement call.
Ditto, even though I’m in the market to replace my smartwatch since the buttons fell off.
I always feel nervous preordering anything. I got a new Fitbit so I think I have some time before it fails so I can see how this rePebble works out. If it is as good as it looks I might just get it. 30 day estimated battery life is amazing
If it’s open source, could someone potentially develop an app for it to control devices in home assistant? Would love to be able to control my room lights from my watch, and don’t think it’s possible on my Xiaomi watch fit 3 connected to gadgetbridge.
I recognize that there would also need to be work done in the app to support this as the watch only supports BLE
There are a couple already, e.g. https://github.com/Willow-Systems/pebble-home-assistant
What’s even cooler is that the nRF52840 chip that they will use has ZigBee support, which theoretically means it can talk to your network directly if software supports it
No way! That’s awesome, I will absolutely be checking that out
Lol, fml. Guess I’m buying a Repebble.
It’s open source.
I am wearing my OG Kickstarter Pebble right now, 12 years and still getting 8 days battery out of it.
I think I will be getting a new Core Time 2
Edit: added picture
I have a few times I rotate through. can’t wait for some new hw
Wow, mine died years ago.
It has the screen tearing issue, which can’t be fixed because it is one of the original ones which are glued together.
I have to have it on the analogue watch face so the screen refreshes every second. But it has outlasted the 4 other watches I tried.
I’m using a Garmin these days. Much battery life but I miss my old Pebble.
I had to stop wearing my pebble 2 hr when the software became too flaky to tolerate. Notifications would just randomly Go through or not, media controls would sometimes not work, and so on. But can’t wait to go back, as my alternatives are all fundamentally flawed.
I asked my partner if she wanted a new pebble, she has a nice little Garmin, her response:
I do like my Garmin in terms of a watch and the feel but the app is shit
Funny how she lost her last one:
Her strap broke on the pebble time, my (at the time) 15 month old saw it on the bench, and asked why she wasn’t wearing it. She said it is broken, a few days later she was going to get a new strap and the watch was gone. The 15 month old, had thrown it in the bin…rubbish day had already happened.
I’m just using gadget bridge now, most of the original functionality is gone. I can’t be arsed jumping through the hoops to install the original pebble app on my phone.
I had no issue getting the app on my phone, but it wasn’t really working anymore. I’d also have to swap the battery and reprint the buttons again. I’m just waiting for the new pebble now, it’s only a few months now.
Price seems kinda steep for a device that doesn’t have sleep/SpO2/Stress and HRV tracking capabilities
As someone very excited for this watch, the battery life with an always on display is more important to me than a sp02 sensor (Btw it will do sleep tracking). That and the button navigation are the killer features. The watch shows me what I need to know when I need to know it, always has the time on, and I can navigate it and control media playback without having to look at it (since buttons are consistent). I want a smart watch to be a good watch first then being smart is the second priority, and the pebble is the only watch I’ve ever had that gets those priorities right for me. Every other smart watch I’ve used sacrifices something I value to fit more features that I dont value as much. The pebbles have just gotten it right for me.
That said, the watch also isn’t for everyone, and a lot of people are OK charging their watch every day if it means they also get every feature they want.
Regarding charging - I charge my huawei watch fit 3 (that I got for like $150) every 2 weeks or so
I probably will end up getting the pebble as it appears I can interact with it on home assistant. Rough that I may have to wait till December though, it looks like
I am wondering/hoping if another company will step up and make a PebbleOS based watch with these capabilities.
Why would they choose to name the watch “Core 2 Duo” when that’s the name of an Intel processor? And why are both watches a “2” variant? They need a new marketing person.
And why are both watches a “2” variant?
Because this is the next generation of the original Pebble watches.
Core 2 Duo
I’ll actually be surprised if this makes it to launch without Intel perhaps making a few legal calls and prompting a device name change.
The most recent Intel Core 2 Duo was discontinued in 2008. I doubt Intel would be able to convince anyone that this is a competing product or would cause any customer confusion. No one is going to be looking for a low end processor from over a decade ago and accidentally buy a watch.
The point is not that it is being used, the point is that corporations must protect their trademarks or else they may lose the exclusive rights to them. Intel also still uses the “Core” branding on their modern CPU’s so it wouldn’t be a stretch for them to try and continue legally protecting “Core 2 Duo” under the guise of retaining the “Core” part of their trademarks.
They do need to protect their branding, but only if it’s likely to be viewed as “similar”. there’s no reasonable risk of people thinking that a watch and an old processor are the same.
There’s a lot of products with similar names that haven’t had issues.
Corporations are extremely protective about their branding, even if it’s for discontinued products. If this product gets any negative press, it can still affect their branding if people associate it with Intel.
Wouldn’t this be the fourth generation? Pebble Time was the second generation and Pebble 2 was the third generation.
That is not how trademarks work. They are purpose specific. I still have no idea why they would want to name it the same as an old processor, but I doubt it’s actually an issue.
That was my first thought as well. “Intel gonna sue somebody.”
when that’s the name of an Intel processor?
It’s totally a reference to that, it has to pretty much… Why? Idk, nostalgia? Duo as in black and white maybe
The two colours of the first Intel MacBook by Apple, which had Core 2 Duo processors…
Quite an hommage indeed
Core 2 Duo is also a terrible name from Intel in the first place. I did place my repebble order, hopefully it will serve me well.
Anyone remember the screen tearing issue that fucked basically 100% of screens from pebble? I remember.
I went through every single pebble that came out and never had this issue…maybe I got lucky?
Yes, had that problem, too.
easy to fix with zebra strip replacement I’m still wearing pebble steel rn
Good to know!
For anyone looking for a similar device in the interim (long battery, open source) the PineTime is a great device.
This is neat but the selling point for me with the Pebble is the e-ink display. If repebble fails though, my next watch will be a Pine. Hopefully my Versa 2 holds on for a bit longer 🤞
You should just get one anyway. It’s $30.
it’s an “e-paper” display, which annoyingly is nothing like an e-ink display. it’s an LCD with a memory chip in it. the bangle.js also has one, which can do eight colors. so better than the black and white one, but worse than the 64-color one. also it’s half the price of the cheaper pebble…
Got a PineTime for Christmas and so far been very pleased with it. I found the PineTimeStyle watchface and it’s been a bit like coming home to Pebble, but I do miss the wide array of watchface choices and effortless customization.
I missed out on the 1st gen pebble but had a buddy who loved his. Y’all may be talking me in to checking this new one out.
And agreed on the pine faces. I’ve been of half a mind to learn how to make them so I could have more variety.
That price tag though. 👎
