cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/25280992
Google agreed to release Pebble OS to the public. As of Monday, all the Pebble firmware is available on GitHub, and Migicovsky is starting a company to pick up where he left off.
The company — which can’t be named Pebble because Google still owns that — doesn’t have a name yet. For now, Migicovsky is hosting a waitlist and news signup at a website called RePebble. Later this year, once the company has a name and access to all that Pebble software, the plan is to start shipping new wearables that look, feel, and work like the Pebbles of old.
I just want a watch that can read text messages and has a long battery life. The Pebble and Pebble 2 fit that bill for me.
Until the buttons fell of the Pebble 2.
My gramin instinct fits this description. Mine is 1st gen and if I didn’t use it for gps activity tracking the battery would probably last 2 weeks. Think I’ve had it for 4 years now.
The pebble time is still the best Smart Watch I’ve ever owned. Perfect with notifications, good battery life, easy controls, beautifully efficient e-paper screen. Can’t wait to see what they do now!
I think it was something like reflective LCD and not epaper, that’s what allowed it to have a fast refresh rate but still use very little power. I’m still surprised I haven’t seen much tech using that type of screen.
I’ve made many posts on many platforms wondering the same thing, especially for something like a watch that you want to be always on. Sure, amoled exists, but isn’t e-paper much better for that use case?
I’m even daily driving an e-paper android tablet for notes and reading and it’s awesome. A charge lasts me over a week with heavy use.
Also, not entirely sure of the exact tech for the original pebble, was it TFT? The RePebble site linked by OP talks about e-paper but maybe that’s just what they want going forward
This is interesting timing! I was considering trading in my Pebble Time, since Samsung was running one of their “trade in any smartwatch, any condition” deals. But I couldn’t do it. I found myself reconnecting the watch and setting it up to connect to the third party Rebble servers and putting apps on it like the old days. It’s remarkable how well this device aged, and its interface is still so much more fun and endearing than anything WearOS can offer. So I wish them the best!
What I’m most looking forward to on a new Pebble:
- Battery life. With the battery and cpu efficiency improvements in the last 10 years, if the features and other specs stay the same then battery life should be incredible. I think month-long battery is likely possible.
- Improved voice recognition and AI features. Pebble had voice recognition but it sent everything to a server to process. Now they could run speech-to-text on the watch itself or on the connected phone.
- More durable buttons. A known issue with the Pebble 2 is eventually the buttons turn to mush.
I like Pebble watch because the vibration can wake the dead
