The Pebble Has Been Brought Back
The Pebble Has Been Brought Back
store.repebble.com
Get your new PebbleOS watch
Google recently open sourced Pebble and today, Repebble has put some of the watches up for preorder.
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143 comments
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Genuinely considering it as I love e ink, lightweight, long battery life, and open source
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I understand that the watch operating system is open source. However, it seems that the watch will connect to a companion smartphone app. Do you know if the app is a requirement and/or if the app will be open source?
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Yeah the mobile app is open source too https://github.com/pebble-dev/mobile-app
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It is not clear that this is the app that will be used for the new watches. I imagine it will support the new RePebble watches, but I believe that app was intended for the original Pebble watches.
The thing that makes it so unclear to me is that this is a repo owned by the Rebble team, not the RePebble team. I do not know how much overlap there is between the two teams, but the RePebble team does not have any open source repos that I could find. Any mention of open source software by RePebble (including the OS) are links to repos owned by other teams, which is a little concerning.
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It runs basically the same PebbleOS, so they'll work with any app that works with the original Pebbles. They plan to keep using the community app hosting at https://apps.rebble.io/. There's also GadgetBridge that's compatible. Eric mentioned on HN the intention for an official open source library that can be used to make other companion apps too.
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Does it spy on us?
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The hand-wavy answer is: go check the code and find out, however that's not accessible to everyone.
The helpful answer is: The code is out there, and the launch date is far enough away that those who do understand it enough to make that distinction should have the time to do so before it ships, so time will tell.
The Rebble folks probably are the closest to knowing, given they've been hacking on the current app for the past several years.
My guess is probably not. The target audience probably wouldn't be cool with it.
Also, there are 3rd party watchfaces and apps that will be available, so that code will need to be evaluated too. So, it's more complicated than a single yes or no.
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One thing about the Pebble - and, I assume, these watches - is that they didn't have WiFi or LTE, only Bluetooth. So it wasn't possible for them to do any communication except through the apps already running on your phone. So, broadly, it's a no.
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Gadgetbridge is compatible with Pebble devices
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IIRC, it has a reflective LCD, not epaper display.
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Core 2 Duo
- 1.2" black/white e-paper screen
Core Time 2
- 1.5" 64 color e-paper screen
Am I missing something?
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The watch featured a 32-millimetre (1.26 in) 144 × 168 pixel black and white memory LCD using an ultra low-power "transflective LCD"
The problem is that e-paper is a category of displays, and some companies label reflective LCDs as "e-paper". Which is subjective (and I personally heavily disagree with that categorization, cause then LCD clocks and Gameboys have "e-paper" displays, too).
But in the comment I responded to it was said Pebble has "eink" display, which is categorically wrong, as that is a very specific proprietary technology, which is e-paper in traditional sense, like the ones in Kindles.
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Your response says, "not epaper" which is categorically wrong. I assume you meant to say "eink"
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As I mentioned earlier, whether a screen type is considered e-paper is subjective. And in my opinion, reflective LCD isn't a type of e-paper. You may disagree, but it's not "categorically" wrong.
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I believe these are sharp’s memory in pixel lcds. They’re much lower power than something like the game boy screen as each pixel retains its state and doesn’t need to be refreshed from the controller constantly. I actually like these little screens quite a lot. Worse pixel density and don’t look as good as e-ink when static, but still really Low power and can refresh way faster and smoother when needed.
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I'm not criticizing the screens, they are ok and I loved my Pebble Time Steel until the battery swelled and popped off the screen. I'm just saying that calling these e-paper is a deceptive marketing strategy.
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Where exactly is that quote from? I had a look through the product page(s) and could only find e-paper being mentioned...
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Quote is from Wikipedia. You can see it's the case for both models here:
Besides, I own a Pebble Time watch and can tell you, it doesn't perform like a typical e-paper. It has the bad viewing angles of LCD and screen goes blank when power is lost.
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That quote is on under features on the article for the original Pebble, right? Might be that the Pebble 2 used a different screen; I can't really find info on that though.
Regarding the Time, I think the product page for the new Time 2 specifically says how the curved screen lens on the Pebble Time wasn't that good.
Edit: Found the quote under the Core 2 Time section
Flat glass lens (less glare and reflections than Pebble Time family curved lens)
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From the Verge article:
The first watch that Migicovsky and Core plan to ship is called the Core 2 Duo (not to be confused with the old Intel processor), which Migicovsky says will cost $149 and will ship in July. [...] It has the exact same black-and-white e-paper display as the old Pebble 2 (technically a transflective LCD, if you’re curious)
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Ah I see
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Oh that seems to be new since the original pebble
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Epaper and eink are different. Eink consumes no power when idle, and epaper consumes almost no power.
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Yet they are also the same - E Ink is an e-paper display.
Electronic paper is a category for any low energy display tech that looks kinda like paper, E Ink is a brand name for a "Microencapsulated electrophoretic display" from E Ink Corporation. Also just known as E-ink because IIRC they have the patent on it so nobody else can actually make them.
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143 comments