Pebble Watch Software Is Now 100% Open Source
Pebble Watch Software Is Now 100% Open Source + Tick Talk #4 - PT2 Demos!
Yesterday, Pebble watch software was ~95% open source. Today, it’s 100% open source. You can download, compile and run all the software you need to use your Pebble. We just published the source code for the new Pebble mobile app!
Ooh.. can I print my next smartwatch?
Probably could print the shell and buttons, would be quite difficult to print the wristband, and the screen, PCB, storage and battery would all have to be commodity components. Doable though.
There are case stls available for the Pebble 2, not sure about the rest (P2s were the most... fragile).
If the Android app is fully open source, then it should be made available in f-droid
Apparently the packaging requirements for F-Droid are more challenging than just "must be open source" and aren't for everybody.
https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Inclusion_Policy/
The "no Google Play services" alone are a non starter for many apps. My preferred messenger, Signal, is plenty open source and runs its own notification daemon, but cannot be found on F-Droid. I have to get it via Obtainium instead.
"No Google Play services" falls under "app must be FOSS". The average publicly developed open source app should not have much trouble getting into F-Droid if the developer wants to. Google Play services consists of several components, one of which is a proprietary library included in apps using it. If your app includes proprietary code, it is not FOSS.
If Signal decided a build without proprietary blobs isn't worth it, they're not getting into F-Droid. Forks of Signal exist that remove the Google Play services build requirement, those are in F-Droid.
Signal, the messenger that lags code sumps for a year so they can get a leg up with insider knowledge of their own cryptocurrency?
pebble
When you're right, you're right
And you? You're always right.
I get baited every time :( thinking "Ah! Finally a watch I can buy!" Then I, again, see the 30 day warranty (that would be illegal in my country) and remember that this is not a good buy for me. Good luck to all buyers.
Warranty is nothing I care about. In Germany it is perfectly legal (called "Garantie"), but we habe laws ensuring 2 year period called "Gewährleistung" which is automtically included
Either you are misunderstanding something or I am. I don't think Gewährleistung applies here because it is not sold to the German market but instead you import it from the American market.
is 30 days a red flag?
ricecake gave a good answer already. In the EU you have 2 years. In the first 12 months the company has to prove that it wasn't their fault, in the next 12 months you have to prove it was their fault.
If no such law is in place, nothing protects you from them using cheap materials that break after a few months.
E.g. I once had a free xbox-replica controller every year because their product was shit and it broke after ~6-9 months. They had to replace it and did so three times. Then I got my money back. Selling * doesn't work here.
Some countries have more consumer protections than the US does, and consumers from there are wary of the lack of assurances a lot of us products have.
To them, it's like being told you have to pay for your food at the restaurant even if they mess up your order and you don't get to eat it. It doesn't matter that the waiter probably isn't going to drop your food on the floor, throw it away and then give you a bill: the fact that they could makes you not want to go there.
Likewise, your watch will almost certainly not break via factory defect after more than a month, but the expectation is that if they sell you something it'll either last the expected lifetime or be suitably replaced or refunded on failure.
We're used to our particular blend of capitalist hellscape, so a company saying they'll replace things if they're obviously broken the moment you buy it, but beyond than you're out of luck just seems normal. It's on us to make sure they don't mail us subtly damaged microelectronics and tiny lithium bombs.
I finally got my Duo 2, and while my old OG still lasts 3 days on a battery I figured time to give it rest.
So far its been great, except that I can't connect to gadgetbridge anymore. I uninstalled the Core pebble app and instead popped MicroPebble on my phone due to not exactly liking where Core was heading, so I'm glad they're finally pivoting.
I waited until I got my duo whilst my Steel was on a 2 day battery cycle. As soon as I got the watch it dropped to 16 hours. I finally replaced the battery, to find that I really needed a new zebra strip, too. 12 days later I got a new strip and my Steel is running for 7 days again. I use Mpebble for now, as to my knowledge Cobble doesn't support many 3rd party apps like Tasker yet (I haven't tried in a couple of weeks)
Cool! I've been that interested in smartwatches but I'm interested in this!
This is amazing. Very interested in picking one up
I grabbed a banglejs a while back for cheap embedded funzies, and it's really stellar as a hackable companion device that you don't use much, or at least in fairly passive or niche ways. Espruino is really cool though, and that's the heart of the project.
I wonder how this compares as a higher-end (maybe only other?) FOSS watch, mostly on the battery/power ratio. I actually don't know much about the pebble design.
I've had Pebble watches for probably 14 years now? Let me know what you want to know.
I will say that I've had Garmin, Pixel, Samsung, and Fitbits and still prefer Pebble above all.
They honestly lost me with the fitness platform they were developing with the hardware they tried launching before they got bought by Fitbit.
I’m too baked into my Apple Watch to use a Pebble today. I don’t have any of my old watches. I would not mind a circular Apple Watch. I loved the Pebble Round.
The founder explains in this blog post about the original failure of pebble, and why pebble shouldn't have focused on fitness.
They're coming back as a tool/toy for the enthusiasts who want to tinker.
Remind me of the recent source ownership issue? I thought there was a "thanks for all the community work over a decade and we want to participate; oops now we own it" story.
Covered here you choose to look into it more if you want.
I'd feel liked Id buy out of nostalgia and then be disappointed. Pebble was the pioneer that got bought out. Typical
I dunno. I keep remembering what my old Pebble did, and how well it did, and nothing more... And yep, I want it back.
Basically, a dumb watch, with an HR monitor, accelerometer, and could sync that data to my phone app.
Its API let me do cool things like pause/unpause my music while running, which was nice. But, it required the apps to be have an API for doing so.
Battery? The thing went an entire week between charges.
I disagree with calling it "dumb". it was perfect for it's niche. I want a watch to show the time, basic notifications, media control... not send an email.
Pebble always on screen and long battery life was perfect for a wearable. all other smartwatches are basically miniaturized phones that do way too much in a screen that can't handle it. If something is easier to do on the phone, it does not need to work on a smartwatch.
Hopefully the new pebbles are good, I am worried that the new one's touch screen will make a touch based UI, which suck on tiny screens,
I vaguely remember it being amazing but again vaguely remember it. I know it was my 1st smartwatch though!!
Personally think it would be cool to have dumb watch option and smart watch option for buying
But yeah those use cases are pretty good
Man you should see the new ones, the battery actually lasts 17 days.
Can someone explain this to me. When you setup pebble on this new open source app, does the app connect to the internet? Who controls those servers? Is it rebble or this company LLC that Eric created? Who is server admin?
It is open sourcing the repebble app here: https://repebble.com/app
Looking through the code, most calls go to repebble.com, rebble.com and rebble.io domains. Most of it seems to be for login, firmware downloads, settings synchronization, weather forecasts and language packs.
There are also some calls to memfault.com for crash analytics.
Most of it seems pretty innocent. If you don't like this app you can also use Gadgetbridge as an alternative.
With a quick look through the code I can see calls are being made to rebble.io and repebble.com. From there you can whois the domains.
I'm so glad I talked to some of them to potentially make it fully open source. This is a win for us all!!
Is there a model with GPS and a SIM?
It doesn't look like it. They had to make compromises on what to include, otherwise they'd end up with smartwatch that's larger than a phone.
With it being 100% open source, it should be easy for someone to add these features.
