5 ms·

In case you didn't know, this is the result of Fitbit's talent acquisition of Pebble. I'm still pissed we lost a <$100 programmable smart watch.

wlesieutre 9y ago
With a week of battery life and a daylight visible screen
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  And a hacker-friendly company, with proper SDK, lean OS, and no bullshit attached.
- brlewis 9y ago
  OK so no more week-long battery life, but Ionic still has 5 days which is not bad. I work for Fitbit. I don't speak for Fitbit, but this page does: https://www.fitbit.com/shop/ionic#features https://www.fitbit.com/shop/ionic#features
  - reitanqild 9y ago
    Fitbit killed Pebble instead of continuing it (and making a profit from it.) I got a Garmin. I really lije it. If Fitbit had continued Pebble I think there is a fair chance I'd gotten one.
    - brlewis 9y ago
      Pebble went out of business. Fitbit acquired part of it. I don't think "killed" is accurate. https://investor.fitbit.com/press/press-releases/press-release-details/2016/Fitbit-Inc-Acquires-Assets-from-Pebble/default.aspx https://investor.fitbit.com/press/press-releases/press-relea...
      - fortythirteen 9y ago
        Pebble didn't directly go out of business. Their leadership decided to cash out with a partial acquisition and laid off everyone who wasn't in engineering. The financial situation of Pebble remains unknown to the public. With a $269 price tag, I'm not sure what the benefit of a Fitbit is over an Apple or Android watch, other than battery life.
        epmaybe 9y ago
        Fun fact, one of the original designers of the pebble timeline ui (Itai Vonshak) works on Intel's new Vaunt smart glasses prototype as head of products at the New Devices Group.
        _jn 9y ago
        As well as the person who put JS on Pebble in the first place (Heiko Behrens, rocky.js) and Pebble's Head of Dev Tooling (Katharine Berry, CloudPebble etc.) And yes, the Vaunt glasses run JS.
        epmaybe 9y ago
        I didn't know that, but it makes me pretty excited to play with one :)
        _jn 9y ago
        Same here! I've had the pleasure of meeting them both IRL, and frankly, Intel can consider themselves lucky that they're on the team.
        r_klancer 9y ago
        I am biased (I also work there) but the benefit of a Fitbit is the consistency of the focus on fitness and overall wellness. Over the long term the compounding positive effect can be a bigger deal in most people's lives than whatever effect is created by a flashy, "fun" gadget that enmeshes you further in the electronic haze. As a result, though, Fitbit's market positioning has become pretty solidly middle-American. Only, now it can do some of the flashy too. To think about where this all may be going, I had a "wow" moment after really thinking about what things like continuous glucose monitoring for the healthy masses might mean someday: http://www.businessinsider.com/blood-sugar-tracking-device-diet-health-fitbit-sano-diabetes-weight-loss-2018-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/blood-sugar-tracking-device-d...
    - wlesieutre 9y ago
      I've got a Pebble Time and love it, most of the feedback I've heard from friends with fitbits is "jesus christ this is the third time I've sent it back because of a band failure." Now the Fitbit Ionic isn't the same bands as those, but it's not exactly reassuring that they've made another proprietary one instead of accepting standard watch bands like the Pebble Time did. At least the band is independently replaceable instead of molded to the device.
      - brlewis 9y ago
        The last Fitbit to come out with the band molded to the device was Surge in 2015. Your friends likely had the one that came out just before Surge, called Charge HR.
        wlesieutre 9y ago
        Yep, Charge HR looks like the one.
- vvanders 9y ago
  There's also nothing that comes close to Time Round in size. I don't want a giant bulky thingy and sadly now that they're gone I don't really see a replacement on the horizon. Such a shame :(.
- fudgy73 9y ago
  Did you guys see this Pebble + Apple Watch clone from Xiaomi? If only they opened it up. 30+ day battery life with a similar display as the Pebble: https://us.amazfit.com/shop/bip?variant=336750 https://us.amazfit.com/shop/bip?variant=336750
  - wlesieutre 9y ago
    Very interesting! Closed platform is a bummer, but that hardware is exactly my wishlist for a smartwatch.
    - solarkraft 9y ago
      A closed platform is just a hurdle to overcome - but yeah, someone has to do it. If they make it a little more consumer friendly this could be very impactful.
  - wlesieutre 9y ago
    Software wise, the couple things I'd want are music control, TOTP codes, and health data going to Apple Health instead of Mi Fit. You can get them for $60 on GearBest though, so all things considered that's a pretty good deal for what it is.
- solarkraft 9y ago
  And standard bands and hardware buttons.
leggomylibro 9y ago
So did Fitbit just decide that they didn't want that market to exist at all? Because that's what it looks like, as a consumer.

wlesieutre 9y ago

With a week of battery life and a daylight visible screen

TeMPOraL 9y ago
And a hacker-friendly company, with proper SDK, lean OS, and no bullshit attached.
brlewis 9y ago
OK so no more week-long battery life, but Ionic still has 5 days which is not bad. I work for Fitbit. I don't speak for Fitbit, but this page does: https://www.fitbit.com/shop/ionic#features https://www.fitbit.com/shop/ionic#features
- reitanqild 9y ago
  Fitbit killed Pebble instead of continuing it (and making a profit from it.) I got a Garmin. I really lije it. If Fitbit had continued Pebble I think there is a fair chance I'd gotten one.
  - brlewis 9y ago
    Pebble went out of business. Fitbit acquired part of it. I don't think "killed" is accurate. https://investor.fitbit.com/press/press-releases/press-release-details/2016/Fitbit-Inc-Acquires-Assets-from-Pebble/default.aspx https://investor.fitbit.com/press/press-releases/press-relea...
    - fortythirteen 9y ago
      Pebble didn't directly go out of business. Their leadership decided to cash out with a partial acquisition and laid off everyone who wasn't in engineering. The financial situation of Pebble remains unknown to the public. With a $269 price tag, I'm not sure what the benefit of a Fitbit is over an Apple or Android watch, other than battery life.
      - epmaybe 9y ago
        Fun fact, one of the original designers of the pebble timeline ui (Itai Vonshak) works on Intel's new Vaunt smart glasses prototype as head of products at the New Devices Group.
        _jn 9y ago
        As well as the person who put JS on Pebble in the first place (Heiko Behrens, rocky.js) and Pebble's Head of Dev Tooling (Katharine Berry, CloudPebble etc.) And yes, the Vaunt glasses run JS.
        epmaybe 9y ago
        I didn't know that, but it makes me pretty excited to play with one :)
        _jn 9y ago
        Same here! I've had the pleasure of meeting them both IRL, and frankly, Intel can consider themselves lucky that they're on the team.
      - r_klancer 9y ago
        I am biased (I also work there) but the benefit of a Fitbit is the consistency of the focus on fitness and overall wellness. Over the long term the compounding positive effect can be a bigger deal in most people's lives than whatever effect is created by a flashy, "fun" gadget that enmeshes you further in the electronic haze. As a result, though, Fitbit's market positioning has become pretty solidly middle-American. Only, now it can do some of the flashy too. To think about where this all may be going, I had a "wow" moment after really thinking about what things like continuous glucose monitoring for the healthy masses might mean someday: http://www.businessinsider.com/blood-sugar-tracking-device-diet-health-fitbit-sano-diabetes-weight-loss-2018-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/blood-sugar-tracking-device-d...
  - wlesieutre 9y ago
    I've got a Pebble Time and love it, most of the feedback I've heard from friends with fitbits is "jesus christ this is the third time I've sent it back because of a band failure." Now the Fitbit Ionic isn't the same bands as those, but it's not exactly reassuring that they've made another proprietary one instead of accepting standard watch bands like the Pebble Time did. At least the band is independently replaceable instead of molded to the device.
    - brlewis 9y ago
      The last Fitbit to come out with the band molded to the device was Surge in 2015. Your friends likely had the one that came out just before Surge, called Charge HR.
      - wlesieutre 9y ago
        Yep, Charge HR looks like the one.
vvanders 9y ago
There's also nothing that comes close to Time Round in size. I don't want a giant bulky thingy and sadly now that they're gone I don't really see a replacement on the horizon. Such a shame :(.
fudgy73 9y ago
Did you guys see this Pebble + Apple Watch clone from Xiaomi? If only they opened it up. 30+ day battery life with a similar display as the Pebble: https://us.amazfit.com/shop/bip?variant=336750 https://us.amazfit.com/shop/bip?variant=336750
- wlesieutre 9y ago
  Very interesting! Closed platform is a bummer, but that hardware is exactly my wishlist for a smartwatch.
  - solarkraft 9y ago
    A closed platform is just a hurdle to overcome - but yeah, someone has to do it. If they make it a little more consumer friendly this could be very impactful.
- wlesieutre 9y ago
  Software wise, the couple things I'd want are music control, TOTP codes, and health data going to Apple Health instead of Mi Fit. You can get them for $60 on GearBest though, so all things considered that's a pretty good deal for what it is.
solarkraft 9y ago
And standard bands and hardware buttons.

leggomylibro 9y ago

So did Fitbit just decide that they didn't want that market to exist at all? Because that's what it looks like, as a consumer.