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I'll be hanging out here - happy to answer any questions you have!
by erohead 2y ago
I'll be hanging out here - happy to answer any questions you have!
- goosedragons 2y agoWhat does Intel think about that name and was it intentional? Any plans for a more sporty model (i.e., HR, GPS?)?
- erohead 2y agoIntentional?? :) Core Time 2 has a heart rate monitor!
- varbhat 2y agoI was interested in NFC payments using a smartwatch. Do these watches support NFC payment? I didn't see any mention of it.
- erohead 2y agoNope. I just use my phone.
- yalok 2y agoanecdotally, NFC payment is my #1 use for Apple Watch, by far. It's so much work to pull out a phone and unlock it! :)
- isjustintime 2y agoPersonally I never found myself using my NFC payment watch. It felt like if I was venturing far enough to the store, I'm just going to bring my phone with me anyways. I wonder if this differs for areas that don't get as much suburban sprawl.
- eisa01 2y agoI never bring my phone with me when I go running, but occasionally pick something up and pay with my watch afterwards
- bentcorner 2y agoI use NFC payments on my watch all the time, even though I have my phone and card in my pocket. Tapping my watch is just easier than digging into my pockets and/or opening my wallet app on my phone.
- spaceguillotine 2y agoi like you use NFC via watch way more than by Phone. I don't wanna take out my phone all the time, i'd like to look at my phone screen less and less as time goes on.
- fennecfoxy 2y agoYeah it's very useful if your PT system takes card (such as tube/buses in London).
- bigstrat2003 2y agoI personally don't use NFC payment at all. I just can't see the utility in it. If I leave the house I have my wallet, and I find it easier to take my card out of my wallet than to fiddle with NFC on my phone.
- 4ndrewl 2y agoWonder if this is a nationality thing? In the UK I'd say ~30% of sales are done via phones/watches these days.
- bigstrat2003 2y agoThat's fascinating to me, because many times I've tried to do that it's an exercise in frustration. Terminals don't always have the sensor in the same spot, phones sometimes don't register the connection, and so on. Maybe things work better in the UK?
- fphhotchips 2y agoIt can be a bit difficult, particularly now that some phones are getting more demanding about re-authorising before it will go through. Tap-try to get fingerprint scanner working-tap again is a much less fluid procedure than tap-go. The position thing is just something you get used to. There's not that many reader models in active use and most of them are pretty good about marking where the nfc reader is these days.
- phatskat 2y agoI’m in the US and in the last few years things have flipped to where I’m more surprised when a place doesn’t have tap to pay.
- vel0city 2y agoSometimes I leave the house with only my phone. Why carry two things when one thing will do fine for a quick trip? Its my car keys, my credit card, my transit pass, etc. I've been moving towards using NFC payments for activating gas pumps as those readers still have you fully insert your card exposing the full mag strip. Its also often faster for me to just tap my phone than to take my wallet out, pull out the specific card I'm wanting to use to pay, tapping/inserting that card, putting that card back, and then putting my wallet back. Instead my phone which still has a touch unlock is already unlocked before I take it out of my pocket and ready to be tapped and then put back in my pocket.
- theshackleford 2y agoI use mine constantly, it’s been one of my favourite things to be able to leave the house and not having to take my wallet/phone with me. Less to carry, less to idly distract myself with.
- doublepg23 2y agoI use NFC for all my payments minus bars and restaurants. (NE USA) I also switched all my door locks to use Apple Home Key which is a fun party trick.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jsheard 2y agoThese use standard watch straps, so you could put them on one of those NFC-payment straps as a workaround.
- 1024core 2y agoThe chip inside claims to support Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth mesh, NFC, Thread and Zigbee. Maybe someone can hack together a payments app using the NFC?
- numpad0 2y agoPayment is more of tamper resistance and trust problem than protocol problem. You don't want a hackable card tied to your credit.
- garaetjjte 2y agoMaybe you could reverse-engineer HCE from bank Android app, but that would be rather fragile.
- fennecfoxy 2y agoYou can't really, unless you get involved in the financial systems afaik. It's not just some open thing that anybody can implement; there's a chain of trust involved and for good reason.
- fennecfoxy 2y agoTbf I want a ring to do it. Samsung execs screwed up bad when they released the galaxy ring not only without nfc payments but also for that horrendous price. What a joke, now the big boy companies are proving that once you ditch engineers for suits enshittification begins.
- voxadam 2y agoThe Nordic nRF52840[1] SoC on which these are based support not only Bluetooth 5.4 but also Thread, Zigbee, and 802.15.4. These three standards are becoming commonplace in the home automation space. Has any thought been given to how the new Pebble devices could utilize these protocols? [1] https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF52840 https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF52840
- erohead 2y agoNope, but the OS is open source so you could try getting it to work yourself: https://github.com/pebble-dev/pebble-firmware https://github.com/pebble-dev/pebble-firmware
- sevg 2y agoIs it actually open source though? The repository description may be outdated then, but it currently says this: > This is the latest version of the internal repository from Pebble Technology providing the software to run on Pebble watches. Proprietary source code has been removed from this repository and it will not compile as-is. This is for information only.
- hexxeh 2y agoThis just hasn't been updated since it was forked from the initial OSS release from Google, I've started a discussion on the firmware Discord to update it.
- pokeymcsnatch 2y agoJust a guess, but Nordic pushes a proprietary bluetooth stack. You don't have to use it, but it's the fastest way to get up and running. edit: not sure they use the proprietary stack... at the very least, it looks like they're in the process of switching to a free BT stack
- __turbobrew__ 2y ago> Proprietary source code has been removed from this repository and it will not compile as-is. This is for information only How are you supposed to do that?
- pblfan2000 2y agoJust ordered! I saw a comment about a new app - Will that use new backend services, or will it use the rebble appstore.
- erohead 2y agoRight now it uses https://apps.rebble.io/en_US/ https://apps.rebble.io/en_US/
- JoshTriplett 2y agoThe Core Time 2 mentions heart-rate monitoring. Have you considered also adding an oximeter? The comparison chart, under "sensors", doesn't mention the compass under the Core Time 2; does the Core Time 2 drop the compass? A 3D magnetometer seems like a useful sensor for orientation purposes. Is there a light sensor, to allow automatically disabling the backlight when there's enough ambient light and enabling it when there isn't? You mention "Standard Pebble charger" for both; I'm guessing that that isn't USB-C?
- dreamcompiler 2y agoYou cannot put oximetry in a watch without getting sued by Masimo. Just ask Apple.
- JoshTriplett 2y agoThe heart rate sensor patents were ruled unpatentable: https://www.tomsguide.com/wellness/smartwatches/apple-watch-escapes-u-s-import-ban-after-court-victory-in-patent-case https://www.tomsguide.com/wellness/smartwatches/apple-watch-... > This week, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the previous verdict of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that concluded all three of AliveCor’s patents were unpatentable. This is generally the outcome when courts conclude that patents are either obvious or too generic to enforce. The case over the oximeter functionality is still ongoing, but with luck it'll go the same way.
- dreamcompiler 2y agoThat story is about heart rate sensors. The Masimo case is about oximetry, and AFAIK Apple is still blocked from selling watches with this feature.
- bornfreddy 2y agoYes, it looks like Apple "won" their reciprocal patent cases against Masimo but basically got $250 for it, and no injunction. The case against Apple is still blocking them from selling watches with oximetry. https://pharmaphorum.com/news/apple-wins-masimo-lawsuit-its-shallow-victory https://pharmaphorum.com/news/apple-wins-masimo-lawsuit-its-...
- bigstrat2003 2y agoWhat are the dimensions (length and width) of both models? I'm trying to decide if the Time would be too big for my taste, and I'm having a hard time trying to picture what the increased screen diagonal size translates to.
- jsheard 2y agoWhat's the lens material this time? The page just says "glass" which could mean a generic mineral crystal or something fancy like Gorilla Glass.
- 999900000999 2y agoAnyway to put in even a slow LTE chip for emergency calls ? I would pay an irrational amount of money for a watch that can make calls that has a very long battery life.
- LeifCarrotson 2y agoCalls? Or just emergency texts? The closest thing to what you probably want is the Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/698632 https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/698632 Discontinued, but young for Garmin devices and still available if you're willing to pay irrational amounts of money. It doesn't make audio calls out, but can receive audio messages (to Bluetooth headphones) and send/receive "emergency" text messages either to the Garmin emergency response center (sends a helicopter to your location, if required) or by SMS with a few canned messages or tediously entered custom messages to to a predefined, pre-approved set of emergency contacts, as described here: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/06/garmin-forerunner-945-depth-review.html#:~:text=LTE%20Connectivity: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/06/garmin-forerunner-945-de...
- 999900000999 2y agoI've come across this. I really would like calling too. There's a lot of daylight between I lost my phone and need to call a cab, and send a helicopter. Right now I have an LTE smart watch, but the battery is optimistically about 24 hours( on a good day ).
- LeifCarrotson 2y agoWith the Garmin emergency contacts system, you can set up arbitrary messages to send to your emergency contacts. One of mine is "I'm OK, but need you to come pick me up".
- nycdotnet 2y agoExcited for this release! Have you heard from Intel yet? “Core 2 Duo” was the name of one of their processors in the early days of multicore on a single package. Edit: preordered!
- seanp2k2 2y agoYeah, that lawsuit is probably going to bankrupt them here.
- kevin_thibedeau 2y agoAlso a weird way to make your product unsearchable.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- sixothree 2y agoToday, I very literally received a vintage laptop with a Core 2 Duo sticker on it.
- thesuitonym 2y agoThis comment aged me 100 years.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- blockarchitech 2y agoI see you link to apps.rebble.io in the blog post - will this use Rebble's web services as well?
- erohead 2y agoIt's using the appstore right now
- csours 2y agoIf I buy one of each will you consider adding all the sensors to an e-paper watch?
- joewhale 2y agoWe love you
- debunn 2y agoAny ideas what the screen refresh rate is going to be at this point? All the screenshots don't have time that includes seconds, and having a watch face that can update at least every second would be a requirement for me. (I know e-ink displays can have fast refresh rates, like the 60Hz / fps Daylight computer - but that may not be cost effective / battery efficient here?)
- erohead 2y ago30fps
- apparent 2y agoWhat is the impact on battery life to have the screen update every second, versus every minute? Will it be possible to have the HR display, on faces that include it, rate-limited to achieve better battery life? One of the nice things about Amazfit watches was that I could dial down the HR polling and get better battery life that way.
- erohead 2y agoI think it's a little bit more. I don't know if I've ever measured it. You can definitely see it in battery life though. Using a watch face that only updates every minute will give you longer, better life.
- skiman10 2y agoThe Daylight computer DC-1 isn't e-ink it's a reflective LCD by the way. Different screen technology. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40457491 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40457491
- debunn 2y agoTIL! Thanks for the link - all the demos / videos had me convinced this was just e-ink technology!
- deleted 2y ago
- rcarmo 2y agoApple Health integration - what are your plans?
- alternatex 2y agoGoogle Health Sync as well?
- aaronax 2y agoAnd I'll be looking for Vitality integration for my employer's health program!
- apparent 2y agoPresumably the same as the original Pebbles, which were able to feed step data and HR data into the Apple Health app.
- JLO64 2y agoBeing able to sync steps taken, heart beat, and especially sleep tracking with Apple Health would 100% push me to Core Time 2.
- erohead 2y agoWe supported it before, should be pretty straightforward to support now.
- Robelius 2y ago6 months from announcing rePebble (Jan '25) to shipping your first units (July '25) seems like a quick turnaround for a compact consumer electronics device. Curious to know if these first units are closer to a white label of existing hardware or more of a JDM model. Side note - I got the first pebble through the kickstarter pre-orders in my first year out of high school. Seeing something so novel was definitely a contributor to me switch from CS to Mech E and working in the consumer electronics space now. Thanks for making cool and interesting things :)
- erohead 2y agoAww really glad to hear it! It is fast - but we've done this before (many times) and know what we're doing. I've been blogging about the experience too https://ericmigi.com/blog/february-shenzhen-trip-update https://ericmigi.com/blog/february-shenzhen-trip-update
- modeless 2y agoWhoa, whoa. Touch screen?!
- wibbily 2y agoJust bought both. One for each arm Will the watch ship with a JTAG clip? Or is that coming later. Not sure if I missed the option in the store
- erohead 2y agoit will be an option for Core 2 Duo, coming later.
- beeflet 2y agoWhat's the status of "small android phone" is it basically just a petition atm?
- erohead 2y agohttps://www.theverge.com/mobile/609857/small-android-phone-beep-not-priority-pebble-instead https://www.theverge.com/mobile/609857/small-android-phone-b...
- bitsoda 2y agoThis is what I'm most interested in. My only hope at the moment is for Apple to revive the iPhone mini -- even if they only refresh it every 3-5 years! I'm so bummed I'll be 'forced' to upgrade from my 12 mini later this year for mostly camera and battery reasons, but oh how I wish an iPhone 17 mini was on the horizon.
- tomgag 2y agoHey, this is pretty slick! I'm not into smart wearables myself, but if I change my mind (or if I have to recommend one to family or friends) I know where to look! Question: does either of the model have NFC capabilities, or is there any plans to add this feature in the future? I am looking specifically for a way to pay contactless with Graphene OS (which does not support NFC payments because Google does not want to).
- QuantumNoodle 2y agoHey Eric! Any chance to open up support and reparability for old pebbles? For example, run the newly open OS on old hardware or source parts for old pebbles, like batteries for pebble time ;)
- noname120 2y agoNot enough money to be made + older parts are hard to source (discontinued)
- stebalien 2y agoWill the Android companion app be open source? And/or will the watch APIs be documented such that someone could write an open source companion app?
- erohead 2y agothere's an open-source companion app already, called Cobble. https://github.com/pebble-dev/mobile-app https://github.com/pebble-dev/mobile-app Core Devices will publish an open source fully featured library, that anyone can use to build an open source companion app as well.
- stebalien 2y agoAwesome! Thanks!
- happosai 2y agoGadgetbridge support (or open docs of the BLE interface for dyi) planned? https://gadgetbridge.org/ https://gadgetbridge.org/
- crims0n 2y agoThe original pebble was almost entirely dependent on it's connection with the android/ios app. Given the increase in onboard processing capabilities, are there any plans to allow for a more standalone experience?
- erohead 2y agoNot sure how that would work. You still need connectivity, which the phone provides.
- rollcat 2y agoAs an iPhone+AW (S6) user, I consider the two devices married, perhaps even sharing the same mind. Almost everything that I can do with one is instantly and transparently mirrored on the other. I can still leave my phone at home, and since I don't have a mobile connection on the watch (intentionally), it means I'm truly and fully offline - but I get to keep many features. I can listen to music (direct connection to BT headphones), tick items off the shopping list, pay for stuff, look up my schedule, etc. Some things could work offline where they currently don't (e.g. weather, maps/public transport), but the caching/syncing is overall surprisingly decent. Unfortunately, it's all using private APIs, no third party watch has the same access, and you can't e.g. pair the AW with an iPad. But otherwise I think it should be the golden standard (perhaps DMA could get Apple to open up the APIs).
- pizzafeelsright 2y agoI ordered one, with no experience although like the story and heard about the original. One very frustrating concern - the warranty. This is $255+ for a device that is only good for 3 million seconds. Would it be possible to arrange replacement at cost after 2 years?
- erohead 2y agoI have no reason to think that it will not work well for 2 years, but I am not prepared to guarantee that in a warranty. That would be taking on too much risk as a small company.
- pizzafeelsright 2y agoYour explanation is reason enough to cancel. I have experienced enough hardware fails the day after the warranty to avoid purchasing anything that I do not consider disposable. I still have my Vector watch which suffered the same fate as Pebble. I am curious about the risk of a "at cost" replacement. I have avoided buying a FitBit to replace my existing FitBit because their warranty is also limited to "one year" which is basically Wearable as a Service.
- robocat 2y ago> curious about the risk of a "at cost" replacement You can't tell consumers the raw manufacturing cost because people act weird when they are told it: they usually assume the "markup" is profits. They assume that they're getting ripped off because most people don't understand development costs or overheads and they always argue that any profit is too much. This problem can't be fixed. Apart from the risk of scammers buying a watch to sell, saying it is broken, getting a replacement at cost and the scammer steals the markup/profit. You can maybe think of ways to make it work, but they are likely to have excessive support costs or other hidden costs for the manufacturer or consumer.
- ahel 2y agoHey, I completely agree and I also suffer from this same bias: it's ruining me from enjoying stuff that I would like to buy but in the end I just give up because it feels that any profit is a scam. What kind of resource can I study for me to understand and accept other people making profits?
- kubatyszko 2y agoI remember that my Pebble 2 (HR) over time (pun intended) would develop play around the rubber button area especially on the right side. Eventually the rubber covering the buttons would break off. This was common to the point people were making 3d-printed replacement parts. See https://help.rebble.io/pebble-2-buttons/ https://help.rebble.io/pebble-2-buttons/ What's the expected longevity of the buttons this time around, and will you have replacement parts available ?
- jerlam 2y agoThe post says: More reliable buttons (up to 30% longer lifetime in testing)
- kubatyszko 2y agodoh, should have read the full post ;)
- horseless 2y agoI want to get a smartwatch that has enough functionalities to run a time tracker app with the purpose of not having to carry a phone most of the time. The existing ones are all WearOS or Apple watch, neither of which can be used in a freedom-preserving way. Would it be possible to write time tracking apps for these watches?
- zevon 2y agoSure it would and there are existing Pebble time tracking apps. Here's a search for "Time Tracker" in the Rebble store but I'm sure you will find more with other search terms: https://store-beta.rebble.io/apps/search?query=time%20tracker https://store-beta.rebble.io/apps/search?query=time%20tracke...
- zevon 2y agoNo questions but a comment: I rarely get emotionally attached to devices, especially since I have to handle a lot of fancy hardware for work and it gets old quickly. However, there are a few pieces of technology like my Walkman or my Thinkpad X61t that I really liked and was sad to have to let go when their time had come. The Pebble is another one of those devices for me and I'm quite happy that I won't have to it let go for a lot longer that I thought thanks to your new project. Thanks. :-)
- lonjil 2y agoYou mention only producing a limited quantity, but do you have any plans to do a second batch next year? I know that knowing the future is impossible and that you thus can't make any promises, but are you at least hoping to be able to make more batches in the future? I can't spend $225 right now, and by next month I'm guessing the pre-orders will already have blown way past your production quantity ^^
- fencepost 2y agoHow is the sleep monitoring on the base model being done without a heart rate sensor, just with stillness as measured by the accelerometer?
- krambs 2y agoSo awesome. Ordered!
- qingcharles 2y agoThis is great. I was an OG backer in like 2012(?). What affect are tariffs having?
- spearman 2y agoUntil when will you take pre-orders?
- girvo 2y agoI've preordered the Core Time 2, I'm so incredibly excited that you've resurrected Pebble like this! My only hope is that you can bring the Time Round back in some form: Mine is unfortunately dead, and they're very difficult to purchase even second hand these days! It was the single best smartwatch I've ever owned and used
- OkGoDoIt 2y agoThank you for making this happen! My family and friends are sick of my decade-long attachment to my pebble steel by now, haha. Any chance the particular extra color for the metal one could be an actual metal color? My pebble steel with the metal link band was a great combination of stylish and functional. I never really liked the look of any of the later models so even when I bought them I always went back to my pebble steel. I went ahead and pre-ordered the new metal one and I suppose I’ll go for black if I have to but I really hope you come out with a stainless steel or silver color. Also what’s the watchband compatibility? Will this work with the original pebble bands or with standard watch bands or something new and proprietary?
- patrickk 2y ago> Also what’s the watchband compatibility? Will this work with the original pebble bands or with standard watch bands or something new and proprietary? It says it works with standard 22mm watchbands, so it seems like you can just put on any 3rd party band you like.
- krick 2y agoI think I am not exactly the intended audience for these devices right now, so my comment will be a bit general. I don't want "a geeky alternative to apple watch" (or an apple watch, for that matter), I basically want Garmin Forerunner 955 alternative that won't keep my data hostage. There are many things I hate about Garmin watches (which I buy nevertheless), but I can forgive almost all of them except that one. I want my data to be bulk-exportable via open API, and not it some raw .fit format (because they have to comply with GDPR after all), but as a first-class feature, that tries to satisfy a customer by exporting any data it produces in any (realistic) format that customer wants. (I assume you are familiar with other wearables, since this is your domain, but just in case: GDPR forces them to make the data they record directly exportable, but they won't willingly do it for anything that is "processed data", so I can backup my HR history, but not the data they use to make these "sleep phases" graphs, and I can only manually export relatively useless .csv summaries for a given date.) In short, I really want to stop giving my money to Garmin. But I don't want to compromise on quality of the data being recorded. What are your thoughts on that market?
- mightysashiman 2y agoI am so with you.
- Tistron 2y agoCan you tell us more about the touch screen? Is it only taps or will it support interactions using drag gestures too? How good is the accuracy, how many different simultaneous interaction surfaces can there realistically be? Is there an emulator available somewhere where one can start prototyping an app with tap support?
- user_7832 2y agoNot sure if you’ll see this but I’l love to understand - why the slightly weird (to me) differentiation between the two models’ sensors? One has heart rate (which might be considered almost fundamental for smart watches today), the other has magnetic/barometric sensors (which are very nice to have when out and moving)… but neither has both? Is the core 2 duo a “geeky” watch and the other one a “premium” product? I assume the latter also doesn’t support JTAG fiddling around, is that a philosophical choice or more of an engineering time/resource constraint? Thanks in any case, these devices are definitely quite tempting!
- user_7832 2y ago(I’m here from 1 day after my comment) Btw I partially found an answer to the first question from the AMA on Reddit - the sensors on the duo were a kind of thanks to the person who helped design it.
- mentos 2y agoI ordered a watch and I’m looking forward to making apps for it but I’m more excited at the prospect of making apps for a truly open phone with an eink display and 20x battery life. I think you have enough of a following now to attempt a small run of PebbleOS phones. I know I’m not the only one and whatever gaps in applications you have aren’t as large as you think and can be filled in by the large passionate community you have fostered. (and I wouldn’t worry about other attempts that have come before you. Before Breaking Bad, studios told Vince Gilligan that Weeds already existed.)
- fennecfoxy 2y agoA few, not sure HN will format this correctly so my bad if these get mushed together: * The originals used Sharp MiP but advertised them as "e-paper" do your new models use MiP LCD (or similar) or actual "e-paper" ie "e-ink" (electrostatic capsules). * Pebble time round 2?!?! * The touchscreen - this is an issue I had on my Galaxy watch including the bezel rotating as well. Are there efforts to pevent the touchscreen from inadvertently doing things when I'm resting one arm against the other? For Galaxy watch I had to switch off bezel rotation/touch screen waking the watch & only allow buttons, because it would constantly wake up when I had my arms crossed/resting position. * The backlight, is it backlit or front-lit? I suppose this more relates to if it's genuine capsule e-paper, then it would be nice to be front-lit. * No compass or barometer on CT2? Thank you! <3