5 ms·

(Re)Introducing the Pebble Appstore

275 points by duck 1y ago

tomyedwab 1y ago
My app that I published 12 years ago is on there, hah.
user_7832 1y ago
> One other great thing that Rebble did was in 2017 - they archived and started hosting a copy of the Pebble Appstore, before the servers were shut down. New apps uploaded by developers since 2017 have also been popping up! Aah, is this how all previous apps were saved and are now available again? That's pretty neat if so!
- daemonologist 1y ago
  Yes (and they've been available more or less all along from Rebble - they rebuilt and hosted big parts of the backend I believe).
- 0xEF 1y ago
  Old Pebble watches are still very useful due to the Rebble community. I am still rocking my OG Pebble to this day because of them, so they get all the kudos, here. In fact, because my old one still works for my needs, it's making it difficult for me to invest in a new Pebble, despite wanting to support the project. Part of that is the idea of upgrading for the sake of upgrading directly opposes my ethos of keeping as many electronic devices out of landfills as possible, but part of that is also straight up nostalgia that I get to experience every day when I use what essentially amounted to the perfect watch for me.
  - fooqux 1y ago
    I was in the same camp. I ordered one anyway as I figured my pebble's battery couldn't last much longer... Could it?
    - Knork-and-Fife 1y ago
      How many days does it last now?
      - 0xEF 1y ago
        I'm not the person you asked, but on my OG Pebble, I get about 2 full days of battery on a full charge. However, that's down from about 4 or 5 that I recall from early adoption of the device. The battery is clearly unhealthy, but hanging on. When I charge my old Pebble, after about 15 minutes or so, it claims to be fully charged. It isn't. If I take it off the charge after only 15 minutes, it will show a full charge, but deplete rapidly, usually within about 20 hours. If I leave it on the charge for a few hours, then use it, I get 2 solid days or sometimes a bit more than that. My OG model is also one of the originals that does _not_ have the fours screws in the back, making it impossible to change the battery should it finally fail. A few years back, I picked up some original Pebbles on eBay for cheapr since the batteries would no longer hold a charge on those, all models that did not have the four screws on the back, just to see if I could find a way to open them clean. Every attempt I made failed, damaging the display and housing. If you want to try an old Pebble, find one of the ones with the screws on the back panel and you can buy fresh batteries that will fit. Or get an old Pebble Time/Steel model, which are easier to maintain. I see them go on eBay for between $30 - $50 USD and maybe like $10 USD for a new battery. That's nothing for a basics smartwatch with a cool history.
  - c22 1y ago
    Why not buy a new Pebble and gift it to a watchless friend?
outcoldman 1y ago
> No smartwatch on the market since the original Pebble watches offers this combination of features…until today! Is that a lie? What about Garmin Watches? Sure Google/Samsung/Apple Watches are not "Long battery life", because they are not "Always on e-paper screen", but I feel like Garmin Watches are. Obviously some Garmin Watches are pretty expensive, like Fenix (I have not used it since I switched to Apple Watch), but there are ~200USD watches as well https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/741137/ https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/741137/ with 2 weeks battery life, custom apps, screens, and even GPS.
- Rohansi 1y ago
  You don't get 2 weeks battery life with GPS. That drops it down to less than a day.
  - outcoldman 1y ago
    Pebble does not have GPS at all. You don't have to use GPS on the watch, if you don't need to. You have an option to choose to use it, if you want to. Garmin watches ~2 weeks just as a smart watch, 8-50 hours with GPS on. But you will not have it on, unless you need it for a specific workout.
  - bigfatkitten 1y ago
    I get about two weeks from my Garmin Instinct, using GPS sporadically as needed.
  - useless_foghorn 1y ago
    Garmin's Enduro 3 claims 13.3 days[1] of continuous GPS tracking with solar recharge and is tested to have 5 continuous days without[2]. [1] https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-7AD1A592-9044-4D84-9688-7B5209F85BFF/EN-US/GUID-31A5D9B6-F81F-4BD8-A401-66E333CE1414.html https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-7AD1A592-9044-4... [2] https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/camping-and-hiking/gps-watch/garmin-enduro-3 https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/camping-and-hiking/gp...
- bananaboy 1y ago
timvdalen 1y ago
Hah, one of the apps I published is still in there, fun to see
lastdong 1y ago
Love philosophy and the story bringing it back. I really liked the originals, but today I don’t find the design appealing - I’m sure some of you do ofc. I'm not sure if the best example, but what I can think of atm — Looking at what Teenage Engineering is doing (copy Dieter Rams), I find their products fun and they feel premium. I think a design refresh for pebble could make a big difference. Probably hard to think about re-design at this stage, and I do hope it keeps gaining momentum and support to grow.
- ktallett 1y ago
  I would in general agree with you. Although I do feel TE have some design flaws regarding structural quality that Braun didn't have and watches would struggle with having.
- illwrks 1y ago
  I agree, design sensibilities have changed. Like you I would love something a bit more utilitarian and clean. It would be a nice contrast to everything else out there.
- user_7832 1y ago
  Not perhaps exactly what you're looking for, but Nothing's smartwatches might scratch that itch. They've got honestly gigantic bezels, but they do a very commendable job on making it seem done purposefully done.
- raffael_de 1y ago
  Teenage Engineering design is fundamentally fauxstalgic.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- bigstrat2003 1y ago
  > Probably hard to think about re-design at this stage They did redesign the Pebble Time 2, so that may be more to your liking. Sadly as one who still loves the original design, it lost its appeal to me, but perhaps my loss could be your gain on this one.
atmosx 1y ago
I haven't used my pebble for years, but as I don't have a smartwatch, I might bring it back. Do the iOs integrations (calls, messages, etc.) still work as they did? I remember that runkeeper would display data to the watch while running.
- zevon 1y ago
  Good time to bring it back. You used to have to sideload the iOS app for years and the new app makes using an old Pebble with an iPhone so much easier. :) I've been using the app for a few weeks and it generally works well but not everything is already functional. No voice replies, no health tracking, no canned messages, yet, for example. Here's the changelog: https://ndocs.repebble.com/changelog https://ndocs.repebble.com/changelog
jimjimwii 1y ago
I really want to buy a pebble. Can you please reconsider offering the watch via retailers when it becomes financially viable?
lrvick 1y ago
As the original author of the current generation of the Pebble Appstore back in Pebble early days, I made a very intentional decision to move almost all logic client side to make it easy for people to archive and self host with their own API server or json snapshots of the existing API. I did this specifically so in the event Pebble infra ever went down the community could easily do their own thing, and local copies embedded in apps would keep working from cache offline, though I never disclosed this as a big reason at the time. It is awesome to see that decision paid off, and the codebase has long outlived the original company and still giving our original customers (and soon new ones!) value. In case anyone asks, I would like to state for the record that all the appstore code before Rebble modifications was and has always been AGPL.

275 points by duck 1y ago

My app that I published 12 years ago is on there, hah.

> One other great thing that Rebble did was in 2017 - they archived and started hosting a copy of the Pebble Appstore, before the servers were shut down. New apps uploaded by developers since 2017 have also been popping up! Aah, is this how all previous apps were saved and are now available again? That's pretty neat if so!

daemonologist 1y ago
Yes (and they've been available more or less all along from Rebble - they rebuilt and hosted big parts of the backend I believe).
0xEF 1y ago
Old Pebble watches are still very useful due to the Rebble community. I am still rocking my OG Pebble to this day because of them, so they get all the kudos, here. In fact, because my old one still works for my needs, it's making it difficult for me to invest in a new Pebble, despite wanting to support the project. Part of that is the idea of upgrading for the sake of upgrading directly opposes my ethos of keeping as many electronic devices out of landfills as possible, but part of that is also straight up nostalgia that I get to experience every day when I use what essentially amounted to the perfect watch for me.
- fooqux 1y ago
  I was in the same camp. I ordered one anyway as I figured my pebble's battery couldn't last much longer... Could it?
  - Knork-and-Fife 1y ago
    How many days does it last now?
    - 0xEF 1y ago
      I'm not the person you asked, but on my OG Pebble, I get about 2 full days of battery on a full charge. However, that's down from about 4 or 5 that I recall from early adoption of the device. The battery is clearly unhealthy, but hanging on. When I charge my old Pebble, after about 15 minutes or so, it claims to be fully charged. It isn't. If I take it off the charge after only 15 minutes, it will show a full charge, but deplete rapidly, usually within about 20 hours. If I leave it on the charge for a few hours, then use it, I get 2 solid days or sometimes a bit more than that. My OG model is also one of the originals that does _not_ have the fours screws in the back, making it impossible to change the battery should it finally fail. A few years back, I picked up some original Pebbles on eBay for cheapr since the batteries would no longer hold a charge on those, all models that did not have the four screws on the back, just to see if I could find a way to open them clean. Every attempt I made failed, damaging the display and housing. If you want to try an old Pebble, find one of the ones with the screws on the back panel and you can buy fresh batteries that will fit. Or get an old Pebble Time/Steel model, which are easier to maintain. I see them go on eBay for between $30 - $50 USD and maybe like $10 USD for a new battery. That's nothing for a basics smartwatch with a cool history.
- c22 1y ago
  Why not buy a new Pebble and gift it to a watchless friend?

outcoldman 1y ago

> No smartwatch on the market since the original Pebble watches offers this combination of features…until today! Is that a lie? What about Garmin Watches? Sure Google/Samsung/Apple Watches are not "Long battery life", because they are not "Always on e-paper screen", but I feel like Garmin Watches are. Obviously some Garmin Watches are pretty expensive, like Fenix (I have not used it since I switched to Apple Watch), but there are ~200USD watches as well https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/741137/ https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/741137/ with 2 weeks battery life, custom apps, screens, and even GPS.

Rohansi 1y ago
You don't get 2 weeks battery life with GPS. That drops it down to less than a day.
- outcoldman 1y ago
  Pebble does not have GPS at all. You don't have to use GPS on the watch, if you don't need to. You have an option to choose to use it, if you want to. Garmin watches ~2 weeks just as a smart watch, 8-50 hours with GPS on. But you will not have it on, unless you need it for a specific workout.
- bigfatkitten 1y ago
  I get about two weeks from my Garmin Instinct, using GPS sporadically as needed.
- useless_foghorn 1y ago
  Garmin's Enduro 3 claims 13.3 days[1] of continuous GPS tracking with solar recharge and is tested to have 5 continuous days without[2]. [1] https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-7AD1A592-9044-4D84-9688-7B5209F85BFF/EN-US/GUID-31A5D9B6-F81F-4BD8-A401-66E333CE1414.html https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-7AD1A592-9044-4... [2] https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/camping-and-hiking/gps-watch/garmin-enduro-3 https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/camping-and-hiking/gp...
bananaboy 1y ago

timvdalen 1y ago

Hah, one of the apps I published is still in there, fun to see

lastdong 1y ago

Love philosophy and the story bringing it back. I really liked the originals, but today I don’t find the design appealing - I’m sure some of you do ofc. I'm not sure if the best example, but what I can think of atm — Looking at what Teenage Engineering is doing (copy Dieter Rams), I find their products fun and they feel premium. I think a design refresh for pebble could make a big difference. Probably hard to think about re-design at this stage, and I do hope it keeps gaining momentum and support to grow.

ktallett 1y ago
I would in general agree with you. Although I do feel TE have some design flaws regarding structural quality that Braun didn't have and watches would struggle with having.
illwrks 1y ago
I agree, design sensibilities have changed. Like you I would love something a bit more utilitarian and clean. It would be a nice contrast to everything else out there.
user_7832 1y ago
Not perhaps exactly what you're looking for, but Nothing's smartwatches might scratch that itch. They've got honestly gigantic bezels, but they do a very commendable job on making it seem done purposefully done.
raffael_de 1y ago
Teenage Engineering design is fundamentally fauxstalgic.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
bigstrat2003 1y ago
> Probably hard to think about re-design at this stage They did redesign the Pebble Time 2, so that may be more to your liking. Sadly as one who still loves the original design, it lost its appeal to me, but perhaps my loss could be your gain on this one.

atmosx 1y ago

I haven't used my pebble for years, but as I don't have a smartwatch, I might bring it back. Do the iOs integrations (calls, messages, etc.) still work as they did? I remember that runkeeper would display data to the watch while running.

zevon 1y ago
Good time to bring it back. You used to have to sideload the iOS app for years and the new app makes using an old Pebble with an iPhone so much easier. :) I've been using the app for a few weeks and it generally works well but not everything is already functional. No voice replies, no health tracking, no canned messages, yet, for example. Here's the changelog: https://ndocs.repebble.com/changelog https://ndocs.repebble.com/changelog

jimjimwii 1y ago

I really want to buy a pebble. Can you please reconsider offering the watch via retailers when it becomes financially viable?

lrvick 1y ago

As the original author of the current generation of the Pebble Appstore back in Pebble early days, I made a very intentional decision to move almost all logic client side to make it easy for people to archive and self host with their own API server or json snapshots of the existing API. I did this specifically so in the event Pebble infra ever went down the community could easily do their own thing, and local copies embedded in apps would keep working from cache offline, though I never disclosed this as a big reason at the time. It is awesome to see that decision paid off, and the codebase has long outlived the original company and still giving our original customers (and soon new ones!) value. In case anyone asks, I would like to state for the record that all the appstore code before Rebble modifications was and has always been AGPL.