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Pebble Production: February Update
- Larrikin 8mo agoI was hoping to have my watch well before the forced migration of my FitBit account to Google. Now it seems to be up in the air if I will get it in time.
- bronlund 8mo agoWhen the first Pebble was released, and I got a couple of those, it was unique and cool as hell. This time around, you can get a programmable smartwatch from China for a fraction of the price looking way cooler. Edit: https://diyusthad.com/2021/04/top-5-open-source-smartwatch.html https://diyusthad.com/2021/04/top-5-open-source-smartwatch.h...
- mrbn100ful 8mo agoMind to share one of those models ? Far has I know, pebble user have spent the last 10 years searching for another pebble without luck.
- bronlund 8mo agoOne example could be Watchy. ESP32 based. 40 bucks. Check the link I've added in my original reply.
- rozenmd 8mo agoYou can't get a hackable watch for a fraction of the price, though. I'd pay more for being able to fumble about in the codebase and add exactly what I want.
- forkerenok 8mo agoI wouldn't put in the same league as pebble, but it definitely ticks the boxes: https://banglejs.com/ https://banglejs.com/ Battery life is real.
- ramses0 8mo agoTicks the boxes, but not the buttons. :-(
- bronlund 8mo agohttps://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007059416132.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007059416132.html
- yjftsjthsd-h 8mo agohttps://pine64.org/devices/pinetime/ https://pine64.org/devices/pinetime/ is $27, which is a small fraction of the cost of a Pebble.
- elaus 8mo agoFor me it's the eink display that makes them interesting. Being programmable or looking cool is nice, but for that I could also buy an Apple/Google/Samsung watch - that's not unique.
- jsheard 8mo agoThe Pebble display isn't e-ink, or unique amongst watches, it's an off-the-shelf MIP LCD from Sharp. You can get the same thing in watches from Garmin, Coros, Polar, Suunto, Casio and probably more.
- elaus 8mo agoI think you're confusing Pebble with something else. All current models on the website as well as the OG pebble (according to Wikipedia) use eink displays.
- ramses0 8mo agoTransflective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_(watch)#Hardware https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_(watch)#Hardware
- jsheard 8mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_(watch)#Hardware https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_(watch)#Hardware > The watch featured a 32-millimetre (1.26 in) 144 × 168 pixel black and white memory LCD using an ultra low-power "transflective LCD" manufactured by Sharp Later generations are color, but it's the same tech. If you've ever used actual e-ink then it should be obvious enough that the Pebble displays are something else, it would be nowhere near responsive enough to keep up with pebbleOS's animations.
- drum55 8mo agoThey’re Sharp memory displays, functionally LCDs but with memory for retention under each pixel. They are not and have never been eink.
- wlesieutre 8mo agoSize is the main differentiator for me. I had a pebble, then an Apple Watch, and I've always hated how chunky the Apple Watch and other competitors are. https://www.reddit.com/r/pebble/comments/1qr1npj/pebble_round_2_size_comparison_vs_40mm_apple/#lightbox https://www.reddit.com/r/pebble/comments/1qr1npj/pebble_roun...
- qwertox 8mo ago"programmable smartwatch from China" can you share some examples?
- _ink_ 8mo agoNot gp, but here are some: https://diyusthad.com/2021/04/top-5-open-source-smartwatch.html https://diyusthad.com/2021/04/top-5-open-source-smartwatch.h...
- bronlund 8mo agoCheck out Watchy. $40. If you search for ESP32 based watches, you'll find plenty. Not all that good looking, but you can probably get one for under 5 bucks.
- Fnoord 8mo agoThere's so many these days. Just have a look at AliExpress. There were various KS/IGG campaigns, too. One thing which kind of stood out was a smartwatch remote with what I will summarize as 'Flipper Zero capabilities'. I think I saw it on Etsy. It looked terrible though. For red teaming, you'd want something which looks professional, and blends in. Ideally with a watchface as, ehh.. 'screensaver'.
- micromacrofoot 8mo agook buy one of those then
- bronlund 8mo agoI have. The main reason though, for me not buying a Pebble, is less about the watch and more about Eric. It seems that his whole modus operandi, is selling out his customers. Pebble hadn't been in this mess in the first place, if it wasn't for him. Going back to him a second time, is just unresponsible in my opinion.
- micromacrofoot 8mo agoPebble also wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for him (either time) so I suppose it's a wash
- bronlund 8mo agoI guess you have a good point there :)
- rationalist 8mo ago> his whole modus operandi Are there other examples besides just his Pebble company version 1?
- bronlund 8mo agoInPulse, Beeper. He isn’t in this to build something, he is just starting it in order to sell it - as he always does.
- desireco42 8mo agoI started using Amazfit years ago, love it and it delivers. I had Basis first and this is the most loved watch from me, then Pebble.
- bronlund 8mo agoPersonally. If I were to use $100+ on a hackable smartwatch, I would much rather go for a Sensor Watch Pro than a Pebble :)
- maxglute 7mo agoHopefully this segment starts cooking with how easy slop code is now. TBH pickings still pretty slim. I just want something with oled touch screen, crown and 3-4 button inputs.
- beratbozkurt0 8mo agoI'm curious, what sets it apart from other watches? The design look nice
- qwertox 8mo agoPrivacy, it does not push data to the cloud. And also the ease of access to the data.
- lopis 8mo agoFocus on longevity and extensibility. Lots of people still use their original Pebbles from 10 years ago and the community continued to release content for the platform. Also, the batteries last a really long time.
- me_online 8mo agoLongtime pebble user here. The main things are the always-on ePaper display, long battery life (they claim this new gen's battery will last a month!), and the hackability. I personally love the user interface and charming animations!
- akagr 8mo agoPebble was my first smartwatch, all the way back in 2015. It was fun and quirky back when it was first released. Then it stopped production for many years while smartwatch category grew. Now they're coming back with same/similar models as before. For me, its value lies more in nostalgia than anything else. I don't expect it to ever compete with the likes of my Apple watch for smart features, or a Garmin for activity tracking. That said, it's an e-paper display so battery life is pretty good. Plus it had (and probably will have) an active community of small apps and watchfaces, which kept (and probably will keep) it from becoming stale quickly.
- drum55 8mo agoIt's a very minor distinction, but they aren't a epaper display (low refresh rate, zero power to maintain an image), rather the technology is a sharp memory LCD (ludicrously low power, but high refresh rate). They're extremely neat and don't suffer from the washed out color and ghosting that epaper does, at the cost of needing ever so slightly above no power to keep an image displayed. I much, much prefer them even though Sharp doesn't really advertise them anymore. https://sharpdevices.com/memory-lcd/ https://sharpdevices.com/memory-lcd/
- lopis 8mo ago> Many old Pebble apps/faces use weather APIs that no longer work (Yahoo, OpenWeather). The Pebble mobile app now catches these network requests and returns data from Open-Meteo - keeping old watchfaces working! That's some sweet quality of life fixes!
- open-meteo 8mo agoAnd we are very determined to keep the Open-Meteo weather API open-access indefinitely and don’t share the same fate as many closed-source APIs like Yahoo or OpenWeatherMap.
- Raed667 8mo agojust here to say i love Open-Meteo keep up the good work !
- ageitgey 8mo agoThanks for providing such a great service. I use it in a totally different free, OSS project, and it's really great to have this option available!
- ThePowerOfFuet 8mo agoThank you!!!
- 0127 8mo agoSomehow I've managed to avoid learning about Open-Meteo until now, this is really awesome!
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- titaniumtown 7mo agoI use your service every day. Thank you so much
- CodesInChaos 7mo agoHow does that work? I assume these APIs use SSL, which should prevent such MitM attacks. Are those Apps using the system SSL library which bypasses certificate validation for those domains? Or does the OS add a Root CA to the certificate store which signs fake certificates for those domains?
- saidinesh5 8mo ago> Also, don’t expose it to hot water (this could weaken the waterproof seals), or high pressure water. It’s not invincible. Aahhh. Finally the mystery of how my old pebble died is solved. Hopefully . One fine morning, the display came off. It was supposed to be waterproof and there was no puffed up battery either.
- usrnm 8mo agoHow hot is hot, though? Boiling hot or taking it to a hot shower?
- tmikaeld 8mo agoGlue seal can easily loosen at 50 degrees C and a hot shower is 40-45C.. so it must have been very hot shower (or bad glue).
- that_lurker 8mo agoHow hot is a hot shower?
- tmikaeld 8mo ago40-45C
- apparent 8mo agoHe seems to say not in a hot tub, but IIRC I've seen him say that showers are OK. Maybe it's because showers don't submerge the watch, even if the temp is similar? That is, the watch itself wouldn't heat up nearly as much in the shower as it would in a hot tub or bath.
- jolmg 7mo ago> taking it to a hot shower? Friendly reminder that they're water-resistant not water-proof... Soap decreases surface tension and might enable the water to enter through the microphone or speaker hole. Might also be susceptible to steam entering and condensing inside. IDK if there are any watches where the vendor promises their being vapor-tight.
- Fiveplus 8mo agoThe return of com.getpebble.android.provider.basalt is a very nice development. It revives the legacy plugin ecosystem overnight without requiring original developers (many of whom may be long gone) to push updates. Moving the app store native and switching iOS weather to WebSockets are also solid wins for latency, but I'm most curious about the package ID reclamation. Has anyone else successfully recovered a dormant package name from Google Play recently? I was under the impression that once an original developer account goes inactive, those namespaces were effectively burned forever? Is that an incorrect assumption on my part?
- wlesieutre 8mo agoI'm sure it helps that the owner of the pebble package ID is Google, assuming all the developer accounts were part of the original Fitbit acquisition, and then Google acquiring Fitbit. I see they haven't handed over https://pebble.com https://pebble.com though, that still forwards to Google's smartwatch lineup.
- wan23 8mo agoI pre-ordered a round one which is going to be my third Pebble and I'm excited for it, but there is some really good competition nowadays. Casio makes a watch with similar display technology, solar power so the battery life is basically infinite (it doesn't even have a way to charge with a wire) and bluetooth time sync to your phone. It's not a smart watch so it doesn't have apps or notifications or customizable watch faces - the things that make the Pebble really fun - but as a watch it's hard to beat a GW-BX5600 if all you need is time-related functions like stop watch, timer, multiple time zones etc.
- simlevesque 8mo ago> if all you need is time-related functions like stop watch, timer, multiple time zones etc. But if you just need that, almost any watch will do. The Pebble is clearly not made for those people.
- wan23 8mo agoI think it's made for those people as well as people who want a hackable customizable wearable.
- ge96 8mo agoI've never been a watch, necklace, ring guy. But one time when my phone was destroyed, I wished I had a no-screen typing interface somehow so I could call an Uber and get home... alas it was not meant to be, had to figure out how to use the bus.
- raffael_de 8mo agoit is possible to call a Uber with a pebble watch?
- ge96 8mo agoI don't know, was saying it generally like Apple watch seems to be an extension of the iPhone
- ge96 8mo agoI also realize your point where Uber has its own app, it's not like a phone number you just call. So a "vibration input" type device or something small/maybe without a screen would have to deal with that problem too. Voice would be the easiest interface to talk to an otherwise brick.
- ata_aman 7mo agoNot sure if it's still a thing but I remember being able to call Uber with my Apple Watch (cellular version) in 2017 when my phone died.
- billfor 8mo agoCan this do NFC/tap to pay? That's all I use my smartwatch for....
- jsheard 8mo agoIt can't, and I wouldn't hold my breath for such a small company being able to navigate compliance for contactless payments. The Pebble does use standard watch straps though, so you could get one of the ones with a programmable payment chip embedded inside. If that's all you use your smartwatch for, you may as well skip the watch and get a payment bracelet or ring though. e.g. https://www.curve.com/wearables/ https://www.curve.com/wearables/
- Arelius 8mo agoExcept not in the USA. To bad the rings looks nice.
- jamesbelchamber 8mo agoI used to use Curve but they became really unreliable, especially when paying for public transport, so I just switched back to a normal card. Shame because you can get some nice watch straps with curve integration, which would neatly solve the missing payment feature on Pebble watches.
- fc417fc802 8mo agoSince this is hackernews, I'll point out that you can use a solvent to remove the card part of a credit card leaving only the chip plus antenna. Then embed in a new housing of your own design.
- ihaveone 8mo agoYa, and then attach it to the back of your watch...
- Rebelgecko 7mo agoYeah, Hornady makes a nice rubber thingy that you can slide onto a watch band with their RFID tag inside, but it's easy to swap it with a t5577 or whatever
- stavros 8mo agoI'm really excited about the Index. I don't love that it's disposable, but I really like the UX. I couldn't wait, so I made my own (obviously not a ring, but airtag-sized), and it's amazing. I have it in my pocket, I take it out, speak a little note, and it goes off to my AI assistant for whatever needs doing. That and the AI assistant have really changed how I operate day to day. I'm super excited about the Index, and I hope it has the same capability my app has (mostly, sending a webhook with the transcription with exponential backoff, so I'm sure all my notes will eventually be sent).
- p1nkpineapple 8mo agocan you give some more detail about the airtag-sized device you made? This is exactly what I've been thinking about doing to test the "idea" of the Index, but haven't figured out how to go about doing it. (Tried looking on your blog, but ended up instead reading your article about the little ESP8266 clock which convinced me to buy one to play with myself, thanks!)
- stavros 8mo agoSure, I haven't written it up, but the code is here: https://github.com/skorokithakis/middle https://github.com/skorokithakis/middle I'll take some photos, it's larger now than it will be, because I don't have a MEMS mic (and a small battery). It looks like this now: https://imgz.org/iACAKWj2/ https://imgz.org/iACAKWj2/
- richardlblair 8mo agoI too am very excited. I had a voice recorder laying around and have worked that into my workflow over the past few months. Although, my AI assistant is a cobbled together set of python scripts. What are you using for your AI assistant?
- stavros 8mo agoI made my own, as I thought OpenClaw was a bit too insecure: https://github.com/skorokithakis/stavrobot https://github.com/skorokithakis/stavrobot I love it, it's amazing. I want to add a small section to the README about how to use it well (how to manage memory and the database, basically), but it's just fantastic. It has had basically zero bugs, as well.
- poisonborz 8mo agoSo the Pebble Duo was a one time thing based on the cache of old parts they found? Why... A lot of people would like a cheap small thin plastic watch. Most fans went after Amazfit Blips after Pebble went out for a reason.
- stavros 8mo agoI love my Amazfit Neo, if that's what you want.
- yjftsjthsd-h 8mo agoYup. I actually strongly prefer the look of the duo and consider the time to be ugly. Was fairly annoyed when I got an email saying that actually they can't deliver the watch I bought and would I like to pay more for the ugly one. (Although, some other folks on HN who did get a duo said it had quality issues, so I guess I dodged a bullet)
- bigstrat2003 8mo agoYeah I also find the time pretty ugly. I actually had a pre order for it, but cancelled when they revealed the final design (which was very much not to my taste, whereas I liked the preliminary design). I know Eric really likes it, and probably others do too, so I don't see it changing, but I would really like something of the more sharply rectangular design of the original Pebble. It looked so cool.
- jolmg 7mo ago> So the Pebble Duo was a one time thing The Time 2 too: > Both are available in limited quantities, with worldwide shipping. Prices are in USD. Pre-ordering is the only way to get one --- https://ericmigi.com/blog/introducing-two-new-pebbleos-watches/ https://ericmigi.com/blog/introducing-two-new-pebbleos-watch...
- apparent 7mo agoNot quite the same: the Duo won't ever be made again, since the leftover parts are now all gone. The PT2 could be made again, but there is no guarantee. My guess is there will at least be periodic runs, and people will just buy a watch if they anticipate needing one in the next year or two based on battery trajectory, for example.
- creinhardt 8mo agoI wish someone would take all the Fitness sensors of the Apple Watch, and put it in something with a simple e-ink display like these Pebble devices. I don’t care about apps, I just want a thing that measures my heart rate, notifies me if I get a call or text, has more than a couple days of battery life, and that’s it.
- Lutzb 8mo agoGarmin watches might fit your requirements.
- LeifCarrotson 8mo agoI've been a Garmin user for 14 years and I wish someone would take the GPS, heart rate, and IMU sensors out of my Fenix and put it in an open-source product. But GPS is really hard to get right, especially if you want weeks of battery life. Garmin have been a decent company (in the ethical/moral sense) to be a customer of for many years, but I think they're slowly losing that reputation. Yes, my 2018 hardware still does everything it did in 2018, no, I don't pay for or currently have a need for Connect+, but they're running out of hardware optimization opportunities to push people to new devices, and appear to be seeking alternative ways to maintain growth.
- justapassenger 8mo agoWatches are now roughly in the same spot as phones - form factory is largely complete and each new version is a small iteration over previous generation, with changes that most people don’t care about. That being said - feature I LOVE added recently-ish that made really happy I’ve upgraded my many years old garmin was a flashlight (proper one, not screen brightness). It seemed like a gimmick but it’s now one of most used features on my watch - walking dog at night, looking for kids toys under the bed, fixing things around the house, looking for things in the bag, etc.
- Lutzb 7mo agoFully agree, the led flashlight is ridicously useful.
- brcmthrowaway 8mo agoCould it be manufacturee in USA?
- tanin 8mo agoIs there a watch that looks like Pebble or Garmin Venu (e.g. small and square) that is good for navigation? I want to walk and look at the watch to see which direction to go next. It would be great for traveling in a foreign city.
- nine_k 8mo agoAt a different angle: can there be a "watch face" that shows a bit of map, and directions, while the proper navigation app is running on the phone?
- tanin 8mo agoYup, I want to set a destination, walk, and only look at my watch for direction.
- gessha 7mo agoThe Apple Watch has an interesting vibration-based navigation. Assume you’re going straight and if it vibrates you have to turn left or right. Additionally, it has specific vibration patterns for left and right so you don’t have to look at the watch at all. I use it while driving to remind me to pay attention to turn instructions or exits.
- milleramp 8mo agoLeft handed mode, nice!
- apparent 8mo agoSorry to see the timing slip once again, now from March to April. I get that hardware manufacturing involves uncertainty and risk, but they've been off launching new products instead of getting these out the door. The delay from December to April is pretty sizable, and it makes me take all of their current estimates with a huge grain of salt. After all, they might decide to launch a necklace between now and then!
- chias 7mo agoI don't know and can't speak for the team, but I suspect the "launching new products" is not a significant factor in the delays. It sounds to me like the delays are as a result of hardware manufacturing things (which maybe could/should have been planned for, but optimistically weren't), and that basically the alternative for the hardware folks would be a series of "sit on your hands for a couple weeks, then respond to the thing that came up" events, with the resulting delay for the PT2 being roughly equivalent whether they spend the intervening time designing new products or just waiting.
- apparent 7mo agoI considered that possibility, and if they were just adding in the PTR launch I could understand. But expanding into a totally different product line seems like it would take up a lot of time, and is surely slowing things down. Given that the Chinese holiday is falling right in the middle of production and delaying things by over a month, it seems like they could have focused more on the PT2 and gotten it out the door sooner. My guess is that once they realized they couldn't finish the run before the holiday, they gave up on trying to even start mass production before then. But like you, I'm just speculating from the outside.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- toisanji 8mo agoDo the pebbles have the same functionality as the Index ring? As in we can record notes with it?
- apparent 8mo agoYep. I don't understand the appeal of the ring, assuming you're wearing the watch all the time. One-handed operation isn't worth much to me, and I have zero interest in a ring (which won't fit either when it's hot or cold).
- fix4fun 7mo agoAny specs about Pebble 2 battery capacity ?
- nemomarx 7mo agoTheir site lists a time in days, but not the actual battery specs that I can see. 30 days for the Time 2 will be pretty impressive if they can pull it off, though.
- fix4fun 7mo agoThank you for checking :) I was unable to find any details about it. 30 days are impressive, so I was curious if there is some special battery in Time 2.
- ameen 7mo agoWeren’t foreign nations gonna pay the tariffs? What is this with requiring each customer to pay $10 per watch? It’s funny how these very tariffs were introduced to “combat inflation” end up increasing it by an order of magnitude.
- ismail 7mo agoDoes anyone have their original pebble, that is working? Mine is long gone.
- Markoff 7mo agolooks nice, I am wearing Amazfit Bip for like 8+ years, now on my third one (1st usual issue whole body popped up, 2nd got swollen battery after damaged glass and being exposed to water), the only problem I have with these Pebble watches - they are way too expensive compared to original Amazfit Bip years ago (which I can still buy used for like 15-20EUR and charge it once a month) and their battery life seems to be worse than years old Amazfit Bip I don't care about the apps, only thing I need are notifications from phone (calendar event reminders, alarm, incoming call, messages), sleep tracking is unnecessary bonus