- cross-posted to:
- hackernews
- cross-posted to:
- hackernews
You must log in or register to comment.
I wonder if there’s any ESP32 boards that would work well for this. I know there’s a mesh-tastic capable watch that’s got to be super programmable.
I do not trust this. I want it to be true, but I feel like even as a FOSS OS… Maybe I’m an idiot (not maybe) but I had the rug pulled from under me once already,
Google rugpulls shit way too often for me to take the risk.
Raspberry pi Pebble when?
I all keep going back to my Pebble Time. The battery life and focus on productivity are second to none.
I loved my PebbleSteel but the build quality just wasn’t there. Had two go bad after a very short time with button issues. When Pebble got sold i begrudgingly moved to an Apple Watch and have been ok with it. I do wish Apple offered an E-ink display tho. I’d gladly trade display colors and screen resolution for a multi-day battery and lower prices.
I’m all in on the Apple ecosystem but won’t get an Apple Watch for that reason. Besides the fact that I already get distracted enough, I can’t bear to have a wearable that won’t make it 24 hours without a charge. Resistance to that level of obligation is the same reason I never bought a Tamagotchi.
The newer watches can last up to 2 days I think at least my Samsung ones did I would assume apple is about par
I got a Tamagotchi when they were new and it was annoying as fuck, so I stopped playing with it after two days and enjoyed looking at the floating ghost.
My kid has an Apple Watch but because you can’t play a game on it he often leaves it charging by his bed. He’s also responsible and sets alarms for his chores which means I’m often the only one around when they go off. Sometimes I think about turning it off and hiding it.
I was looking into Pebble watches right before they got bought by Fitbit, was super bummed. Since then I’ve tried a Garmin (hated the app) and now on my third Apple Watch… I still don’t love the Apple Watch and want an alternative. Between having to charge it all the goddamn time and after 10~ years it only having 3 usable watch faces I’ve been craving an alt. I signed up for the Pebble list - I’m ready. Pebble for every day and going to try out a Coros for fitness.
I’ve been eyeing Amazfit’s watches hard, ever since I saw a coworker with one. Wasn’t interested in smartwatches before due to all the compromises each one makes but their watches seem like they’re actually good from what I can tell.
Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I’ve been enjoying my Withings watches for fitness tracking and everyday wear as well. They look like a decent, non-smart watch. Battery lasts about a month or so.
Thank you for the rec. I checked them out, but it’s not really what I’m looking for. Ideally my watch face will let me see a lot of information related to location and weather. For example, my main Apple Watch face currently shows: a compass, date, time, current temp, the high, the low, the conditions, wind speed and elevation. That’s partly why I’ve stuck with an Apple Watch despite the severe shortcomings
Gotcha. Yeah that’s a different game.
Never trust or buy something from a Alphabet company. They will always cancel the project and leave you high and dry.
Their track record speaks for itself.
Yes, true, but irrelevant in this case.
But this doesn’t have anything to do with alphabet? They just open sourced the code.
Fitbit bought Pebble then Google bought Fitbit.
PebbleOS was open sourced and now the original founder who hasn’t worked for alphabet for ages wants to build a new device using the now open sourced OS. No way Google can drop support and they have essentially given the code away because they aren’t using it anymore.
Yes, and this has nothing to do with Fitbit or Google (beyond Google open-sourcing the old Pebble code).
This is not a Google product.
Yes, but reading the page tells you they’ve gotten google to open-source PebbleOS and highly suggests they’re either going to maintain the open source version, or otherwise fork the code.
Nothing else ever really achieved what the peobble did. I just wanted a cheap second point of interaction with my phone.
After it went under the industry has doubled down on insane cost, pointless features, abysmal battery life.
I don’t get it. Pepple made all the right trade offs and the third party support was incredible.
I hope this works out.
Does it let you buy stuff?
I just want a watch that lets me buy stuff, without Google, Apple, or anyone else tracking me. The closest I found is a Pixel watch with WiFi, which I only connect at home, and isn’t connected to my phone most of the time (GrapheneOS). Google still tracks me, but only after the fact, and only when I reconnect to WiFi.
I honestly don’t care about the watch function, I just want something I can wear when I’m on a bike ride so I can leave my phone and wallet at home but still pick up a snack or something.
If the Pebble can do that without phoning home, I’ll get it. But I’m pretty sure that’s impossible since it’s baked into the Wallet app.
I hate to be that guy, but if you’re doing NFC payments, your card issuer is tracking you, AND selling your data. And of course, the merchant you’re using is almost certainly tracking you and profiling you for more ads, too.
There’s no way to do any sort of electronics payment with ‘nobody’ tracking you.
I trust Apple to be slightly less shitty than anyone else in the payment industry, but if you don’t want to be tracked its’ either cash, or you become one of those Monero dudes.
There’s no way to do any sort of electronics payment with ‘nobody’ tracking you.
I fully understand that. My point is that I don’t need Google also getting easy access to my data, along with all the metadata along the way (GPS, heart rate, etc). Right now, I only connect my watch to my phone every other week or so to refresh payment tokens, so the data they’re getting is at least delayed.
I really don’t need any of the smart watch features other than payments. I don’t care about vitals monitoring, seeing my texts, etc. I ride to escape all that. I don’t even need the time, I only need a way to buy a snack or something.
I’d probably use cash if we got rid of pennies, nickels, and dimes, because with sales tax, I always end up with a handful of nonsense ($1.84 -. $2.02 or some BS). I suppose I could just drop it all in a donation cup or something, but that adds up. And some stores don’t even accept cash anymore.
So my solution is a smart watch. It’s not great, but I get extra credit card rewards for using it (3% everywhere), so it’ll pay for itself after a year or so.
Maybe I should just suck it up and just use cash. Idk. Maybe once I’ve finished degoogling everything else (last one Google Sheets), I’ll get rid of my Pixel Watch.
Sorry if i missed it but I have a really stupid question: why not just use the card directly?
Is this just a dont-want-a-wallet thing, or something else?
Yup, pretty much.
I don’t like stuff in my pockets when I exercise, and I often wear shorts without pockets. Before the watch, I’d put my phone and wallet in my saddle bag, which works, but that’s not a thing when running (and I hate those hip ot arm bands).
And my wallet is tiny (basically this, one slot on each side and one pocket), so it’s not the size.
Ah cool. I kinda wish that card issuers would issue a tiny little NFC disc or something so I can just integrate that into whatever and get the same functionality.
But that’d probably be a thing all of 8 people on earth want, and everyone else would lose it or eat it or something.
Costco has something like that for gas only (e.g. so your teen driver doesn’t need the card).
Just give me the NFC bit and let me set a low limit on it, and I’ll tape it to a Casio watch or something, I just need something I can wear and buy stuff with. Make it water proof so I can take it swimming too.
Cash…. What you’re looking for is called cash.
No way is any purchasing system going to allow you to walk away without checking that you are won you claim to be, and that you have the funds available to you to make that purchase.
I really don’t like dealing with small change.
There’s really no technical reason why these contactless payment systems couldn’t be FOSS. When I registered my card with my watch, I needed to call my bank to confirm it was me. The same process could totally happen without Google being involved.
Yeah I’m pretty sure the banks would shut down anything that clones NFC payment functionality onto a device without them knowing about it.
As they rightly should. I would certainly call my bank to set it up just like I did with my OTP app with my brokerage. I’m not trying to hide anything from my bank, I just don’t want to share that info with Google.
I’m just very unoptimistic that this won’t come back as corporate garbage and not remotely resembling what it once was.
The people doing the revival have been working to keep the original pebbles working for years now. I think they’re really passionate about the watch, and that gives me hope for the revival.
It sounds like “the people” is just Migi, unless I’m misunderstanding. The guy who EEE’d Beeper.
How did Migi embrace, extend, and extinguish Beeper‽
Everything is closed source now.
The beeper apps were never open source to begin with, but all the bridges are and will continue being.
The beeper apps were never open source to begin with
Incorrect. They were open source right up until they moved over to the new Beeper app.
I’ve been with them since the first alphas, and no, the mobile and desktop apps, and the server implementation were never open source, only the mautrix and beeper bridges. Nothing has changed with the new apps, and the local bridges (that run in your phone with the app) will also be open sourced on release.
Where did you read that? The github pages are all still open and receiving updates, you can still self-host the bridges and its under the apache-2.0 license, just like it’s always been.
I didn’t read anything I looked it up. The app and the new “Beeper cloud” server are both closed source.
I’d suggest looking in to it farther. The commenter above basically covered it, but no, beeper is not all closed source. Their hosted server has never been open source, but all the self-hosted bridges have been, and continue to be. You can run your own, open source, self-hosted beeper server, just like you’ve always been able to. There’s nothing embrace, extend extinguish about that.
The best part is you can make your own!
With what? I don’t own a watch factory.
Arduino
How are you gonna fit an Arduino in a watch?
You put an Arduino-compatible microcontroller on a custom PCB, obviously. A QFN package ATTiny is like 4mm square.
It’ll all be SMT parts if you want it to be watch-sized, so you’ll have to let JLCPCB or whoever assemble the board for you instead of soldering it yourself, but it’s surprisingly accessible to random hobbyists these days.
Yeah I don’t understand any of these words.
Yeah I don’t understand any of these words.
Ok, maybe you specifically shouldn’t make your own, but somebody else who knows this things could.
What part of you just DHRT the CNGIR to the WKFI do you not understand?!?
Don’t forget the screen and the battery too.
Get a smaller Arduino, there are a ton of options with low power. You can 3D print a mockup (check your local library if you don’t have access to one) before designing the full product
If you go completely custom and get it right the first time (unlikely), you can probably get a prototype for $1k or so with a custom PCB and high quality 3D printed case (molds are expensive).
It would require a lot of learning if this is your first time, but 3D printer + tiny Dev board can get you very far for very little money (<$100 if you have access to a 3D printer).
Fine, Raspberry Pi.
Just want to shout out my PineTime. no one seems to be talking about it. Its a nice piece of kit for $35.
Yup. I’ve been rocking the PineTime since my Pebble crapped out. It does what I need it to do without any of the invasive stuff. But, still excited about this Pebble news.
I just went to take a look at it, its €65, I don’t see a price anywhere near $35?
and then i saw they had an e-reader and got all excited… They charge €610 for that thing, holy crap that’s stupid expensive.
Maybe the bangle js 2 is interesting for you? https://banglejs.com/
Skill issue?
Not really
Why are PINE64 EU prices higher than Pine Store Ltd.?
Prices listed on PINE64 EU include both VAT and shipping cost. In short, you pay the listed price and receive your delivery within 7 days without additional charges. There is no need to deal with customs, pay additional shipping, wait weeks for your order to ship. You will also not you have to deal with other hassle common when ordering from outside the EU – all hardware sold by PINE64 EU has been through a rigorous approval process to enter the EU.
Whenever possible we follow Pine Store’s suggested retail pricing. This allows us to offer fast dispatch of the hardware, local support and RMA services as well as a 14 day return policy and a 2 year warranty. It also lets us offer additional services, such as giving you the choice of preinstalled operating systems on the PinePhone and PinePhone Pro. Frankly speaking, it also lets us keep the light on.
Cheapest shipping to me is $12, and sales tax varies by US state so isn’t included. VAT looks to be 15-25%, so that explains most of the difference. (
($35 + $12) * (1 + 25%) = $59, not sure what import duties cost).They’re not directly affiliated with Pine64 (other than Lukasz being an employee, but this seems to be a side hustle), so you’re paying a small premium to not deal with EU import nonsense, get a warranty, etc.
PineTime has been the only watch I’ve liked since my pebble, but it is a downgrade to my overall experience. If I want a good battery life (great, even) I can’t have an always on screen, and I miss the physical buttons for interacting without looking. The vibration motor is solid, though.
I will miss my 28 day long battery when I leave it. Hopefully a new pebble can achieve a similar battery life.
I picked one up, just to check it out, but I guess I don’t really see much use for it. I just wear an analog watch.
Under the Apache License 2.0 license, no less! Nice!
I ran my Pebble Time into the ground, so I’m hyped as fuck for this. I bought it in my early highschool years and wore it nearly daily until last year when the rumble motor finally gave out. Still wear it from time to time, but it not buzzing for notifications is a bit of a deal breaker for me.
I bought a replacement and it’s so pristine I didn’t want to risk slowly damaging it at work, but now I’m charging that bitch up and running it into the ground until new Pebble comes out. Thanks for sharing OP, this news made me week!
Bonus, here’s what mine looked like as of a few years ago right when the vibration went out. You can see I slapped a skin on it to cover up the bezel scratches, but the screen still looks totally fine!
I miss my Pebble Time Round every day, it’s the only smart watch that I owned that I actually liked. I even bought a second and got it running via Rebble.
They both died due to a swollen battery but I’ve been pining for something similar for years! Hope this pans out
Same. I bought one of those ifixit kits and tried to repair mine, but it turns out the wires are very small and I couldnt get everything hooked back in.
I thought about trying but decided it wasn’t worth it. IIRC there was like ONE guy who had the batteries and could do it if you mailed it to him lol.
All on I actually bought 4 time rounds in addition to my OG Pebble, as my wife had two as well. She’s just as stoked as I am. Big Pebble fans all around!
Man I would love that contact :)
I’m personally going to keep my old Casio running til the end of time. But I hope the new watches are repairable, cause I don’t fully trust Google (but rebbel is solid).
Finally
Interesting to see if it will be better than Bangle JS 2, the spiritual successor to Pebble. That’s the one I’ve been using a few years and I still like it a lot.
Somehow I missed out on this device when searching for open watches, thanks for the info.
I’m not in to smart watches, but I’m happy this is happening. A couple of friends really liked the pebble and were sad to see it go.
If you click “no” on the website it takes you to the Google pixel watch site. My goodness that thing is ugly.
