Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch(rebble.io)
rebble.io
Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch
https://rebble.io/2022/11/02/rebble-hackathon.html
397 comments
Pebble's software was second to none. They built an entire operating system and app store, to run on microcontrollers! Multiple orders of magnitude less RAM and power consumption than Android or Apple watches, but the user experience was excellent and the app store had tons of stuff in it.
I once interviewed a candidate who came from Pebble. He had the most impressive interview performance of any candidate I've ever interviewed.
I once interviewed a candidate who came from Pebble. He had the most impressive interview performance of any candidate I've ever interviewed.
> I once interviewed a candidate who came from Pebble. He had the most impressive interview performance of any candidate I've ever interviewed.
Can you tell more about this?
Can you tell more about this?
Not much to tell. He solved my interview problems super quickly and then we had a chat about his experience which impressed me a lot. This was many years ago (as Pebble was dying) so I don't remember the details of the conversation. He didn't accept our offer, for visa related reasons if I recall correctly, so unfortunately I didn't get to work with him. Obviously the variance on interview performance is high, and my typical interview questions are not super hard or anything, so it doesn't necessarily mean that much. But I'm confident that he was a very good engineer that I would have liked to work with.
I'll buy an Apple Watch, but I'd pay through the nose for an Apple Watch with four buttons.
Steve Jobs obsession that the mouse should have only one button was probably right for the computer, but the input device had over 80 buttons minimum. (Keyboard)
Clearly whoever makes the call about Apple Watch buttons doesn't swim, sprint or cycle.
All the marketing about "sports" is to make you feel sporty not because it's actually useful.
Of course, for the use Apple make money from (Apple pay) there is a tactile button dedicated for the purpose.
Steve Jobs obsession that the mouse should have only one button was probably right for the computer, but the input device had over 80 buttons minimum. (Keyboard)
Clearly whoever makes the call about Apple Watch buttons doesn't swim, sprint or cycle.
All the marketing about "sports" is to make you feel sporty not because it's actually useful.
Of course, for the use Apple make money from (Apple pay) there is a tactile button dedicated for the purpose.
> Steve Jobs obsession that the mouse should have only one button was probably right for the computer
LOL. Mine has 12, of which I regularly use 10.
LOL. Mine has 12, of which I regularly use 10.
What do you have? (Crossing my fingers you don't say Razor)
I'm using a Logitech G604 at work, I have 15 buttons of keyboard shortcuts on it.
I love this mouse. Logitech software could be better, but it's much better than Razer's. Synapse seems to ruin what would otherwise be great hardware for the money.
Not the person you asked from but I have the SteelSeries Aerox 9 (wireless). I play MMOs on the regular and dabble in power-user land and 3D-modeling w shortcuts.
I use Logitech G502 Lightspeed.
I had a really, really hard time finding a decent smart watch when my Pebble drowned. Two years and five(!!!) Ticwatches later (first was too slow, the other 4 were drowning in different ways when I was swimming)... I felt in love with the Samsung Watch 4 classic.
Not that expensive, slick UI, full of features, great Android integration and a wonderful dial/crown which is well used in a couple of apps to make it all easier - you can use it to answer/cancel calls or finish/repeat alarms/timers.
AND THEN Samsung launches Watch 5 and DROPS THE FREAKING CROWN! Back to 1.5 buttons - because the second one, as the Apple Watch, is stuck to Samsung Pay (can't even set it to Google Pay) and recent apps, no app uses.
WHY? WHYYYY? The crown is amazing for scrolling through screens when I'm biking (shaky) or swimming (touch disabled). It's WAY better for scrolling in that tiny screen. It's awesome as interaction aid. WHY REMOVE IT??
I do miss the long battery and buttons, but I must mention that a touch screen gives you many more UI possibilities.
Not that expensive, slick UI, full of features, great Android integration and a wonderful dial/crown which is well used in a couple of apps to make it all easier - you can use it to answer/cancel calls or finish/repeat alarms/timers.
AND THEN Samsung launches Watch 5 and DROPS THE FREAKING CROWN! Back to 1.5 buttons - because the second one, as the Apple Watch, is stuck to Samsung Pay (can't even set it to Google Pay) and recent apps, no app uses.
WHY? WHYYYY? The crown is amazing for scrolling through screens when I'm biking (shaky) or swimming (touch disabled). It's WAY better for scrolling in that tiny screen. It's awesome as interaction aid. WHY REMOVE IT??
I do miss the long battery and buttons, but I must mention that a touch screen gives you many more UI possibilities.
I have the original galaxy watch still. I use it almost without ever touching the screen. Two buttons and a crown/dial pretty much make it four buttons, and yeah, I don't have to touch the screen really.
I'm also not a very hardcore watch user, though.
I was sold on the GW because the OS (Tizen) was supposed to be the best one. Everyone hated the google OS, which then in GW4 I think they switched to.
I'm also not a very hardcore watch user, though.
I was sold on the GW because the OS (Tizen) was supposed to be the best one. Everyone hated the google OS, which then in GW4 I think they switched to.
The OS on GW4 is really amazing, at least comparing with previous versions of WearOS and even to my previous Pebble experience. However, they ditched the crown at the GW5
You'll be excited to hear that for $800 you can now get an Apple watch with one more button to assign to a sports thing!
It can also be mapped to a "shortcut" script, though I don't know what all can be shortcutted on the watch: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213335
what would you map those buttons to?
I agree that Garmin watches are not good general purpose smart watches for most people, but their UX is actually perfect for their intended users. Once you develop the muscle memory, it's possible to perform many functions without being able to see the screen. This is necessary when it's cold and layers are covering the screen. I have cold weather running shirts which have sleeves that mostly cover your hands, and can press the buttons on my Fenix 6 easily through the fabric and do whatever I need to do without stopping to pull my sleeve up (which is awkward since those shirts have thumb holes).
That's fair. I'm definitely not super interested in a fitness oriented device, so I'm probably chafing against a UI that wasn't built for me.
To me, I hated that everything was so huge on the display, leading to very low information density. I always enjoyed how the pebble could show a decently long text message on the display at once, when the font was set to small.
I also feel like, outside of the fitness functions, the menus are too deep/branching. Pebble got it right, in that the menus tended to be shallow, if a little long at times.
To me, I hated that everything was so huge on the display, leading to very low information density. I always enjoyed how the pebble could show a decently long text message on the display at once, when the font was set to small.
I also feel like, outside of the fitness functions, the menus are too deep/branching. Pebble got it right, in that the menus tended to be shallow, if a little long at times.
I've never had a Pebble and mostly wanted to comment on the Garmin/smartwatches part of your comment.
I was gifted a Garmin Vivoactive 3 a few years ago. Like you, I've come to the exact same conclusion regarding the Garmin watches. It is slow and annoyingly needs to connect to their servers to do anything (couldn't even access my own data when they were hacked). I still use it mostly when i run/cycle but battery life is slowly going away.
Also, i want to stress the point that while smartwatches are nice for certain applications, they mostly are toys. Yes, the data is interesting, but how many of us really do something from that data? I know I don't. And if you really need this data (professional athlete or whatever), most of the time, someone will pay the gadget for you.
For a lot of reasons (price, planned obsolescence, privacy), i'll probably get a g-shock that'll last years on a coin cell that's easily replaceable everywhere.
I was gifted a Garmin Vivoactive 3 a few years ago. Like you, I've come to the exact same conclusion regarding the Garmin watches. It is slow and annoyingly needs to connect to their servers to do anything (couldn't even access my own data when they were hacked). I still use it mostly when i run/cycle but battery life is slowly going away.
Also, i want to stress the point that while smartwatches are nice for certain applications, they mostly are toys. Yes, the data is interesting, but how many of us really do something from that data? I know I don't. And if you really need this data (professional athlete or whatever), most of the time, someone will pay the gadget for you.
For a lot of reasons (price, planned obsolescence, privacy), i'll probably get a g-shock that'll last years on a coin cell that's easily replaceable everywhere.
> Yes, the data is interesting, but how many of us really do something from that data? I know I don't. And if you really need this data (professional athlete or whatever), most of the time, someone will pay the gadget for you.
Which is why I was sad when Pebble doubled down on the fitness/sports marketing in the months before they shut down.
I don't care about fitness tracking and sportsball data. What I do care about is an e-paper-like screen (not just the "always on display" phone screen tech, but a proper "looks the same whether I look at it or not" always-on screen), hackability, predictable UI and buttons. The ability to operate the watch (and remotely control the phone, via Pebble/Tasker integration) without looking at it is supremely useful to me. That, and no fucking cloud. Ever. Hardware tied to SaaS is the enemy of all that's holy.
Which is why I was sad when Pebble doubled down on the fitness/sports marketing in the months before they shut down.
I don't care about fitness tracking and sportsball data. What I do care about is an e-paper-like screen (not just the "always on display" phone screen tech, but a proper "looks the same whether I look at it or not" always-on screen), hackability, predictable UI and buttons. The ability to operate the watch (and remotely control the phone, via Pebble/Tasker integration) without looking at it is supremely useful to me. That, and no fucking cloud. Ever. Hardware tied to SaaS is the enemy of all that's holy.
> For a lot of reasons (price, planned obsolescence, privacy), i'll probably get a g-shock that'll last years on a coin cell that's easily replaceable everywhere.
Definitely take a look at the Casio G-Shock GBD100/200 watches. They're for sure bulky and sporty, though the 200 a bit less so. I'm impressed in what they can do on a coin cell! I haven't tried the BT connection yet, but they seem to do step tracking, timers, and silent alarms quite well! The UI/UX definitely isn't Pebble-esque and is very utilitarian, but seems solid.
Definitely take a look at the Casio G-Shock GBD100/200 watches. They're for sure bulky and sporty, though the 200 a bit less so. I'm impressed in what they can do on a coin cell! I haven't tried the BT connection yet, but they seem to do step tracking, timers, and silent alarms quite well! The UI/UX definitely isn't Pebble-esque and is very utilitarian, but seems solid.
I loved my pebbles and was very sad when my Time Steel finally died.
I now wear a Garmin Instinct. The UI isn’t as joyful and it’s not quite as pretty. It’s every bit as practical as the pebble and then some. Also you couldn’t kill it with a stick.
I now wear a Garmin Instinct. The UI isn’t as joyful and it’s not quite as pretty. It’s every bit as practical as the pebble and then some. Also you couldn’t kill it with a stick.
The Instinct is what I replaced my Pebble with, too. I agree that it's a good stand-in for the Pebble (especially with the battery life) and I also use it to do things the Pebble could never have done (it is my bike computer, and I use it for navigation when out in the middle of the wilderness).
I still miss the Pebble, though.
I particularly miss being able to write custom apps.
I still miss the Pebble, though.
I particularly miss being able to write custom apps.
In what way did it die? it may be easily repairable. e.g. the common display issue on the old Pebble models was resolvable by just placing a shim behind the display so the data connection stayed solid.
It copped a few too many splashes at the beach and never came back to life.
A key criteria for the replacement was "I never want to have to think about whether something will break it" and the Instinct has lived up to that. Have spent the last few years wearing it surfing, snowboarding, through many bush fires and one structure fire where I forgot to take it off before donning. Hasn't skipped a beat.
A key criteria for the replacement was "I never want to have to think about whether something will break it" and the Instinct has lived up to that. Have spent the last few years wearing it surfing, snowboarding, through many bush fires and one structure fire where I forgot to take it off before donning. Hasn't skipped a beat.
As a big Pebble fan, I was really sad to see the company go without any similar alternatives in the market (at the time). My watches ended up having various hardware issues over the years, so I switched to something else. The efforts Rebble has put in to keep these devices alive is amazing. If they grow bigger, I'd love to see them do hardware.
In the meantime, I'm wearing a Withings ScanWatch [0]. Not as extendable as a Pebble, but it has some features I care about and doesn't distract me.
[0] https://www.withings.com/ch/en/scanwatch
In the meantime, I'm wearing a Withings ScanWatch [0]. Not as extendable as a Pebble, but it has some features I care about and doesn't distract me.
[0] https://www.withings.com/ch/en/scanwatch
Withings is great if you're looking for "health" watch but not really good as fitness tracker.
For years, I used my steel HR (got a weird one branded Nokia because they had purchased Withings only to resell Withings to the founder a year later), loved the sleep tracking, health report etc... But the activity tracking wasn't the best, especially running.
However the battery's life is out of this world. I loved the mix between tech and good old watch.
For years, I used my steel HR (got a weird one branded Nokia because they had purchased Withings only to resell Withings to the founder a year later), loved the sleep tracking, health report etc... But the activity tracking wasn't the best, especially running.
However the battery's life is out of this world. I loved the mix between tech and good old watch.
I bought a Scanwatch and have found the health data to be so inaccurate as to be completely useless. I explicitly wanted SpO2 and sleep tracking and it's just very wrong. It would wake up multiple times at night and the watch would tell me I was asleep all night. I'm sure it's just some limitation of the sensors, but the tech just isn't good enough to be useful
That's a common problem. If you search google scholar for sleep tracking accuracy you will find that many smart watches are good at detecting sleep, but not so great at detecting you waking up, so they overestimate sleep time and sleep efficiency. And any sleep phase "measurements" are best ignored entirely.
The Fitbit Alta HR and the Apple Watch are worth mentioning for tracking sleep time and wake ups fairly accurately.
The Fitbit Alta HR and the Apple Watch are worth mentioning for tracking sleep time and wake ups fairly accurately.
Are there any comparable alternatives to Pebble even now? I’ve yet to see one, but I haven’t followed the market very closely since I stopped using one.
Surprised this hasn't been mentioned on this thread yet. Hardware wise the closest is probably the Pine Time from Pine64. Software and services wise this isn't on pebbles level though. https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/
As others mention hybrid watches are probably the closest alternative.
As others mention hybrid watches are probably the closest alternative.
Early PineTime adopter here. The lack of physical buttons is such a massive downgrade that I can't really bring myself to use mine anymore. The apps are also very lacking compared to the Pebble. Specifically timers, stopwatch, alarms. I have no other watch to recommend, I just stopped wearing one. I do occasionally update the firmware and see if things have improved, but they're still not as good as I'd like. I do support them and what they're doing. The hardware itself is maybe just too flawed. I hope that we see more stuff get support from the same OS. Something with more buttons.
With the Pebble I had app shortcuts on the long press of most of the buttons and could pretty much navigate it blind to start a stopwatch ASAP and lap as needed without looking. I had tons of saved timer presets. The alarms could actually wake me up (before the vibration motor broke). PineTime won't let me save timer presets, set timers over an hour or so long, and it's not obvious enough when the timer ends. I think it vibrates once instead of doing it until dismissed. These are basic things, and to me they matter even more than seeing notifications from my phone appear. I even used my Pebble without a phone for months at a time before.
With the Pebble I had app shortcuts on the long press of most of the buttons and could pretty much navigate it blind to start a stopwatch ASAP and lap as needed without looking. I had tons of saved timer presets. The alarms could actually wake me up (before the vibration motor broke). PineTime won't let me save timer presets, set timers over an hour or so long, and it's not obvious enough when the timer ends. I think it vibrates once instead of doing it until dismissed. These are basic things, and to me they matter even more than seeing notifications from my phone appear. I even used my Pebble without a phone for months at a time before.
Pinetime can't hold a candle to the bangle.js: https://banglejs.com/
The bangle.js: - ships significantly faster - has an always-on display with similar 4 week maximum battery life - can be updated without flashing - has a thriving app ecosystem
The bangle.js: - ships significantly faster - has an always-on display with similar 4 week maximum battery life - can be updated without flashing - has a thriving app ecosystem
I have a bangle.js. It's... alright. Does the job. Feels cheap. OS is nightmarishly slow. Only one physical button, so annoying and fiddly to set with a touchscreen (interacts badly with the slow OS). Has GPS, but doesn't really work. Has heart monitor, but doesn't really work. Not terribly stable.
My Pebble Time Steel was vastly superior.
My Pebble Time Steel was vastly superior.
I wonder: could one possibly run a custom ROM like bangleJS on a Garmin?
Oh wow I did not realize they were just $35, I expected a price around $150. I've never been a smartwatch person because I couldn't see myself wearing one over some of my mechanical pieces, but for $35 i'm very tempted to try.
I own a Pinetime, and I agree it's close to the Pebble (I used to own a Pebble Steel). My Pinetime gets around 3ish days battery life, usage dependent.
I wanted a watch that I could control my media player on my phone with, gave me notifications, and didn't cost me an appendage. The Pinetime was $35USD shipped (IIRC), and while I can't dismiss phone notifications from my watch, it does at least show me the notifications from my wrist. I'm very happy with mine.
I wanted a watch that I could control my media player on my phone with, gave me notifications, and didn't cost me an appendage. The Pinetime was $35USD shipped (IIRC), and while I can't dismiss phone notifications from my watch, it does at least show me the notifications from my wrist. I'm very happy with mine.
One problem with the smartwatch market is that it's hard to know what "comparable" means to any given person.
I've found an Amazfit Bip to be a totally satisfactory replacement for my Pebble Time, but it doesn't cover every single usecase. It does have a battery life measured in weeks though (usually 3-4 for me, less if I use the GPS to track a bunch of exercise), which is a pretty nice selling point.
I've found an Amazfit Bip to be a totally satisfactory replacement for my Pebble Time, but it doesn't cover every single usecase. It does have a battery life measured in weeks though (usually 3-4 for me, less if I use the GPS to track a bunch of exercise), which is a pretty nice selling point.
Do you build your own apps for it? I'm interesting in understanding how hackable it is? For example, can you write an app that pulls the GPS data from a run off it, or is that data readily accessible somehow?
Not OP, but you can't really make your own apps for it. There are third party clients for it, though, and you can export data through them.
I like mine, except for the fact that the front fell off and I had to glue it back on. The battery lasts for 3 or 4 weeks, you can receive notifications (but not respond to them) and it looks fairly stylish.
I like mine, except for the fact that the front fell off and I had to glue it back on. The battery lasts for 3 or 4 weeks, you can receive notifications (but not respond to them) and it looks fairly stylish.
Ha, the front fell off of mine too. It still works just as well after regluing though, so I guess it's not that big of a problem.
I haven't done any hacking of any of my smartwatches. If that's important to you, then I don't really have any recommendations for you (and it highlights my point about different people's definition of "comparable").
I want my watch to have time/date, alarms, timers/stopwatches, the ability to read phone notifications, always-on screen, and battery life measured on the scale of weeks. Step and heartrate tracking are also nice perks that the Amazfit Bip also includes.
I want my watch to have time/date, alarms, timers/stopwatches, the ability to read phone notifications, always-on screen, and battery life measured on the scale of weeks. Step and heartrate tracking are also nice perks that the Amazfit Bip also includes.
You can add your own apps vi a patched firmware.
https://github.com/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/wiki/Amazfit-...
https://github.com/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/wiki/Amazfit-...
Not in my opinion. The closest I’ve found are hybrid watches which will forward alerts (but generally with no text), but certainly nothing with the screen, battery life, and OSS vibe.
I picked up an older Fossil Hybrid HR a few months ago for $100. I've been rocking it every day and it's been great - battery lasts a couple weeks.
I can confirm that it's pretty good, but mine often loses track of time and needs to be calibrated via the app. I don't have it constantly connected to my phone, and only connect it ocasionally to sync, so maybe that could be the cause. I've even once had the calibration refuse to work, which required a hard reset of the watch to fix.
It's elegant, and the smartwatch features are unobtrusive, but I wouldn't trust it for any precise tracking, or even time tracking.
It's elegant, and the smartwatch features are unobtrusive, but I wouldn't trust it for any precise tracking, or even time tracking.
I had a fossil hybrid for awhile, and actually rather enjoyed it (gods below it was huge though - 44mm face). The problem was, if it wasn't my daily driver (that is to say, always within communication range of my phone), the battery would drain so fast. And it was a relatively uncommon coin battery, not a rechargeable battery.
I wish that hadn't been the case, but after replacing the battery 3x in one month because I swapped out watches occasionally, it went into retirement.
I wish that hadn't been the case, but after replacing the battery 3x in one month because I swapped out watches occasionally, it went into retirement.
Interesting. I have a Fossil Hybrid HR from a couple years back, and it's got a rechargeable battery. If it didn't that would be quite annoying.
You guys seem to be more informed than me since I didn't use the pebble. Do you know how the pinetime compares?
In spirit it's extremely similar, but as it doesn't have large finances behind it, it lags behind in terms of features.
It's totally usable, but it doesn't have a vibrant app store like Pebble did for example.
It's totally usable, but it doesn't have a vibrant app store like Pebble did for example.
Pinetime is new to me, going to dig in more. But at first glance, I'm not sure I like the IPS display, honestly. The always-visible e-ink Pebble display was one of the biggest features to me.
I've been using a Garmin Instinct for a few years, and it's never let me down. It has a monochrome display that is not affected by sunlight with incredible battery life even when using the GPS. It's also tough as a brick
I had a pebble, now I have a Garmin Forerunner.
These are marketed as fitness devices first, which they are, but the smart watch features are comparable to the Pebbles. The lack of a touchscreen, the long battery life, and the epaper-like display are all there.
These are marketed as fitness devices first, which they are, but the smart watch features are comparable to the Pebbles. The lack of a touchscreen, the long battery life, and the epaper-like display are all there.
If I remember correctly, after Fitbit purchased pebble they released the Versa line up that had some similar functionalities.
However it looks like Google is killing that in newer iterations...
However it looks like Google is killing that in newer iterations...
I got a Versa 3 after my Galaxy Active stopped working, after my Bip broke, and after my Pebble screen went bad.
I've enjoyed it, although I am really missing the ability to write my own apps. Everything else is great.
I understand that the Versa 4 is generally worse than the 3. Insane, why would you remove music controls?
I've enjoyed it, although I am really missing the ability to write my own apps. Everything else is great.
I understand that the Versa 4 is generally worse than the 3. Insane, why would you remove music controls?
You can absolutely write your own apps for the Versa 3.
Strange, when I looked before I didn't really see anything but I could be getting mixed up with the Bip. Well I'm going to be all over that this weekend!
I've been using a Garmin Vivoactive 3 for a few years after owning a Pebble Time that eventually stopped working. I've been pretty happy with it: it also has a retroreflective screen that's always on and perfectly visible in sunlight, the battery can last about a week depending on usage, and Garmin's IQ app ecosystem is solid.
The notification functionality is not as customizable, but otherwise I haven't really been missing the Pebble much.
The notification functionality is not as customizable, but otherwise I haven't really been missing the Pebble much.
Fossil Neutra, I think. They have an eink display and 2 week battery life. I don't use one though, been enjoying my citizen ecodrive for the past few years.
Fossil has a couple hybrid smartwatches, under their own brand and under Skagen. They also license the technology to Citizen.
I’ve used a few Fossil watches and found the battery to be very good, but the software to be lacking. One example is that if you receive a notification, you have to click the center button to select it, and then the down button to scroll down. The buttons on some models are quite mushy, which makes navigation even more frustrating. The light is also unimpressive and hard to trigger.
I don’t love the styling of the current Fossil models. The Skagen version looks nicer to me, but sadly the software forced you to display a Skagen logo instead of one of the four complications that’s available on the Fossil-branded version.
I don’t know what I’m going to do when my Fossil dies. The battery is down to 4 days if I remember to put it in airplane mode every night. I’m considering the Apple Watch Ultra, which should get around 5 days of battery in low power mode but I don’t love the styling, don’t need the sporty features, and don’t love the price.
I’ve used a few Fossil watches and found the battery to be very good, but the software to be lacking. One example is that if you receive a notification, you have to click the center button to select it, and then the down button to scroll down. The buttons on some models are quite mushy, which makes navigation even more frustrating. The light is also unimpressive and hard to trigger.
I don’t love the styling of the current Fossil models. The Skagen version looks nicer to me, but sadly the software forced you to display a Skagen logo instead of one of the four complications that’s available on the Fossil-branded version.
I don’t know what I’m going to do when my Fossil dies. The battery is down to 4 days if I remember to put it in airplane mode every night. I’m considering the Apple Watch Ultra, which should get around 5 days of battery in low power mode but I don’t love the styling, don’t need the sporty features, and don’t love the price.
The "closest" I found that filled the void Pebble left are these hybrid watches like the ScanWatch I mentioned. All fully digital ones just go overboard with features, I find them too gimmicky and they come with an awful battery life. I don't want another smartphone on my wrist that I need to charge every night...
I miss the simplicity, yet the huge amount possibilities (via their store and SDK) and watch faces the Pebble had. They still managed to keep the device distraction free along with a good battery life. I'm all ears for any good Pebble-like smartwatch if anyone knows one.
I miss the simplicity, yet the huge amount possibilities (via their store and SDK) and watch faces the Pebble had. They still managed to keep the device distraction free along with a good battery life. I'm all ears for any good Pebble-like smartwatch if anyone knows one.
That Withings watch looks pretty nice. What I would really love to see is a Pebble revival with that monitoring tech in it. Like if I saw that end up on Kickstarter, I would easily drop in $1k to help fund the development and production (as long as the project was run by someone who will definitely be able to make it happen).
Yes, Withings things are cool, including the Scanwatch in lieu if what Pebble could have been given the right funding and guidance. I'll get mine if/when they add blood pressure monitoring.
That few?
I wasn't a huge fan of Pebble, the company - they didn't sell replacement parts, for instance (the watch for geeks? yeah, sure).
For some crazy reason, though, to this day, this watch is still almost the only one that gets such a basic thing right: Telling the damn time.
The formula is as simple as it is unreplicated:
- Always telling the time
- Good battery life
- Buttons
Why nobody else makes such a watch is a mystery to me. The Amazfit Bip comes close, but it requires touch interaction and doesn't look as nice as the Pebble Time Steel. It's also supported by GadgetBridge though and also does heart rate tracking while having much better battery life (while being smaller!). When my Bip broke after a few months I bought another (5 years old at this point!) Pebble and am pretty happy with it. I could use some heart rate tracking, though.
I wasn't a huge fan of Pebble, the company - they didn't sell replacement parts, for instance (the watch for geeks? yeah, sure).
For some crazy reason, though, to this day, this watch is still almost the only one that gets such a basic thing right: Telling the damn time.
The formula is as simple as it is unreplicated:
- Always telling the time
- Good battery life
- Buttons
Why nobody else makes such a watch is a mystery to me. The Amazfit Bip comes close, but it requires touch interaction and doesn't look as nice as the Pebble Time Steel. It's also supported by GadgetBridge though and also does heart rate tracking while having much better battery life (while being smaller!). When my Bip broke after a few months I bought another (5 years old at this point!) Pebble and am pretty happy with it. I could use some heart rate tracking, though.
The actual number of Pebble users is likely far higher, this is just the count we get from our side at Rebble.
There are more Pebble users out there using Gadgetbridge for example.
There are more Pebble users out there using Gadgetbridge for example.
> There are more Pebble users out there using Gadgetbridge for example.
There could also be many more users using neither. For example, my wife is still using the OG Pebble (the monochromatic one) with the official app and stock firmware, today. I was using my Pebble Time with the OG app/firmware as well, until couple months ago when I broke my phone and couldn't transfer the app to the new one, at which point I decided to go the Rebble route.
There could also be many more users using neither. For example, my wife is still using the OG Pebble (the monochromatic one) with the official app and stock firmware, today. I was using my Pebble Time with the OG app/firmware as well, until couple months ago when I broke my phone and couldn't transfer the app to the new one, at which point I decided to go the Rebble route.
> Buttons
This is the killer feature for me and why I still use mine daily. I don't know why nobody else is doing this. With media controls on a shortcut slot I can pause whatever media I'm playing, switch songs, etc without even looking at the screen. No other smartwatch I've used comes close to that convenience.
This is the killer feature for me and why I still use mine daily. I don't know why nobody else is doing this. With media controls on a shortcut slot I can pause whatever media I'm playing, switch songs, etc without even looking at the screen. No other smartwatch I've used comes close to that convenience.
I have a Fossil Hybrid HR Collider that allows this.
Real watch hands, buttons and an e-ink display. 7-10 days battery life.
It's a really nice watch.
Real watch hands, buttons and an e-ink display. 7-10 days battery life.
It's a really nice watch.
Seems like a lot of reviews out there that indicate that the screen fails pretty quick - have you had any trouble with lack of contrast on yours?
Basically the only reason I got the smartwatch I got, is because it always displays the time, even if it runs out of battery, that it can vibrate when I receive phone calls, it keeps track of my heart rate and sleeping activity. The battery also lasts days rather than hours, which is pretty nice.
I don't exactly know which model it is, but it's a Garmin watch with the traditional hour/minute arms and a tiny little screen. But it really kicks ass at telling me the time :)
I don't exactly know which model it is, but it's a Garmin watch with the traditional hour/minute arms and a tiny little screen. But it really kicks ass at telling me the time :)
Maybe a Garmin vivomove HR, I got mine for the same reasons
> The formula is as simple as it is unreplicated:
> - Always telling the time
> - Good battery life
> - Buttons
I'm not so sure this is "unreplicated". Since bailing on Pebble I've had 2 Garmin watches which always tell the time, and have good battery life and buttons.
> - Always telling the time
> - Good battery life
> - Buttons
I'm not so sure this is "unreplicated". Since bailing on Pebble I've had 2 Garmin watches which always tell the time, and have good battery life and buttons.
Tactile buttons, easy replies, and the epaper display. Such a simple combination, but I don't think we'll ever see a new one again. Seeing the time without having to shake my wrist like a maniac was such a game changer.
Haven't used a smart watch in 6ish years, so maybe they're better. From what I understand though, they still don't have always on displays for time, right? I hope I'm wrong and that they do.
Haven't used a smart watch in 6ish years, so maybe they're better. From what I understand though, they still don't have always on displays for time, right? I hope I'm wrong and that they do.
From what I understand though, they still don't have always on displays for time, right?
Apple is on the fourth version that has an always-on-display, and Google's new Pixel watch has it. Can't say about any others with any confidence, but I'd be surprised if Apple/Google are the only ones.
Apple is on the fourth version that has an always-on-display, and Google's new Pixel watch has it. Can't say about any others with any confidence, but I'd be surprised if Apple/Google are the only ones.
Oh thank god. I'm just ignorant.
Garmin Fenix/Forerunner/Instinct meets all of these, though at a significantly higher cost than the pebble. It's worth it for me because I'm into the fitness tracking but hard to justify otherwise.
Coros Pace 2 has buttons and a crown but no touch screen. Its gets 2 weeks of battery life in real world use.
https://www.coros.com/pace2
https://www.coros.com/pace2
Garmin watches do all of those things well, including heart rate and fitness tracking/etc. Take a look at the Vivoactive line. My Vivoactive 4 gets >1 week battery life depending on the number of notifications I get (vibration vs battery life).
"That few?"
"Why nobody else makes such a watch is a mystery to me."
There ya go.
"Why nobody else makes such a watch is a mystery to me."
There ya go.
Right. Apple sold 46.1 million Apple Watches last year alone.
There are always people who mourn the Pebble and I understand why. But the market has clearly shown you don’t need a week of battery life to be successful.
There are always people who mourn the Pebble and I understand why. But the market has clearly shown you don’t need a week of battery life to be successful.
People will buy whatever Apple makes lmao.
But in all seriousness it's the general public's lack of foresight to care about the direction these products go, they don't know what they're sacrificing all they see is shiny oled, whizzbang animations.
Same as the general apathy towards right to repair, the general public doesn't give two shits because they can't connect the dots: right to repair---->I can take it to the repair shop around the corner. Normies that hear about it will just think "well I'm not repairing stuff myself anyway".
But in all seriousness it's the general public's lack of foresight to care about the direction these products go, they don't know what they're sacrificing all they see is shiny oled, whizzbang animations.
Same as the general apathy towards right to repair, the general public doesn't give two shits because they can't connect the dots: right to repair---->I can take it to the repair shop around the corner. Normies that hear about it will just think "well I'm not repairing stuff myself anyway".
The market works in mysterious ways :). That also explains why ElectronJS is so successful.
Other than battery life, how does this compare to iwatch?
It has more buttons than an Apple Watch and is a lot simpler with less functionality, which for many is a draw.
I had two Pebbles and was very sad when it shut down - my Pebble devices are no longer functioning but I've been using an Apple Watch for maybe 6 years now and am very happy with it. Sometimes I miss the battery life, but I never feel like it's a restriction and the UI on the Apple Watch is really very good.
I had two Pebbles and was very sad when it shut down - my Pebble devices are no longer functioning but I've been using an Apple Watch for maybe 6 years now and am very happy with it. Sometimes I miss the battery life, but I never feel like it's a restriction and the UI on the Apple Watch is really very good.
Garmin instinct
- check
- check
- check
Most Garmin watches fit your formula
Every time Pebble is brought up it brings a tear to my eye, and I wonder what would have happened to the brand if they had accepted the offer from Citizen, who were obviously interested in continuing the line.
The Pebble Time 2 was so far ahead of its time, I promise you I would still be rocking it (or whatever came after it from Pebble) if they had shipped it to me.
The Pebble Time 2 was so far ahead of its time, I promise you I would still be rocking it (or whatever came after it from Pebble) if they had shipped it to me.
Never got my Pebble Time 2 either and I'm still sad about it today.
The continuous trickle of articles about how great these second generation Pebbles turned out, and my ongoing wait for an alternative that comes even close certainly haven't helped me forget!
Just noticed the Kickstarter page is still up https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/getpebble/pebble-2-time...
The continuous trickle of articles about how great these second generation Pebbles turned out, and my ongoing wait for an alternative that comes even close certainly haven't helped me forget!
Just noticed the Kickstarter page is still up https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/getpebble/pebble-2-time...
Ah man, it still looks great in comparison to the stuff in the market today
:(
:(
One of the dumbest Pebble rumours I heard after everything went down - 'Citizen was interested in buying us for $740m'. No one at the time noticed that this was more than Citizen's entire market cap https://twitter.com/ericmigi/status/1513737199287627779
I've seen a lot of smartwatches that can match maybe 80-90% of the functionality of the Pebble, but miss something important. I occasionally wish my Pebble Time Steel had a slightly larger screen and a heart rate monitor (like the Time 2 would have) but other than that it's been nearly perfect. If/when something happens to it I'll probably give up on smartwatches and go back to wearing mechanical or solar analog watches again.
There still is no good replacement for these properties of the Pebble 2 smartwatch:
- > 7 days battery life
- HR monitor (useful as a sports watch)
- < 10 mm thickness
- toned down to fit different clothing styles
- hackable
- high-contrast, always-on screen
- buttons
I am currently wearing a Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire sportswatch, which comes close.
- > 7 days battery life
- HR monitor (useful as a sports watch)
- < 10 mm thickness
- toned down to fit different clothing styles
- hackable
- high-contrast, always-on screen
- buttons
I am currently wearing a Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire sportswatch, which comes close.
Just checked the Garmin Fenix 7 and now I want to add one missing point to your list:
- affordable
- affordable
You can get a similar experience to the Fenix (but without the higher end sports features) with other Garmin sports watches. The Forerunner 255 is well reviewed and very similar to the Fenix for about half the price.
And there are other lines like Venu, that are more focused on the smart part and are more affordable.
I don't think the Venu line is "smarter" than the others. It's more every day watch design and has an AMOLED touch screen, but the functionality is nearly the same.
You're right, what I mean is it puts less emphasis on the sport and fitness tracking features, compared to Fenix and Forerunner lines, and hence lacks some of the more advanced features and metrics.
Or buying older, second-hand Garmins. There is really no point to having the latest and greatest and the price of last year's model is basically half.
Yeah, although the Garmin Fenix 7 is an awesome watch, especially as an amateur athlete, it is ** expensive.
Features from the Fenix 7 which I value over Pebble (apart from the obvious):
- Materials: titanium and sapphire. Means it is indestructible. Great for hiking expeditions.
- Garmin Connect (SaaS fitness community).
- HRV (Heart Rate Variability).
- Regular, well tested updates.
Stuff that I miss:
- Hackability (I want to transfer my data directly to InfluxDB)
- Thickness (14.5 mm, which is 5 mm more than the Pebble)
- Community
Features from the Fenix 7 which I value over Pebble (apart from the obvious):
- Materials: titanium and sapphire. Means it is indestructible. Great for hiking expeditions.
- Garmin Connect (SaaS fitness community).
- HRV (Heart Rate Variability).
- Regular, well tested updates.
Stuff that I miss:
- Hackability (I want to transfer my data directly to InfluxDB)
- Thickness (14.5 mm, which is 5 mm more than the Pebble)
- Community
another advantage on fenix is that you can use totp 2fa without keeping the phone connected - if the time ever drifts you can always sync it from satellites
The Forerunner 255 fits that bill. Or the other cheaper Forerunners. The Fenix line is more akin to the iPhone Pro Max.
Amazfit Bip S - https://www.amazfit.com/uk/amazfit-bip-s.html
- 40 day battery life
- HR monitor
- 11.4mm thickness
- Always on transreflective screen
It's not hackable, is a bit thicker and only has one button but unlike the Fenix 7 it is very affordable.
- 40 day battery life
- HR monitor
- 11.4mm thickness
- Always on transreflective screen
It's not hackable, is a bit thicker and only has one button but unlike the Fenix 7 it is very affordable.
A recent update nuked the battery life on mine. It went from 40 days to 10-15.
Also, the Neo is worth looking at as you get four buttons https://www.amazfit.com/en/neo
Not hackable but I replaced my Pebble Time with a Fossil Collider HR and was very happy until it broke 1 week ago. Now I'm in a different country trying to get a replacement.
It had a MONTH charge and it filled all my requirements which were mainly about getting notifications.
It had a MONTH charge and it filled all my requirements which were mainly about getting notifications.
How did it break? I've read in forums that the screens go bad when exposed to to much sunlight, which seems like an odd weakness for a wearable.
I believe I bumped it one too many times and created a way for moisture to enter, but the first visible sign was that I had left it on the toilet to shower and it was a steamy shower so when I came out it had moisture inside the glass.
The moisture was stuck there for a day or two, came and went depending on temperature and outside climate. After about a week it became even worse and eventually it gave up and showed 0 charge.
I live in northern europe so too much sunlight would not affect it. I was so hyped for this watch that I actually had an american friend ship it to me before it was released here.
The moisture was stuck there for a day or two, came and went depending on temperature and outside climate. After about a week it became even worse and eventually it gave up and showed 0 charge.
I live in northern europe so too much sunlight would not affect it. I was so hyped for this watch that I actually had an american friend ship it to me before it was released here.
The "Venu" line of watches from Garmin are their "lifestyle" watches. They are more toned down from the more tactical look and feel of other Garmin watches.
The Venu Sq 2 was just recently released. I have the Venu 2, myself.
Missing from your list: * <10mm thickness - it appears to be a smidge over * hackable - You have a Fenix 7 so you're familiar with the ecosystem * always-on screen - it's OLED and not always on, but works well enough - there is an always on mode but it's not recommended for OLED
As for the rest: * >7 days battery life - Venu 2 is rated up to 12 days, I charge about once a week * HR monitor - it's there, works reasonably well * toned down - as a lifestyle type, it's a bit more toned down * high-contrast - it's as high contrast as any OLED, and clearly visible in sunlight * buttons - 2 of them
I'd throw in cost as a valid metric. The Pebble watches were really inexpensive and I think that's what brought more broad appeal to them early on. My Venu 2 was $400. That's a tough pill for some to swallow.
The Venu Sq 2 was just recently released. I have the Venu 2, myself.
Missing from your list: * <10mm thickness - it appears to be a smidge over * hackable - You have a Fenix 7 so you're familiar with the ecosystem * always-on screen - it's OLED and not always on, but works well enough - there is an always on mode but it's not recommended for OLED
As for the rest: * >7 days battery life - Venu 2 is rated up to 12 days, I charge about once a week * HR monitor - it's there, works reasonably well * toned down - as a lifestyle type, it's a bit more toned down * high-contrast - it's as high contrast as any OLED, and clearly visible in sunlight * buttons - 2 of them
I'd throw in cost as a valid metric. The Pebble watches were really inexpensive and I think that's what brought more broad appeal to them early on. My Venu 2 was $400. That's a tough pill for some to swallow.
There still isn’t any watch that comes close to the quality and number of watch faces Pebble had right? Aside from battery life, that’s why I kept mine. It’s really cool to see Mario hit a block to update the time on mine.
The watch faces were something else indeed. Creative, funny and very geeky.
Garmin Instinct 2. Unlimited battery life, never needs charging. It is thicker than 10mm but it is nearly indestructible.
No needs hacking because it would take all day to use all features it brings. It is nearly the perfect smartwatch.
No needs hacking because it would take all day to use all features it brings. It is nearly the perfect smartwatch.
Came here to say the same thing. It's still hackable to some degree with Monkey C:
https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/reference-guides/mon...
https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/reference-guides/mon...
That one fails the "toned down" aspect. It looks like one of those old G-Shock monstrosities. Definitely not the same aesthetic as the Pebble.
Just to clarify, you're talking about the version that was never released — the one with the Kickstarter that was cancelled? All of the above features except the HR monitor exist on my PTS, I think.
The second (or third?) kickstarter was for the Pebble (and Time) 2, which was cancelled after Pebble was purchased by FitBit. They still release the base Pebble 2 with the heart rate monitor.
I bought that after the Kickstarter fell through. I loved it until the plastic membrane over the buttons degraded, rendering it open to the elements. It didn't last long after that.
I bought that after the Kickstarter fell through. I loved it until the plastic membrane over the buttons degraded, rendering it open to the elements. It didn't last long after that.
The Pebble 2 was released to the backers of the Kickstarter campaign. I've had 3 different ones over the years (all of them eventually broke down)...
(correction, I lost one because the band snapped and the watch dropped into the sea).
(correction, I lost one because the band snapped and the watch dropped into the sea).
This thread brought back so much nostalgia for me. The Pebble was one of the greatest recent examples of "less is more" in tech design. Mine sadly died not long after they were discontinued, but I loved it. Since then, I got a Huawei watch (I forget which model) and I currently have an Apple Watch, but neither has ever really felt as useful to me. It's funny, they're capable of doing a lot more, but somehow they don't feel as fun or desirable to use as the Pebble did.
Another Garmin Fenix user here - the screen is what separates it from being a Pebble replacement the most. Most Garmin watches use a screen that is roughly on par with the Pebble Time, not the superior high-contrast Pebble 2. And if you get a higher-end Garmin with sapphire, the screen gets even more washed out.
Never tried the Garmin Instinct though - its monochrome screen looks better, but the rest of the watch has a distinctly downmarket feel.
Never tried the Garmin Instinct though - its monochrome screen looks better, but the rest of the watch has a distinctly downmarket feel.
Can the Garmin control music playback from your smartphone?
Yes, and better than that, most new Garmin watches can also store several GB of music on the device itself and play it over Bluetooth headphones, no need to carry your phone with you.
Watches are a strange sort of luxury good, where some people will pay thousands of dollars, and Garmin aggressively price-segments their products. Use this comparison tool to see the different features:
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/product-comparison-calculator
Watches are a strange sort of luxury good, where some people will pay thousands of dollars, and Garmin aggressively price-segments their products. Use this comparison tool to see the different features:
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/product-comparison-calculator
When people pay large amounts of money for watches, they are doing so for premium materials and exquisite workmanship (brand is often a large factor too, of course). It's not obvious that the same value proposition applies to mass-produced electronics, even if they also tell the time and sit on the wrist.
The materials and workmanship in a Forerunner 955 are almost the same as those in a Forerunner 255.
The latter disables the NFC payments radio on the same radio IC, disables recording power meter and etap/DI2 gear-shift data from bikes even though it has ANT+ radio, disables open-water swim mode, disables multi-sport (triathlon) tracking, disables maps (even though it has the same memory capacity), and doesn't implement the running dynamics/running power software.
It's like a premium printer that's identical to the cheap printer, with the speed inhibitor turned off:
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/12/15/camels-and-rubber-...
The latter disables the NFC payments radio on the same radio IC, disables recording power meter and etap/DI2 gear-shift data from bikes even though it has ANT+ radio, disables open-water swim mode, disables multi-sport (triathlon) tracking, disables maps (even though it has the same memory capacity), and doesn't implement the running dynamics/running power software.
It's like a premium printer that's identical to the cheap printer, with the speed inhibitor turned off:
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/12/15/camels-and-rubber-...
Yes. I had to look it up, because I always control my music via the headphones. https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/fenix66s6xpro/EN-US/...
(and confirmed for iPhone)
(and confirmed for iPhone)
I use 5 of them!
And I have one more with a wasted battery that I intend to replace.
And I'll still buy some more, because I want to have them available for the rest of my life.
There are things that only the Pebble does:
- button only interface that you can handle in the dark without glasses
- a screen that barcode scanners can easily read for authentication into the gym and library
- a TOTP app (authentication tokens) that you can access with only a button press, etc.
And I have one more with a wasted battery that I intend to replace.
And I'll still buy some more, because I want to have them available for the rest of my life.
There are things that only the Pebble does:
- button only interface that you can handle in the dark without glasses
- a screen that barcode scanners can easily read for authentication into the gym and library
- a TOTP app (authentication tokens) that you can access with only a button press, etc.
Most Garmins (Fenix, Forerunner series) can do all of your "only Pebble" parts. In fact I replaced my touchscreen smartwatch with Fenix 6 precisely for not having one and relying on buttons instead.
> I replaced my touchscreen smartwatch with Fenix 6
Interesting. And it also has an sdk in C.
Although it costs almost 4 times what I'd pay for a Pebble on eBay.
But it is the best Pebble alternative I've seen so far.
Interesting. And it also has an sdk in C.
Although it costs almost 4 times what I'd pay for a Pebble on eBay.
But it is the best Pebble alternative I've seen so far.
> a screen that barcode scanners can easily read for authentication into the gym and library
Only Pebble can do this? Apple Watch does that too, like literally I use mine for the same cases you described
Only Pebble can do this? Apple Watch does that too, like literally I use mine for the same cases you described
Apple Watch is arguably not a general purpose "smartwatch" since it's actually only usable by those who happen to use iPhones.
Don't know about the Apple Watch, I'm out of Apple's walled garden.
My experience with bright screens is that low density bar codes work ok mostly. But some high density codes don't work well. One of them is Plessey, still used in Europe.
My experience with bright screens is that low density bar codes work ok mostly. But some high density codes don't work well. One of them is Plessey, still used in Europe.
Apple Watch's OLED seems great with even the densest QR code profiles. (I have an older Series 5, I think, and have never had a problem scanning a QR code from the watch.) I think Apple tests it heavily, too, because a lot of the codes on "Apple Wallet cards" for things like a store's rewards program get scanned as QR codes, and at least several of those are extremely dense. (I haven't done the debugging myself, but I believe I read on HN elsewhere that at least one was just stuffing a full bloated JWT into a QR to explain its extreme density.)
I don't get it, many smartphones and smartwatches can be read by Barcode scanners never had any problems with it. (I used a few different samsung phones and watches)
I think the above posted was saying more that the Pebble is the only smartwatch with all of those features.
> And I have one more with a wasted battery that I intend to replace.
I wish Rebble would offer a paid mail-in service to replace the batteries, to have someone trusted & reliable do the work. I'm down to about 2-days battery life on my Time Steel. I do have a replacement Time Steel that I bought on eBay, but I'd love to get this one fixed.
I love Rebble, but I wish they did more to round out the service. I'm really surprised they don't have their own web store for new-old stock & certified-Rebble refurbished Pebbles. A Discord channel really doesn't cut it, at least not for me (even eBay is a better experience).
I wish Rebble would offer a paid mail-in service to replace the batteries, to have someone trusted & reliable do the work. I'm down to about 2-days battery life on my Time Steel. I do have a replacement Time Steel that I bought on eBay, but I'd love to get this one fixed.
I love Rebble, but I wish they did more to round out the service. I'm really surprised they don't have their own web store for new-old stock & certified-Rebble refurbished Pebbles. A Discord channel really doesn't cut it, at least not for me (even eBay is a better experience).
We'd love to offer something like that, but there's all kind of considerations around liability with repairs. Plus we're entirely run by volunteers, and watch repairs take a lot of time.
That being said, a store for refurbed Pebbles might be doable, but it would be a big time and cost overhead.
That being said, a store for refurbed Pebbles might be doable, but it would be a big time and cost overhead.
That's fair - I hadn't realized Rebble were volunteers. I'd hoped the subscriber money might stretch to also compensating people involved. I certainly wouldn't expect volunteers to be working on repairs out of the goodness of their hearts.
I guess my dream is for Rebble to be like a cross between Framework & iFixIt - somewhere you can buy all your spare parts (and accessories?), maybe find repair guides... and then to continue the Pebble mission by making new models that can run Pebble software on modern designs. I guess it's just a dream. But if there's only about 2k of us Rebble subscribers, I'm proud to be one of those 2k!
I guess my dream is for Rebble to be like a cross between Framework & iFixIt - somewhere you can buy all your spare parts (and accessories?), maybe find repair guides... and then to continue the Pebble mission by making new models that can run Pebble software on modern designs. I guess it's just a dream. But if there's only about 2k of us Rebble subscribers, I'm proud to be one of those 2k!
Totally agree. I’ve been looking into replacement and it’s not something I’m comfortable doing on my own.
One tip: put your Pebble in airplane mode each night. For me, it extends my battery life substantially. I mapped long-hold left button to toggle this setting, for ease of use.
One tip: put your Pebble in airplane mode each night. For me, it extends my battery life substantially. I mapped long-hold left button to toggle this setting, for ease of use.
Pebble user here as well! I moved from PTS to PTR (fall on the ground - dead) now back to PTR and it is amazing: long battery life, the apps on it are great. I use: Rain, Checklist, timer, LMS controller and alarm and torch. You?
- MultiTimer - for short naps, setting alarms when cooking, etc
- Authenticator - TOTP authorization tokens
- Skunk - barcodes
- Time Tracker - I work remotely as a contractor
- Pebble Controler - a remote control for my laptop
I also use a lot the standard apps on the Pebble:
- alarm, to wake me up by vibration, without waking up my wife
- canned messages - to answer phone calls when driving
- notifications, notifications
- hang up phone calls I don't want
- steps counter, when running
- Authenticator - TOTP authorization tokens
- Skunk - barcodes
- Time Tracker - I work remotely as a contractor
- Pebble Controler - a remote control for my laptop
I also use a lot the standard apps on the Pebble:
- alarm, to wake me up by vibration, without waking up my wife
- canned messages - to answer phone calls when driving
- notifications, notifications
- hang up phone calls I don't want
- steps counter, when running
Thanks. Need to look into skunk and pebble controller.
Yeah the multitimer is nice - it’s a watch after all.
Yeah the multitimer is nice - it’s a watch after all.
Have a pebble and a fenix, I got all of those set up on my pebble, and all but one of those things set up on fenix. Unfortunaltely the opensource barcode app for connectIQ only supports 1D barcodes and not QR codes.
I've got a friend who still uses a Palm Pilot (circa 1998) as a daily calendar manager/notepad. Works at Google and delights in telling younger colleagues it's a Pixel 8 prototype.
I'm sad that tech did away with replaceable batteries.
I would love to use my 5-inch 16:9 Samsung phone from 2016. It still works fine, but the battery barely lasts an hour. Instead I have to use one of their gigantic replacement phones with a ridiculous 21:9 ratio.
I would love to use my 5-inch 16:9 Samsung phone from 2016. It still works fine, but the battery barely lasts an hour. Instead I have to use one of their gigantic replacement phones with a ridiculous 21:9 ratio.
As long as you have a phone that's reasonably well designed, it's usually not too much trouble to replace the internal battery every 2-3 years.
I think our culture is really wasteful with batteries. I can't believe that my iphone doesn't have a built-in setting to cap charging at 80%. Studies show that you can decrease battery wear to negligible levels by doing this. Yet my Android e-ink tablet, my iphone, my smartwatch, and my laptop all do not support a hard battery cap.
At least I can install al dente on my laptop, and root my tablet. Everything else I just have to manually take off the charger before 80%!
I think our culture is really wasteful with batteries. I can't believe that my iphone doesn't have a built-in setting to cap charging at 80%. Studies show that you can decrease battery wear to negligible levels by doing this. Yet my Android e-ink tablet, my iphone, my smartwatch, and my laptop all do not support a hard battery cap.
At least I can install al dente on my laptop, and root my tablet. Everything else I just have to manually take off the charger before 80%!
I believe the research would suggest 80% doesn't really make an especially good target. Its mostly a linear relationship between state of charge and speed of battery aging, other than a step change around 50-70% depending on the chemistry.
source (one of many): https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/2.0411609jes/pdf
I keep my EV charged to just 50% most days for this reason, get below that step change.
source (one of many): https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/2.0411609jes/pdf
I keep my EV charged to just 50% most days for this reason, get below that step change.
Interesting, just a note to someone reading that paper: I'm not sure what methodology they used (did they keep the cell SoC in storage?), but storing depleted cells can severely degrade them due to self-discharge (that's why the recommended storage SoC is usually 40%).
Al Dente didn‘t really work for me. I used it constantly for 1.5-2 years (capped at 60-80) and my battery still went to 88% of design capacity. My iPhone‘s battery on the other hand has been tortured for three years (always charging 100%, fast charging, getting very hot in the sun) and is still at 85%.
I feel like the batteries nowadays are just made to last 2-3 years to get to 85-80% capacity no matter how you treat them
I feel like the batteries nowadays are just made to last 2-3 years to get to 85-80% capacity no matter how you treat them
If you are on Android and have root, you can install ACC (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/mattecarra.accapp/). It lets you customise the charging profile of your phone as well as see battery statistics, but out of the box it
1. Caps charging to 80%
2. Pauses charging if it gets too hot, until it's below 40°C
If you sporadically need full capacity (travelling, etc), just hit the "charge once to 100%" button and you're good to go.
1. Caps charging to 80%
2. Pauses charging if it gets too hot, until it's below 40°C
If you sporadically need full capacity (travelling, etc), just hit the "charge once to 100%" button and you're good to go.
I had to bite my tongue seeing a young woman idly hoy one of those extremely wasteful ecigs in the bin on my way home earlier. I wa mentally working all the bits of complexity going to landfill.
Still, perhaps I should buy ex-landfill sites on the cheap, so my descendants can mine them.
Still, perhaps I should buy ex-landfill sites on the cheap, so my descendants can mine them.
> I can't believe that my iphone doesn't have a built-in setting to cap charging at 80%
They have a "smart charging" setting which is poorly defined. It says it limits charging to 80% sometimes using AI. I think the idea is it charges to 100% overnight, and 80% the rest of the time.
But i agree, it would be nice if it had a selector switch. Some laptops have a "aim for 60%, 80% or 100% battery charge" option.
They have a "smart charging" setting which is poorly defined. It says it limits charging to 80% sometimes using AI. I think the idea is it charges to 100% overnight, and 80% the rest of the time.
But i agree, it would be nice if it had a selector switch. Some laptops have a "aim for 60%, 80% or 100% battery charge" option.
The AI tries to predict when you’re going to be leaving it on the charger for a while (like going to bed), and limits the charging to 80% until it predicts you’ll likely need it, then charges it the rest of the way.
They do the same thing for Macs, but it’s way, way too conservative IMO. My M1 MBP sits on my desk on a dock with a charger pretty much all week, and it eventually figures out that it should just keep it at 80%. Until a brief period where I use it on battery, draining maybe down to 70%. When I put it back on the dock, it charges back to 100% and stays there for the next 2 days.
I would be happy with a “Don’t bother trying to learn, just cap it at 80%, I’ll tell you when I change my mind” setting.
They do the same thing for Macs, but it’s way, way too conservative IMO. My M1 MBP sits on my desk on a dock with a charger pretty much all week, and it eventually figures out that it should just keep it at 80%. Until a brief period where I use it on battery, draining maybe down to 70%. When I put it back on the dock, it charges back to 100% and stays there for the next 2 days.
I would be happy with a “Don’t bother trying to learn, just cap it at 80%, I’ll tell you when I change my mind” setting.
Thank you.
I too agree that I would prefer to have a manual/scheduled charge setting system.
I too agree that I would prefer to have a manual/scheduled charge setting system.
You can get a gizmo called a Chargie that lets your phone control charge rate and max charge% over Bluetooth to this little interposer dongle that sits between the charger and phone. Getting enough to equip all my usual charge points would exceed the cost of a replacement battery, but I guess if they last for more than one phone it's possibly worthwhile.
I just got the batteries replaced in my iPhone X for about $45, and I was without the phone for less than an hour. I am amazed, and very happy not having to shell out $1000 for a new phone that would just have been a marginal upgrade to my current one.
You can still get those batteries replaced. It's just a lot more work.
There are many You-tube videos showing step by step. If you're slightly handy with small screws it's not hard. I've replaced my Samsung battery twice over the years. Look into it before you cast doubt and lose hope.
I might go to a shop, but I'm not going to fiddle around with a screwdriver and a YouTube video for something manufacturers themsleves let you do in 5 seconds.
However, that does not leave me with workable alternatives. I respect what Fairphone is trying to do, but €500 for a replaceable battery phone with internals several years old isn't the right choice for me.
However, that does not leave me with workable alternatives. I respect what Fairphone is trying to do, but €500 for a replaceable battery phone with internals several years old isn't the right choice for me.
>>but I'm not going to fiddle around with a screwdriver and a YouTube video
But.....why? It's hardly any effort. Saying "I won't fiddle around with a screwdriver" is a stance as respectable as someone saying they are proud of not being able to do maths or know basic geography facts.
But.....why? It's hardly any effort. Saying "I won't fiddle around with a screwdriver" is a stance as respectable as someone saying they are proud of not being able to do maths or know basic geography facts.
That was likely true of models from the mid-2010s, but based on what I've seen of Hugh Jeffrey's work, most modern, high-end smartphones are held together with glue and require the disconnection of multiple fragile ribbon cables to replace the battery. It's a daunting task even for someone with experience working on computer components.
It depends on the phone. Some are constructed with glue as well as screws, or have plastic tabs that become brittle and can easily break when servicing the phone.
Palm Pilot lacked constant internet connectivity, and that's its real killer "feature" as it relates to longevity. It means you never have to update the OS, so the progressively more shoddy programming over time can go bloat someone else's device to death. "Non-replaceable" battery, as others have mentioned, is just non technical quitter talk in almost all cases.
The Samsung XCover6 Pro has an easily replaceable battery (and water resistance and physical buttons and dedication to 5 years of patching). In fact, I think it uses the same battery as the XCover from a couple of years ago. I just ordered mine yesterday actually. Kinda excited.
I'd buy one if it wasn't as slow and unperformant as all the reviews say it is. I want a Galaxy S10e in that package.
Yeah, it's a mid-range phone, not a top-end one. But, eh, $600. And frankly, for what I'm doing, a mid-range phone is quite adequate. It has for example, 3x the memory and 2x the processing power of the temporary phone I'm using right now which is functional-but-annoying.
sadly it does not have support for /e/, graphene or similar.
My 3 last phones have been samsung, and after using /e/ I have no intent of getting an original samsung software again
My 3 last phones have been samsung, and after using /e/ I have no intent of getting an original samsung software again
You can get a replacement battery pretty easy online. I'm sure somewhere would be willing to do the replacement. It isn't impossible, just hard without the right tools
I opened my Samsung A40 two days ago and replaced a camera that didn't autofocus anymore. 20 Euros with shipping. The battery can be replaced too. Actually I had to disconnect it to remove the upper motherboard and access the camera. It seems a pretty serviceable phone. You should check YouTube for tear down videos about your model.
No Android 12 (released October 4, 2021) or 13 for the Galaxy A40 phone has been released by Samsung :c
OS updates make or break devices long term.
OS updates make or break devices long term.
I'm still getting system upgrades. Actually I wish they didn't upgrade to Android 10 because it made Syncthing much less useful as it can't access all the files anymore (but file managers can, even open source ones, so maybe it's a problem with Syncthing itself.)
Considering that I've got the phone in June 2019, I paid less than 100 Euro per year. If I had to buy a new phone to have Android 12 (and I don't understand why I should - I'd be fine with Android 8 or even 4 if I'd get security patches), 100 Euro per year is acceptable. The big problem with buying a new phone is that I'm not buying from Apple and I'm not going to find an Android one as small as the A40, which is already too big IMHO. I wish it was 3/4 or one inch shorter (2 or 2.5 cm.)
Considering that I've got the phone in June 2019, I paid less than 100 Euro per year. If I had to buy a new phone to have Android 12 (and I don't understand why I should - I'd be fine with Android 8 or even 4 if I'd get security patches), 100 Euro per year is acceptable. The big problem with buying a new phone is that I'm not buying from Apple and I'm not going to find an Android one as small as the A40, which is already too big IMHO. I wish it was 3/4 or one inch shorter (2 or 2.5 cm.)
It's strange to me how 'newer' phones (referencing my iphone 5s) seem to have software control battery life? I got the battery replaced multiple times on an iphone and none of them really provided a sustained increase in the battery life of the device.
I've replaced my iPhone SE (2016)'s battery three times since I originally bought it.
Every time, I waited until the phone started to shut off or rapidly drain below 20% battery. Replacing the battery fixed that and brought my battery life back to original (impressive!) longevity each time. As in, I can reliably use my phone for 2 days without charging, as opposed to barely making it to midnight of the first day.
You do have to "recalibrate" the battery by fully charging it, sitting on the charger for a few hours, then fully discharging it, letting it sit dead for a few hours, and finally recharging to 100% uninterrupted afterward. Maybe if you leave that out it takes a lot longer to see the impact?
Every time, I waited until the phone started to shut off or rapidly drain below 20% battery. Replacing the battery fixed that and brought my battery life back to original (impressive!) longevity each time. As in, I can reliably use my phone for 2 days without charging, as opposed to barely making it to midnight of the first day.
You do have to "recalibrate" the battery by fully charging it, sitting on the charger for a few hours, then fully discharging it, letting it sit dead for a few hours, and finally recharging to 100% uninterrupted afterward. Maybe if you leave that out it takes a lot longer to see the impact?
planned obsolescence
I have fond memories of rooting early Android devices, and having to constantly rip the battery out when the phone would inevitably lock up.
I have less fond memories of waiting all day for a newer phone to run out of battery when the same thing happened.
I have less fond memories of waiting all day for a newer phone to run out of battery when the same thing happened.
I've never ever ran into a situation where holding the power button for ~15 seconds didn't reset the phone. This stuff runs at a _way_ lower level than the software you can mess with.
Non-removable batteries are still stupid though.
Non-removable batteries are still stupid though.
I recently managed to "hard-brick" my Motorola one 5g ace after updating magisk, getting stuck in a bootloop, and naively deciding to attempt to boot from the B slot instead. On qualcomm-based devices you can get into EDL (Emergency DownLoad) mode where you have nothing that is actually bootable on the device, and the phone will remain entirely unresponsive save for appearing as a serial device when plugged in over USB. You then need to "talk" to the phone with the appropriate protocol (Sahara or Firehose depending on the age of the device) and you can gradually work towards recovery. In my case I was able to manually reconstruct a valid bootloader.img for my particular software version, re-flash it, and get back into a "soft-brick" state from there.
However, I do know of some slightly older HTC devices that would have the EEPROM straight-up completely die, leaving the device permanently trapped in a "hard-brick" state unless someone felt like doing some BGA soldering.
Modern phones do have a lot of stuff running under the hood that makes it a lot harder to mess things up, but once you go off the beaten path things become much less certain.
However, I do know of some slightly older HTC devices that would have the EEPROM straight-up completely die, leaving the device permanently trapped in a "hard-brick" state unless someone felt like doing some BGA soldering.
Modern phones do have a lot of stuff running under the hood that makes it a lot harder to mess things up, but once you go off the beaten path things become much less certain.
Funny, I've gotten close to doing the exact same thing, though I realized my mistake before ruining it completely. Reset sequence worked the whole time (I think it would even in EDL mode, though you wouldn't _see_ anything).
You can definitely mess it up really bad, but I don't know if you can get to a point where there's no reset path. Correct me if I'm wrong though.
You can definitely mess it up really bad, but I don't know if you can get to a point where there's no reset path. Correct me if I'm wrong though.
I have seen newer 1+ phones lock up and it fail to respond to the reset sequence. After receiving a call the modem crashes and it reboots. No other input can reset the device.
Interesting. Never heard of this.
I'm in the exact same position. Only now that my 5-inch 16:9 from 2016 completely died (and I can't get replacement batteries anywhere) did I begrudgingly buy a Pixel 4a.
> I'm sad that tech did away with replaceable batteries.
This is one of the worst design trends (perhaps the worst) of modern-day devices.
This is one of the worst design trends (perhaps the worst) of modern-day devices.
I would love to do this. I'd be super curious to re-experience life with an offline device in a very online world. I loved every Palm I had up through the Pre, but there was a magic about trying to play Zork on a Palm, or syncing a day's worth of light reading for the (school) bus. I really miss this app Four Point Oh that tracked homework and stuff.
You could pull the SIM out of a smartphone. Not the same, but similar?
I could, but a smartphone is built with the expectation of total connectivity, as are the apps on it. The Palm was built to be offline first, and makes different expectations around data transfer. It also had a different interaction model - stylus with Graffiti instead of a keyboard - which would be fun to revisit. So yeah, I could have an offline device, but it's not the same.
Dang that's really cool. I remember having a palm and loving it in high school. There was a utility that would crawl a website and then package it up to a certain link depth, and put that on your palm pilot for offline viewing.
I used to crawl fark.com so I could read the stories and comments later.
I used to crawl fark.com so I could read the stories and comments later.
I miss the old Palm Pilot and even Windows CE devices. Despite the massive amounts of computational power and an endless library of software I find modern smart phones PDA inferior.
Yea, all the iPhone did was make PDAs palatable by the masses. I wonder how much further we would be as a species if it was never released.
Seeing all the comments in this discussion makes me think I should break out my old Zaurus and put it on eBay. It never even got used more than a few minutes. I just haven't had the heart to recycle it yet.
That's awesome. I'm tired of how Android and iPhones seem to keep getting shittier and haven't ruled out reverting back to an old PalmOS device.
I got a Palm in 2002 for school, but only every played games on it. Sold it and bought a Gameboy Advance. I still have it and use it :D
I've always wanted a "watch" (bracelet) that doesn't show the time. Essentially a narrow bracelet with no display and a few buttons on it that I can program, and a vibrating function so I can leave my phone on silent. I already have a watch I like to wear.
wearchronos.com seemed to hit my use case, but the reviews aren't great.
wearchronos.com seemed to hit my use case, but the reviews aren't great.
Exactly, me too! And I've looked everywhere but nothing fills this niche anymore.
I had the first generation of Mi Band, the one with only 3 RGB LEDs, no display. And I loved it, I could easily see I have a new Gmail notification when it gently vibrated and the LEDs flashed red (well more of a breathe animation than a flash), or a Facebook Messenger one when it was blue. The Bluetooth communications it used made it easy to program your own vibrations and LEDs.
It sounds non intuitive but 90% of the time the flashing LEDs made me NOT check the phone. I was like, "oh blue, most likely my brother replied, I'll check it later"
I also fantasized about modding my current analog watch but fitting a tiny battery and a tiny BLE chip and a tiny vibration motor and surfacing tiny LEDs is way outside my possibilities. Chronos sounds good in theory but the end result is not what I want. I don't want to increase the thickness of my watch, or have to recharge it or worry about a magnet not staying in place.
I had the first generation of Mi Band, the one with only 3 RGB LEDs, no display. And I loved it, I could easily see I have a new Gmail notification when it gently vibrated and the LEDs flashed red (well more of a breathe animation than a flash), or a Facebook Messenger one when it was blue. The Bluetooth communications it used made it easy to program your own vibrations and LEDs.
It sounds non intuitive but 90% of the time the flashing LEDs made me NOT check the phone. I was like, "oh blue, most likely my brother replied, I'll check it later"
I also fantasized about modding my current analog watch but fitting a tiny battery and a tiny BLE chip and a tiny vibration motor and surfacing tiny LEDs is way outside my possibilities. Chronos sounds good in theory but the end result is not what I want. I don't want to increase the thickness of my watch, or have to recharge it or worry about a magnet not staying in place.
The old Jawbone Up fit the bill somewhat, but I don't remember exactly what features it had. I thought it was a great product and hoped to see more like it.
I had that one. Super stylish, cool functionality. But unfortunately very fragile hardware.
You could actually log your food intake via their app. And sync data to your phone by removing the “cap” from the band and plugging it into your phone’s headphone port!
You could actually log your food intake via their app. And sync data to your phone by removing the “cap” from the band and plugging it into your phone’s headphone port!
Basically, except for media controls for winter where gloves+swipe don't work. I ended up using a bluetooth media remote for cars. But a simple fitness band with a few buttons and a silence slider would be great.
Same - something like a headless Apple Watch would be ideal. I legit just want HR tracking and connecting to a chest strap HR monitor, and no watch display, other than the current HR.
Sounds like you want a heart rate monitor and not a watch.
As far as I can tell there are no hr monitors that can connect to chest straps. If one did then instant purchase. But I like the other tracking and sync of Apple Watch too, that would be a bonus.
I have a Garmin Fenix 6 that definitely can do this, I do it all the time. You can customize the display so that it only displays the heart rate, or e.g. the heart rate and heart rate zones. While the Fenix 6 is expensive, I think there are a whole bunch of watches in that segment at different price points that will do what you want.
I think the general category you're looking for is devices that support ANT+.
I think the general category you're looking for is devices that support ANT+.
Polar watch does this?
I had an Epson Pulsense years ago. Looks like the PS-100 is still in sale and fits this description.
fitbit comes close to it.
I am one of those people! I'm scared of the day my pebble stops working, it's honestly the best peiece of electronics I've ever owned.
I had an original Pebble that I handed down to my son years ago when it stopped getting official support and I bought a smaller faced Garmin smartwatch to replace it.
He still wears it most days today. Not sure if this is the software he's using today or not. I'll have to find out if he's one of the 16,000.
He still wears it most days today. Not sure if this is the software he's using today or not. I'll have to find out if he's one of the 16,000.
I'm looking at buying readily available a cheap programmable smartwatch. PineTime was easy to write programs for and that Casio replacement board [0] discussed here earlier also hade a nice tool chain, but with shipping and taxes it's just too bothersome.
[0] https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-wa...
[0] https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-wa...
I bought into the Bangle.js 2 Kickstarter and I have to say, I'm incredibly happy with it. Granted, I've done nothing with it besides design my own watch face and take advantage of the GPS to set the time occasionally, but I know it's capable of a lot more. It was very easy to write the watch face code, and I feel like it would be pretty easy to do whatever I wanted to do. Ecosystem for it is probably a bit more developed than it was at launch, too- they were supposed to follow up with some apps that made interfacing it with your phone easier, dunno where that ended up.
To be fair- I've also got PineTime bookmarked for if my Bangle.js 2 ever breaks, or I just want to mess around with some lower-level aspects of watch firmware.
https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js2
To be fair- I've also got PineTime bookmarked for if my Bangle.js 2 ever breaks, or I just want to mess around with some lower-level aspects of watch firmware.
https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js2
How easy is to write games for a Bangle.js 2? I want a hackable smart watch that I can make simple games for :)
There is an emulator on the web, so develop something simple and the order one. I wanted to buy ten watches so Bangle.js was not an option, but if you just want something programmable I do recommend it.
https://www.espruino.com/ide/?emulator https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js+First+App
https://www.espruino.com/ide/?emulator https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js+First+App
Their "app store" is online [0] and you can actually review the source code for all of the apps on it by clicking the github icon on each entry, here's one for example [1]
[0] https://banglejs.com/apps/?c=game [1] https://github.com/espruino/BangleApps/tree/master/apps/blac...
[0] https://banglejs.com/apps/?c=game [1] https://github.com/espruino/BangleApps/tree/master/apps/blac...
Another really cool toy we need to start hacking is the Sony FES U [0]. This thing has e-ink on its strap, and it runs Free RTOS. It's the sickest watch concept I've seen in years.
[0]: https://fashion-entertainments.com
[1]: https://fashion-entertainments.com/fes-watch-u/fw/oss.html
[0]: https://fashion-entertainments.com
[1]: https://fashion-entertainments.com/fes-watch-u/fw/oss.html
I was only forced to swap because the battery started inflating.
Currently on an Amazfit Bip S, fills in all my needs really, and has even better battery life.
I am one of those and every year I renew my Rebble subscription to keep my devices viable as long as possible. I currently have 4 of them, including 2 still "new in box". I still haven't found anything else that suits my use case as well. Still makes me sad though that the Time 2 model didn't release as it would have fixed the few (!) complaints I had about my Time.
I still have one and wear it daily.
I need a smartwatch that tells the time, gives me notifications, doesn't blind me in the dark but is readable in daylight and lasts days without charging. Calendar access and weather are a bonus. The pebble does all of that.
I was somewhat excited when the Apple Watch was announced only to find out that it, of course, was going to be usable with iOS devices only and therefore not an option for Android users like me. I still haven't found a good alternative to the Pebble and all the lo-fi watches are primarily fitness trackers, which I have no use for.
I need a smartwatch that tells the time, gives me notifications, doesn't blind me in the dark but is readable in daylight and lasts days without charging. Calendar access and weather are a bonus. The pebble does all of that.
I was somewhat excited when the Apple Watch was announced only to find out that it, of course, was going to be usable with iOS devices only and therefore not an option for Android users like me. I still haven't found a good alternative to the Pebble and all the lo-fi watches are primarily fitness trackers, which I have no use for.
The smart watch market is just huge.
If there are 100 million people who wear an Apple Watch, it’s not surprising that less than .02% of that number would like something as niche as the pebble.
It’s like the iPod Classic people. Billions of people want music with them wherever they go. 12 of them like it in MP3 form on a little brick that’s not their phone.
If there are 100 million people who wear an Apple Watch, it’s not surprising that less than .02% of that number would like something as niche as the pebble.
It’s like the iPod Classic people. Billions of people want music with them wherever they go. 12 of them like it in MP3 form on a little brick that’s not their phone.
It’s interesting to me that when the Apple Watch was coming out (and maybe more broadly when fitness bands etc. were becoming available) there was a pretty widespread sentiment that younger people didn’t want watches because why would they? They always had their phones.
there was a pretty widespread sentiment that younger people didn’t want watches because why would they?
I remember this, too.
But good companies plan for the future, not the past. And all of those young people get older. That's one of the few certainties of life.
So what Apple did (intentionally or unintentionally) is create a market, and then let its customers mature into it.
Financial institutions do this all the time.
I remember this, too.
But good companies plan for the future, not the past. And all of those young people get older. That's one of the few certainties of life.
So what Apple did (intentionally or unintentionally) is create a market, and then let its customers mature into it.
Financial institutions do this all the time.
Honestly, I still don't see the value in a smartwatch. Paying with nfc with your wrist? That's probably the only use case I can see. But then it's not worth it having to charge yet another device daily
Best use case I've found is as a phone for kids. We recently got a cheap one for our 10-year old with a $10/mo plan so he can call/text us. Gave him a great sense of security, and us as well. (We can use FindMe to locate him if necessary, he can only test/get calls from contacts we add, so no robocalls, etc.)
My mom, in her 70s, uses hers for calls a lot -- though in her case it's tethered to her phone so the phone has to be within range (I don't see how that's very useful, might as well use the phone).
My mom, in her 70s, uses hers for calls a lot -- though in her case it's tethered to her phone so the phone has to be within range (I don't see how that's very useful, might as well use the phone).
I have a use case for a watch. I like being able to just look at my wrist.
Especially when traveling and doing activities like hiking, I do find watch modestly useful. Hiking distance etc. Apple Pay as you say. Calendar events and other notifications.
It is for me modest benefit and I often wear a cheap Timex at home. And yes the charging is the big downside although there are quite a few things I do daily that are a routine.
Especially when traveling and doing activities like hiking, I do find watch modestly useful. Hiking distance etc. Apple Pay as you say. Calendar events and other notifications.
It is for me modest benefit and I often wear a cheap Timex at home. And yes the charging is the big downside although there are quite a few things I do daily that are a routine.
I like mine since I don't have to carry my heart rate monitor (HRM) around if I want to exercise. Some are good at sleep tracking too. It's a good pedometer and I can go on a run w/o my phone and the built in GPS keeps track of things. If my phone battery dies, I can still communicate with people (although many apps on the Apple Watch are badly designed to require a phone connection rather than just data).
The notifications are nice if I'm on the subway and don't want to pull my phone out of my pocket to see what's up.
It doesn't take long to charge the watch, whenever I take a shower I put it to charge and it's full battery by the time I'm back at my desk.
I also like turning off alarms by using the watch rather than pulling out my phone.
The notifications are nice if I'm on the subway and don't want to pull my phone out of my pocket to see what's up.
It doesn't take long to charge the watch, whenever I take a shower I put it to charge and it's full battery by the time I'm back at my desk.
I also like turning off alarms by using the watch rather than pulling out my phone.
I don't get it either.
I do own a smart watch, but I don't use it in the typical manner.
I don't ever want to see notifications on my wrist. People seem to think it's ok to read notifications in situations where looking at a phone would be rude, such as at dinner or whilst having a conversation.
I wear mine when doing sport. I like that I can play music and track my activity without my phone.
And I wear mine when navigating cities. I like that I can pay for public transport and check map directions without making myself a target by getting my phone out.
Other than that, I don't wear mine. I don't see the point of wearing it day to day.
I do own a smart watch, but I don't use it in the typical manner.
I don't ever want to see notifications on my wrist. People seem to think it's ok to read notifications in situations where looking at a phone would be rude, such as at dinner or whilst having a conversation.
I wear mine when doing sport. I like that I can play music and track my activity without my phone.
And I wear mine when navigating cities. I like that I can pay for public transport and check map directions without making myself a target by getting my phone out.
Other than that, I don't wear mine. I don't see the point of wearing it day to day.
Just as phones are conveniently charged overnight, a smartwatch usually charges fast enough that you can usually just put it on the charger for 30-40 minutes before bed (or overnight if you don't care for sleep tracking).
For me telling the time is the least valuable aspect. It's convenient for email notifications, particularly since I don't tend to keep my phone in my pocket (or often even in sight), it's a convenient way to control music playback when out and about and things like weather reports are also neat info to have on a wrist.
But even more valuable are the health related features, I tend to get too easily absorbed in work so the reminders to stretch when I've been sitting too long and the water consumption tracking is very useful. I also often have trouble sleeping, where the sleep coaching functionality is pretty useful for identifying what I need to do to fix things. Additionally having things like step count on my wrist has gotten me to try to walk more as it's a constant reminder of how little I walk. It's also a very convenient morning alarm since it stays on your wrist and can just use vibration to wake you instead of playing a loud sound and making you dig around for the phone while half asleep.
For me telling the time is the least valuable aspect. It's convenient for email notifications, particularly since I don't tend to keep my phone in my pocket (or often even in sight), it's a convenient way to control music playback when out and about and things like weather reports are also neat info to have on a wrist.
But even more valuable are the health related features, I tend to get too easily absorbed in work so the reminders to stretch when I've been sitting too long and the water consumption tracking is very useful. I also often have trouble sleeping, where the sleep coaching functionality is pretty useful for identifying what I need to do to fix things. Additionally having things like step count on my wrist has gotten me to try to walk more as it's a constant reminder of how little I walk. It's also a very convenient morning alarm since it stays on your wrist and can just use vibration to wake you instead of playing a loud sound and making you dig around for the phone while half asleep.
I was in this position as well but after about a year of a FitBit Luxe, I'm a convert. Fitness-wise, I like the heartrate and GPS tracking for walks and bike rides, and length-counting for lane swims. I like that it's an easy interface to input my weight and see that as a trend over time. And I like the sleep tracking and smart-wake alarms quite a bit.
Notifications I could take or leave; they're not super reliable but have occasionally been useful.
Battery life is IMO fine; I charge it once or twice a week while sitting at my desk or having a shower.
I know I could cobble together these capabilities from a suite of other apps— Strava, Apple Health, whatever. And I get annoyed that certain things on the watch aren't more customizable. But the overall package is more than good enough for my basic needs, and has motivated me to make (and stick to) real lifestyle changes, which is ultimately the point, at least on the fitness side.
Notifications I could take or leave; they're not super reliable but have occasionally been useful.
Battery life is IMO fine; I charge it once or twice a week while sitting at my desk or having a shower.
I know I could cobble together these capabilities from a suite of other apps— Strava, Apple Health, whatever. And I get annoyed that certain things on the watch aren't more customizable. But the overall package is more than good enough for my basic needs, and has motivated me to make (and stick to) real lifestyle changes, which is ultimately the point, at least on the fitness side.
Can you write your own apps for a FitBit Luxe, i.e., can you pull the GPS data off using your own app, or get it off the device somehow?
No, you can't— it's only the large-screen devices that support custom JavaScript-based apps. For example, using https://github.com/200Tigersbloxed/FitbitHRtoWS to get realtime heartrate data, for example to display as a Twitch stream overlay.
And it doesn't have its own GPS; it piggy-backs off the phone for that. Which is fine for cycling and running, but obviously doesn't work for open water swims where you could use GPS for position but wouldn't normally bring your phone.
And it doesn't have its own GPS; it piggy-backs off the phone for that. Which is fine for cycling and running, but obviously doesn't work for open water swims where you could use GPS for position but wouldn't normally bring your phone.
I wear a Coros Apex Pro all day. Between notifications and GPS running ~40 miles a week I charge it about every 2.5 weeks.
Do you know what the developer story is for Coros? I'd never heard of it until you mentioned this, and it is an expensive device for sure.
Pretty locked down as far as I know. I really just use it stock out of the box and connect it to my Strava account. Strava does have a pretty cool API though.
https://developers.strava.com/
The Coros I have was around $400USD refurbished on Amazon. I considered the Apple Watch Ultra which was nearly 2x the price but wanted something made by a company focused on runners rather than a consumer products company making a running watch.
Overall I’ve been extremely happy with it as a semi-serious runner.
https://developers.strava.com/
The Coros I have was around $400USD refurbished on Amazon. I considered the Apple Watch Ultra which was nearly 2x the price but wanted something made by a company focused on runners rather than a consumer products company making a running watch.
Overall I’ve been extremely happy with it as a semi-serious runner.
I don't own one, but I can also see the uses of:
* Consuming notifications without potentially being distracted once you unlock your phone
* Haptics for notifications - I'd like to be notified of some things, but 'vibrate' is a little too much
* Fitness/sleep tracking
* Consuming notifications without potentially being distracted once you unlock your phone
* Haptics for notifications - I'd like to be notified of some things, but 'vibrate' is a little too much
* Fitness/sleep tracking
Charging it isn’t really a difficultly. I don’t like to sleep with a watch on so I take it off and put it on my side table. Where the magnetic charger snaps on. Basically no more effort than not charging it.
I like it because it lets me be on call without having my phone on me, which lets me avoid using my phone too much and give full attention to kids or whoever I am with.
Also, the vibrate function for alarm or calls in the middle of the night does not disturb anyone else, but still gets me up.
Also, the vibrate function for alarm or calls in the middle of the night does not disturb anyone else, but still gets me up.
> But then it's not worth it having to charge yet another device daily
This is why the Pebble was good. Charge it once a week.
This is why the Pebble was good. Charge it once a week.
I just like being able to customize the watch face basically, and see notifications without pulling out my phone.
hr tracking, and listening to your own music with no sack-whacking in the gym.
Its me. I'm 12 of them.
I'm one of them. Still love it. The built-in compass and the third-party app that integrates with Google Maps are priceless to me.
Using physical buttons as opposed to touchscreen is another great feature.
All these years, I haven't found a replacement.
All these years, I haven't found a replacement.
How or what do you integrate with google maps? I only see notifications and it stops after a while.
Pebble understood what a smartwatch should be. Everyone else was trying to make a nearly phone independent device, and pebble's take was more of a phone accessory. Also the battery life was incredible. You had an always on display with a week long battery. There was a lot of love about Pebble. I still have two in my drawer, and I had no idea the devices were still usable. I might dust one off now.
Garmin Instinct 2 has forever battery life doesn't even need charging once after purchasing.
After the disaster that was the Galaxy Watch 4, I've given up completely on Android Wear - it is just too slow, even right out of the box, and the battery life is abysmal. Going flat at 7pm without anything extra installed and with 4G off is unacceptable.
So I'm trying to move to a simpler watch with just basic smart features and longer battery life, but one where I can customize the watchface with code.
I ended up going with Watchy: https://watchy.sqfmi.com/
And it's cool, but it's extremely basic, a bit bulky and ugly, and has all the drawbacks of E-Paper.
Pebble would have been perfect. If they still sold them I would buy one today. It's tragic the company went under so quickly.
Maybe I should get a Pebble. But I don't really want to buy a second hand smartwatch, and I don't see the point in investing into something that will never be updated and has no official support. All this update does it make the phone companion app work on a Pixel 7.
RIP Pebble. I hope someone makes something similar.
So I'm trying to move to a simpler watch with just basic smart features and longer battery life, but one where I can customize the watchface with code.
I ended up going with Watchy: https://watchy.sqfmi.com/
And it's cool, but it's extremely basic, a bit bulky and ugly, and has all the drawbacks of E-Paper.
Pebble would have been perfect. If they still sold them I would buy one today. It's tragic the company went under so quickly.
Maybe I should get a Pebble. But I don't really want to buy a second hand smartwatch, and I don't see the point in investing into something that will never be updated and has no official support. All this update does it make the phone companion app work on a Pixel 7.
RIP Pebble. I hope someone makes something similar.
You might want to look into the Amazfit and Mi Band Devices that are supported by Gadgetbridge[1]
I haven't looked into the process of watchface creation but there is a huge collection[2] that can be installed via Gadgetbridge. It also has the benefit that its privacy friendly without any cloud connections and fully opensource.
[1]https://www.gadgetbridge.org/ [2]https://amazfitwatchfaces.com/
I haven't looked into the process of watchface creation but there is a huge collection[2] that can be installed via Gadgetbridge. It also has the benefit that its privacy friendly without any cloud connections and fully opensource.
[1]https://www.gadgetbridge.org/ [2]https://amazfitwatchfaces.com/
> After the disaster that was the Galaxy Watch 4
Wait...what?? I've used all the Samsung watches, with 3G/LTE, and the 4 is leaps and bounds better than anything that preceded it (and is for me quite usable and hassle-free).
Wait...what?? I've used all the Samsung watches, with 3G/LTE, and the 4 is leaps and bounds better than anything that preceded it (and is for me quite usable and hassle-free).
What features are you looking for? I moved away from the 'Smartwatch' arena to the fitness watch (Suunto Baro or Garmin Fenix). It allows notifications/messages, music streaming, fitness tracking. And the battery last 5-7 days (depending on what you use and how often, for example if I fitness track often the battery life decreases due to extra monitoring, etc..) I found it a good middle ground between a full blown smart watch and a dumb watch.
And it's cool, but it's extremely basic, a bit bulky and ugly, and has all the drawbacks of E-Paper.
Can you elaborate a bit about the e-paper part? I always believed that watches were the perfect place for e-paper. Low power, durable, always-on, wide viewing angle, no need to constant refresh.
I thought the smaller the display, the better suited it was for e-paper.
Can you elaborate a bit about the e-paper part? I always believed that watches were the perfect place for e-paper. Low power, durable, always-on, wide viewing angle, no need to constant refresh.
I thought the smaller the display, the better suited it was for e-paper.
The Pebble Time Round is the best smartwatch I ever used. I have a Samsung GW4 now though - there are a few things I would've liked to see pebble add to upper tier models, for example a sports one with GPS etc, along with being able to store/play Spotify/other music providers stuff over bluetooth (for going on runs).
I think the Apple Watch, with all it's flashy animations and bright, beautiful screen contributed to the issue; people only see the shiny, they don't realise they don't need all of those features/oled screen and that they're sacrificing a week long (or more!) battery life for them.
I regularly got like 4-5 days out of the Round and it was super thin! I imagine had they done a model as thick as the GW4 it would've lasted 2 weeks or so! I really wish smart watches had gone in the Pebble direction, always on displays should be the primary feature for people. MIP LCD, not oled.
Then again, I really can't wait until we _finally_ get some properly commercialised AR glasses as I'd rather use those over a phone or watch or anything else at this point.
I think the Apple Watch, with all it's flashy animations and bright, beautiful screen contributed to the issue; people only see the shiny, they don't realise they don't need all of those features/oled screen and that they're sacrificing a week long (or more!) battery life for them.
I regularly got like 4-5 days out of the Round and it was super thin! I imagine had they done a model as thick as the GW4 it would've lasted 2 weeks or so! I really wish smart watches had gone in the Pebble direction, always on displays should be the primary feature for people. MIP LCD, not oled.
Then again, I really can't wait until we _finally_ get some properly commercialised AR glasses as I'd rather use those over a phone or watch or anything else at this point.
Pebble was a game changer. Mine's in a drawer somewhere..
Same, I just got solar + radio sync watch as replacement, not having to do anything ever with it beats having to charge for some extra features, even if it is just once a week, "modern" one that I'd need to charge every day or two just sounds annoying...
Mine too. Would one or two of the 16k please make the pitch. What are the features that keep you using it? How much work to get it going again?
This is timely for me as I’m now in the doghouse for missing a reminder to take my kid to the dentist yesterday :(
This is timely for me as I’m now in the doghouse for missing a reminder to take my kid to the dentist yesterday :(
Runs one week on a charge, I wrote a custom time-tracking app for it that I have been using for years, syncs with google calendar, shows TOTP auth codes, weather and notifications, controls music playback in the house, all without having to take my phone out...
Can I buy it off you? Mine died this spring and I'm yet to recover.
I've got a 2SE on my wrist right now, with a few in storage.
For the cost of a brand new case ($30) and batteries, I plan to keep using them until the software fails spectacularly.
There's really nothing that compares for my usage.
For the cost of a brand new case ($30) and batteries, I plan to keep using them until the software fails spectacularly.
There's really nothing that compares for my usage.
Sadly mine has a dead battery, and I'm afraid to replace it and damage the seal. I switched to multiple "cheap" smartwatches (Mi Band, Amazfit Bip) before settling on the bangle.js2, but despite the specs being similar, the OS on the Pebble feels way more responsible and faster. Hopefully that improves over time, and the main developer (Gordon Williams, who is also the main dev for Espruino upon which the bangle.js firmware is based on) is easy to reach out and talk to :)
Loved my Pebble, and I appreciate my bangle.js2 more and more.
Loved my Pebble, and I appreciate my bangle.js2 more and more.
Yeah I've been agonizing about the bangle for months now (thanks HN) and I saw a recent post from Gordon[1] that says the cutting edge builds are getting much faster.
[1] https://forum.espruino.com/conversations/381203/
[1] https://forum.espruino.com/conversations/381203/
I'm genuinely surprised a similar alternative has never popped up. Every time Pebble comes up, there are so many people posting about how much they loved it and how they still keep theirs alive or how they had had to relucantly give up and go to a different watch due to it being out of support.
Seems like a giant hole wishing to be filled. I know I want one - but I don't want to revive one - I want a new one with active support.
Seems like a giant hole wishing to be filled. I know I want one - but I don't want to revive one - I want a new one with active support.
Count me two. Me and my esposa still use our Pebble Times.
Once in a blue moon I buy a hot new smart watch, but nothing lasted more than a week before being resold.
Once in a blue moon I buy a hot new smart watch, but nothing lasted more than a week before being resold.
I was quite a fan of Pebble, but was not able to get it when it launched.
I had Amazfit Bip for multiple years until it finally broke.
After trying Android Wear, battery life if very bad, I am looking for alternatives.
Is there any modern alternative to Pebble with all basic functions, such as eink display, battery life, notifications or call muting, but it also could reply to messages/notifications?
I had Amazfit Bip for multiple years until it finally broke.
After trying Android Wear, battery life if very bad, I am looking for alternatives.
Is there any modern alternative to Pebble with all basic functions, such as eink display, battery life, notifications or call muting, but it also could reply to messages/notifications?
> I had Amazfit Bip for multiple years until it finally broke.
The face fell off of mine, and the band snapped. The face was put back in with super glue and has been holding just fine for two years, and the band was replaced with a metal one which will last forever.
How did yours break?
The face fell off of mine, and the band snapped. The face was put back in with super glue and has been holding just fine for two years, and the band was replaced with a metal one which will last forever.
How did yours break?
Mine broke same as yours. I was in a bath and the face fell off. Drying did not help. I had it over 2 years. RIP Amazfit.
same here with Amazfit Bip, had few months stint with AMOLED smartwatch which was necessary to charge twice a week until I got fed up with that (plus unreadable display in sunlight unless maximum brightness) and bought again second Amazfit Bip (1st broke) which cost me less than 20USD used and I have to charge it once a month plus it has perfectly readable transreflective display not requiring any backlight, which looks better with more sunlight, it's shame almost all companies switched to nice looking but extremely power hungry AMOLED displays, I wish there were cheap options for simple watch with transreflective display or e-ink
I would be perfectly content with something like Casio F91W if it could display notifications through bluetooth from my phone, I don't really need any sleep tracking or any other features just watch with notifications so I don't have to turn on phone screen
I would be perfectly content with something like Casio F91W if it could display notifications through bluetooth from my phone, I don't really need any sleep tracking or any other features just watch with notifications so I don't have to turn on phone screen
I'm like you, down to getting a second Bip (Lite in my case) for $20 after the first one broke (Let me guess: Case popped open?). There is nothing else on the market with its combination of
* incredible battery life
* tens of thousands of watch faces
* HR
* always-on transflective display
* notifications
* incredible battery life
* tens of thousands of watch faces
* HR
* always-on transflective display
* notifications
I mean there are watches with good battery life and transreflective display, BUT they are huge/thick (I like Bip size, would not mind even Casio F91W) AND expensive, Bip had great combo of amazing dimensions, amazing battery life and very reasonable price. If my Bip crap out and I won't be able another used one I might as well ditch smartchwatch completely and just move to F91W for time and check notifications on phone again, for sure not buying anything thicker than 10mm which needsa to be charged more than twice a month and display must be always readable at least since morning till evening without some dumb hand gestures.
> just watch with notifications so I don't have to turn on phone screen
you might like the Withings
you might like the Withings
they are anything but cheap, display to show notifications seem to have only expensive models
From some of the other comments here seems like it’s more like about 160 people with 100 watches each…
I have a pebble time and a og pebble steel in the drawer. Recently wanted to start using the steel but unfortunately it suffers from the dead button syndrome... I can even accept the onboarding pairing.
Apparently I may be able to fix this if I try some soldering, but I'm an inexperienced solderer...
Apparently I may be able to fix this if I try some soldering, but I'm an inexperienced solderer...
Give it a try! The worst thing that can happen is that you destroy something that wasn't working anyway, and you learn something nee
But more likely than not you will manage to wrangle it back together somehow :)
Good luck!
But more likely than not you will manage to wrangle it back together somehow :)
Good luck!
Wonder how many are still using an iPod nano as a watch.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunat...
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunat...
My iPod nano battery expanded and cracked the whole device open. I almost literally cried, as I loved that little device too much.
Getting a replacement is not an option as any iPod nano battery is about 10 years old now. A sign of what will happen to all the Apple Watches out there.
Getting a replacement is not an option as any iPod nano battery is about 10 years old now. A sign of what will happen to all the Apple Watches out there.
I loved my 80Gb classic iPod. When its hard drive finally died I couldn't bring myself to dispose of it.
You can definitely replace the hard drive with parts online!
The SSD adapter and drive are available but I can't get hold of the iPod back. The instructions I saw say that the edges of the case get damaged ... and I'm clumsy.
Wonder how many are still using an iPod nano as a watch.
I still use my iPod Shuffles a couple of days a week, so there's probably someone out there.
Every time I upgrade macOS, I'm amazed that even the ancient iPods are still supported. I bunged my launch day Shuffle (17 years old) into my new Mac over the weekend, and it works fine, still syncs, and Finder even still shows the icon for it.
Same with my also 17-year-old iPod Video. Man, 17 years went by quickly.
I still use my iPod Shuffles a couple of days a week, so there's probably someone out there.
Every time I upgrade macOS, I'm amazed that even the ancient iPods are still supported. I bunged my launch day Shuffle (17 years old) into my new Mac over the weekend, and it works fine, still syncs, and Finder even still shows the icon for it.
Same with my also 17-year-old iPod Video. Man, 17 years went by quickly.
I basically want an old school style mp3 player with bluetooth and a GPS tracker that I can just plug into a computer and grab the gpx data, and copy mp3s to its disk. No apps, no locked down ecosystems. If it tells the time and shows a calendar, great.
I used to run with a Sansa Clip. It was perfect for that use case. Tiny, practically weightless, and could store many hours of music. My computer treated it like any USB drive, so it was easy to update. One of mine (I think I burned through 3 of them over the years even had an FM radio.
Today, when I run, I just carry my phone. It ends up doing everything the old clip did but in a much larger and more cumbersome package.
I'd probably carry my phone anyway these days after having a run, years ago, where my IT band told me I was done NOW but I was 8 miles from home. It was early Sunday morning and I ended up walking 2 miles on country roads and then through an empty office park before I found some place with a phone to call for a ride. That sucked.
Today, when I run, I just carry my phone. It ends up doing everything the old clip did but in a much larger and more cumbersome package.
I'd probably carry my phone anyway these days after having a run, years ago, where my IT band told me I was done NOW but I was 8 miles from home. It was early Sunday morning and I ended up walking 2 miles on country roads and then through an empty office park before I found some place with a phone to call for a ride. That sucked.
I do the phone thing, too. It's just kinda clunky but you're right, probably safest way to be out.
I completely understand. They were good watches. I almost bought one, then changed my mind because I didn't have the funds and didn't want to risk overdraft. They went out of business the week after, so I never got the chance to get one
I use my Pebble Time Round or Pebble Time Steel daily on IOS using the official Pebble app.
Every major IOS release I think this is the time my Pebble app stops working but it is still going strong on IOS16. Safe for another year. :)
Every major IOS release I think this is the time my Pebble app stops working but it is still going strong on IOS16. Safe for another year. :)
How's the battery holding on with your Round? I abandoned mine three years ago because of a combination of poor capacity and an unreliable charger but I miss it constantly.
Good actually. It still has 2 days life time but I tend to charge it daily for 15m to keep it running forever. When I am wearing my Pebble Time Steel, I make sure that it has 50% charge before switching it off. This tends to keep the battery level between 20 and 80% between charges. I think that's the sweet spot.
Count me in! In my mind my smartwatch doesn't need more computing power or complexity than your average microcontroller, so as long as it lasts I'm keeping mine in good use
Pebble was a great watch; mine's been in my drawer for years as I ran into some issues with updates after the company went away. Switched back to my trusty analog (Citizen World Time Eco Drive) for years, and recently got a Withings Scanwatch for the ECG feature (afib detection). It's pretty much what I want in a "smartwatch" -- analog, discrete notifications, HR during cycling/workouts, long battery life. I don't need a fully computer on my wrist.
I love my pebbles. Especially with notification center on Android, I can set complex regex filters for what messages get sent to my watch, vibration patterns etc.
I'd still be using mine if the battery (and its replacement) hadn't worn out. I was pretty hard on the battery, using a watch face that updated a lot.
I plan to reluctantly get a Pixel Watch. It's the first Android Wear watch since the Moto 360 that looks decent. Still way too thick though and still with a garbage outdated SoC (which wouldn't matter if the software was efficient like Pebble, but...)
I plan to reluctantly get a Pixel Watch. It's the first Android Wear watch since the Moto 360 that looks decent. Still way too thick though and still with a garbage outdated SoC (which wouldn't matter if the software was efficient like Pebble, but...)
I loved the Pebble and went to the first developer conference. They treated devs right.
Then I moved to Microsoft Band, Microsoft Band 2, FitBit Charge, Fitbit Ionic, Fitbit Versa, Fitbit Sense, and now on FitBit Sense 2 (definitely a big leap forward).
I view Pebble as a huge success, even if it wasn't an immediate financial windfall for the team, as they pioneered something critical for humans.
Then I moved to Microsoft Band, Microsoft Band 2, FitBit Charge, Fitbit Ionic, Fitbit Versa, Fitbit Sense, and now on FitBit Sense 2 (definitely a big leap forward).
I view Pebble as a huge success, even if it wasn't an immediate financial windfall for the team, as they pioneered something critical for humans.
I just want a watch that shows the time, lets me see and respond to notifications and set the occasional reminder/alarm.
It is a tragedy that I don't much enjoy wearing watches (I don't like the sweat under the band), because I loved my Pebble 2. I still wear it sometimes if I am doing something outdoorsy and likely to be covered in fish guts or river water or mud or whatever.
Occasionally, I am one of those 16k.
Occasionally, I am one of those 16k.
[deleted]
Seeing as several folks have recommended the Amazfit Bip as an alternative, and I’m considering getting one, I’m wondering if anyone who owns one can comment on: 1. How well it plays with iPhone and 2. Do you have any privacy concerns? I don’t know much about Amazfit as a company.
If you're at all concerned about privacy with the Bip, you can use the open source Gadgetbridge app[1] instead of Zepp for collecting metrics/syncing/uploading faces/etc.
https://gadgetbridge.org/
https://gadgetbridge.org/
Thanks. Looks like it’s Android only, but I’ll look to see if there’s anything similar for iOS
Im ex-pebble user that now uses a GTS 2. For a while I only cared about personalized watchfaces and alarms on my wrist so that model was more than enough.
But now I want some basic apps (ie TOTP) but this model doesn't support apps...
But now I want some basic apps (ie TOTP) but this model doesn't support apps...
I have the Bip, but not an iPhone.
I don't use the official app, which has mostly alleviated my privacy concerns.
I don't use the official app, which has mostly alleviated my privacy concerns.
I'm sad that I chucked my Pebble 2. The rubber on the watch itself started to deteriorate and I figured these services were never coming back.
It's the only smartwatch I've owned and I loved it. I'm back to my $5 Casio now.
It's the only smartwatch I've owned and I loved it. I'm back to my $5 Casio now.
As an aside can someone tell me where can I buy old pebble phones. I boutht my first pebble watch in 2015. It worked for a long time but I lost it and would love to get one now, just to keep it in a safe
I have one somewhere, lived the idea and possibilities, sadly the watch (steel version) had scarily sharp edges i felt it was dangerous!!! But I still watched them closely hoping they could improve in the model
I’ve owned two pebble steel watches. I didn’t notice this even with the one I kept
I still daily drive an Apple Watch Series 3. I use it as a watch and a fitness tracker and have no complaints or reason to upgrade until it breaks. Battery life is still well over 1 day with my usage.
This is exciting! I still have a couple of Pebbles kicking around. I really miss them -- to this day, no other smartwatch meets my needs as well. I should dig them out.
A friend of mine did some design work for them and got one of their top of the line models.
He tried to gift it to multiple people (including me) and they all returned it to him after a week or so.
He tried to gift it to multiple people (including me) and they all returned it to him after a week or so.
I've wanted a smartwatch, but times I'd looked into smart watches, especially for activity/sleep tracking, I couldn't find a single one with a reasonable privacy policy. In the US, unless the data are self-hosted or covered by HIPAA, there's nothing binding about a privacy policy. Even if the privacy policy currently prevents the data from being sold, the policy can be changed, the company could be bought, or the company could go bankrupt with the databases sold at auction. Because HIPAA covers medical companies rather than medical data, it does nothing to prevent this. Until this loophole is closed (or a miracle happens and the US passes something akin to the GDPR), the lack of privacy prevents me from getting one.
And every time I hear about the Pebble and self-hosting, I get disappointed that it no longer exists.
And every time I hear about the Pebble and self-hosting, I get disappointed that it no longer exists.
People ask me about my Pebble fairly regularly. I think they mostly notice the rainbow watch band I have, then realize it doesn't look like a Apple Watch.
Yes; my Time, 2 and 2 HR still work.
The final smartwatch.
Sleep monitor is perfect and notifications really help so I never miss anything important without disturbing anyone else.
The final smartwatch.
Sleep monitor is perfect and notifications really help so I never miss anything important without disturbing anyone else.
Maybe Rebble is a new brand that can start production of e-ink based smart watches that don't try do to everything.
Plugging the Watchy by sqfmi because I have one and it's awesome.
That doesn’t seem that many, how many people use Fitbit or Apple Watch?
For a watch that you can no longer buy from OEM or get OEM support from, it's a lot, no?
OG Pebble is how many years old now? (EDIT: ten. Ten years old.) Modern hardware rarely lasts that long, but this one does; my wife is still happily using it, and it is still better than Apple Watch in terms of UX / actually useful functionality.
I still have 3. They have everything I want in a watch: vibrating alarm, long battery life, calendar functionality. I also use an app that stores my 2FA tokens/passcodes, so that if i ever lose or am away from my phone, i still have access to critical accounts.
Considering how many years it’s been since the devices have been sold, and the fact that the company no longer exists, it’s not bad!
in addition to these, there may be watches without a rebble subscription being used with gadgetbridge which can work without internet
16,001 once I manage to repair mine :)
that is… a small number
It's undercounting a lot - there are many people who use Gadgetbridge instead of Rebble, and I'd argue that most people use neither - the OG stock app and stock firmware forks perfectly fine to this day, even with the very first generation that's few months shy of a decade old, and which my wife still happily uses today.
So, a fraction of users using alternate firmware to the watch that's up to 10 years old - an eternity for modern electronics - and whose vendor shut down 6 years ago. I'd say it's quite a big number.
So, a fraction of users using alternate firmware to the watch that's up to 10 years old - an eternity for modern electronics - and whose vendor shut down 6 years ago. I'd say it's quite a big number.
If it works for you, why would you migrate to a different product with features or performance outside of your needs? We are so deep into a disposable society that we eagerly await the NEXT BIG THING (TM) without ever evaluating what our need consists of or whether we have any need for an upgrade to begin with.
I bought a Big Brand Flagship Phone (tm), the Samsung Galaxy S9, in 2018. They stopped upgrading the OS with new functionality in 2020 only two years after its release, and this year they stopped providing security updates!
Considering how much functionality and information is on that phone that could affect my life in absolutely fantastically negative ways if it was hacked (online accounts including owned licenses for software, banking), I have little choice but to buy a new phone now, even though the hardware is more than adequate for my needs and even though new phones don't really do much more much better.
Planned obsolescence, or whatever you prefer to call it, really drives this behaviour.
Considering how much functionality and information is on that phone that could affect my life in absolutely fantastically negative ways if it was hacked (online accounts including owned licenses for software, banking), I have little choice but to buy a new phone now, even though the hardware is more than adequate for my needs and even though new phones don't really do much more much better.
Planned obsolescence, or whatever you prefer to call it, really drives this behaviour.
I've always been curious about this one - what kind of exploits are you concerned about that could wind up with those sorts of consequences? Most of the security updates tend to patch things which are local only or barely exploitable in the first place. Assuming you're not installing entirely untrustworthy software on daily basis, it's probably not much of a difference. Looking at the latest Android security report, even the "Critical" vulnerability reported is a code injection in data that's usually only available to the app that wrote it in the first place.
Important applications like the browser, webview, media players, etc are patched via Play Store regularly so untrusted data is usually processed through those pipelines regardless. Perhaps hardware decode on untrusted content could still provide a vector there, but judging by the practice it's not exactly a large one.
There haven't exactly been worm-grade exploits flying around in the mobile space, even big public things like StageFright pretty much turned out to be non-starters and the targeted attacks are so far ahead that I wouldn't even worry about public exploits - the private ones have you covered already even on the latest OS.
Maybe I'm the minority here, but I wouldn't exactly rush out and blow $1000 over anything short of an unpatched and readily exploitable RCE.
Important applications like the browser, webview, media players, etc are patched via Play Store regularly so untrusted data is usually processed through those pipelines regardless. Perhaps hardware decode on untrusted content could still provide a vector there, but judging by the practice it's not exactly a large one.
There haven't exactly been worm-grade exploits flying around in the mobile space, even big public things like StageFright pretty much turned out to be non-starters and the targeted attacks are so far ahead that I wouldn't even worry about public exploits - the private ones have you covered already even on the latest OS.
Maybe I'm the minority here, but I wouldn't exactly rush out and blow $1000 over anything short of an unpatched and readily exploitable RCE.
Regarding installing untrustworthy software, you also have to be mindful of software which has been acquired by another entity. Your trusty file manager could turn into something entirely different just by applications automatically updating.
This happened with ES File Explorer.
This happened with ES File Explorer.
This is the duality of automatic updates, on one hand you don't automatically get security updates, on the other, you don't automatically get exploits from new owners or compromised accounts.
In a software project this is really a responsibility I think people don't appreciate that they have, especially in regards to package managers.
But for end user devices it's encouraged to have automatic updates on. I think this is a personal responsibility as no-one really has your back on your device, except the highly automated app store verification. Which in fairness to them, likely stops a lot of exploits/malware making it to user devices.
In a software project this is really a responsibility I think people don't appreciate that they have, especially in regards to package managers.
But for end user devices it's encouraged to have automatic updates on. I think this is a personal responsibility as no-one really has your back on your device, except the highly automated app store verification. Which in fairness to them, likely stops a lot of exploits/malware making it to user devices.
This alone is a huge reason that the iPhone is doing well - iOS 16 still runs on the 8 and iOS 15 releases are still getting patches: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/supported-models-iphe... https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213490
Interesting perspective. I have an iPad 3rd generation where Apple doesn't allow OS updates and doesn't allow installing a non-Apple browser engine. So it's essentially getting bricked as web sites start relying on features not implemented in the ancient Safari engine on it. Twitter, for instance, refuses to load. Youtube does work okayish, as long as you don't log in.
Once it's completely bricked, I'm throwing it out and not getting anything with an Apple logo. Unless something like the EU manages to make them open up.
Once it's completely bricked, I'm throwing it out and not getting anything with an Apple logo. Unless something like the EU manages to make them open up.
What 10 year old iPad alternative is still receiving updates?
I get the annoyance, but I just don’t know of viable alternatives.
I get the annoyance, but I just don’t know of viable alternatives.
I imagine the argument is that a less locked-down device would be able to receive community support 10 years later.
I suspect, though, that that’s optimizing for perfection in rare cases rather than doing better overall. The number of iPads that survive to 10 years is presumably puny. The batteries wear out, they get dropped, etc. I would guess that the number of 2-3 year old devices that get replaced simply because the OS updates stop or the UX gets slow is much greater. And, while community OS and firmware projects do exist, they haven’t made it into the mainstream in any meaningful way, so I doubt they make a dent in overall consumer behavior. In which case, perhaps Apple’s way of doing things is a net win (or at least the lesser of some number of evils) compared to others’ in the aggregate.
Hard to say without any hard numbers, though.
(Disclaimer: A couple months back I opted to replace the battery on my 2013 MacBook, which is still going strong, instead of buying a new Framework laptop. That may indicate some bias.)
I suspect, though, that that’s optimizing for perfection in rare cases rather than doing better overall. The number of iPads that survive to 10 years is presumably puny. The batteries wear out, they get dropped, etc. I would guess that the number of 2-3 year old devices that get replaced simply because the OS updates stop or the UX gets slow is much greater. And, while community OS and firmware projects do exist, they haven’t made it into the mainstream in any meaningful way, so I doubt they make a dent in overall consumer behavior. In which case, perhaps Apple’s way of doing things is a net win (or at least the lesser of some number of evils) compared to others’ in the aggregate.
Hard to say without any hard numbers, though.
(Disclaimer: A couple months back I opted to replace the battery on my 2013 MacBook, which is still going strong, instead of buying a new Framework laptop. That may indicate some bias.)
I think the argument is that the alternatives can have Linux installed on them (though I suspect a 10 year old iPad can be jailbroken if you want to).
10 years is a dang good run for a tablet; only thing that really can hope to compete would be actual computers.
10 years is a dang good run for a tablet; only thing that really can hope to compete would be actual computers.
There are none, but PineTab will receive updates forever, since it can run mainline Linux kernel.
For context, this model was discontinued 10 years ago
To be fair the situation regarding updates is starting to improve now that new phones bring very little to the table besides faster processing and marginal camera improvements and similarly OS updates don't do much besides change the UI slightly.
Samsung (and IIRC Google) now promises at least 4 years of regular updates and 5 of security.
Samsung (and IIRC Google) now promises at least 4 years of regular updates and 5 of security.
Is this in the US only? I have a Samsung S9 (and a spare S9 actually), and the last update was installed on the 23 Sept 2022.
- Parts breaking that can't be easily replaced. In particular Li-ion batteries have a limited lifespan, both in time and in number of cycles.
- Security: hackers constantly find new vulnerabilities. And depending on the kind of device, it can be a big deal.
- Services shutting down, it can be direct (if the device connects to the internet), or indirect (if some "companion app" is no longer available).
- Or just plain obsolescence. The device may be incompatible with modern standards, irrelevant, unfashionable, etc...
- Security: hackers constantly find new vulnerabilities. And depending on the kind of device, it can be a big deal.
- Services shutting down, it can be direct (if the device connects to the internet), or indirect (if some "companion app" is no longer available).
- Or just plain obsolescence. The device may be incompatible with modern standards, irrelevant, unfashionable, etc...
Well, the threat of the service going away is a pretty big one. Until we have devices that can work from our own hosted systems, this will always be a concern.
> Until we have devices that can work from our own hosted systems
We already do: https://pine64.org/pinetime.
We already do: https://pine64.org/pinetime.
Is that working yet?
(I like my pine book pro; honest question.)
(I like my pine book pro; honest question.)
I know a guy that bought every new Samsung flagship device as soon as they hit stores. He said he just has to upgrade.
I wonder sometimes how can people reconcile buying a new X every Y and still be concerned about human rights and the environment, etc.
You tell yourself you're allowing someone else to enjoy (nth-)last years X and Y at a lower price point, being subsidised by your use first.
Everyone can reconcile almost anything, practically humanity's superpower. It's rare the person that fails to - on any issue. I think we all do it all the time for most issues.
Everyone can reconcile almost anything, practically humanity's superpower. It's rare the person that fails to - on any issue. I think we all do it all the time for most issues.
"So convenient a thing to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do."
-Benjamin Franklin
-Benjamin Franklin
I expect that most people buy what they want and human rights and the environment are just something they discuss online.
Probably true, though to different degrees for different folks. I've always taken joy in holding out for the right component upgrades for my PC and related gear to get the best bang for the buck and biggest leaps in performance. It's a lineage that's been going since 2000 or so, where at least one part always gets carried forward, and the rest is gifted or sold at steep discount. It started as me trying to get the most from my limited money, but decades later it's more about minimizing the guilt of frivolous e-waste. My last phone of 5 years sadly got the boot from my carrier, forcing an upgrade. I know I've seen other people take pride in their slow/picky upgrades, too.
Sometime this also happens in person.
Also being shamed for everything you do as bad for the environment or bad for human right does not work.
Also being shamed for everything you do as bad for the environment or bad for human right does not work.
I wonder sometimes how can people reconcile buying a new X ever and still be concerned about human rights and the environment, etc.
Because it's not an individuals buying decisions harming those things? Those are the result of governments and corporations.
I'm not going to buy a new phone today and it sounds like you probably won't either, I'll check back in tomorrow and see how the environment is doing!
I'm not going to buy a new phone today and it sounds like you probably won't either, I'll check back in tomorrow and see how the environment is doing!
[deleted]
Human rights?
That's kind of a tenuous link at best. You could make the case that buying more increases the opportunities for those at the bottom.
I'm not even necessarily making a factual statement here, but personally I don't feel that there's anything to reconcile.
That's kind of a tenuous link at best. You could make the case that buying more increases the opportunities for those at the bottom.
I'm not even necessarily making a factual statement here, but personally I don't feel that there's anything to reconcile.
A lot of raw materials that go into modern electronics are produced using slave labor, and the “recycled” devices tend to end up poisoning the environments of people in similarly disadvantaged communities.
I don’t know enough about these things to know whether buying more or less of these devices directly helps enslaved people, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to observe that rampant consumerism does fuel the postcolonial economic machine that perpetrates that kind of exploitation. And I think that those of us who stand to benefit the most from this system would do well to be extremely cautious about how we are incentivized toward motivated reasoning.
I don’t know enough about these things to know whether buying more or less of these devices directly helps enslaved people, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to observe that rampant consumerism does fuel the postcolonial economic machine that perpetrates that kind of exploitation. And I think that those of us who stand to benefit the most from this system would do well to be extremely cautious about how we are incentivized toward motivated reasoning.
Ok. Well there's 2 elements here, the factual and emotional.
Factually you could argue either way. I suppose broadly you could say that industrialisation is bad for those at the bottom in the short term. But after the hump things get better. Is that pain reasonable? Is it avoidable? Are we morally obligated to avoid it? Are all somewhat open questions.
The GP used the word 'reconcile' which to me is a more emotional metric. Personally I don't make the link (rightly or wrongly) between me buying X and person Y suffering. So personally I don't have anything to reconcile. That is a correct answer. It isn't the answer, but as an answer to the GP, it is legitimate.
I can also see it being a reasonable answer to say that in buying Congolese cobalt you are helping the country industrialise, which in the long term is a good thing. Again you may disagree with the reasoning or morality but it seems to me a legitimate way of reconciliation.
Factually you could argue either way. I suppose broadly you could say that industrialisation is bad for those at the bottom in the short term. But after the hump things get better. Is that pain reasonable? Is it avoidable? Are we morally obligated to avoid it? Are all somewhat open questions.
The GP used the word 'reconcile' which to me is a more emotional metric. Personally I don't make the link (rightly or wrongly) between me buying X and person Y suffering. So personally I don't have anything to reconcile. That is a correct answer. It isn't the answer, but as an answer to the GP, it is legitimate.
I can also see it being a reasonable answer to say that in buying Congolese cobalt you are helping the country industrialise, which in the long term is a good thing. Again you may disagree with the reasoning or morality but it seems to me a legitimate way of reconciliation.
It's also important to recognize consumerism has driven a lot of innovation which has benefited humanity. I venture to say one of the most impactful advancements in human history is providing access to the internet in almost every spot on the globe. That was influenced at least in part by so many people owning smart phones.
A sufficiently technologically advanced human species might be the only thing capable of stopping the next extinction event. Something that will almost certainly occur naturally without any intervention.
A sufficiently technologically advanced human species might be the only thing capable of stopping the next extinction event. Something that will almost certainly occur naturally without any intervention.
Hmm. A sufficiently technologically advanced human species may greatly accelerate the arrival of the next extinction event.
Sure, but another extinction event without humans is more or less inevitable - with humans it may be preventable.
So our choices appear to be wait for the bad thing to happen or continue to drive each other to improve and learn, which consumerism does in fact provide great motive and drive for humans to improve (although not the only mechanism, I'm sure, just a large one we understand today). Hopefully we strike the right balance and solve these problems.
So our choices appear to be wait for the bad thing to happen or continue to drive each other to improve and learn, which consumerism does in fact provide great motive and drive for humans to improve (although not the only mechanism, I'm sure, just a large one we understand today). Hopefully we strike the right balance and solve these problems.
I always worry a little when something is both the purported solution to and the primary cause of a problem.
> A lot of raw materials that go into modern electronics are produced using slave labor,
Can you confirm this for Apple products? I couldn't find anything recent.
Can you confirm this for Apple products? I couldn't find anything recent.
So by only buying a new X every zY you’re somehow showing more concern about human rights?
How do you know any of them even are actually concerned about those issues and don't just give lip service (if even that)?
Both is to raise your social status among your “friends”.
I would hate it if everyone (or even many people) did this, but it's nice to know someone outside of Samsung has tried them all, but then again, I guess you wouldn't ncessarily get very neutral reviews from such a person.
Well, I doubt he's had a bad experience because I don't think he ever has one long enough for it to start showing signs of age.
I know a guy who does this with Apple products. Half monthly salary for a phone for a year sounds extreme to me. Plus all the gimmicks that come with the phone - pad, phones and watch.
At least Apple products hold their value pretty well. I'm only just now starting to think about upgrading my 2015 Macbook Pro and it looks like I could still get $400 for it. A year old Apple device probably gets at least 60% of its MSRP back when sold.
I wouldn't do it personally (see me still using a >7 year old Macbook), but they're likely not dropping anywhere near the full MSRP every year, after they sell the old one.
Meanwhile, I've had three gaming Windows laptops during that same time, and two of them literally fell apart (one I kept using until enough of the plastic frame around the monitor cracked that I could no longer keep it in place with binder clips). The most recent one (ASUS ROG Strix G15) is still doing well, but I've only had it for about two years at this point.
I wouldn't do it personally (see me still using a >7 year old Macbook), but they're likely not dropping anywhere near the full MSRP every year, after they sell the old one.
Meanwhile, I've had three gaming Windows laptops during that same time, and two of them literally fell apart (one I kept using until enough of the plastic frame around the monitor cracked that I could no longer keep it in place with binder clips). The most recent one (ASUS ROG Strix G15) is still doing well, but I've only had it for about two years at this point.
Admittedly there are tradeins. I know someone who does a fair bit of reviewing of camera gear including smartphone cameras. His approach seems to generally be to effectively rent a phone for a year.
With that said, I generally go for 3 years and use the older phone to drive my stereo, sometimes act as a travel spare, etc.
With that said, I generally go for 3 years and use the older phone to drive my stereo, sometimes act as a travel spare, etc.
Wouldn’t be my choice for sure. But he presumably sells the old one.
True. But perhaps 16k people sold their Pebble because they wanted a shiny new watch, and they were bought by 16k other people who can't afford that new watch.
sort-of-smart watch, you can get watches that tell the time for $5 or less.
I'm not sure why that's relevant. You can buy a shirt that covers your body for $5, but most of us are wearing something more expensive for a variety of reasons. If you are wearing a pebble, you probably want the sort of smart features.
Agree. I'm still using the original iphone SE from 2016. I've replaced the battery four or five times and see no reason to upgrade, even though it's officially out of support now.
Funnily, when I meet people now with the latest and greatest iphone and they see my old phone they often express they wish they still had one of them.
Funnily, when I meet people now with the latest and greatest iphone and they see my old phone they often express they wish they still had one of them.
[deleted]
The pebble was a bit of a gimmick. It was the start of the future but on its own it was kind of worse than a regular watch. It looked ugly, had a terrible screen, didn’t have any of the stuff you mostly do with a smartwatch now. And half the features no longer work.
> And half the features no longer work.
Which features don't work? I'm still wearing a Pebble Time Steel every day with Rebble Services and not encountering problems.
Okay, I guess Apple integration doesn't work anymore, but that's an Apple problem. If Apple allowed sideloading & half of the things you can do on Android, Pebble would still work there. I used to be an iPhone owner (I was one of those queue-on-day-one types that got a standing ovation from the Apple employees as you walked out of the Apple Store), but I am so glad I switched to Android.
Which features don't work? I'm still wearing a Pebble Time Steel every day with Rebble Services and not encountering problems.
Okay, I guess Apple integration doesn't work anymore, but that's an Apple problem. If Apple allowed sideloading & half of the things you can do on Android, Pebble would still work there. I used to be an iPhone owner (I was one of those queue-on-day-one types that got a standing ovation from the Apple employees as you walked out of the Apple Store), but I am so glad I switched to Android.
Funny that you say that, I did the exact opposite. Was quite an Android fanatic until I switched to iPhone and noticed how greatly everything was integrated. Next to the integration of my AirPods and Watch the apps on the iPhone are generally of better quality than my experiences on Android. Everything just feels a lot more native and faster. Probably caused by the fact that Apple is just a lot more stricter in what it allows developers to do + the fact that Android runs on literally thousands of different screen sizes, where there are only a couple of screen sizes that a developer has to take into account on the i(Pad)OS side.
And it had an insanely long battery life, I could respond to, and read text messages without opening my phone. It didn't have unnecessary stuff- it was simple and met my watch needs. I don't have a smartwatch now, because I'm not interested in having yet another computer on my wrist. I guess I've just decided to settle for a gimmicky automatic watch, it doesn't even have an alarm! And it dies if I stop using it for a few days.
Yeah I really liked mine. Still have it, I just don't get on with wearing any watch that much. I like how it had voice commands way back when.
> settle for a gimmicky automatic watch
You probably mean the marvel of mechanical engineering that has zero dependency on the outside world, needs no software updates, and will still continue running as new for years after all the smart watches will turn into useless pucks?
You probably mean the marvel of mechanical engineering that has zero dependency on the outside world, needs no software updates, and will still continue running as new for years after all the smart watches will turn into useless pucks?
Minimal dependency: you will have to get it serviced from time to time, but I find that charming—like getting a pair of shoes resoled or renewing a piece of wooden furniture. You’re extending the life of the object, some beyond your own lifespan.
>And it had an insanely long battery life.
Is there a term for complementing something that is objectively much worse than what came before only because it's better than what we have now.
Stockholm syndrome?
Watch batteries used to last month's/ years / didn't need batteries at all.
It's the same with phones, they used to last a week easily, now we get excited when they last 2 days.
Is there a term for complementing something that is objectively much worse than what came before only because it's better than what we have now.
Stockholm syndrome?
Watch batteries used to last month's/ years / didn't need batteries at all.
It's the same with phones, they used to last a week easily, now we get excited when they last 2 days.
> Is there a term for complementing something that is objectively much worse than what came before only because it's better than what we have now.
What kind of smartwatch came before it, that had a battery that held for more than a week? And no, a simple watch is not a smartwatch, so that doesn't count.
What kind of smartwatch came before it, that had a battery that held for more than a week? And no, a simple watch is not a smartwatch, so that doesn't count.
I don't think these are apples to apples comparisons. Yes, watches had much longer batteries, but they didn't have smart features. So you're really comparing the Pebble to something with a comparable feature set, like another smart watch.
Phones used to be powered directly from the wire and work even during a power outage and now they have batteries and die, but I'm still willing to trade that feature to have a GPS and text messaging.
Phones used to be powered directly from the wire and work even during a power outage and now they have batteries and die, but I'm still willing to trade that feature to have a GPS and text messaging.
Well it's less featured than a modern smart watch so it's not an apples to apples comparison there, but the comparison was still made.
Further Casio made a range of smartish watches back in the day. I don't know battery life's but they weren't measured in days.
Further Casio made a range of smartish watches back in the day. I don't know battery life's but they weren't measured in days.
Some of it has to do with existing experience. I suspect many people in this thread have not worn something other than a smart watch with regularity in at least 15 years, possible longer if they were below watch wearing age when cell phones became common. Additionally, I'd argue that the pebble is closer to an apple watch than even a digital watch and certainly closer than an automatic watch. You chose to compare a smart phone to a flip phone rather than a POTS phone? Likely you either have very limited experience with POTS phones or you view the smart/flip comparison as more apt. Either way, I think context is important when making comparisons so I still think it's entirely fair to say "the Pebble has good battery life".
And those Casio watches were terrible. Even without a comparison to anything else, they just didn't work reliably.
And those Casio watches were terrible. Even without a comparison to anything else, they just didn't work reliably.
I agree with the existing experience point, I hadn't worn a "dumb" watch since middle school (~12 years ago) until I finally ended up buying a smart watch last month, which I wear nearly 24/7.
If it's just for telling the time I don't exactly need a watch, I'm almost always looking at or within reach of some device that can tell me the time anyway. A smart watch is useful for other purposes.
Also while weeklong battery lives would be nice, even needing to charge daily isn't too bad, I just stick it on the charger at night while relaxing and getting ready to sleep.
If it's just for telling the time I don't exactly need a watch, I'm almost always looking at or within reach of some device that can tell me the time anyway. A smart watch is useful for other purposes.
Also while weeklong battery lives would be nice, even needing to charge daily isn't too bad, I just stick it on the charger at night while relaxing and getting ready to sleep.
I don't know of any official name, but it would be adjacent to the Rachet Effect [0]. Where the Rachet Effect is a steady increase in expectations, rather than a steady decrease, they both derive from the same limited time frame used for comparisons.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratchet_effect
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratchet_effect
For me, I didn't wear watches before. Pebble got me into it. And now I wear watches with no batteries, so maybe reverse Stockholm syndrome?
I loved my Garmin, but I hated the notifications. And I couldn't disable the fitness related notifications. I'm at a point where I hate all notifications though, and have them only enabled for work and my wife. Everyone/everything else can wait.
I loved my Garmin, but I hated the notifications. And I couldn't disable the fitness related notifications. I'm at a point where I hate all notifications though, and have them only enabled for work and my wife. Everyone/everything else can wait.
[deleted]
That was v1. The latter versions solved most of those problems and rebble.io keeps a pebble 100% functional.
I've tried a couple of Garmin watches (Vivoactive 3 and Forerunner 55) and the Amazfit Bip, and this is where they all fall completely flat. The UX is just horrible by comparison. It's like these companies have no regard for designing the OS UX and are just trying to cram features in.
And the fact that companies want to make touchscreen watches is just with few/no buttons is baffling to me. Tapping tiny buttons on a tiny screen is a horrible experience. And there's tons of moving targets because of the tiny amount of real-estate.
Pebble _just got it_ with the 2.0 OS and beyond. They were a joy to use.
I begrudgingly have gone back to using an Apple Watch, because despite being subpar, the UX is somewhat together these days, just enough to be tolerable. When I move away from iOS again, I'll probably either pull out an old Pebble that still has some battery life, or a Casio GBD200, which isn't really a smartwatch but ticks some major boxes for me (always-on-display, silent vibration alarm, and timers, chief among them). The GBD200 runs on a coin cell too, so I never have to worry about charging or a replacement being difficult to find!