this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2025
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The Smartwatch That Was Too Good For This World (notthesolution.substack.com)
submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/technology
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A look back at the Pebble watch

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[–] njordomir 3 points 2 days ago

I heard great things about the Pebble from someone who had one.

Personally, I had a few different smart watches and learned a bit about what I want over the years:

  • Mi Bands (Xiomi Devices) that had otherworldly battery life (like a month and a half in some cases) but had trash sensors and were junk without the unofficial apps that made them great
  • Some Android Wear/ WearOS smart watches
  • a cheap ass POS Temu-equivilant no-name junk watch
  • Multiple Garmin devices (touchscreen Venue and button controlled Fenix)

This made me realize a few things:

  • I don't want or need a super-smart watch
  • battery life and capable sensors are way more important than stupid flashy shit
  • the display tech I want indoors in my office is not the same display I want on a wear-everywhere watch (TFT looks stellar under bright sun)
  • buttons beat a touchscreen each and every day of the week and make the watch a convenience rather than a finnicky gadget

To be fair, this is MY use case and yours may differ, but when it comes down to it, I'm sure that I'm not in the market for a wearOS or Apple Watch. I love the button operated TFT screen Garmin watch I've been using for a few years and if I don't replace it with another Garmin watch, it'll be something like Pine Time, Pebble, or something that works with gadgetbridge.

[–] singletona 62 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Here is hoping the revival is at least as good as the originals instead of a cheap cash grab on the product name and history.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 6 days ago (1 children)

the original founder is involved and it's been open sourced so hopefully

[–] [email protected] 49 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

The original founder is a hack who has bailed on each of his companies. When Pebble shut down people were supposed to keep their jobs. Many found at the last minute that their jobs weren't part of the deal.

He then started Beeper, fucked around and found out with Apple iMessage without a plan and then almost immediately gave up, which is wild because Beeper was a paid service. Don't even get me started on the privacy implications of having them in control of all your bridges and them needing a fleet of Macs online to push the iMessages through. This meant, especially early in development, you were handing a bunch of credentials to Beeper. (Not to mention my own personal experience with their lack of care towards user privacy) He then bailed and sold the whole thing to that dickbag Matt Mullenweg.

Eric Migicovsky sucks noodles and I don't trust him. This definitely feels like a cash grab. This guy has failed upward too many fucking times.

EDIT: Also to be clear, Google made this Open Source very recently after buying Fitbit a few years ago. Migicovsky jumping in feels to me explicitly like a cash grab.

[–] fangleone2526 20 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Beeper can still do IMessage, just selfhosted, which I think was the right route. Beeper has also contributed hugely to matrix's bridges ecosystem, and all the bridges can be selfhosted, so there was never any need to give them your credentials, or even use their servers for your matrix host. I like what beeper is doing a lot. They also claim E2EE, and they use matrix so that's entirely possible ( likely even ), but it's also entirely possible that they can snoop on your messages as their version of the matrix server is closed source. They are also working on on-device bridges and have already released one for signal so you never have to send your credentials to any beeper servers. Beeper solves a ton of legitimate problems for me with stuff like client compatibility across platforms ( I can use any terminal to send iMessage now. That's wonderful. ).

Eric's projects consistently strike me as cool. It doesn't seem like he really wants to do them himself though, it seems more like he just wants them to exist, and the only way that happens is if he does it. I assume that with the beeper situation he sold it because he assumed matt mullenwig would keep it going and the problem of unified messaging is solved. Then matt went a little crazy and that was less cool. I don't know if there were signs of him being like this before the wp engine stuff, I only started paying attention to him after beeper sold to automattic.

There are a lot of problems in my life that I want solutions to that I think could be sold as products, but I don't particularly want to run a company. I don't think products will ever be developed which solve some of my problems. I could totally see myself doing what Eric has done here.

It seems like Eric bringing back pebble is just him wanting a good hackable watch. I don't see why it needs to be any deeper than that. He doesn't seem profit motivated ( otherwise why would you wade so deep into open source ).

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Upvoted for well considered and presented argument even if I disagree.

[–] fangleone2526 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I also want to make it clear though, that though I say a lot of nice things in that comment about beeper, they have definitely made some choices I don't love. Their iMessage bridge situation is just not one of those choices. Moving the iMessage bridge to be selfhosted made it annoying enough to do that it's no longer an easy consumer friendly way to do iMessage on android, which made apple not persue it as intensely, and effectively ended the cat and mouse game they were in. My iMessage bridge has worked flawlessly for many months, no interrupts.

They have made a number of decisions which I think are shitty though. Most importantly, their new clients are completely closed source, and can't be used with any matrix server other than their own. This sucks, because their new clients are easily the best matrix clients I have ever used. Beeper android is just leagues ahead of any other matrix client, especially for it's heavily bridge reliant usecase. Beeper desktop and iOS also look so so much better than anything else that is available, though I use them less. Beeper iOS has a minimum iOS version of 17 ( Yikes! ) and I wont update my iPhone from 16.2 because I don't want to lose my jailbreak. on desktop I use nheko because it's super light on resources, which the old beeper client wasn't, but the new client kinda is. I'm not a huge fan of all my messages living on beeper servers, and being subject to beeper outages, or potential evil beeper company restructuring ( matt mullenwig is unpredictable!! ). If I could use their superior client with my own homeserver I would be much happier with them

It seems like beeper deviates from the matrix spec on some things, and nheko has lots of trouble loading images with my beeper account.

I also wish beeper open sourced their server, because having a nice, easy way to do selfhosted matrix + bridges would be so great. An easy docker container + webui for setup where you choose bridges and give credentials would just be so convenient. I don't think that's what beeper has internally right now, but they could build it trivially, and that kind of setup is really how it seems like this should work.

Currently, on android, if I want a decent experience I'm pretty much stuck with their homeserver and their bridges and their client. All the other matrix clients I've seen don't have the options required to do low priority organization, or mixed rooms and DMs in one feed, or a variety of other things that for normal, non bridge centric matrix, don't matter nearly as much. You can also only compose message to new people to be sent through bridges on official beeper clients, all of which are becoming closed source, so that sucks.

I imagine on desktop I could use my own homeserver w/ their bridges and use nheko as the client and have a pretty good time, so that's good, but I definitely dislike the loss of focus on open source I'm seeing from beeper. It worries me greatly, and it feels a lot like they are going to announce something I'll hate and can do nothing about. Sofar they haven't begun building in anti-features, but man, they have absolutely no profit plan sofar that I have seen and it looks to me like them growing one will likely be messy. I would really like for selfhosted fully foss servers / clients to get better and become viable options for the "universal messenger" usecase.

[–] ChogChog 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I’m hesitant with Eric as well, mostly coming out of the fact it sounds like they’re completely separate from the rebble team that kept the watches going for the past decade. But they are using the rebble discord to interact with people so maybe we’ll see.

Either way, no, the source code was only open sourced on the 27th.

Also see the actual repository.

If you have any evidence otherwise, I’d be interested as I’ve been following all of this since the original kickstarter. But I’m thinking you might be mixing what rebble is as it’s not the source code.

Either way, not sure how this will go, I’m wishful as I really don’t want to see pebble go bankrupt again.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Apparently one of the people on the Rebble board is working on the project:

Some people are working on this for my new company, Core Devices, including Joshua (also one of the Rebble board members), Gerard (firmware) and crc32 (Cobble). We’ll be joined soon by Steve Penna, my OG Pebble colleague who helped build the Pebble Android app.

Heiko, the brilliant mind behind much of Pebble’s aesthetic and engineering beauty, is helping as technical advisor, along with my first colleague at Pebble, Andrew Witte and another key Pebble design leader, Mark Solomon. Others are helping via the Rebble community Discord.

Source

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Sorry, that's me wording it badly. I know Google only open sourced it only very recently, but they did buy Fitbit "a few years ago" in 2021. I mostly just meant that Micigovsky seemingly had nothing to do with it getting open sourced. I'm sorry for the confusion, that's on me and a badly worded sentence.

[–] Nastybutler 17 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Hey, I remember getting the original Kickstarter version! I still have it in a box in a closet somewhere

[–] lepinkainen 1 points 5 days ago

I got both and managed to sell them before they became e-waste

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I liked the idea and when I had the gen 1 pebble it felt pretty neat. It lacked refinement (in both appearance / build quality and functionality though). I think we are putting it on a bit of a pedestal here though. I'd love to see a pairing back of something like the galaxy watch to a simpler, cleaner version with better battery life. I think smart watches are trying too hard to do too much right now and that's something pebble understood from day 1.

[–] Nastybutler 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I recently switched to a Garmin watch without GPS and can get about 2 weeks between charges. Does everything I want out of a smartwatch plus lots more.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

I had a Garmin. Wasn't crazy about how it did with messaging. Maybe better now though.

I like to have GPS and an RF payment option for running without a phone or wallet though.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Everyone hating on the build quality but my Pebble still works and I've gone through numerous other smart watches that have all died. Looking forward to the next gen!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

I liked the build, although my Pebble 2 had rubber reversion issues on the side buttons that rendered them unusable. I'm really sad about that because I would've totally kept it around if not for that

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

Though, nowadays, there's plenty non-smart connected watches.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I kinda miss my Pebble.

[–] FooBarrington 3 points 5 days ago

Me too, very excited for the relaunch!

[–] TheGrandNagus 6 points 6 days ago

The software is open source now, so hopefully there are multiple options for PebbleOS devices.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

I liked a lot both the OS and the form factor, it had some retrofuturistic feel that other "smart" watches lack. However, build quality was high crap, especially the last model they released.

I just hope that someone who's good making watches would take on the design style and software.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Anyone got a good recommendation for an affordable smart watch that works with GadgetBridge?

I'm looking to move on from an ancient Garmin that barely holds charge for 2 days...

[–] WagnasT 3 points 5 days ago

Been rocking a pine time for a year or so, it just keeps getting better and it's insanely cheap.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Bangle.js 2

[–] ch00f 4 points 6 days ago

Did iOS integration ever get better? I remember a lot of apps constantly needing to get restarted to reconnect to the watch.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

i would consider buying a smartwatch, if they weren't so thick. call me when they are 6mm or less. not gonna wear a lumpy shackle.

[–] JohnSwanFromTheLough 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Normal watches very rarely measure that. 6mm would be considered ultra thin for a quartz watch, I think you'll be waiting a while for a smart watch to be that thin.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Well, idk, all the watches I have (but never wear any more) are like that. Even one of my old phones was kinda like that (Wiko Highway Pure), just well, phone width and height.

[–] pycorax 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You mean like one of those small casios? That's the only watch that comes to mind that remotely fits that profile.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Like that, yeah. There are hundreds of models, some cheap, some expensive, some even analog. For example my favorites:

IMG_20250214_091854

IMG_20250214_091819