[HN Gopher] Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch
___________________________________________________________________
Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch
Author : will0
Score : 437 points
Date : 2022-11-03 10:37 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (rebble.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (rebble.io)
| m-p-3 wrote:
| 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.
| troyvit wrote:
| 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/
| ClassyJacket wrote:
| 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.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _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.
| ProAm wrote:
| 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.
| dboreham wrote:
| > 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).
| lhoff wrote:
| 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/
| bullen wrote:
| 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.
| centro wrote:
| Maybe Rebble is a new brand that can start production of e-ink
| based smart watches that don't try do to everything.
| enobrev wrote:
| 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.
| odiroot wrote:
| 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.
| hobo_mark wrote:
| Wait, which versions have a compass? My P2HR does not mention
| that anywhere.
| 51Cards wrote:
| My Time model has a compass and I use it quite a bit. There
| are several compass apps in the store.
| odiroot wrote:
| I have Pebble Time. The compass app is a factory one, I
| believe.
| esel2k wrote:
| How or what do you integrate with google maps? I only see
| notifications and it stops after a while.
| odiroot wrote:
| I bought (ages ago) the _Nav Me_ companion app. It parses
| Google Maps notifications and shows you directions on the
| watch. Also vibrates and turns the light on for every step.
| robg wrote:
| Wonder how many are still using an iPod nano as a watch.
|
| https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunat...
| reaperducer wrote:
| _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.
| maratc wrote:
| 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.
| mmmlinux wrote:
| a replacement battery is 15$USD on ifixit...
| SanjayMehta wrote:
| I loved my 80Gb classic iPod. When its hard drive finally
| died I couldn't bring myself to dispose of it.
| hellomyguys wrote:
| You can definitely replace the hard drive with parts
| online!
| RajT88 wrote:
| 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.
| fny wrote:
| 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
| emj wrote:
| 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...
| anoonmoose wrote:
| 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
| triyambakam wrote:
| How easy is to write games for a Bangle.js 2? I want a
| hackable smart watch that I can make simple games for :)
| emj wrote:
| 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
| helsinkiandrew wrote:
| 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.
| GloriousKoji wrote:
| 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.
| jhatemyjob wrote:
| 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.
| rchaud wrote:
| 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.
| gibolt wrote:
| 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
| dieselgate wrote:
| 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.
| mrcheesebreeze wrote:
| planned obsolescence
| dont__panic wrote:
| 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?
| andrepd wrote:
| 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.
| huehehue wrote:
| 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.
| unsafecast wrote:
| 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.
| womod wrote:
| 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.
| whitexn--g28h wrote:
| 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.
| capitainenemo wrote:
| 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.
| frosted-flakes wrote:
| 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.
| capitainenemo wrote:
| 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.
| jbj wrote:
| 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
| zeppelin101 wrote:
| You can still get those batteries replaced. It's just a lot
| more work.
| bitwrangler wrote:
| 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.
| tdeck wrote:
| 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.
| janef0421 wrote:
| 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.
| rchaud wrote:
| 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 EUR500 for a replaceable battery phone with internals
| several years old isn't the right choice for me.
| gambiting wrote:
| >>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.
| pmontra wrote:
| 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.
| dont__panic wrote:
| 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%!
| theodric wrote:
| 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.
| andrepd wrote:
| 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
| 40degC
|
| If you sporadically need full capacity (travelling, etc),
| just hit the "charge once to 100%" button and you're good
| to go.
| jackmott42 wrote:
| 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.
| gnramires wrote:
| 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%).
| HWR_14 wrote:
| > 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.
| detritus wrote:
| 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.
| WanderPanda wrote:
| 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
| Ma8ee wrote:
| 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.
| jonny_eh wrote:
| 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
| thepasswordis wrote:
| 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.
| eddieroger wrote:
| 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.
| nehal3m wrote:
| You could pull the SIM out of a smartphone. Not the same, but
| similar?
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| 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.
| gnicholas wrote:
| Can it control music playback from a linked smartphone?
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| 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.
| Pfhortune wrote:
| Folks ITT will talk about watches that are similar in hardware,
| but what was magic about Pebble was the software and ecosystem.
| The OS was just a delight to use, fast, wonderfully animated, and
| let you sideload whatever you want.
|
| 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!
| monsieurgaufre wrote:
| 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.
| etothepii wrote:
| 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.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| 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!
| balfirevic wrote:
| > 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.
| bryceacc wrote:
| what would you map those buttons to?
| jonny_eh wrote:
| Lap? Reset? The buttons on there only talk to the OS, apps
| don't have their own buttons to use.
| davidbanham wrote:
| 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.
| modeless wrote:
| 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.
| diego_moita wrote:
| 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.
| haunter wrote:
| > 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
| diego_moita wrote:
| 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.
| WorldMaker wrote:
| 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.)
| Jackim wrote:
| I think the above posted was saying more that the Pebble is
| the only smartwatch with all of those features.
| jonas-w wrote:
| 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)
| john-radio wrote:
| Apple Watch is arguably not a general purpose "smartwatch"
| since it's actually only usable by those who happen to use
| iPhones.
| FeistySkink wrote:
| 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.
| diego_moita wrote:
| > 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.
| esel2k wrote:
| 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?
| diego_moita wrote:
| - 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
| jbj wrote:
| 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.
| SyneRyder wrote:
| _> 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).
| gnicholas wrote:
| 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.
| will0 wrote:
| 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.
| SyneRyder wrote:
| 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!
| MereInterest wrote:
| 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.
| throwaway2203 wrote:
| I just want a watch that shows the time, lets me see and respond
| to notifications and set the occasional reminder/alarm.
| ajolly wrote:
| 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.
| 627467 wrote:
| 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...
| paulcole wrote:
| 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.
| cptaj wrote:
| Its me. I'm 12 of them.
| ghaff wrote:
| 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.
| andrepd wrote:
| 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
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| 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.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| 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.
| xrd wrote:
| 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?
| mikepurvis wrote:
| 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.
| JCharante wrote:
| 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.
| ccouzens wrote:
| 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.
| david_allison wrote:
| 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
| paulcole wrote:
| 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.
| xrd wrote:
| 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.
| paulcole wrote:
| 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.
| hprotagonist wrote:
| hr tracking, and listening to your own music with no sack-
| whacking in the gym.
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| 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).
| ClassyJacket wrote:
| I just like being able to customize the watch face
| basically, and see notifications without pulling out my
| phone.
| robertlagrant wrote:
| > 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.
| ghaff wrote:
| 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.
| dotnet00 wrote:
| 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.
| Gigachad wrote:
| 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.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _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.
| hnbad wrote:
| 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.
| fattybob wrote:
| 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
| chaostheory wrote:
| I've owned two pebble steel watches. I didn't notice this even
| with the one I kept
| SentientAtom wrote:
| 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.
| o10449366 wrote:
| 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.
| darau1 wrote:
| I know a guy that bought every new Samsung flagship device as
| soon as they hit stores. He said he just has to upgrade.
| lnsru wrote:
| 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.
| ghaff wrote:
| 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.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Wouldn't be my choice for sure. But he presumably sells the
| old one.
| cableshaft wrote:
| 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.
| guerrilla wrote:
| 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.
| darau1 wrote:
| 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.
| aliqot wrote:
| I wonder sometimes how can people reconcile buying a new X
| every Y and still be concerned about human rights and the
| environment, etc.
| biftek wrote:
| 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!
| [deleted]
| benj111 wrote:
| 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.
| bunderbunder wrote:
| 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.
| toolz wrote:
| 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.
| bunderbunder wrote:
| I always worry a little when something is both the
| purported solution to and the primary cause of a problem.
| x86x87 wrote:
| Hmm. A sufficiently technologically advanced human
| species may greatly accelerate the arrival of the next
| extinction event.
| benj111 wrote:
| 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.
| jasonlotito wrote:
| > 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.
| automatic6131 wrote:
| 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.
| tppiotrowski wrote:
| "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
| coffeeblack wrote:
| Both is to raise your social status among your "friends".
| scarface74 wrote:
| So by only buying a new X every zY you're somehow showing
| more concern about human rights?
| irrational wrote:
| How do you know any of them even are actually concerned
| about those issues and don't just give lip service (if even
| that)?
| jasonlotito wrote:
| I wonder sometimes how can people reconcile buying a new X
| ever and still be concerned about human rights and the
| environment, etc.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I expect that most people buy what they want and human
| rights and the environment are just something they discuss
| online.
| smolder wrote:
| 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.
| x86x87 wrote:
| 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.
| ZaoLahma wrote:
| 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.
| arsome wrote:
| 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.
| fullstop wrote:
| 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.
| ehnto wrote:
| 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.
| thorin wrote:
| 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.
| dotnet00 wrote:
| 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.
| bombcar wrote:
| 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
| olau wrote:
| 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.
| Retric wrote:
| What 10 year old iPad alternative is still receiving
| updates?
|
| I get the annoyance, but I just don't know of viable
| alternatives.
| fsflover wrote:
| There are none, but PineTab will receive updates forever,
| since it can run mainline Linux kernel.
| bombcar wrote:
| 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.
| bunderbunder wrote:
| 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.)
| Angostura wrote:
| For context, this model was discontinued 10 years ago
| [deleted]
| dpcx wrote:
| 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.
| fsflover wrote:
| > Until we have devices that can work from our own hosted
| systems
|
| We already do: https://pine64.org/pinetime.
| hedora wrote:
| Is that working yet?
|
| (I like my pine book pro; honest question.)
| fsflover wrote:
| It seems so:
| https://www.pine64.org/2022/10/18/infinitime-1-11/.
| Gigachad wrote:
| 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.
| SyneRyder wrote:
| _> 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.
| koenvdb wrote:
| 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.
| [deleted]
| yonaguska wrote:
| 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.
| maratc wrote:
| > 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?
| adregan wrote:
| 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.
| benj111 wrote:
| >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.
| yonaguska wrote:
| 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.
| stinkytaco wrote:
| 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.
| benj111 wrote:
| 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.
| stinkytaco wrote:
| 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.
| dotnet00 wrote:
| 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.
| MereInterest wrote:
| 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
| scambier wrote:
| > 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.
| robertlagrant wrote:
| 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.
| tekchip wrote:
| That was v1. The latter versions solved most of those
| problems and rebble.io keeps a pebble 100% functional.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| - 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...
| amelius wrote:
| 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.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| sort-of-smart watch, you can get watches that tell the time
| for $5 or less.
| stinkytaco wrote:
| 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.
| edejong wrote:
| 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.
| jerlam wrote:
| 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.
| gnicholas wrote:
| 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.
| edejong wrote:
| 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).
| lapetitejort wrote:
| 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.
| czx4f4bd wrote:
| 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.
| bedast wrote:
| 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.
| aembleton wrote:
| 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.
| aembleton wrote:
| Also, the Neo is worth looking at as you get four buttons
| https://www.amazfit.com/en/neo
| INTPenis wrote:
| 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.
| gnicholas wrote:
| 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.
| INTPenis wrote:
| 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.
| gnicholas wrote:
| Can the Garmin control music playback from your smartphone?
| edejong wrote:
| 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)
| LeifCarrotson wrote:
| 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
| DC-3 wrote:
| 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.
| FeistySkink wrote:
| Yes for Android.
| bedast wrote:
| And iPhone. So basically the answer is just "yes".
| razemio wrote:
| Just checked the Garmin Fenix 7 and now I want to add one
| missing point to your list:
|
| - affordable
| seized wrote:
| Garmin has a wide range of watches, many of which meet most
| of those criteria. Except for hackable. I have a Vivoactive 4
| and I've been very happy with it.
| LibertyBeta wrote:
| The Forerunner 255 fits that bill. Or the other cheaper
| Forerunners. The Fenix line is more akin to the iPhone Pro
| Max.
| edejong wrote:
| 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
| jbj wrote:
| 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
| imiller wrote:
| 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.
| AshamedCaptain wrote:
| 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.
| FeistySkink wrote:
| And there are other lines like Venu, that are more focused
| on the smart part and are more affordable.
| odabaxok wrote:
| 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.
| FeistySkink wrote:
| 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.
| chaostheory wrote:
| 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.
| edejong wrote:
| The watch faces were something else indeed. Creative, funny
| and very geeky.
| emsimot wrote:
| 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.
| brewdad wrote:
| 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.
| nosecreek wrote:
| 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.
| jmcphers wrote:
| 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/
| nosecreek wrote:
| Thanks. Looks like it's Android only, but I'll look to see if
| there's anything similar for iOS
| fullstop wrote:
| I have the Bip, but not an iPhone.
|
| I don't use the official app, which has mostly alleviated my
| privacy concerns.
| 627467 wrote:
| 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...
| mfashby wrote:
| 16,001 once I manage to repair mine :)
| Cpoll wrote:
| 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.
| 6chars wrote:
| 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.
| leokennis wrote:
| 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!
| alin23 wrote:
| 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.
| idoh wrote:
| 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.
| mmmlinux wrote:
| Sounds like you want a heart rate monitor and not a watch.
| jrmg wrote:
| I had an Epson Pulsense years ago. Looks like the PS-100 is
| still in sale and fits this description.
| dirtyid wrote:
| 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.
| FortiDude wrote:
| 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
| 51Cards wrote:
| 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.
| jbj wrote:
| in addition to these, there may be watches without a rebble
| subscription being used with gadgetbridge which can work without
| internet
| kojeovo wrote:
| Pebble was a game changer. Mine's in a drawer somewhere..
| ilyt wrote:
| 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...
| imdsm wrote:
| As is mine. Loathe to throw it away, yet quite sure it doesn't
| work anymore.
| popcalc wrote:
| If you don't want it I'll gladly take it off your hands.
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| 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 :(
| hobo_mark wrote:
| 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...
| modeless wrote:
| 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...)
| rekoil wrote:
| 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.
| drewzero1 wrote:
| 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.
| krono wrote:
| 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...
| rekoil wrote:
| Ah man, it _still_ looks great in comparison to the stuff in
| the market today
|
| :(
| danjoredd wrote:
| 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
| efields wrote:
| that is... a small number
| breck wrote:
| 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.
| [deleted]
| Daedren wrote:
| 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.
| dkasper wrote:
| 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.
| h4waii wrote:
| 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.
| jpswade wrote:
| That doesn't seem that many, how many people use Fitbit or Apple
| Watch?
| gnicholas wrote:
| 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!
| p0pcult wrote:
| For a watch that you can no longer buy from OEM or get OEM
| support from, it's a lot, no?
| naoru wrote:
| 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.
| keraf wrote:
| 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
| Belphemur wrote:
| 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.
| tootie wrote:
| 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
| wongarsu wrote:
| 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.
| dcormier wrote:
| 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.
| falcolas wrote:
| 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.
| rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote:
| 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.
| falcolas wrote:
| 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.
| blueblob wrote:
| You guys seem to be more informed than me since I didn't
| use the pebble. Do you know how the pinetime compares?
| Avamander wrote:
| 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.
| falcolas wrote:
| 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.
| jabroni_salad wrote:
| 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.
| gnicholas wrote:
| 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.
| delecti wrote:
| 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.
| xrd wrote:
| 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?
| fullstop wrote:
| 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.
| delecti wrote:
| 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.
| delecti wrote:
| 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.
| tekchip wrote:
| 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.
| wingmanjd wrote:
| 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.
| _fat_santa wrote:
| 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.
| porcc wrote:
| 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
| dTal wrote:
| 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.
| palata wrote:
| I wonder: could one possibly run a custom ROM like
| bangleJS on a Garmin?
| opan wrote:
| 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.
| keraf wrote:
| 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.
| sethd wrote:
| 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
| iamjackg wrote:
| 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.
| Belphemur wrote:
| 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...
| happymellon wrote:
| 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?
| ziml77 wrote:
| 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).
| stareatgoats wrote:
| 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.
| augasur wrote:
| 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?
| fullstop wrote:
| > 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?
| solarkraft wrote:
| 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.
| pmlamotte wrote:
| 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.
| capableweb wrote:
| 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 :)
| rypskar wrote:
| Maybe a Garmin vivomove HR, I got mine for the same reasons
| jjice wrote:
| 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.
| mikestew wrote:
| _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.
| jjice wrote:
| Oh thank god. I'm just ignorant.
| ryukafalz wrote:
| > 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.
| Wildgoose wrote:
| 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.
| idiotsecant wrote:
| 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?
| seized wrote:
| 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).
| will0 wrote:
| 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.
| mrcwinn wrote:
| "That few?"
|
| "Why nobody else makes such a watch is a mystery to me."
|
| There ya go.
| MBCook wrote:
| 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.
| Chris2048 wrote:
| Other than battery life, how does this compare to iwatch?
| cianmm wrote:
| 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.
| stardenburden wrote:
| Most Garmin watches fit your formula
| darrenf wrote:
| > _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.
| Watchwatcher wrote:
| 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.
| brewdad wrote:
| 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.
| rdschouw wrote:
| 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. :)
| altintx wrote:
| 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.
| rdschouw wrote:
| 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.
| Markoff wrote:
| 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
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| > just watch with notifications so I don't have to turn on
| phone screen
|
| you might like the Withings
| Markoff wrote:
| they are anything but cheap, display to show notifications
| seem to have only expensive models
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