Google Has Open-Sourced the Pebble Smartwatch OS 22
Google has open-sourced the PebbleOS, with the original founder, Eric Migicovsky, starting a company to continue where he left off in 2016. "This is part of an effort from Google to help and support the volunteers who have come together to maintain functionality for Pebble watches after the original company ceased operations in 2016," said Google in a blog post. The Verge reports: The company -- which can't be named Pebble because Google still owns that -- doesn't have a name yet. For now, Migicovsky is hosting a waitlist and news signup at a website called RePebble. Later this year, once the company has a name and access to all that Pebble software, the plan is to start shipping new wearables that look, feel, and work like the Pebbles of old. The reason, Migicovsky tells me, is simple. "I've tried literally everything else," he says, "and nothing else comes close." Sure, he may just have a very specific set of requirements -- lots of people are clearly happy with what Apple, Garmin, Google, and others are making. But it's true that there's been nothing like Pebble since Pebble. "For the things I want out of it, like a good e-paper screen, long battery life, good and simple user experience, hackable, there's just nothing."
The core of Pebble, he says, is a few things. A Pebble should be quirky and fun and should feel like a gadget in an important way. It shows notifications, lets you control your music with buttons, lasts a long time, and doesn't try to do too much. It sounds like Migicovsky might have Pebble-y ambitions beyond smartwatches, but he appears to be starting with smartwatches. If that sounds like the old Pebble and not much else, that's precisely the point. [...] Migicovsky also hopes to be part of a broader open-source community around Pebble OS. The Pebble diehards still exist: a group of developers at Rebble have worked to keep many of the platform's apps alive, for instance, along with the Cobble app for connecting to phones, and the Pebble subreddit is surprisingly active for a product that hasn't been updated since the Obama administration. Migicovsky says he plans to open-source whatever his new company builds and hopes lots of other folks will build stuff, too. Thank you Slashdot reader sziring for sharing this story.
The core of Pebble, he says, is a few things. A Pebble should be quirky and fun and should feel like a gadget in an important way. It shows notifications, lets you control your music with buttons, lasts a long time, and doesn't try to do too much. It sounds like Migicovsky might have Pebble-y ambitions beyond smartwatches, but he appears to be starting with smartwatches. If that sounds like the old Pebble and not much else, that's precisely the point. [...] Migicovsky also hopes to be part of a broader open-source community around Pebble OS. The Pebble diehards still exist: a group of developers at Rebble have worked to keep many of the platform's apps alive, for instance, along with the Cobble app for connecting to phones, and the Pebble subreddit is surprisingly active for a product that hasn't been updated since the Obama administration. Migicovsky says he plans to open-source whatever his new company builds and hopes lots of other folks will build stuff, too. Thank you Slashdot reader sziring for sharing this story.
Re:That means (Score:4, Funny)
Yup: no money to be made (Score:2)
It’s worthless (i.e. dead)
Yup.
Basically Google is more interested in bigger / more complex watches that can "gather more health tracking", i.e. steal more privacy to monetize, and thus concentrate on stuff like Android Wear, etc.
And the fun little gadget category has been obliterated by lots of small opensource projects such as, e.g., InfiniTime (opensource RTOS-based software that can run on devices whose spec is roughly in the same category as the venerable C64 - more seriously, you can run this on dead cheap hardware like Pine64'
They should call it... (Score:2)
Ripple (appears to be taken)
Skipper?
Portal?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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Re: (Score:2)
Why not go all the way back to Greek:
Schist "--on your wrist"
Re: They should call it... (Score:1)
Nugget!
Oh Happy Day! (Score:5, Interesting)
I am shocked at this development. Shocked, I tell you, but in a good way.
I was a Kickstarter backer for the Time release. I bought a Time Steel after that. I backed the Time 2 as well, though that never shipped. I subscribed to Rebble.io for years after 2016. I used both watches until the batteries gave out and popped the face plates off. I've still got the hardware somewhere in a drawer. I for one would love to see new Pebble hardware and a new OS.
As it is, I'm currently using an Amazefit GTR-4 (Zepp OS), controlled through GadgetBridge. I'd dearly love to get back some of the functionality that I had with my Pebbles but no one else offers, like the Timeline, voice replies, and an always-on screen (The GTR4 has "always on" but that is nerfed compared to the Pebble e-ink screen), a working calendar (Gadgetbridge tries with Zepp, but there's some major issues that keep plaguing me), and minus all the bloat that they shovel into these things.
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I'm an original Pebble backer, and am also now using an Amazfit (the Bip). I'd also pay for a Pebble successor. Really, I just want all the functionality of the latest smartwatches, with the months-long battery life of the Pebble. I think e-ink is the only way to do that, although advances in battery tech or maybe some algorithm for turning the display on only when it knows you're looking at it (not just when it moves a certain way) could do the trick. My Bip does last about a month on a charge (but it
Re: (Score:2)
name idea (Score:2)
We need cost-conscious consumers (Score:2)
Want small format networked lcd display cards (Score:2)
Always wanted one but don't wear a watch now.. Still it is interesting and kind of would like to see this OS maybe just not in a watch format but a similar small reflective or e-ink display. I've gotten used to them with my daily use of a Kindle signature edition, and also really like the display on my Daylight Computer DC-1. I'd like to be able to carry some thin, small, networked e-ink tableticles in my pocket like the display in the pebble. Let them update from my phone, wifi or computer in the backgroun
What about OS/2 Warp ? (Score:3)
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Do they even own the rights anymore?
Great news indeed (Score:2)
I was an avid Pebble user back in the day, and still think about it and WeatherGraph fondly. It did exactly what it was supposed to do, did it well, and because it wasn't bloated with a bunch of stuff no one asked for it had a ~week battery life.
Looking forward to hopefully more devices coming out.