A look back at the Pebble watch
Here is hoping the revival is at least as good as the originals instead of a cheap cash grab on the product name and history.
the original founder is involved and it’s been open sourced so hopefully
The original founder is a hack who has bailed on each of his companies. When Pebble shut down people were supposed to keep their jobs. Many found at the last minute that their jobs weren’t part of the deal.
He then started Beeper, fucked around and found out with Apple iMessage without a plan and then almost immediately gave up, which is wild because Beeper was a paid service. Don’t even get me started on the privacy implications of having them in control of all your bridges and them needing a fleet of Macs online to push the iMessages through. This meant, especially early in development, you were handing a bunch of credentials to Beeper. (Not to mention my own personal experience with their lack of care towards user privacy) He then bailed and sold the whole thing to that dickbag Matt Mullenweg.
Eric Migicovsky sucks noodles and I don’t trust him. This definitely feels like a cash grab. This guy has failed upward too many fucking times.
EDIT: Also to be clear, Google made this Open Source after buying Fitbit a few years ago. Migicovsky jumping in feels to me explicitly like a cash grab.
Beeper can still do IMessage, just selfhosted, which I think was the right route. Beeper has also contributed hugely to matrix’s bridges ecosystem, and all the bridges can be selfhosted, so there was never any need to give them your credentials, or even use their servers for your matrix host. I like what beeper is doing a lot. They also claim E2EE, and they use matrix so that’s entirely possible ( likely even ), but it’s also entirely possible that they can snoop on your messages as their version of the matrix server is closed source. They are also working on on-device bridges and have already released one for signal so you never have to send your credentials to any beeper servers. Beeper solves a ton of legitimate problems for me with stuff like client compatibility across platforms ( I can use any terminal to send iMessage now. That’s wonderful. ).
Eric’s projects consistently strike me as cool. It doesn’t seem like he really wants to do them himself though, it seems more like he just wants them to exist, and the only way that happens is if he does it. I assume that with the beeper situation he sold it because he assumed matt mullenwig would keep it going and the problem of unified messaging is solved. Then matt went a little crazy and that was less cool. I don’t know if there were signs of him being like this before the wp engine stuff, I only started paying attention to him after beeper sold to automattic.
There are a lot of problems in my life that I want solutions to that I think could be sold as products, but I don’t particularly want to run a company. I don’t think products will ever be developed which solve some of my problems. I could totally see myself doing what Eric has done here.
It seems like Eric bringing back pebble is just him wanting a good hackable watch. I don’t see why it needs to be any deeper than that. He doesn’t seem profit motivated ( otherwise why would you wade so deep into open source ).
I heard great things about the Pebble from someone who had one.
Personally, I had a few different smart watches and learned a bit about what I want over the years:
- Mi Bands (Xiomi Devices) that had otherworldly battery life (like a month and a half in some cases) but had trash sensors and were junk without the unofficial apps that made them great
- Some Android Wear/ WearOS smart watches
- a cheap ass POS Temu-equivilant no-name junk watch
- Multiple Garmin devices (touchscreen Venue and button controlled Fenix)
This made me realize a few things:
- I don’t want or need a super-smart watch
- battery life and capable sensors are way more important than stupid flashy shit
- the display tech I want indoors in my office is not the same display I want on a wear-everywhere watch (TFT looks stellar under bright sun)
- buttons beat a touchscreen each and every day of the week and make the watch a convenience rather than a finnicky gadget
To be fair, this is MY use case and yours may differ, but when it comes down to it, I’m sure that I’m not in the market for a wearOS or Apple Watch. I love the button operated TFT screen Garmin watch I’ve been using for a few years and if I don’t replace it with another Garmin watch, it’ll be something like Pine Time, Pebble, or something that works with gadgetbridge.
I liked the idea and when I had the gen 1 pebble it felt pretty neat. It lacked refinement (in both appearance / build quality and functionality though). I think we are putting it on a bit of a pedestal here though. I’d love to see a pairing back of something like the galaxy watch to a simpler, cleaner version with better battery life. I think smart watches are trying too hard to do too much right now and that’s something pebble understood from day 1.
I liked a lot both the OS and the form factor, it had some retrofuturistic feel that other “smart” watches lack. However, build quality was high crap, especially the last model they released.
I just hope that someone who’s good making watches would take on the design style and software.
Everyone hating on the build quality but my Pebble still works and I’ve gone through numerous other smart watches that have all died. Looking forward to the next gen!
I liked the build, although my Pebble 2 had rubber reversion issues on the side buttons that rendered them unusable. I’m really sad about that because I would’ve totally kept it around if not for that
Hey, I remember getting the original Kickstarter version! I still have it in a box in a closet somewhere
