this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
220 points (96.2% liked)

Technology

66783 readers
5079 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
220
submitted 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

Google recently open sourced Pebble and today, Repebble has put some of the watches up for preorder.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 38 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Genuinely considering it as I love e ink, lightweight, long battery life, and open source

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

IIRC, it has a reflective LCD, not epaper display.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Core 2 Duo

  • 1.2" black/white e-paper screen

Core Time 2

  • 1.5" 64 color e-paper screen

Am I missing something?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

The watch featured a 32-millimetre (1.26 in) 144 × 168 pixel black and white memory LCD using an ultra low-power "transflective LCD"

The problem is that e-paper is a category of displays, and some companies label reflective LCDs as "e-paper". Which is subjective (and I personally heavily disagree with that categorization, cause then LCD clocks and Gameboys have "e-paper" displays, too).

But in the comment I responded to it was said Pebble has "eink" display, which is categorically wrong, as that is a very specific proprietary technology, which is e-paper in traditional sense, like the ones in Kindles.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

Where exactly is that quote from? I had a look through the product page(s) and could only find e-paper being mentioned...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

Oh that seems to be new since the original pebble

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I understand that the watch operating system is open source. However, it seems that the watch will connect to a companion smartphone app. Do you know if the app is a requirement and/or if the app will be open source?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 hours ago

The hand-wavy answer is: go check the code and find out, however that's not accessible to everyone.

The helpful answer is: The code is out there, and the launch date is far enough away that those who do understand it enough to make that distinction should have the time to do so before it ships, so time will tell.

The Rebble folks probably are the closest to knowing, given they've been hacking on the current app for the past several years.

My guess is probably not. The target audience probably wouldn't be cool with it.

Also, there are 3rd party watchfaces and apps that will be available, so that code will need to be evaluated too. So, it's more complicated than a single yes or no.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago

Gadgetbridge is compatible with Pebble devices