cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/25280992
Google agreed to release Pebble OS to the public. As of Monday, all the Pebble firmware is available on GitHub, and Migicovsky is starting a company to pick up where he left off.
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.
Dude, Migicovsky fucked it up once and already wants back in? He sold the Pebble company and fucked almost all the workers on the way out. They were promised their jobs, that their jobs would be part of the deal. At the last minute they find out, nope, Migicovsky signed off on the deal that left them all without jobs. He walked away with a fat stack of cash.
Then the idiot spun up Beeper and hacked his way into the iMessage system with a workaround which Apple them promptly blocked within a few days. People were paying for this service. What was Migicovsky’s plan? None, he gave up after Apple blocked them once.
Further, Beeper is just a re-skinned Matrix client with the Beeper company hosting the open source bridges between services, which means they have always had some weirdly serious access to the chats they’re helping you compile all in one place. Initially you basically had to give them way too much control over your Apple account to use the iMessage stuff since they had to have a fleet of Macs for each iMessage user they were supporting.
I’m sorry. I don’t care how good it was. Don’t let Migicovsky take your money and mismanage it again.
Why do people keep giving this guy good graces when he fucked over his own devs on the way out and didn’t even have a plan on how to keep his iMessage system working for paying customers?
Please stop letting this guy fuck up and walk away with the money.
I’m aware that pine64 sells a smart watch that they encourage flashing your own OS onto. I wonder how hard it’d be to just port the pebble code onto that hardware (a lot harder than I just made it sound, no doubt.) It could be a good way to get a pebble-like experience for people who prefer not to support this guys new company.
I’ve sadly never seen this, thank you!
Thank you for this perspective. It is against reminder of how sad it is to be a part of something as an Engineer, or even as a janitor so long as it wasn’t a contracted out company, where those above make way to save themselves while the workers who made everything get left with nothing or another round of a resume update. The workers should get the sold profits, not just the executive parts. They sometimes don’t even get the ethics and degrees that allow you to understand the work.
There were actually a couple attempts, but it’s kinda in Apple’s hands… I think he was hoping he could generate enough public outcry to force them to not block it. You can also still access it now, if you have your own mac.
It’s their own client, not just reskinned, and it has a bunch of new features designed to make cross-service nice and simple. Also, the bridges ARE open-source, but the beeper company wrote a few of them and decided to open source them.
He refunded everyone who bought a subscription when Apple blocked it. Beeper main is also free.
I’m hoping someone else comes up with a better open source service
Than matrix? Me, too. It’s so complex, cumbersome, and full of half-functional clients.
Thankfully someone invented xmpp omemo way back in the day.
XMPP is a mess as well.
Having been in company at sales time my self, I can tell you that management will say all sorts of things. But once the sale completes the new owners can do anything, that could be drop all the staff.
I my self also loved the pebble, till it all died. I did try repebble. But the android app was way past it then.
My hope is that the mobile apps get a much needed update, then all the working watches get a firmware update. If that happens, I might have to get my working watch out and setup.
I wasn’t interested in one at the time so I didn’t know any of this, I thought they just stopped making watches. I’ve been reconsidering getting one and probably wouldn’t have looked into the history of each company so I appreciate the rant.