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.
It could barely make calls. It can make calls as a party trick but you can’t really access your contacts book in an easily usable way, you can’t start new text conversations, and you can’t view your full calendar and you definitely can’t add events. I don’t need much for a watch to replace my phone but I do need it to call and text well and I need to be able to access my calendar. It’s very clear that those devices are designed and intended to add more tracking and monitoring and dopamine hooks on top of your phone, not to replace it with a less intrusive alternative. It was actually fairly frustrating.
Well, on a screen so small, you’d always be limited in what can be shown. I definitely can add events to my Calendar on Galaxy Watch 6 though, the problem is if I’d ever want to do it from the watch or check them on it. I use it for reminders and notifications checking mostly, personally.
Maybe it’s way more usable with Bixby or other voice assistants, but I’m really put off by the privacy and battery-draining aspects of those.