Fitbit Will End Support For Pebble Smartwatches In June (arstechnica.com) 93
Today, Fitbit announced that it will extend its support of the Pebble smartwatch ecosystem, including devices, software, and forums, until June 30, 2018. "During this time, we invite the Pebble community to explore how familiar highlights from the Pebble ecosystem are evolving on the Fitbit platform, from apps and clock faces to features and experiences," the company's blog post states. Ars Technica reports: Fitbit's invitation is a hopeful one for the company itself. After the buyout, members of the Pebble team helped Fitbit develop its own smartwatch OS that debuted on the $300 Fitbit Ionic last year. Fitbit is likely hoping that diehard members of the Pebble community, many of which developed apps and programs for the smartwatch platform, will try making similar programs for Fitbit's new wearable operating system. The Fitbit SDK is already quite accessible, allowing developers to sign up and start building programs using all-online tools. But in addition to the accessibility of the SDK, Fitbit wants to entice Pebble users with a discount: users with a valid Pebble device serial number can get $50 off a Fitbit Ionic smartwatch. It's currently the only device that runs Fitbit OS, and it's useful to have if you want to test out any apps made with the SDK. But for those who want nothing to do with Fitbit OS development and only care about how long their Pebbles will last, this news is bittersweet. According to Fitbit's announcement, Pebble devices will continue to work after June 30, but these features will stop working: the Pebble app store, the Pebble forum, voice recognition features, SMS and email replies, timeline pins from third-party apps (although calendar pins will still function), and the CloudPebble development tool.
Re: (Score:1)
I think the voice recognition they used connected to a Pebble hosted server to do the grunt work rather than doing it on device.
SMS/Email will work for Android still (Score:5, Interesting)
Kinda stupid in that fitbit could have made a simple subscription model and generate a steady revenue without much effort , instead they are killing pebble.
Ah, Fitbit (Score:3, Interesting)
Ah, Fitbit. The company that couldn't even get face rotation for the appropriate wrist done correctly. [fitbit.com]
No thank you. I'd rather not deal with outright incompetents.
Re: (Score:1)
What kind of stupid problem is that? How did those people manage to live with mechanical watches without their precious "face rotation"?
Re: (Score:2)
Well, since you couldn't be bothered to read the link I provided, here's a for-instance:
Re:SMS/Email will work for Android still (Score:5, Funny)
They do have a subscription model. It's called "buy a new Fitbit every year". It's about $25/month.
Re: (Score:2)
Kinda stupid in that fitbit could have made a simple subscription model and generate a steady revenue without much effort , instead they are killing pebble.
Have you built an end-end device subscription service, and if so, was it "without much effort"?
Nope - Former Pebble Owner (Score:5, Interesting)
I had the original Pebble watch from Kickstarter, and Pebble Time Steel from Kickstarter. My favorite watches. I had the Pebble Time Steel 2 on Pre-order on Kickstarter when it was canceled. I will absolutely NEVER buy a Fitbit product again due to the way they ripped apart Pebble.
Understandably, Pebble was in trouble and was going bankrupt. Legally Fitbit had every right to do what they did, and maximize profits. However the way they bought only Pebble's IP, and hired on it's Developers, not taking on the company itself, was just a dick move. People who bought a BRAND NEW Pebble 2, Pebble Round, or any other pebble the DAY before the announcement LOST their warranty and ALL SUPPORT, despite Fitbit making it seem like they took over the company. I for one had my vibration motor for notifications die just a few days after the announcement, despite being under 1 year old, I was stuck. Likewise Pebble had all the leg work done for the Pebble Time Steel 2 watch, that IS the Fitbit Ionic in 95% of the features, including Tooling, design, software.. they could have just released it. Pebble was also HUGE and had inlays into retail and big online stores. Fitbit could have EASILY utilized the branding and name.. but chose the cheap way out. I feel like another company could have easily come in and actually done right and kept the brand going. Instead they let themselves be cannibalized by Fitbit.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd be willing to pay towards supporting a
Re: (Score:3)
https://rebble.io/ [rebble.io]
Not yet a fully functioning replacement for the PebbleOS, but it's a project that at least has some legs.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I own a Pebble Time Steel and I love the device. An always-on display and several days worth of charge are requirements and none of the Android watches provide that. iWatches only work with iPhones, so they aren't an option.
I looked at the FitBit devices and they're all garbage for my purposes. I don't want a fitness tracker, I want a smartwatch! I find it ironic that FitBit kept the Pebble developers since each update to my Pebble seemed to break something important. The fitness tracking features tha
Re: (Score:2)
When the Pebble 2 and Core were announced, I just right on Kickstarter and pledged. The Core itself was an absolutely brilliant idea. It allowed you to get that cellular communication *when you wanted it* in a smaller package than a phone AND it didn't force the watch to become obnoxiously bulky. This was the holy grail solution for runners.
And then came the Fitb
Re: (Score:1)
Ditto here. Not to mention that the Ionic is a *joke* compared to what Pebble was releasing. Yeah, the early Pebble watches were plasticy, but the Time Steel 2 (which I was also on the kickstarter for) was a nice looking watch and would have had a color screen and approx a week of battery-life. There is *still* no watch that compares.
I've had a Huawei Fit (the B&W model) which was comparable in battery life but very lacking in features, and gone through various "Android Wear" watches which all have fair
Re: (Score:2)
However the way they bought only Pebble's IP, and hired on it's Developers, not taking on the company itself, was just a dick move.
Maybe you should look at Pebble for the dick (or maybe just dumb) moves.
I feel like another company could have easily come in and actually done right and kept the brand going. Instead they let themselves be cannibalized by Fitbit.
They sure could have. We've since learned that they had buyout offers from Tag Heur, Intel (for $70m), and Citizen (for $740m). But the chose to grind the company into the dirt and sell for $40m. Fitbit was the only one that was offering at the end.
Pebble was also HUGE and had inlays into retail and big online stores. Fitbit could have EASILY utilized the branding and name.. but chose the cheap way out.
I am positive that Fitbit analyzed their business opportunities and made the choice which would net them the most profit (which is all that can be expected). Pebble closed it's doors for a re
Android Watches and such. (Score:1)
why can these devices not operate like any other Android Product and allow the install of F-Droid like Apps that allow for support for CarDav/CardDav/etc. Or whatever resource they connect to with some other privately owned device/server not controlled by FitBit?
Re: (Score:1)
why can these devices not operate like any other Android Product and allow the install of F-Droid like Apps that allow for support for CarDav/CardDav/etc. Or whatever resource they connect to with some other privately owned device/server not controlled by FitBit?
Because they're not Android products, dumbass.
Re: (Score:1)
Or whatever resource they connect to with some other privately owned device/server not controlled by FitBit?
In other words, why won't Fitbit let users install apps that let the watch connect to servers not controlled by Fitbit? I think the reason is Fitbit would lose control over the device.
Cacelling the Pebble... (Score:5, Interesting)
I can see how it's worth the extra money.
Re:Cacelling the Pebble... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
My watch has a 6 month battery life - if I leave it in a drawer. it's solar powered though so if I wear it normally, it never needs a battery change or manual intervention at all.
Tells the time great, does the usual stopwatch stuff and looks good on my wrist too.
I just don't get why you'd want to have all the hassle of having to recharge a watch all the time, for the sake of a few extra functions your phone already does much better than the small watch form factor ever can.
Re: (Score:3)
How do you change your watch display to show two time zones at once? Or show Donkey Kong and have him do an animation when you flick your wrist? Can you control your music player with your watch? Can you play Tiny Bird while sitting on the toilet? Can you roll six d20's on your watch?
I have a watch with a mechanical movement, it will run pretty much forever without needing to be taken off and charged. It's been sitting in my watch winder since I've owned by Pebble Time Steel. My Pebble does need to
Cute (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Apple is also the OS provider. Older devices, including 1st generation Mac Pro are no longer supported at the OS level unlike with MS, where Windows 10 will run on Core2 Duo processors. Apple support really is bad if you compare to MS.
Re: (Score:2)
Correct. Though they still run Linux just fine.
Re: (Score:2)
Are you one of those who also complain about newer releases slowing down older hardware, or are you at least a tiny bit consistent?
Re: (Score:2)
Pity you can't pair an Apple Watch with any non-Apple phone.
Re: (Score:2)
I got an iPhone and a Nexus tablet at the same time (years ago). The Nexus stopped getting updates years ago. The iPhone just got a new version.
Re: (Score:1)
The Nexus tablet will also receive third party updates from Lineage OS into the foreseeable future regardless of what Google does. Your iPhone will still stop getting updates, just a few years later.
They didn't discontinue it (Score:2)
Fitbit is keeping Pebble's ecosystem going until mid-2018 despite having no obligation to do so. If Fitbit (or anyone else) hadn't bought Pebble's IP, you would've lost support and the ecosystem when Pebble shut down in Dec 2016. If people persist in blaming Fitbit for "killing" Pebble, next time a popular company goes bankrupt the buyer will probably just
Re: (Score:2)
There's some truth to what you say... but the truth from my perspective as an original Pebble backer and Pebble Time Steel backer (which is still my "daily driver") what Fitbit did wrong with the whole thing is ignoring the pretty much captive market they already had. Instead of buying up the product itself they ignore what is still the best smartwatch on the market today for many people's needs. It does exactly what it needs to do and no more, and has a battery that lasts a week (and takes maybe an hour to
No ePaper display (Score:5, Insightful)
Until someone can make a slim smartwatch that is on all the time and runs several days on a charge I'm sticking with my Pebble regardless of the software support.
Re: (Score:2)
It's the backlight which consumes huge amounts of power, not the LCD itself.
That's not to dismiss ePaper - it doesn't need to be refreshed. It only consumes power when you're changing the image. LCDs need to be refreshed to maintain an image, and when you have pixels arranged in a grid the rows n
Re:No ePaper display (Score:4, Interesting)
My key point is smartwatches are a convenient display alternative to my phone screen but I do not play games or movies or anything else that need 60Hz refresh so ePaper is perfect as it is on 100% of the time. LCDs are the fatal flaw (IMHO) with every other smartwatch.
Re: (Score:2)
LCDs are the fatal flaw (IMHO) with every other smartwatch.
If you spend a few minutes searching you'll find there's a half-dozen other watches out there that use an ePaper or eInk display. Check out the Sony FES for example [sony.com]. Unfortunately none of them match the feature set of the Pebble Time.
Re: (Score:3)
Sony make an ePaper smart watch. The whole band is covered in ePaper in fact, as well as the face. It's kinda expensive, but I probably didn't need to say that given that it's a Sony.
why now? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
On December 7, 2016, Pebble officially announced that the company would be shut down and would no longer manufacture or continue support for any devices, nor honor any existing warranties.
That was when FitBit bought Pebble and killed it.
So the online stuff goes away... (Score:4, Interesting)
...but my Pebble will continue to do what I need. Showing golf yardages, showing speed and distance while I'm biking, showing caller ID and MP3 names. Basically it is just a remote display for my phone. It does not need any online services to do this.
I'm sad to see Fitbit kill Pebble, but the simplicity of the original is what made it what it was. Trying to make it "smarter" did not necessarily make it better. Just another in a huge field.
And in other news... (Score:3)
Casio and Timex will be ending support for timekeeping for all watches made before 2016. Currently owners will get a discount on the new 2018 models with subscription-based timekeeping.
Dilation (Score:2)
Hear that flushing sound? (Score:2)
That's Fitbit rendering your $150-300 smart watch a useless piece of electronic junk.
Shoulda bought a Timex mechanical. Woulda lasted longer.
This. And there's more out there than Timex. (Score:2)
I have a bunch of mechanical watches. They last and last and last. I just finished servicing a '70s vintage Slava 2427. Two mainsprings, built coarsely and roughly and like a tank. Keeps on ticking, and keeps reasonably good time.
Good, high-quality mechanicals from the likes of Seiko and Orient are readily available on Amazon, eBay, or a bunch of other places for $100-$150. They don't need a battery, will run for 20 years without any attention, and when they do need attention, oils and parts to service them
Answers: (Score:2)
It has a fully autonomous assistant that adjusts it twice a year for daylight savings.
It has a GMT hand that can be set to alternate time zones.
It has a little window that shows the current date.
When it is rainy, it shows droplets of water on the crystal. When it is snowy, it shows snow on the crystal. When it's cold outside, it gets cold on your wrist.
Thankfully, it never lets me know when I "get a message" and refuses to help other people interrupt my life.
Re: (Score:2)
1: Manually.
2: Manually
3: Who cares, it's a WATCH, not a BAROMETER.
4: Who cares. It's a WATCH, not a smartphone.
5: No it doesn't. Know what else it doesn't do? Become expensive, useless junk after 5 years when the company ceases support.
6: Know what else it CAN do? BE SERVICED pretty much FOREVER, by any competent watchmaker.
Totally agree. And the super cool thing (Score:2)
is that servicing them isn't nearly as hard as I'd always assumed. I've just picked it up in the last year. Anyone who builds their own PCs or can code should have no trouble, they're actually not all that complicated—just *small*.
As it turns out, the key is the right tools. And these days, they're easy to get your hands on thanks to e-commerce. The guts of mechanical watches had always seemed intractable to me, but then I went out on a limb and bought an illuminated set of head-worn magnifying lenses
Re: (Score:2)
Only if you are using the watch just to show you the time. Which is kind of redundant because everyone and their dog have mobile phones nowadays.
Re: (Score:1)
... because everyone and their dog have mobile phones nowadays.
My dog has two mobile phones you insensitive clod. On a side note, remember the story of the "Chinese billionaire who bought two Apple Watch Editions for his dog. http://uk.businessinsider.com/... [businessinsider.com]
Re: (Score:2)
While I am indeed an insensitive clod, I have never specified the amount of mobile phones everyone and their dog have.
cause of death impacts carcass disposal (Score:3)
Some previous discussion: Without their needed displays Pebble was doomed [slashdot.org] — December 2016
The thesis in this thread was that Pebble fell victim to a single-sourced display technology, which was contested a few posts later. But supply issues can be complex, and available replacements unsuited in form factor, process, or price.
If it really was death by supply chain, that explains a lot about Fitbit consuming the carcass rather than resuming the company.
Pebble Teardown [ifixit.com] — March 2013
At this point, the display is a Sharp Microelectronics memory LCD.
Did some critical vendor actually go tits up?
In any case, my old Pebble is still on my wrist, functioning as a vibrating pill timer and I'm not presently in the market for something less open, but with more bling.
Don't go pebble! (Score:2, Insightful)
My pebble time steel is probably my favorite smart watch. I've had Android wear devices, but touch screens and gestures on a watch and just fidley and just don't work. The battery life on an android wear just isn't there.
The mistake that android wear has made is that is fails to work as a watch first.
Pebble time steel works as a watch, I can look at it at a glance and see the time. Android wear devices I've used need a press of the button or a flick to operate. I get a good 7 day battery life, sometimes mor
It's hard to feel sympathetic (Score:2)
Smartphones have a shelf life of about 3 years before performance, battery life or lack of updates render them kind of obsolete. At this point in their history, smart watches seem even more obsolescence prone.
Until either environmental regulations or advanced state of development render electronics a useful lifespan more in line with their physical wear and tear lfiespan, buyer beware and just assume it will be obsolete and unusable in 3 years or much less.
I avoid anything that relies on with "control with
If they really want success... (Score:1)
...they should give up on their own products and start producing and selling Pebbles again.
They own the technology for the best smartwatch yet produced, and still they push their own inferior products. I just don't get it.
Too late (Score:3)
I want the equivalent of a Mac Plus on my wrist. It's enough.
There are no less than 3 fully-capable compute devices at arm's length at all times. I need a timepiece and simple means to interact with those devices. That is all.