I would love to suggest to PG under the “Heath & Fitness” section, however it is best we know how it will go with the project before doing so and if people would be satisfied.
My new company (Core Devices) and I are proud to introduce two new watches that closely follow the original Pebble DNA. If you had a Pebble and loved it, or missed your chance 10 years ago but heard about it since, we think you will really enjoy these new devices.
For those unfamiliar with Pebble, it’s an e-paper smartwatch with simple functionality, long battery life and a fun, quirky design. It first launched on Kickstarter in 2012. The company was sold in 2016 to Fitbit. In January 2025, Google graciously open sourced PebbleOS, enabling anyone to build upon the amazing Pebble software foundation.
For more details, read the announcement blog post.
I actually own a Pebble Time 2 though, so this is interesting to me. That watch had a terrible Heart Rate sensor though, and I’m not really convinced this one will be much better. It’s tricky to pull off I guess.
Core 2 duo is for sure the most hilarious product Naming I’ve heard by far
ridiculous yet interesting considering when back then Core 2 Duo and Quads were the thing, There must be some sort of meaning that I can’t exactly explain.
I think the open source firmware/OS is a sell to me as a linux user but that’s just probably me.
A handful of commits updating packages or porting to new hardware does not make it a modern OS, and they have expressly stated that they won’t be making any major changes to the OS. Best practices and security considerations have changed drastically in the past decade.
Which has nothing to do with security, Linux is famously insecure.
They’ve also added a microphone to these new watches which is a complete non-starter for me. Unfortunately Garmin recently made the same backwards decision on their watches.
Because it’s a device with insecure software without a robust permissions model. How can a smartwatch be useful if I can’t trust it enough to be able to wear it or to receive my notifications on it?
still don’t see it. I trust it will be as secure as normal linux gets anyway when they start rolling out those firmware/security updates and considering I daily drive arch, eh.
As far as I’m concerned I would trust pebble more than my fitbit.
Considering it currently has no Bluetooth stack and starts shipping in a few months, it would make me even more worried about Bluetooth’s security if it gets rushed.
Never had a Pebble but the tech influencers wont stop yapping how good it was back then. So I guess I am curious now.
I dont understand why this needed a microphone. I’d probably get one if it had a hardware toggle switch. I have no need for a microphone in my watch as well…
Likely for smartwatch Bluetooth calling, Like Fitbit and some others do… (it’s both microphone and speaker so likely it will be Bluetooth Calling)
Otherwise it doesn’t make sense to add it but for them to add it they’re definitely working on something like Bluetooth calling. And I wouldn’t mind it, daresay I would love to have it as it comes useful in those few scenarios like driving. I know other don’t and I understand that so the concern and suggestion is understandable.
Can I email/tweet/DM and try to convince you to add X/Y/Z feature?
Sure. Feedback is always appreciated, but we’re not planning to make any changes to the hardware at this point. Also, it’s highly likely that we’ve already considered the feature in question and decided not to include it. Designing a smartwatch is an exercise in taste and constraint maximization.
Here’s the awesome part - PebbleOS is open source! You don’t need our permission to add new software features. You can modify the OS and run those changes on your watch. If you’re hardware inclined, you can even build your own watch (with different features or capabilities) and run PebbleOS on it.
Hmm so it seems that they might have already thought about hardware killswitch for bluetooth but maybe it is worth messaging them again.
With the bluetooth, they claim to use Nordic nRF52840 BLE chip I havent have the time to check it out for potential problems. Perhaps the more technical of us can check out if it is reasonably secure, updatable and without current vulnerabilities.
It seems that we have to choose between Barometer and compass or Heart rate monitor. It would have been nice to have both in the more more premium version.
At this point, I guess I am sourgraping a bit. I am tempted though but as it is, I dont really use a watch frequently and my mechanical watch looks at me with judging eyes right now. Maybe I should consider for health monitoring? We’ll see..,
Question. What makes Linux “famously insecure”? Beyond installing anything through random commands you find in the wild, I don’t see how Linux is more insecure than Windows. Linux code is open source and on the more popular distros vulnerabilities are found and fixed.
Also, the idea that Windows can even be considered secure at this point knowing it now includes spyware by default is just hilarious. I know privacy isn’t the same as security but as things stand all it takes is for Microsoft to suffer a breach for extremely sensitive data from billions of people to be exposed.
For me, this risk is way bigger than any risks I might run by daily driving Linux. Imo.
