The Pebble smartwatch is making a comeback. Google has open-sourced the Pebble software, which means anyone — including Pebble’s founder — can make one.
The Pebble smartwatch is making a comeback. Google has open-sourced the Pebble software, which means anyone — including Pebble’s founder — can make one.
The OG smartwatch is getting a second life.
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.
I'd wear a smart watch again if it didn't suck ass and had a cool epaper display. But like... was the software being tied up the only barrier? He couldn't get someone else to just make new watch software?
There's patent and IP implications. They sold EVERYTHING to Fitbit, which I think included their rights to develop a software that would have been essentially the same.
!