Google open-sources the OS of the pioneering smartwatch 'Pebble', former developers launch Pebble revival project
The OS for
See the code that powered the Pebble smartwatches | Google Open Source Blog
https://opensource.googleblog.com/2025/01/see-code-that-powered-pebble-smartwatches.html
Why We're Bringing Pebble Back
We're bringing Pebble back!
https://repebble.com/
The Pebble smartwatch is making a comeback, with some help from Google - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/27/24352968/pebble-smartwatch-open-source-google-comeback
Pebble, which began development in 2008, raised more than $10 million (about 1.55 billion yen) from 68,000 people around the world through crowdfunding site Kickstarter in 2012. In the years that followed, Pebble sold more than 2 million smartwatches and achieved sales of more than $230 million (about 35.6 billion yen) .
Pebble then sold its intellectual property to Fitbit, a company that develops fitness trackers and smartwatches, in 2016. Google then acquired Fitbit in 2019, and Pebble became part of Google.
Google parent company acquires wearable device giant Fitbit - GIGAZINE
Pebble OS, the operating system for Pebble, has not had a software update since December 2016, but it still has thousands of die-hard fans. Eric Migikovsky, the developer of Pebble, sold his startup Beeper to Automattic in 2024 and left the company, which led him to think about 'redeveloping a product like Pebble.' Migikovsky also thought, 'Why not ask Google to open source Pebble OS?' and actually asked Google.
Contrary to Migikovsky's prediction that open sourcing the OS would be extremely difficult, Google open-sourced Pebble OS on January 27, 2025. They released the entire OS, which provides various smartwatch functions such as notifications, media control, and fitness tracking on a microcontroller.
In response to this, Migikovsky launched a new smartwatch development project ' RePebble ' using the open source Pebble OS. At the time of writing, the RePebble site is accepting waitlists and news subscriptions.
'I've tried a lot of different smartwatches, but nothing has really worked for me. No smartwatch has ever had the features I want,' said Migikovsky, listing the features he would like to see in a smartwatch.
- Always-on e-paper screen
-Long-lasting battery
・Simple and beautiful UI
- Physical buttons for operating various functions
-Watch face creation feature
'Thank you so much, Google! I can't thank everyone who has been involved in open sourcing Pebble OS enough,' said Migicovsky. 'A small team, including myself, is working on a new Pebble-like smartwatch that will run the open source Pebble OS and stay true to the core vision of Pebble with all the features you love.'
'We hope that this open sourcing will help move forward with support for Pebble, which many users still love. However, if someone wants to build a new firmware update, they will need to do a lot of work to find replacements for parts that have been removed from the public source code and to update this source code, which hasn't been maintained for several years,' Google said.
The open source Pebble OS source code is available on GitHub.
GitHub - google/pebble: This is the latest version of the internal repository from Pebble Technology providing the software to run on Pebble watches. Proprietary source code has been removed from this repository and it will not compile as-is. This is for information only.
https://github.com/google/pebble
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