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by jai_ 506 days ago
I'm somewhat confused to why Google needed to open source the original Pebble source code for this project to exist?

Was it not possible to already create a comparible e-ink screen, long life battery, smart watch without the source code? Is it the pebble branding itself that is important somehow?
3 comments
lazerwalker 506 days ago
Just basing things off of Android won't get you the "measured in days to weeks" battery life people appreciated about the Pebble, and building your own watch OS from scratch optimized for battery life but still supporting BLE connection to a phone sounds like a great way to spend several years.
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marcel_hecko 506 days ago
As per blog post:

"PebbleOS took dozens of engineers working over 4 years to build..."

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Avamander 506 days ago
It's really really difficult to make a full smartwatch OS that's nice to use. The closest OSS one I've seen (and also worked on) is InfiniTime for PineTime, it's great but it still needs tons of work. Now imagine you have an ecosyste people have built for years. It's such a massive difference.
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