Eric Migicowski still wears his pebble. Thirteen years later, he founded and found Wearbals Company Huge success on kickstarterAnd after that more than eight years Sold the company to fitbitWhich was then Acquired by googleMigikovski's watch still works. (If you are thinking: When I saw him in CES a few weeks ago, he appeared wearing a white Pebble time Sample. But he has a box at home.) It has not received a software update since December 2016, however, and he is concerned for a while that it will eventually stop receiving information, or will join his phone , Or gone some other show stopping problems.
Instead of buying another smartwatch, Migikovski decided to try and go back to the pebble. He Sell your most recent startupA messaging app Is called BipperLast year left the company for automatic and in the decline. Since then, he thought of starting a pebble -like product from scratches, finding out that it would be easy to do the same thing again. “But then I was so, What if I have just asked Google to open the operating system“He says. It felt like a long shot, but he knew that the code was just sitting in the mountain scene. So he asked a few times.
For the surprise of Migicowski, Google agreed to release the pebble OS to the public. By Monday, All pebble firmware is available on GITHUBAnd Migicovsky is starting a company where he left.
Company – which cannot be named pebble because Google is still the owner – there is no name yet. For now, Migicovsky is hosting a weightlist and news signup on a website loosening upAt the end of this year, once the company has the name and access to all that pebble software, the plan is to plan to start shipping to new wearbals, which look, feel and work like old pebbles, and work Are.
The reason, Migicowski tells me, is simple. “I really tried to do everything,” he says, “nothing closer.” Certainly, he can just have a very specific set of requirements – many people are clearly happy what apple, garmin, google and others are making. But it is true that there is nothing like pebble since pebble. “For those things that I want out of it, a good e-paper screen, long battery life, good and simple user experience, hacked, just nothing.”
The origin of the pebble, he says, there are some things. A pebble should be bizarre and fun and feel like that Gadget In an important way. This shows information, lets you control your music with buttons, stays longer, and does not try too much. It seems that migicovsky may have pebble-Ji ambition beyond smartwatch, but it starts with smartwatch.
If it looks like an old pebble and there is not much, it is fine. Migicovsky repeatedly tells me that the plan is not to reinforce the pebble, or the AI excludes Bejesus from the concept, or whatever you will start a hardware company in 2025. And still works for him, there is evidence that perhaps the pebble had already completed his work. “We are doing a spiritual construction, not the successor, but a pebble clone,” he says, “because there is not enough I want to change.”
Many other things have changed in eight years, however. Google, Apple, and Samsung all now have good smartwatches which are tightly tied to their other devices – pebbles always have trouble gaining access to facilities on iOS, especially, and it is not easy. Smartwatch is currently health and fitness devices, and they are becoming much more complex and powerful in search of those features. Google clearly does not see any form of pebble as danger; Its best opportunity is to fully chart another route.
This time the biggest difference will be how the company itself operates. Migicowski wrote A long blog post in 2022 Stating what was wrong for the first time in pebbles and ended its failure to take a group of investment money and allow the company to change. Since then, Migikovski has earned a lot of money from Bipar and during a stent as an investor in Y Combinator; His new company is alone. Right now, it is just Migikovski and some part-time employee-it will grow, he says, but not much. “The main thing here is: permanent.”
“They could also use it in random other hardware. Who knows what people can do with it? ,
Migicowski also expects a part of a broad open-source community around the pebble OS. Pebbles are still present: a group of developers to rebel Has worked Keep many apps of platforms aliveFor example, with The cobble app To join the phone, and Pebble A surprisingly active for a product that has not been updated since the Obama administration. Migicowski says that she plans to open whatever her new company makes and hopes that many other people will also build goods. He says, “To take the pebble source code, compile it, run on their pebbles, build new pebbles, to build new watches,” is going to have the ability to anyone who wants, “they are going to have the ability” It is said that “they could use it in other hardware.
This entire project will take time, Migikovski Warning. They only came to know that Google would open the software a few days ago, and he has not been able to use it yet. But he is already working on the hardware prototype, and he is clear what he wants to be a new pebble. He knows that he can do this because he had already done it once. The evidence is there on his wrist. Whatever he is trying to do, make sure it can live there.