Rebble · Blog

Jan 31, 2017 • by Ish Ot Jr.

Rebble Community Update 2

Welcome to the first Rebble Community Update of 2017! Please peruse our paraphrased prospectus of progress over the preceding period. If you’d like to add something, send us a tweet, or better still, submit a pull request!

It’s been over a month since our last update, though the lack of updates here belies the tremendous strides made across myriad projects! While our early efforts concentrated heavily on investigation and reverse engineering, often manifesting as wiki pages and rough proofs of concept, many projects are starting to mature into tangible, viable entities. The Rebble Store now has a live, functional front end, with the required back end to support it well underway. Firmware has moved beyond emulation and onto real hardware, with promising demos on both Pebble Time and Pebble Steel. Replacement graphics libraries and fonts are being scratch-built for inclusion in upcoming firmware. There have even been pics posted of what appears to be some kind of new Pebble-esque prototype! Details, source code links, videos, and more below…

Appstore

@sGerli, @Zetaphor, and @mvaneijgen have published a functional appstore front end at http://store.rebble.io/
@frostyfrog and @HenrydelMal ported @afourney’s Python bootstrap URI override to Go
@bbenne10 has been spearheading efforts on a Python-based appstore back end using imported data from our archived appstore copy, and is currently laying the groundwork for authorization and user management

Firmware

@ginge has been focusing on refactoring his FreeRTOS port recently, after implementing DMA for faster display refreshing, UART for smartstrap-based debugging, and making first contact with the power management IC and accelerometer; if you’re not sure what all that means, enjoy a nice video instead
after fully annotating the IDA database for the Pebble/Pebble Steel bootloader from QEMU, @jwise now has a checkerboard running on real Pebble Steel hardware, and is beginning to reverse the original Pebble’s firmware binary
@jneubrand’s neographics library currently supports paths and primitives, with drawcommands in the works!
@jneubrand’s new project, Renaissance - a replacement for the Gothic font - is underway! Community members who speak non-English languages (which are based on the Latin alphabet) are kindly asked to contact @johannesn#4019 via Discord for proofreading. @jneubrand also created a fantastic wiki page on the format and is looking for feedback on his ligature support proposal

Mobile Apps

@KonradIT has joined the native Android app effort

News and Miscellany

@juliendarrah and @ishotjr gave a sneak peek of their mysterious new hardware project in #hardware on Discord
rjndrx’s Simplications Kickstarter campaign was successfully funded!

Dec 19, 2016 • by Ish Ot Jr.

Rebble Community Update 1

A cordial hello, and welcome, to our inaugural Rebble Community Update! Herein lies a casual compendium of recent activity within the community. If you’d like to add something, send us a tweet, or better still, submit a pull request!

Not even two full weeks have passed since Pebble announced their closure, and already the community has made massive strides across all targets! Documentation has flourished, with over 100 total commits to the wiki. Scratch-built iOS and Android apps are underway, and the official iOS app has been successfully duped into loading the Rebble Store. Speaking of the Rebble Store, the front end has been largely completed, while efforts to marry it to back end functionality are underway. And apps themselves are free to roam thanks to MPUless firmware, while the firmware team also attacks from the other direction with scratch-built firmware and custom FreeRTOS capable of drawing to the Pebble Time’s display. Details and links to more information for these projects and more are included below.

wiki

@Jos635 explored and documented a number of Pebble APIs
@XDjackieXD documented STM32 pin assignments and Pebble Time screen/FPGA communication
@ginge and @jwise documented firmware disassembly with IDA
@jwise documented firmware flashing from the CLI via pebble REPL

Appstore

@sGerli, @Zetaphor, and a team of web all-stars created a demo appstore UI and began implementing the Vue.js framework in order to allow integration with ongoing back-end development
@afourney documented the inner workings of the Pebble appstore and successfully coaxed the stock iOS app into loading the Rebble appstore via bootstrap URI override

Firmware

@jwise blazed a trail for further exploration with his MPUless Pebble firmware
@ginge ~~got tantalizingly close to the checkerboard by drawing to the Pebble Time display via FPGA in his FreeRTOS port~~ breaking: successfully flashed a checkerboard on Pebble Time!!!
@jwise wrote some extremely tiny firmware

Mobile Apps

@misato successfully paired Pebble devices with her native iOS app
@qichuan’s native Android app is able to consume Pebble API JSON

News and Miscellany

@mvaneijgen created a Rebble mascot
/u/PotatoFi can’t stop making Pebble icons
@mileskjeller sorted us out with copious Trello boards
@orviwan shared Fitbit’s commitment to the Pebble community
@patcat wrote a fantastic piece about what happened with Pebble and what will happen to its developer community

Dec 9, 2016 • by Ish Ot Jr.

Rebble: Pebble Reborn

The Pebble smartwatch has meant a lot of things to a lot of people. From a strong leadership position at the forefront of what seemed like a smartwatch revolution, Pebble emphasized simplicity, and complementing the computer you already carry in your pocket instead of replicating it. Eschewing touchscreens for tactility, power-hungry OLEDs for power-sipping always-on LCDs, and embracing multiple platforms while others targeted just Android or iOS, Pebble has always focused on what matters most to users, and as a result, a vibrant community of fans quickly formed around them. A well-fostered subset of that community were developers, attracted by Pebble’s fantastic documentation, delightful SDK, and general amazing treatment of developers. Realizing as I type this that some of the preceding links may soon stop working following Pebble’s shutdown is incredibly disconcerting. Yet these feelings of unease and uncertainty have been harnessed by the developer community to create our own next chapter in the Pebble story - a chapter that we have decided to title Rebble. (shout out to @Northeastpaw on the officially unofficial Pebble Dev Discord server for advocating this name!)

Since the rumours began, and only increasing with their confirmation, a groundswell of support from developers and the community at large has resulted in countless suggestions, ideas, and projects to extend the Pebble legacy beyond its fateful denouement. The aim of Rebble is to bring the many disparate efforts under a single banner, concentrating energy and enthusiasm to maximize the likelihood of continuance and resurgence of Pebble as a platform. There are a vast quantity of extremely talented individuals ready to commit their time and expertise to extending the longevity of our wrist-based companion, from app distribution to hardware reverse-engineering, from archival to revival, from community to companion apps. Browse this site to find out more about our current projects, our ever-growing team, and the knowledge we’ve amassed so far. Peruse the FAQ, then please, sign up for our newsletter, join the #rebirth channel on the officially unofficial Pebble Dev Discord server, or just send us your ideas and words of encouragement via Twitter. Pebble’s tangible assets may have been liquidated, but its greatest asset of all, its amazing user and developer communities, endure, rebelling against our assumed fate, and seeing our wonderful little wearables reborn!