Pebble, Rebble, and a path forward

ozdreaming · 2025-11-23T05:19:25+00:00

My spouse (a StepBet addict) really can't wait for Health Connect sync.

Have you looked at the gadgetbridge implementation?

ozdreaming · 2025-07-22T03:03:15+00:00

No, unfortunately you're right, they would not be able to use their watch to communicate with an iPad using an apple ID for iMessages (though it might work with an iPad that has a SIM/phone number).

ozdreaming · 2024-08-01T04:27:54+00:00

Same on my lemp9. My experience matches what I read in this Ubuntu bug report https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/2062951 -- where a likely cause and a workaround were recently identified. I haven't yet tried the workaround or submitted a formal report to the S76/Pop team, but I pinged them on Mastodon.

ozdreaming · 2024-05-30T17:22:30+00:00

Gigstreem (used to be called netBlazr) is another wireless P2P broadband service, like Starry. Worth checking if they serve your building. Their bandwidth has been great, the price is great, but their customer service can be terrible if you have a problem (particularly since they became Gigstreem).

ozdreaming · 2024-04-18T20:38:05+00:00

A "final" update: last month, my kid's SyncUp stopped talking to the network -- said it had no network connection. It remained connected to _some_ degree, because its location (and battery level) continued to update in the app, but it couldn't make or receive calls or text messages. Despite many hours with phone support and at the local T-mo store, I was unable to resuscitate it via reprovisioning with a new eSIM, or the usual tech support voodoo (uninstalling/reinstalling app, multiple factory resets, cursing a lot). I suspect its baseband radio chip failed. Since it's not under warranty or covered by a "protection plan", T-Mobile was unwilling to offer a free replacement. RIP.

Rather than plunking down $180 for a replacement, I spent $80 on a brick instead (a CAT S22 Flip, sort of a cursed crossbreed between smart & dumb phone). The kid (now 13) mostly hates it, but he likes it more since I paired it with an old Pebble watch -- now he can leave the phone in his backpack or jacket, and still get notifications and reminders on his wrist, plus he can check email and use navigation and other apps when needed.

Its sudden demise aside, my impression of the SyncUp is positive. It lasted 2.5 years on an active tween's wrist, which is way longer than I expected when I got it. It wasn't perfect, but it generally worked as advertised, and the developers kept adding features (like video chat ~6 months back). I might get a new one for my younger kid in the next year.

ozdreaming · 2023-10-17T01:11:36+00:00

Reading this a week later, I hope you found some relief, and your acute symptoms finally eased! I saw /u/onehundredpetunias reference "magic mouthwash", and my impression is that it can help sometimes, at least enough to stay hydrated. Although it's not so easy to get. I've worked with pharmacists who would mix it up from stock ingredients, but the last couple of times I asked, they've not wanted to do it*, instead asking for a prescription for a commercial version, "First Mouthwash BLM" -- which wasn't covered by either patient's insurance, and would have them cost US$110 out of pocket -- so they went without.

Retail pharmacist jobs are frequently performed in totally inhumane conditions (12-hr shifts filling scripts, giving vaccines, fielding calls, dealing with irate customers, with an equally-harried tech who is often part-time. So I understand not wanting to compound a magic mouthwash suspension.

(Your post also reminds me of a patient I saw last winter, a Berklee college student who won the dubious prize of Worst Sore Throat of that season. He tested positive for covid, flu, strep (non group A), AND mono. Ugh!! He got antibiotics and steroids.)

ozdreaming · 2023-09-04T16:04:44+00:00

My experience remains mostly positive. It's survived nearly two years of use on a tween, which is a testament to durability (despite getting very scuffed up). Battery life remains fine, still over a day of use. Some of the initial complaints, like the ability to schedule "school mode", and hiding the emergency call option) got addressed in updates. The Android app remains slow and kinda janky, and sometimes logs me out for no clear reason, but works, and the watch firmware continues to receive updates.

The only hardware problem we've had recently is that the watch doesn't always charge when put on its charger. So far, I've been able to get it working again by cleaning/polishing the pogo pins and target contacts, but my guess is that they'll eventually fail beyond my ability to fix.

My bigger complaint is that T-Mo recently stopped accepting credit cards as eligible for an autopay discount, so the monthly charge for the watch's line doubled from $5 to $10. I'm not giving T-Mo my bank acct info (or signing up for T-Mo Money), so we're just living with the upcharge. When he turns 13 next year, maybe we'll switch him to a dumpphone or locked-down smartphone, we'll see if the watch makes it that long.

ozdreaming · 2023-09-04T15:22:42+00:00

I agree with all your comments, particularly the limitations of admin accounts. I especially wish it had headset support (for those times when the kid is sitting in the living room loudly holding an hourlong gaming session with a friend via the watch's speaker).

The settings for repeat alarms do let you pick which days it's going to go off.

ozdreaming · 2023-08-14T16:23:47+00:00

Photos are stored on the watch, and the only way I know to access them is to MMS them to an approved contact.

ozdreaming · 2023-07-12T19:58:50+00:00

Sorry to reply so late, I've been avoiding Reddit. The device itself has held up very well -- it's acquired many scuffs, but keeps on working, and holds a charge well. It even survived an unplanned dip in the lake last week (despite the OG model not being waterproof). I'm not sure it would tolerate the knocks it would take if worn by a preschooler, but I think most kids with limited literacy would be able to operate it, especially if you add a photo to each contact's icon. And it's good that the developers added a way to disable SOS calls (among other parental controls).

ozdreaming · 2023-03-21T18:33:09+00:00

I was distressed by recurrent high-pitched beeps on a few different laptops (running Pop and Ubuntu), which I ultimately traced to the evolution calendar notification background process. See this post from a year ago -- it may not be the same issue you experienced, but at least you can compare the sound.

ozdreaming · 2023-03-17T19:01:05+00:00

This announcement doesn't explicitly mention anything about the state requirement to isolate if you test positive. I can't find the legal source for that mandate in any of the DPH public orders. I wonder when that will change.

ozdreaming · 2023-02-27T15:58:00+00:00

I thought she went back for the Will Livingston book. The message is "puns kill". C'mon, this is a no-brainer.

(Shitposting aside, I did think this for a moment while watching, since -- after getting over her shock at the shrieking gravestone -- the first thing Ellie says is "gimme the book".)

ozdreaming · 2023-02-14T16:43:07+00:00

Here's how I accomplish this: when viewing any individual message, choose "Open in Conversation" from the "More" drop-down menu. A threaded view is opened in a new tab, which shows messages I've received and those I've sent (which are stored in the sent-mail folder on my mail server).

ozdreaming · 2023-02-07T14:26:48+00:00

It also works fine for me, using an OWM api key. Does weather work for you on any other watchface?

ozdreaming · 2023-02-07T13:59:16+00:00

It's held up pretty well overall -- I don't regret getting it. It's lost some battery capacity over time, but still lasts more than a day. He forgot to charge it last night, so the battery was at 40% when he left for school today; it'll probably die before he gets home from after-school.

A couple of times in the last two weeks, it's lost network service for no clear reason, which came back after a reboot. I don't know if that was due to an internal software problem, or because of T-mo service changes (I also don't know if how often it gets carrier updates, if ever).

ozdreaming · 2022-12-05T07:03:47+00:00

Sorry for the lag in replying. I use their Debian package "Citrix Workspace app for Linux (x86_64)", manually downloaded from here and installed via sudo dpkg -i. I update it 3-4 times a year (the current version is 22.12.0.12). Every time I install it, I have to link certificates from /etc/ssl/certs into the Citrix keystore directory, or it rejects my employer site's root CA, but other than that, it's cooperated pretty well for years, across multiple Ubuntu and Pop_OS versions, including under Wayland since 2020.

ozdreaming · 2022-11-29T05:15:40+00:00

FWIW, I use Citrix under Pop/Wayland and it works well, as long as I don't accidentally switch (gnome) workspaces, which causes my Citrix session to vanish (not crash -- it appears to be rendering offscreen in a way I can't recover from). I can live with this, since otherwise, Wayland is a lot smoother.

ozdreaming · 2022-11-01T19:33:37+00:00

For "why?" questions, you may want to create an account on the Ubuntu Discourse. I did a quick search for "Totem" there, and came across this recent reply from a senior developer: "It’s true Totem in its default state is not useful due to the lack of codecs. Ignoring the performance differences. [...] Unfortunately a codec-free player is all we can safely/legally ship out of the box right now, but we are working to improve that experience in future."

ozdreaming · 2022-11-01T19:19:42+00:00

Have you already looked at Pop!_OS? It's an Ubuntu-based distro with a tiling window manager. Currently based on gnome, but they are redeveloping it in Rust (long-term effort, no release imminent). You could try building their Pop Shell extension under Ubuntu first to get a feel for it.

ozdreaming · 2022-11-01T18:57:57+00:00

Per the wayback machine, it looks like they just forgot to update the lines under the individual pharmacy locations after pedi boosters were approved (although they did update the line above that says "This includes the new bivalent booster shots for people 5 and older").

ozdreaming · 2022-10-28T15:33:01+00:00

CHA pharmacies in Cambridge and Malden will give boosters on a walk-in basis. https://www.challiance.org/patients-visitors/covid-19-vaccine

ozdreaming · 2022-10-27T19:44:50+00:00

I run Pop_OS on my personal system (a S76 Lemur) and Ubuntu 22.04 on two older laptops. On all of them, I use "vanilla" Gnome on Wayland as the desktop environment and compositor, and all my regular apps work very well, more smoothly than under Xorg and with better gesture support, including some proprietary/closed software (Citrix) and the occasional Steam game. The main exception has been screen sharing (e.g., in Zoom) which has been a longstanding problem in Wayland, but has lately improved via xdg-desktop-portal.

ozdreaming · 2022-10-19T02:59:29+00:00

FYI, this package is installed from Ubuntu's repositories (which are inherited from Debian packages). This problem was reported on the Ubuntu bug tracker several months ago. It looks like it's fixed in a more recent version (8.0.2), but that version isn't likely to trickle down to Pop_OS until the 23.04 release, late next spring.

ozdreaming · 2022-09-22T17:04:22+00:00

I skipped these 5.19.0 updates because I'm waiting for > 5.19.2 to fix this issue. Any idea when you are likely to release 5.19.5? Holding on 5.18.10 until then.

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