Rebble Strikes Back with Nonprofit, Hackathon, and OS ambitions

Electronics Wearables
Rebble Strikes Back with Nonprofit, Hackathon, and OS ambitions

Rebble, the organization dedicated to keeping Pebble smartwatches alive after the demise of the original company in 2016, celebrated their eighth year last December — significantly outlasting the original organization itself thanks to the staunch commitment of countless contributors, fans, and supporters. It may seem unlikely at first, but 2025 is perhaps shaping up to be the most exciting year for Pebble devotees, thanks to a slew of announcements from the Rebble team.

Starting with the big news: Google have released the original PebbleOS source code, allowing Rebble to continue its development on existing, and even new hardware. To foster these efforts, a RebbleOS Hackathon will be held in March, with stickers as rewards for all participants. And to ensure the continued longevity of the project, Rebble have announced the creation of the Rebble Foundation nonprofit, with a mission to educate and foster learning in the areas of embedded and software development. Want to get involved? Hop on Discord, catch up on the blog, and join the Rebble alliance in this next great phase of smartwatch history!

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David bought his first Arduino in 2007 as part of a Roomba hacking project. Since then, he has been obsessed with writing code that you can touch. David fell in love with the original Pebble smartwatch, and even more so with its successor, which allowed him to combine the beloved wearable with his passion for hardware hacking via its smartstrap functionality. Unable to part with his smartwatch sweetheart, David wrote a love letter to the Pebble community, which blossomed into Rebble, the service that keeps Pebbles ticking today, despite the company's demise in 2016. When he's not hacking on wearables, David can probably be found building a companion bot, experimenting with machine learning, growing his ever-increasing collection of dev boards, or hacking on DOS-based palmtops from the 90s.

Find David on Mastodon at @ishotjr@chaos.social or these other places.

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