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--- pebble_time_2 [2026/05/24 02:15] – created particles
+++ pebble_time_2 [2026/10/03 08:08] (current) – [Am I going to keep wearing it?] particles
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 Even though [[https://ericmigi.com/blog/apple-restricts-pebble-from-being-awesome-with-iphones/|Eric is critical of the iPhone experience]], honestly it's not that bad on iOS.
-You can't lock PebbleOS, at all? So if some random idiot has your watch and your phone is nearby, it will get all of your notifications and all data is unprotected if stolen.
+==== Paper cuts ====
+Even though pebbleOS has been around for a while, it was only open-sourced recently, and development was basically dead. Here are various paper cuts I've uncovered while using it:
+  * You can't lock PebbleOS, at all? So if some random idiot has your watch and your phone is nearby, it will get all of your notifications and all data is unprotected if stolen.
+  * "Timeline" is a feature that ostensibly displays data from a remote server when pushes are sent to it. Core Devices does not operate a Timeline server. Rebble does. But the issue is that if you buy a new Pebble, maybe you don't understand how this works. Rebble has a different privacy policy and infrastructure for their services than Core Devices.
+    * There is some feature that "emulates" a timeline server in the Pebble app now, but I have no idea how this works.
+  * Skin tone based emoji and other combination emoji do not render correctly (they render as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specials_(Unicode_block)|tofu]]) in notifications.
+  * Some notifications are truncated, especially when using Japanese on the system.
+  * Do-not-disturb on iOS and Android came after Pebble had Quiet Time. In-practice, if you want to turn on do-not-disturb on either platform, you should also manually activate Quiet Time on the Pebble. You can't synchronize these automatically. You can do something like schedule Quiet Time, but it doesn't solve manual activation.
+  * Many, many watch faces haven't been updated in years and rely on dead APIs that don't work. Pebble tries to replace broken weather APIs, for example, but it's not perfect.
+  * There is no "default photograph" watch face. Putting your photos on the watch is one of the main features I think people would want, but it's not a default face, and the photo faces that exist in the store don't work.
 ===== The hardware itself =====
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 Maybe. My custom watch face has [[deep_night|deep night]] support. I am enjoying aspects of it, but for the same reason that I wasn't super committed to the Apple Watch, I'm not super committed either.
+About one week in, I tried switching back to the Apple Watch, but I found the Apple Watch to be less comfortable than I remembered. Because Pebble doesn’t use a sensor that “protrudes” into the skin, it feels much more comfortable for long-term wear.
+Recent versions of watchOS dimmed watch faces significantly for contrast, but I realized that this also makes images show up in a less prominent way. Perhaps Pebble Time 2 is not so bad for a watchface based on an image?
+As of October 3, 2026, I've been back to using my Apple Watch full time. The main reasons that I switched back were:
+  - App development is very hard on the reduced memory footprint on the Pebble.
+  - The screen is just overall very disappointing. Colors are washed out and there isn't enough contrast to see and distinguish between things. Apple Watch has a much better screen and is easier to read in direct sunlight and in dark rooms. Even in the "dim" view, Series 10 is readable without any extra effort on my wrist.