this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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292
E Ink faces growing competition in the "paper-like" display space - Liliputing (liliputing.com)
submitted 2 months ago by Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19284817

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[–] paf0@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I wish they made more e-ink watches

[–] sxan@midwest.social 26 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I'd love a successor to Pebble which doesn't require an account. There are a number of options, but my issue is that most require creating an account with vendor, and app integration with - no doubt - copiuos data harvesting and reselling. Many are absurdly expensive.

There are several cheap options on Alibaba.

Goodreader.com lists a number of expensive e-ink watches, some of which look quite nice.

But I've got my eye on Watchy (github, old review); it was introduced a couple of years ago and is still being updated. It's also available from a couple of vendors, including preassembled through Amazon.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

my eye on Watchy

Have one after the Pebble, let me know if you have questions.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

let me know if you have questions.

I have all the questions. I'm peripherally aware of ESP32; my experience with it, and its capabilities, is severely limited, and IME interface changes require recompiling and re-flashing things. Many of my questions stem from that ignorance.

  1. Integration support. I assume GadgetBridge on Android is how you'd do it? Or is there another app?
  2. How is the battery life IRL?
  3. What does the watch face & app space look like? The FAQ mentions a "gallery", and instructions for contributions describe the github PR process. Is the gallery just the list of watch faces on the sqfmi website?
  4. What's the process for changing faces, and installing additional functionality? From the docs, it looks as if this must be done over a serial cable, despite the device having WiFi capability. I assume that's because adding faces is basically re-flashing the firmware, which is not supported over wireless? So, to get a new face, you clone the repo, compile a new firmware, and flash the device over a serial cable?
  5. The FAQ verbiage is confusing regarding the display technology, but I think it's saying the display isn't reflective LCD like the Pebble.
  6. Can you have multiple faces on the device, or do you have to re-flash it to change the face? The FAQ says the face is the entire firmware, implying only one face on the device at a time.
  7. If you're part of the community: have there been any discussions about future development to add, e.g. health monitor hardware?
  8. Is there any integration with a phone, such as notifications? This is sort of the GadgetBridge question, but more about what integrations - if any - are supported. Vibrate on phone ringing? Quick responses to texts? Phone calls over the watch - yeah, I know it's not that advanced, but for example.
  9. What's your opinion of the device? Do you use it as a daily driver?

At under $70, I'm not expecting much, but it'd be nice to know what you expect. The sqfmi site is pretty sparse on details. If there's an additional, deeper FAQ or Wiki, a link to that would be great.

Thanks!

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)
  1. I'm not using that
  2. about a week
  3. it's indeed like the gallery
  4. yes, you need to compile the firmware and flash it over USB. The first time is a tricky but then it takes just few minutes
  5. strangers have said it looked like actual paper. It's extremely readible
  6. indeed it's one face per firmware... but assuming there is enough space, you could imagine modifying it in order to have more faces
  7. for now I just briefly chat on Discord to get the basics going as I was one of the very first to have the new ESP S3, cf https://github.com/sqfmi/Watchy/issues/252
  8. cf 1 but I bet there is, I was thinking of changing the WiFi HTTP server to possibly send data to HomeAssistant but I didn't explore that yet
  9. it's my daily driver, it's a HUGE thing but it works and often sparks interesting conversations, I like it

Happy to clarify a bit more if need be.

[–] paf0@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I had an Amazfit BIP for a while that had a color e-paper display with a battery that lasted over 30 days. I think they have since gone OLED but one cool thing about it was, while they had their own app with a login, I could alternatively sync it directly with a third party app on Android that was called "Notify And Fitness". I only mention it because within this particular app the info never left the device. Perhaps there is something similar today, but I have since just given in and gone Garmin.

[–] Decipher0771@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Tried https://bangle.js? Loving mine so far. Edit: my bad https://banglejs.com/

[–] fristislurper@feddit.nl 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It is nice, but not e-ink

[–] morrowind@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

site is down

[–] Decipher0771@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

My bad it’s actually https://banglejs.com/

[–] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What battery life are you getting on that?

[–] Decipher0771@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

3-4 days easy. That’s with turning on all the gps/heartrate/iOS sync functions tho. Turning off the gps and heart rate monitor and I’m sure I could get 7 days easy, and turning fewer notifications I have no doubt it’s go 2weeks.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 2 months ago

Cool, thanks

[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Which one do you prefer?
And don't say Pebble, that's an e-paper (sharp memoryLCD), not an eink. I personally haven't really encountered any actual eink watches that would seem any good.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I know E Ink is a company, but for most of us it's become a de-facto term referring to the technology, like kleenex, or q-tips.

I have every Pebble model, and used them until the last one's battery finally gave out. I've been using various e-ink (e-paper) readers, from the first Sony to my current Kobo & reMarkable (one for leisure reading, t'other for PDFs and writing). Are those displays different technologies than E Ink's? Does the display process E Ink uses differ from other e-paper technologies? Are they not all based on polarized, bi-colored balls?

I have nothing against pedantry, but I also think E Ink has lost (or won, depending on how you look at it) the identity game; I suspect the majority of people - if surveyed - would neither realize E Ink is a specific company, nor that the correct generic term is "e-paper." Everyone I know (with whom the topic comes up) just call it "e-ink," whether or not it comes from that company. Similarly, I've never heard anyone call it "e-paper" IRL.

P.S. I just did a search for "e-paper watches", and most results call them "e-ink." Maybe they all use E Ink-brand displays, but I can't really tell since none seem to capitalize or (tm) the term. There's a bunch of cheap watches on Alibaba which are called "e-ink" watches - are those all really using E Ink brand displays?

[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

E-paper is the category for any display that looks kinda like paper. E-ink is a specific technology (by a specific company, yes,) that uses blobs suspended in oil in small capsules that are controlled by magnetic fields.

Pebble uses a Sharp memory LCD, which as the name suggests, is a liquid crystal display. If you categorize pebbles as a "eink watches", then a gameboy is one low-power memory chip away from being an eink handheld gaming console, the display tech is otherwise identical - a transflective lcd.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 2 months ago

Thanks; TIL.

Pebble advertised their displays as "e-ink", and I never thought to question it. The best lay resource I found while digging into this was an article on TechRadar, which was about a new product but gives a good overview of the technology and history.

[–] mikemrm@lemmy.mrm.one 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The Fossil hybrid watches are pretty awesome. Very sad they are now discontinued.

[–] TheTetrapod@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

I had one of those! So cool, loved not having a giant glowing thing on my wrist but still receiving notifications.

[–] nabladabla@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 months ago

No idea if it's any good, but here's an e-ink watch: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sqfmi/watchy

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 1 points 2 months ago

I switched to garmin because of the transflective LCD. So much better than AMOLED for a watch. But e-paper would definitely be nice, too (if I didn't use active maps when backpacking).