PineTime $25 FOSS smart watch

trainailleur

OP updated with a lot more info @PINE64 posted to their Wiki, forum, and October blog update. I'm sure there are a ton more details on IRC and/or Telegram/Matrix, but I've unfortunately not had the time lately to follow the chats. If you see anything notable I've missed, please let me know, and I will add it.

As both a watch fan and a smart watch fan, I find the PineTime very exciting, and I look forward to seeing what developers of the various RTOSes can do with this hardware. The hardware may not look very powerful, but I'm sure there are many on this forum old enough to remember when the PineTime would have seemed like a supercomputer. With luck, the PineTime can prove out this space for more future FOSS-powered options.

PINE64

Thanks for posting this If someone is potentially interested in working on the UT companion app for the watch let me know. There is no rush - the watch doesn't have an OS and won't have one for some time.

bhdouglass

@PINE64 There is a group interested in building a companion app for AsteroidOS, so I see a lot of overlap. The matrix group is here: #UBports_AsteroidOS:matrix.org
@stefwe is doing most of the work there and I helped with the Pebble companion app (RockWork), so let us know if we can do some collaboration! I'm very excited for the PineTime and PinePhone!

flohack

One of the big challenges is that Apps in UT have no full control over bluetooth connections and therefore I am not sure how far this can succeed with the current SDK. But maybe others know more.

trainailleur

OP updated. Not a ton of new info, but it sure is nice to see that it's already a working watch a month after the dev kits shipped!

trainailleur

Too little time right now to add the details to the OP (will update sometime later), but I highly recommend that anyone who has yet to see it read @PINE64 's December Update. Though currently sold out, dev kits have already been for sale to the general public and while currently out of stock, TL Lim said on Telegram today that they'll likely be back in stock in a week or so.

Moem

I'm wondering, does anyone here use this watch? I'd love to know whether it will work with either Xenial's or Focal's BT stack.

doniks

@Moem said in PineTime $25 FOSS smart watch:

I'm wondering, does anyone here use this watch? I'd love to know whether it will worh with either Xenial's or Focal's BT stack.

used ... I have one on the shelf collecting dust and waiting for me to have time to play with it again, but note that the ~~phone~~ watch doesn't run UB, or any Ubuntu, or any Linux. It runs one of a selection of operating systems of your choice: https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PineTime#Default_OS and then it cooperates with "companion applications".

At the time when I last touched it long long time ago, I couldn't quite get to using it regularly, so it ended up on the shelf, but I am definitely looking forward to trying it again

Moem

@doniks said in PineTime $25 FOSS smart watch:

I have one on the shelf collecting dust and waiting for me to have time to play with it again, but note that the phone doesn't run UB, or any Ubuntu, or any Linux.

Phone? I think you meant to say watch... right?

I'm aware that the PineTime does not run Linux. Watches normally run very specialized, tiny watch OSses, and a watch that could run UT... I don't see that happening. But that's not what I'm after.
I want a watch that can be used with a phone that runs UT, not a watch that runs UT.

doniks

@Moem

Phone? I think you meant to say watch... right?

err, eh, yes. sorry. fixed

I'm aware that the PineTime does not run Linux

ah. ok. then I guess I'm not really understanding the xenial/focal question. seems all I'm contributing here is confusion I shut up

Moem

@doniks said in PineTime $25 FOSS smart watch:

I guess I'm not really understanding the xenial/focal question

No worries, I can explain:
I use a Pebble smartwatch. My phones are running UT. With a phone that's running Xenial, I can connect the phone and the smartwatch, and all is well.
But on Focal, there is a different bluetooth stack and the Pebble doesn't stay connected so I can't use it.

So what I meant to ask is: does a PineTime connect with a UT phone? If yes, does that depend on whether the UT version is Xenial or Focal?

flohack

@Moem I am afraid no one so far did develop any middleware or App for UT to let the PineTime connect to it. Its totally feasable, but would need at least 1 or 2 devs getting their hands dirty.

Moem

@Flohack said in PineTime $25 FOSS smart watch:

I am afraid no one so far did develop any middleware or App for UT to let the PineTime connect to it.

True, but you never know what may happen.

Vistaus

@Flohack said in PineTime $25 FOSS smart watch:

@Moem I am afraid no one so far did develop any middleware or App for UT to let the PineTime connect to it. Its totally feasable, but would need at least 1 or 2 devs getting their hands dirty.

That's not true: there's uWatch on GitLab. I can't get it to work with the PineTime, tho, but the dev has made it work with the PineTime, so clearly work is being carried out.