
AsteroidOS: An open-source operating system for smartwatches - ashitlerferad
http://asteroidos.org/
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nextos
I've been following this since day 1. It's a really nice project, but it has
little manpower.

I'm hoping it ends up serving as a drop-in replacement for Android Wear that
provides more standalone features. I know hardware is the limiting factor too,
but it seems we are getting there.

As a really casual smartphone user, I think I'd be much better served by a
smartwatch. Most of the time, I'm next to a computer. So I never use phone
browsing capabilities. Also I never make calls out of my office. Thus, I'd
love to have a standalone smartwatch that tracks my heartrate & activity,
offers some maps & navigation and allows for emergency calls and SMS without
the need for a smartphone. I don't want to carry one, and I think I'm not
alone. They distract me.

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dingaling
This seems to be a growing sentiment, perhaps in response to the enormity of
modern smartphones. They're no longer a convenience but a payload.

Check out the variety of standalone smart watches coming out of China now,
some even run full Android 5. I'm thinking of one which could act as a 3G-to-
wifi hotspot for a tablet for when I do need to work on the go. That also
gives much more flexibility in selecting a tablet without a SIM.

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grahamburger
This is exactly what I've wanted for years, seems like we're finally getting
there! Do you know of one with Wi-Fi hotspot capability?

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rahimnathwani
Continuously running the 3G/4G connection and sharing it over wifi would run
down the batter pretty quickly. Watches need small batteries so they can fit
on your wrist.

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grahamburger
Sure, I wouldn't want to use it all the time. Just occasionally when I need to
pull out my tablet or laptop or whatever.

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galistoca
I fail to understand a reason why someone would use this... right now it seems
to only work on a few LG watches, and isn't Android open source as well? Why
would someone choose to implement this when they can implement Android?

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lnanek2
Working at a company that ships an embedded Android product, I know Android
sometimes costs us far more than it helps us. It took us months to figure out
how to route some audio from incoming A2DP Sink Bluetooth profile to the
speakers, for example. Fighting with patches, and Android app Java code, and
Bluetooth app Java code, and JNI glue, and CPP Android services, and C
Bluedroid stack. Meanwhile anyone on the team could have gotten it working in
a day on Linux running BlueZ.

Then we constantly have the same issues working with the display. We output
ARGB for an augmented reality product, but Android is not designed to output
anything but RGB to the final LCD. So similarly, if we were just dealing with
a Linux frame buffer, we'd have had a much easier time doing the customization
than fighting all of Android's various SurfaceFlinger and other layers between
the app and the display.

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pavlov
Try Tizen? It's a real Linux, and much more than its popular reputation as
Samsung's also-ran Android clone.

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biktor_gj
Well Tizen's openness is a lie too, at least in wearables. Both Gear S & Gear
2 are already depreciated by Samsung, and the wearable image you can build
yourself from source is missing most key components you would use on a watch
(for example, you won't have S Health is closed source, Nokia maps -included
in Gear S- is closed source too), and even the sensor framework is unusable in
an opensource form, since half of the apis are closed and undocumented (you
can check all this by taking a look at the srpms from build.tizen.org)

Even if you could overcome that, you would still need to make your own
companion app for the phone and framework, since all that is Samsung
proprietary too.

That's exactly why I'm the sole mantainer of Gear 2 & Gear S Android Wear
ports...

IMHO it would be easier to clean up AOSP and make an open variant of Android
Wear, rather than reimplement it all from scratch, but who doesn't like a
challenge! At least they can use some parts of Nemo/Sailfish OS

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gue5t
Tizen's openness is also a lie for phones. Just like AOSP, community
involvement is not welcome in the Tizen development process and doesn't have
any role in deciding what ships on phones.

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Roritharr
Sad to see that only the G Watch and the G Watch Urbane are supported. My Moto
360 Gen 1 won't get the Android Wear 2 update, so it's becoming a mantlepiece
quickly... :/

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fchopin
Very cool, but will it run MAME?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLTjba8EM6A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLTjba8EM6A)

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Sarkie
Since my LG G Watch is awful and I stopped using it, this might actually be
fun! Thanks OP.

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Ezhik
Looks a lot like Sailfish OS/Meego in those screenshots.

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jummah1
I would rather stay with MM...

