We’ve recently seen Linux smartphones are coming in a few weeks or months, but the $150 PinePhone may not come alone, and soon be joined by a $25 companion, namely PineTime smartwatch.
That’s what we learned through a tweet by Pine64 explaining the PineTime is a Linux smartphone companion that can run FreeRTOS or Arm Mbed operating systems. It will be a side-project however, and the focus is still on PinePhone and Pinebook Pro, meaning it will take a while depending on the level of community engagement.
Thanks in part due to easy access to Chinese OEMs, there’s a lot of interesting working going in building and shipping consumer-oriented devices like smartphones and smartwatches running Linux that isn’t Android – which only a few short years ago would’ve required massive funding and seemed like pipe dreams.
While these devices may not be as fast or polished as an Android device or iPhone, they are starting to form a viable option for people who truly value open source.
That’s pretty cool. It’s basically much the same hardware as the old Pebble smartwatches. If the firmware is open source and there’s a reasonable way to reflashing it then there’s a lot of interesting things that can be done.