[ctbeiser]

Now that webOS is going open source, does anyone else care as much as I do about getting it onto a wristwatch? We've seen the redacted pictures with the blacked out wristband, and with the proliferation of Android smart watches, there's gotta be at least one that has a cracked boot loader. Something like the MotoACTV. A couple months ago I threw together some mockups of how it could look, and it seems like a fantastic OS for a watch.




I'd be willing to work on adapting the design if anyone would port it to something nice.

[EvanKr]

Interesting concept, but with smartphones these days who wears a watch? You have all the same functionality and much more with a Pre. The only advantage to this would be its size.

[eblade]

I think a better idea would be supporting bluetooth watches, for notifications and such.

[anon(5072840)]

YES. I've been wanting one forever, always felt it would be a perfect match. Should be probable if the webOS bluetooth stack gets improved a bit.

i see plenty of use for it. Notifications without taking out your phone, music player controls, maybe even quick text responses, answering a call without removing your phone, having your phone charging & still being able to control it, info at a glance. Hell it could even be a standalone unit with a local music player. It's definitely a niche, but i really like the idea. None of the current 'smartwatches' come close to the functionality i desire. And plenty of people still wear watches, myself included. I think more people would if they did more than just tell the time & actually looked nice. Imagine a watch that looked like a mini, thinner, squarer (still with rounded edges) pre/veer. I really think that would sell.

[Balooz]

a webos watch is about as silly stupid as wearing your pre on your wrist. (or maybe that's your idea) think about it, that's just absolutley pointless.

[anon(5072840)]

a webos watch is about as silly stupid as wearing your pre on your wrist. (or maybe that's your idea) think about it, that's just absolutley pointless.

there's plenty of situations where I would find it useful or more convenient than whipping out my phone. Think about it.

[cgk]

Interesting concept, but with smartphones these days who wears a watch? You have all the same functionality and much more with a Pre. The only advantage to this would be its size.

I don't know about you but my watch doesn't need charging daily and I can rely on the fact that it can tell me the time long after my phone has died.

[cgk]

there's plenty of situations where I would find it useful or more convenient than whipping out my phone. Think about it.

The biggest problem is the GUI simply isn't designed for such a small screen - like the android based smart-watches you'd end up with something that looks nothing like the original. If you wanted this sort of thing, a better idea would be a smart-watch that was connnected to the phone simply as a conduit of information - like the SE liveview but something that didn't actually suck.

[anon(5072840)]

The biggest problem is the GUI simply isn't designed for such a small screen - like the android based smart-watches you'd end up with something that looks nothing like the original. If you wanted this sort of thing, a better idea would be a smart-watch that was connnected to the phone simply as a conduit of information - like the SE liveview but something that didn't actually suck.

Right, but it is designed to be scalable. As long as it has a halfway decent resolution I don't foresee it being an issue. Of course some fat would have to be trimmed, but that's a given with a device the size of an ipod nano.

Specifically what i'd like to see is something halfway between a connected 'smartwatch' & a standalone device like the latest ipod nano. Something that connects to your phone to beam you notifications (& lets you actually interact with them), stream music OR play it locally, act as a headset & more (think turn by turn directions on your wrist, a small vibration, the face shows an arrow & the voice from the internal speaker says 'turn left here').

There's a lot of little things that I hate taking out my phone for, like finding a number, using the calculator, reading texts sometimes. It would also be good to see who's calling in situations where you can't answer the phone. Just stuff like that.

What I envison is a version of webOS that has no quick launch bar, the menu is brought up by swiping, there are still cards & multitasking, but obviously there would be a limited set of specialized apps for it. The actual watch face is a customized/expanded sort of exhibition mode which auto-launces itself after x seconds of inactivity, obviously with a button on the side to turn the screen totally off. Plus how cool would a tiny gesture/notification area be?

[Honis]

On the watch screen I would want only a clock and an area underneath for a single notification. This should keep it to a reasonable size. Notifications are sweepable left/right to dismiss and up/down to scroll between different notifications. I would want the clock to remain visible 24/7, watch only battery life exceeding 1 week, and have an alarm capability independent of the phone. Buttons to meet these features would be a wake/options/sleep button (all one button, tap on, tap off, long hold for options) and rocker button or 2 buttons (volume controls and scrolling). Another feature is a silent, vibrate, and ring function for notifications of all sorts that replaces the phones notification alerts when paired. The last feature would be touchstone compatibility.

Just to be sure, I implied a single touch screen interface.

[dkirker]

a webos watch is about as silly stupid as wearing your pre on your wrist. (or maybe that's your idea) think about it, that's just absolutley pointless.

I actually wear a WiMM One (WIMM Labs). It runs Android. It would be nice if it ran webOS. (Actually, the Director of Engineering is a previous Palm employee.)

I am also working on building a smartwatch service to allow webOS to communicate with smartwatches.

(I also wear watches, and quite enjoy them.)

[RumoredNow]

There's some good ideas in this thread already. LOL focus group stuff.

It is an interesting idea, to be sure. Bluetooth pairing is definitely the gateway to use, IMHO. It would be nice to just glance quickly at your wrist for notifications and not get the phone out every time it tries to get your attention. Maybe even enabling speaker phone capability to it when paired.

I think water resistant to about 3ATM would be good. Make it independently useful to some degree like enabling it to retain user set data - the current weather forecast, picture album, contact lists.... a long list of options to toggle through and pick choice, needed items for retention - so that when NOT paired with the phone you still have some necessary info on hand.

[steven_farkas]

i want this. My touchpad is way too heavy and I've already gone through like 30 straps

[checkmate]

I'd like to see a 'smartwatch' with a CIRCULAR screen - that way it would differentiate itself from the majority of geeky watches. I'd LOVE something like the one on Minority Report....

[toyotast165]

I actually had a watch strap and epoxyed rare earth magnets to it and used to wear my veer on it... Was just a bit too big to wear confortablly every day, but I still rocked it lol

[steven_farkas]

I actually had a watch strap and epoxyed rare earth magnets to it and used to wear my veer on it... Was just a bit too big to wear confortablly every day, but I still rocked it lol

LOL, that is the epitome of geek chic

[palmuse]

What if the watch only picked up the notification bars or dashboards? Perhaps the notifications would be left justified on the watch, extend off to the right and scroll up and down between them . You could slide each independently to the left or right to see the remaining part. They could be scaled down, but that may make them unreadable.

So for example, say you are listening to Pandora from the phone to bluetooth headphones. You could simply pop up your wrist and tap the thumbs up button on the Pandora notification bar without pulling out your phone. Or you could look up a contact and make a call from your wrist. or check the caller id from your wrist. Delete emails, check on new messages and the list goes on. I feel this would be a practical add on to the flexibility and extreme usefulness that is webOS.

There would also need to be a clock with alarms that you could theme. Of course, it would need a connection to the phone and contacts as well. These and others could be specialized apps for the watch which would open the door for other mini apps like weather, news tickers, video calls, etc.. The card metaphor could carry on with squar-ound cards representing the mini apps.

Just my quick thoughts.

Oh, and dkirker, I am envious of your WIMM watch! I though those were a very cool device design. Too bad they have to run &droid. Perhaps webOS will work on them one day.

[johnnygewitter]

Not a webOS watch per se, but there is this http://forums.webosnation.com/webos-...oth-watch.html - just wanted to mention it!

[Onanii]

The biggest problem is the GUI simply isn't designed for such a small screen - like the android based smart-watches you'd end up with something that looks nothing like the original. If you wanted this sort of thing, a better idea would be a smart-watch that was connnected to the phone simply as a conduit of information - like the SE liveview but something that didn't actually suck.

Speaking of Sony ericsson liveview did somebody knows it might work on webos??
Because the watch been reverse engineered and i don't know if webos can be programmed on python!

Andrew de Quincey's livejournal

LiveView reverse-engineering effort - xda-developers

Regards Onanii

[Onanii]

here i come again

Looks like people at XDA have been able to access liveview ROM and are wrintting they're own firmware!!
link in the post below

Still a new Watch arrive in town
$99 linux phone Watch /
hope it interess someone here!!!
Onanii