The First Android Wearable

The Motorola MotoACTV was a fitness tracker from 2011, that ran a hidden version of Android OS. When hacked and modded, made it the first Android wearable.

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ClearDroid MotoACTV root tools and mods.

Scene demos featured:
carbon trioxide - Hedelmae - 1st at TMDC 2010
spongiforma squarepantsii - Kewlers - 5th at Assembly 2013
hilo JOC
yellow rose of texas - Fit :: Bandwagon

[hardiksrivastava]

While todays android based smartwatches (mainly the galaxy smartwatches) are so much more optimised to function like a watch, there's something so unique and appealing of the fact that you have a device on your wrist that is running full fat phone like android. Great video!

[nooneisback]

The screen damage is probably a bulging battery

[bazzeil]

my first smartwatch! I worked in a call center back then that didnt allow phones, books, writing; any of that. I loaded mine up with gameboy roms, FLIT keyboard, some rdp client, and textab. Navigating Tucson with google maps on my wrist while streaming podcasts from youtube was the cyberdeck of my dreams when I was a kid.
This was also the first time I started increasing screen density by modifying dpi.
I feel like FLIT keyboard is a must for entering text on these tiny devices, although google keyboard's carousel layout was a satisfying (but slow) stim.

[JacobJohnson-lhgx]

6:25 the XDA peeps should really start uploading their custom rom files on Internet Archive, a lot of file hosting sites tends to delete custom roms either due to the uploader inactivity or ToS breach. Great video btw.

[AuranDerg]

"They tend to motivate me to lie down, until the need to exercise passes"
I've never heard more relatable words

[superqwerty]

It's so interesting to see how much more you can do with older hardware vs what we have now.

[jasonblalock]

OK, 4:05 may be the greatest "Are you really sure you know what you're doing?" UI design I've ever seen. Brilliant. Also, love the purpose you've found for it!

[salsa]

I like these older wearables because I feel like the software was actually intended to help with fitness rather than sell me a subscription service for something.

I still use my fitbit Blaze from 2016 as my primary watch, and fitness tracker for these reasons.

[SEVE_P]

The hackability of this watch really appeals to me, huge gadget appeal too, but it could also be very useful -- I wonder if its possible to run any hacking tools on it?

[numbazZify]

I think there were chinese android wearables before that, even with a sim card slot and calls. Also, the first LG G Watch has many customizations and roms too. My first smartwatch was Sony LiveView from 2010, it was very dumb, but you were able to read txt files from a phone and install other custom plugins, so it helped me on the exams back in school, nobody knew I can read from a tiny watch back then 😁

[rmicrods]

From what I gather online, it sold for $250 USD on launch, and $30 for the strap. I imagine the strap would have been included in the base model, so $30 would be for an additional strap...? I would hope...

Got this info from a 2011 "DC Rainmaker" blog. It was about on par of the price of a iPod Touch 4th gen which came out around the same time. Pretty neat tech to carry around.

[Psychopatz]

You have by far the most interesting project videos that I've ever found on youtube. thanks

[jrod]

Just found this channel recently and am surprised you don't have 100k+ subs already

[GeoffereyEakinsTech]

This thing was definitely ahead of it's time and surprisingly capable.

[araigumakiruno]

I wish i found this channel earlier, i like the simple presentation and easy to understand videos makes me even more interested and fascinated of technologies of the past.

[ahmedp]

Love your unique take on tech videos!
Can you do something on the Nokia Communicator series?
Even owning and using Samsung Folds for few years now (which i love), Comminocators are still my all time favorites.

[FBIagentObama]

Great video but the music is extremely loud compared to your voice. I kept on having to lower and raise the volume multiple times.

[nmadfernan]

that music really pumps you with excitement while flashing. remembered it also on my feature phone... but wrong firmware and went to bootloop

[DrWakey]

I would even still be interested in having one.
But where can i get a used, still working MotoACTV for cheap?

[luigimaster]

My first smart watch was a Pebble Time. No other watch has topped it, and it was far from perfect.

I see so much potential but its all being ignored for... Fitness Tracking, which is dumb Watches should be focused on the concept of time: telling you time, saving you time, and helping to manage your time. Even something as simple as games on your smartwatcg saves you time since you don't need to pull out your phone for a quick game of Tetris. A battery that lasts at least a week also saves you time, since you won't waste that time charging your watch every day.