The Pine64 community, focused on creating open devices, has made the PineTime smart watch available for sale, housed in a waterproof case that withstands immersion at a depth of 1 meter. The device costs $26.99. Unlike the previously available developer kit, this version of the watch does not come with a low-level debugging interface and is aimed at the average consumer (experiments with installing unapproved firmware are not recommended due to limited recovery options after firmware failures).
The PineTime watch is built on the NRF52832 MCU (64 MHz) microcontroller and is equipped with 512KB of system Flash memory, 4 MB of Flash for user data, 64KB of RAM, a 1.3-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 240×240 pixels (IPS, 65K colors), Bluetooth 5, an accelerometer (used as a pedometer), a heart rate sensor, and a vibration motor. The battery (180 mAh) lasts for 3-5 days of operation. Weight — 38 grams.
The released PineTime device comes with a new version of the InfiniTime firmware 1.2. Notable changes in the new release include the inclusion of a 'metronome' app, improvements to the 'timer' app, and efforts to reduce RAM and Flash memory consumption. The firmware size has decreased from 420KB to 340KB.
The default InfiniTime firmware uses the FreeRTOS 10 real-time operating system, the LittleVGL 7 graphics library, and the NimBLE 1.3.0 Bluetooth stack. The firmware bootloader is based on MCUBoot. Firmware can be updated via OTA updates sent from a smartphone via Bluetooth LE.
The user interface code is written in C++ and includes features such as a clock (digital and analog), a fitness tracker (heart rate monitor and pedometer), event notifications from the smartphone, a flashlight, music playback control on the smartphone, navigation instructions display, a stopwatch, and two simple games (Paddle and 2048). Through settings, you can specify display turn-off time, time format, wake-up conditions, adjust screen brightness, check battery charge, and view the firmware version.
On smartphones and computers, applications like Gadgetbridge (for Android), Amazfish (for Sailfish and Linux), and Siglo (for Linux) can be used to control the watch. There is experimental support for WebBLEWatch, a web application for syncing watches from browsers that support the Web Bluetooth API.
Additionally, enthusiasts have prepared a new alternative firmware for PineTime called Malila, based on RIOT OS, featuring a GNOME-style interface (Cantarell font, icons, and GNOME style) and supporting MicroPython. Alongside InfiniTime and Malila, there are also firmware developments for PineTime based on Zephyr, Mynewt OS, MbedOS, TinyGo, WaspOS (based on MicroPython), and PinetimeLite (an enhanced modification of the InfiniTime firmware).
Among the news from the Pine64 project, it's worth mentioning the implementation of hardware-accelerated video playback support in Gstreamer on the PinePhone using the VPU available in the Allwinner A64 SoC. The PinePhone can now output video at 1080p and 30fps, which might be useful for viewing video when the PinePhone is connected to an external display. Other updates include the preparation of an image with firmware based on Arch Linux ARM and the KDE Plasma Mobile 5.22 shell. Up to version 21.06, firmware based on postmarketOS has been updated, offered in variants with Phosh, KDE Plasma Mobile, and SXMO shells.
Source: opennet.ru
