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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/ januscycle
ClearDroid MotoACTV root tools and mods.
www.cleardroid...
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

[@hardiksrivastava9174]

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!

[@Dubzer]

I installed several phone Android apps on my Galaxy Watch 4 using ADB and they worked just fine! Even with NFC. So the current version of Android for wearable devices is still pretty complete. The only problem is that UI doesn't know how to work with a round display

[@Honza368]

I've had multiple Wear OS watches. You can actually use them like a full on Android device with enough tinkering using ADB. For example, you can install most phone apps.

[@madmike6942]

huawei and xiaomi have the best smart watches

[@mrwoodcat]

@@madmike6942 complete fax. I mean look at that new huawei's which have tws built in. that so f dope

[@soacespacestation8556]

@@madmike6942 Mi band 7 pro would like to complain

[@AuranDerg]

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

[@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.

[@ianwiese1]

My last job was delivering auto parts and they were extremely strict on any electronic devices in your vehicle, Except smart watches. I bought one of those new android smart watches and I found a tiny FM transmitter that was battery powered just so I could listen to my music. And nobody was the wiser 😈

[@msv900]

did you work for a company named convergys in costa rica?

[@jasonblalock4429]

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!

[@JanusCycle]

It's always satisfying to step though all those NOs to get to YES :)

[@Mugen37]

No No No No No Yes! 😂 ​@@JanusCycle

[@unicodefox]

i always used to go up, and wrap around to the yes at the bottom, saves a few clicks :)

[@superqwerty]

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

[@JacobJohnson-lh4gx]

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.

[@monkstandinglast]

Agreed the preservation of their awesome work and efforts are going largely to waste for all those who wish to either casually improve or simply enjoy the original roms on their devices such as myself who is still rocking a 2015 galaxy a5 and up till my old s3 finally given up on its hardware was still using that with the current roms from xda lol

[@jackkraken3888]

Right? We have lost so much, from various sites because the uploader used some random site.

[@jackkraken3888]

XDA is really amazing. It's just sad we have lost files to time.

[@TabbyEgg312]

Agreed

[@Goigigandfriends]

Your not wrong I’m lucky I have the gear s1 android files still

[@salsa83]

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.

[@nooneisback]

The screen damage is probably a bulging battery

[@jm036]

Nope, some older LCDs just get these dead spots. Old iPhones do as well.

[@StephanBuchin]

I had a bulging battery and it induced brighter spots just like when you push on the front of an LCD screen with you finger. They totally disappeared when the battery was replaced.

[@kommandant.357]

Yes, like old iPod nano.

[@newolku]

Its both probably. Old lcd mixed with battery bulge

[@earldominic3467]

This black spot on the screen is caused by damage from debris such as dislodged liquid crystal molecules or even dirt contaminants trapped inside the LCD itself. The debris may have created a superficial crack inside the LCD. You can remove it by carefully swabbing the black spot to the edge using Q-tips. However, you need to be very careful, as otherwise the dark spot may become even bigger. - ChatGPT

[@Psychopatz]

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

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you!

[@610jrod]

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

[@n0madfernan257]

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

[@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.

[@TheRealAECorporation]

Same

[@BEdmonson85]

@@TheRealAECorporation Same here, and the music production is just.... *chef's kiss* ...amazing. I hope more people find and subscribe, this channel deserves it. :)

[@techiewiskers]

same

[@GeoffereyEakinsTech]

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

[@r4microds]

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.

[@jan_harald]

good thing people actually ran blogs at the time...

[@timotheatae]

Strap sold separately. No strap? You're meant to clip it onto a piece of clothing

[@Solaceon]

After looking into this further, $250 in 2023 is $335.46 today, more than many Apple Watch models (obviously not talking about the fanciest ones). Do with this information what you will.

[@SuperMacro64]

Very rarely included a strap.

[@hind__]

​@@jan_harald Right? I kinda miss when I could google a product and not just get content farms regurgitating the same things over and over. I do follow blogs I like but they can't cover everything and sometimes I wanna browse new sites just cause. The internet got bigger technically but it's such a small, lonely place. Hate that I gotta tack on "reddit" to most searches now.

[@TheHatMan69]

Cool video fam. KZbin has been forcing your videos into my home feed for a month now so I finally watched one. Me likey

[@prostosergik]

Wow! I had this watch 9 years ago, it was way ahead of it's time! I did this Android rooting hack too and was successfully using MapsMe for step-by-step navigation and was even able to download and listen podcasts directly from the watch. It was a pain to find compatible apps that can be usable on screen that small. Sold mine because strap stated to came apart, and there was no any reasonable solution to fix it that time. Im not a fitness guy at all, but fitness features implementation on this watch was perfect and was even able to motivate me to move =) I have solved a speaker problem by connecting tiny cellphone speaker to the 3,5" jack and creating a part to clip this speaker to the watch. Was loud enough to wake me up with alarm chime. LMK if you want me to send some pictures (hope I will be able to find them) Thanks for your video, so many nostalgic memories!

[@XXLuigiMario]

Love your pick of demoscene tracks!

[@ZeroMusicTV]

Love these 'old' devices reviews vibe that KZbin os showing me

[@burntoutelectronics]

There is something absolutely brilliant about getting into the hardware and running a full version of android. That's something that I resent about modern smartwatches, I want it to be fully fledged. No matter how small and pointless!

[@uhm175]

Ok

[@roymcroberts8683]

Bubba I love these videos. Its like you know everything I'm interested in and you have already made the video. Thank you man I'm tearing my way through your videos at all massive rate.

[@kombosabinho]

Dude I know this is gonna sound super weird but I have watched this video a few months before it was released. I remember details of your voice and the watch vividly. It's like a deja vu.... when I clicked on the video I was in shock that it was just like what I had seen previously

[@JanusCycle]

I made this video over the past few weeks. It's still possible you saw it months ago, because time and experience is not completely linear in a quantum universe. We barely understand what consciousness even is :)

[@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 😁

[@arafatrahmanshihab5268]

Yeah, Chinese wearables back then are like a full-fleshed Android phone Even, you can buy one now too in China in less then 100$

[@ThexthSurvivor]

Yes, you're right. The very first android watch I saw was a Chinese one long before they were available in the US. It had two SIM card slots and a micro SD card slot and even a headphone jack. The thing that suck about all those old Chinese smartwatches is that none of them are 4G, only 2G and/or 3G. Some of the designs were awesome though.

[@kathrynradonich3982]

Didn't know there were custom rims for the LG g watch still have mine sitting in a drawer somewhere might pull it out and fiddle around.

[@completelyretarded]

I must thank you very sincerely for introducing me to old msdos demo scene and indirectly to the most beautiful dnb music I've ever heard in my life. just thank you

[@JanusCycle]

These demos have some of the best music, I'm glad you are digging it.

[@scaleop4]

any idea on what tune that was?

[@user-vu8jq3tt8p]

got the hood irony watch

[@ougee3654]

THANK GOSH THIS VIDEO WAS IN MY RECOMMENDATIONS

[@JessicaFEREM]

It's hard to believe they managed to make a whole android device in a watch at this time it's amazing

[@masterbawler]

Your videos are food for the soul

[@JanusCycle]

A beautiful compliment, thank you.

[@vrteur]

not even gonna lie this some underrated content, definitely placing you up there with dankpods

[@JanusCycle]

dankpods does some amazing videos, so this is quite a compliment, thank you!

[@rtry.]

Ohh the cwm recovery. Memories !!

[@sailaab]

Lovvved your production and presentation🤍💙 Especially the choice of retro-isque music😊. . I am South Asian person in my forties now. And although in my childhood we did not have access to foreign movies or shows much.. i tried to catch up.. after the internet happened. And for some reason.. this production kept reminding me of 'Back to the future'. 💙Following🤍 you❤ now, while I wonder .. how I did not come across your channel.. till now!

[@JanusCycle]

Glad you are enjoying :)

[@TradieTrev]

Nicely repaired! Those scene demos remind of milkdrop from winamp days.

[@brockachoo]

Omgosh your channel rocks, how did I not find your videos earlier!!! Hello from a new fan, fellow Tasmanian?!

[@JanusCycle]

Hiya! I'm not in Tas, I'm on the mainland. But it's the only other place I would want to live in Australia :)

[@Koutsie]

Another banger video, scene demos on the go :D

[@johnduty4505]

Your confident voice makes the viewer focus on your content...

[@JanusCycle]

Really nice compliment, thank you.

[@speedyink]

HAHA I love mine! I used to be the Motoactv guy on KZbin. I used to post the "how to hack" videos and other demo videos for this thing waaay back. Still use it as an MP3 player these days. Battery is still kicking!

[@JanusCycle]

Hey cool, you have some good tech on your channel. Thanks for watching.

[@speedyink]

@@JanusCycle Thanks!

[@doitcom]

I still got my MotoActv. It was pretty sweet and worked well with their S9 headphones.

[@harrythezomby]

Wow i wish newer watches had this level of hackability. Also great outro Janus!

[@debarkak]

You make such great content. You are now on my favourite channel list

[@JanusCycle]

I'm honoured, thank you.

[@stepanrumyantsev6098]

Thanks for the videos! Love the misterious vibes and curious tech like Windows 7 on a phone or full Android on a smartwatch. I also got attracted by the idea of having a full Android on a smartwatch and dropping my full-size Android phone. So much that I bought a Lemfo LEM12 running Android 7.1.1 in 2020. What a waste of money that was. As you can imagine no regular Android App is usable on a tiny circular (!) screen. Neither Google Maps nor WhatsApp or a browser. Really nothing. I played around with it for a couple of months and later bought something actually usable - a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4. Still that was a lot of fun - fulfilling my childhood dream of having a computer on the wrist. Thank you!

[@JanusCycle]

I'm glad you are enjoying, thank you.

[@matowid498]

I had LEM10 for a year and everything runs perfectly on rectangular screen, the only bad thing is the battery

[@ahmedp8009]

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.

[@JanusCycle]

I always wanted an original black and white screen Communicator. Later models would be nice as well.

[@AndroidFerret]

"I don't like fitness trackers .. They tend to bring me to lie down until the urge to do fitness passes ..." genius 👍

[@bramvandenbroeck5060]

Man, the XDA forms are genius minds!

[@nevarDeathEHW]

Great video bro! I love how you got the car lights in the background to compliment the scene demos!

[@SamPinchesMakerShop]

Thanks for showing the internals especially! Fascinating.

[@luigimaster111]

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.

[@No_True_Scotsman]

It's so tragic Pebble shut down. I want a watch like that.

[@carlolalattacosterbosa5821]

So glad I found your channel bro! Always spectacular videos!

[@JanusCycle]

Cool, thank you!

[@Radi0he4d1]

When this came out in 2011, it lit up my wait for good wearables. I've tried an LG smartwatch and then got the apple watch. Having computer on your wrist is awesome

[@dronszell]

I just discovered about this KZbin channel. And boy I'm hooked

[@JanusCycle]

Awesome :)

[@dronszell]

@@JanusCycle Please continue the great tinkering work. Absolutely a childhood dream.

[@exturkconner]

Neat. I love making tech that should otherwise not function properly any longer have a solid use again. I have a pebble I'm still rocking using Rebble. This seems like a similarly neat little project.

[@JanusCycle]

Rebble sounds interesting, and I always wanted a Pebble. Thanks for that.

[@exturkconner]

@@JanusCycle pebbles are great. It's a shame that Fitbit never did anything with the tech or OS after buying it. These days the Garmin watches are about as close as you can get. A Garmin Venu sq is pretty much the spiritual successor of the pebble time.

[@S7EVE_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?

[@robbie99us]

damn im in love with this channel, this is my vibe

[@JanusCycle]

cool, thank you.

[@stupidoldgamer]

Takes me back.. Loved older instances of Droid. Would allow much more fun things.

[@silence3994]

this video was really wholesome thank you :)

[@JanusCycle]

nice :)

[@RizkyBambangWiratmoko]

that supersu logo really brings back the nostalgia.

[@chriswright8074]

This bring backs memory of flashing roms and bootloader's haven't seen clock recovery in years

[@richjamjam]

Great video man. Came across your channel couple of weeks ago, been hooked since!

[@JanusCycle]

Awesome to hear that, thank you.

[@kirilnikolovski81]

i have that exact speaker, picked up from woollies. once the battery died i removed the old and purchased a J car 4 AA battery holder, soldered directly to the MB the 4 AA battery holder was glued to the base of the speaker, it housed a switch and USB out port to charge other device. the best part was the batteries were accessible so that any type of AA, rechargeable OR not can be used for the speaker and or charging a device in a pinch. the life of the speaker was insane if you didnt charge other devices such as a phone or mp3 player and surprisingly the speaker was decent for the princely price of $10 AUD new.

[@sadev101]

tbh googlemaps on a smartwatch sounds to me fabulous and having a dedicated mp3 player on your wrist . damn its cool

[@lawrencered7850]

"I don't use fitness trackers, they tend to motivate me to lie down until the need to exercise passes" Hahaha ;D iknow the feeling

[@AndroidFerret]

I laughed so hard at that

[@von_brownie]

I have no words to describe how cool is that. Wow. 😮

[@Pasi123]

There was also the Android based "i'm Watch" which was announced in 2011 and released in 2012

[@JanusCycle]

I didn't know about that one, thank you.

[@beyondcatastrophe_]

Really, the only problem I have with this channel is that the music is so loud compared to the speaker. But great content! I watched quite a bit the last few days

[@hdofu]

Narrator: "This is technically not a watch?" Me"Can it track time?" Narrator:"Yes"Me:"Do you wear it"?" Narrator:"Yes" Me:"Then it's a watch"

[@JanusCycle]

To be fair I did say 'technically not a Smartwatch' not watch.

[@app0the]

Neat cute device, thanks for posting. Reminded me of the Ben Nanonote I had back in the day and tried to backport some of the iPodLinux demos to it (but didn't get too far with it). Sorry, but one nitpick would be sound normalization. I tune my volume to hear the voice clear and nice, and then the music starts and all the neighbors have a disco to the sound of my blown out eardrums :D

[@EmirhanSanl4]

seeing cwm recovery menu is bringing back memories...

[@GWGMJ]

You don't need this crappy background music, your channel and content are already amazing. Huge fan, thank you sir for the amazing content.

[@SexManNordin]

i like the song

[@gopnik-mcblyat]

I think the song is cool, you just have lame taste.

[@GWGMJ]

@@gopnik-mcblyat 😂 could be

[@SomeUnremarkableGuy]

Wow, a clockworkmode custom recovery. I haven heard that name in a while!

[@shkdzn]

Nice to see you running some #demoscene prods on this, I've actually managed to get quite a few running on more modern Android smartwatches, like my Diesel On smartwatch... again same issue of no speaker but it's a pretty neat effort...

[@JanusCycle]

Nice, I'm glad I'n not the only person that enjoys doing this!

[@shkdzn]

@@JanusCycle Yeah it's oddly fun watching Demoscene prods on random devices. There's quite a decent representation of the Demoscene in Australia if you're interested btw (especially if you happen to be in Melbourne).

[@darkpadden]

As an old fart now.. Who watched screen demos who remembers when the ideal of opening an app within a game was a neat concept. Thanks this vid made that still feel alive.

[@JanusCycle]

Awesome to hear, great comment :)

[@i_have_crippling._.depress4630]

I love that he used clockworkmod recovery in his watch

[@pr3cious193]

I'm so glad I found this channel

[@JanusCycle]

I'm pleased you are enjoying this.

[@LostieTrekieTechie]

I wanted this so bad. I completely forgot about this.

[@JasperTedVidalTale]

Ticwris max is better

[@dablakmark8]

love the teckno jungle song you played

[@cristianoashok8410]

CWM recovery brings good old rom flashing memory. those days rom flashing easy, simple and no complications...

[@dairhat]

Loving your videos!

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you :)

[@kid_stizz]

Awesome video mate.

[@lukasmarik6580]

Just found this new channel and I really enjoy your videos ! Just a little tip... lower the volume of music when talking :)

[@JanusCycle]

I will work at making the volume levels better, thank you!

[@PDRIFT86]

watching this while looking at my motoactv that i hacked years ago collecting dust on my desk !

[@Royal_R3GALIA]

Makes you appreciate how far technology has gone. Nowadays you can play genshin impact in a smartwatch.

[@RestoreTechnique]

This channel is cool

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you!

[@SianaGearz]

Thumb up for demoscene prods.

[@kevingallagher3]

Wow. A tablet with a strap. How ingenious

[@ralseidreemurr2682]

Reminds me of that Neptune Pine all in one wearable watch and back than i always thought thats what a smart watch was meant to be instead of what we had later that is just a gadget that needs pairing to your phone as a accessory.

[@AlexandruLipan]

So, the specs are as follows: A OMAP3 CPU that is basically a 600Mhz single core processor 256 MB Ram A dedicated GPU Android 2.3.6 I think the inability to connect to KZbin was because everything before 5.0 is rejected by Google services as a secure device

[@Woodsmasher]

Imagine the same size watch, but with a display the same size and a battery the same size too... And in the middle, everything powered up... The perfect sandwich!

[@ryborg123456]

I still have mine, in perfect condition. I love the belt clip. I wish i could find a use for it.

[@astatine2283]

Cwm Clock work mod is relic of a bygone era. These days it's replaced by twrp . But this brings back lots of memories

[@chillinfartdotcc]

Siemens memories, modding the S65 and MC60

[@konomikitten]

"Because it's kind of awesome to have scene demos running on your wrist" Hey, hey pst, wanna see my scene demos?

[@lyzine]

There once was another Android smartwatch - officially before the moto tracker.

[@lyzine]

@@octopusdreams I lost the video but smoorez made a video about an Android smartwatch with android 2.2. I think the watch was from 2011-2012 but I'm not sure.

[@lyzine]

@@octopusdreams - that was not the sony smartwatch, it was an unbranded one running android eclair. Really weird tech🥴

[@parkerlreed]

Another interesting one is the last square Android Wear watch. Zenwatch 2. Snapdragon 400 with all but one core locked down, 512 MB of RAM, and most importantly the ability to actually display Android applications correctly. The fact that there have been no square watches since then makes me sad.

[@pleasantivan]

What about OPPO Watch? IIRC that one is square.

[@matowid498]

What about Lemfo LEM10? 3/32GB memory, SIM card slot, square screen and full android 7

[@No_True_Scotsman]

Round smartwatches are so stupid.

[@xero110]

Very interesting video, I love early Android stuff. I used to compile/mix and match custom ROMs for the HTC M7. Would this device be usable with a good lock screen app and wifi tether to the phone so I could get notifications and weather updates? Honestly, that's all I care about when it comes to smartwatches.

[@DrWakey]

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

[@cursedfox4942]

nobody remembers the sony ericsson live view but it was the first legit smart watch

[@JanusCycle]

I remember it and I almost bought one recently.

[@cursedfox4942]

@@JanusCycle that would be a cool review

[@theepicone7464]

Bruh, this alone will make you the coolest kid in class

[@Fuuntag]

I miss Moto, they always swung for the fences instead of playing it safe. Pure crazy at times.

[@joadventurestv]

Finally a true smartwatch!

that automated tool reminds me mine first proper smartphone samsung galaxy nexus which comes in yakjuxw no shop helped me but one automated tool ruled my legendary phone - rest in pieces (;

[@Leos74]

this is crazy tech for its age.

[@cameronbharker]

Nice video man.