In an interesting twist on the open source hardware movement, Sony has just announced it’s opening up its SmartWatch for your hacking pleasure.
The SmartWatch SDK has for a while allowed devs to create apps for the 2012-launched device, but today’s Open SmartWatch update will let devs build and flash alternative firmware to the SmartWatch.
“If you create alternative firmware for SmartWatch, you can take control of SmartWatch as a hardware peripheral in new ways and create new experimental use cases and innovations,” the company writes in the documentation.
The hardware in question includes a 128 x 128-pixel screen with touch capabilities, an ARM Cortex-M3 CPU, an accelerator, a vibrator, and Bluetooth connectivity capability. With its current firmware, the Android-powered gadget has access to Google Play and its own slate of apps.
While these devices never really took the gadget world by storm (understatement — we called them “ugly and late to the party”), it will be fun to see SmartWatch hacks — if developers decide to take Sony up on the offer, that is.
All this comes on the heels of a slew of smart watch rumors swirling around such companies as Samsung, Apple, and Google.