I got a PineTime #OpenSource smartwatch to monitor my heart rate on hikes and bike rides. I’ve had it for a couple months now. I like it a lot, and it’s an amazing deal. Finding an app to record heart rate was the hardest part, but it turned out OsmAnd, already my favorite Android mapping app (#FOSS and uses #OpenStreetMap), does a great job. Big thumbs up for both #PineTime and #OsmAnd.
I wrote up the details: https://shallowsky.com/blog/tech/pinetime.html
@Drew @pine64 @osmand I think I used that Osmand~ at some point, though I paid for Osmand+ long ago since I use it so much. I think the Pro subscription (required for the devices plugin) is a separate thing that needs a continuing subscription. I could probably find a way to unlock it for free, like by building the plugin myself. But the subscription isn’t really that much considering the value I get from Osmand, so I don’t mind paying and helping support the project.
oh no way, I didn’t have turn by turn working unless I used organic maps (now comaps). I’ll try osmand with it again some time.
@vikingtons Turn by turn, like navigation directions? I don’t use that, and the few times I’ve tried it with OsmAnd it hasn’t worked very well. I use it for recording tracks, and looking at the map to see where I am or where I might want to go next. I love looking at maps and don’t really need an app to tell me when to turn (and half my hikes are on unmapped trails anyway, so nav wouldn’t work in any app). YMMV.
ahhh okay I see. So on the watch you can have it show turn by turn directions! It’s pretty neat if you’re wandering about in a new city and don’t wanna keep your phone in your hands, but it’s definitely not necessary.
love osmand though, been using it for years, and it’s neat having offline maps of entire countries.
@vikingtons I don’t understand why you’re asking about turn by turn directions. I use the watch to record my heart rate, as I detailed in the post. I didn’t say anything about using the watch for directions. I know nothing about whether it can do that.
And yeah, the offline maps are a huge osmand strong point.
sorry, I was just bringing it up as a feature since you just bought a pinetime. it’s a pretty neat little device and can do lots of handy little things 😊
I use it to control my music, and I even use the metronome feature to help me time static stretches and yoga and such.
@vikingtons Cool, I wondered what the metronome was for. I will try it for guitar one of these days, just haven’t gotten around to it. And I can definitely imagine the music control feature being useful.
the metronome is for sure my most used feature 😅
somewhat frustratingly, it defaults to 120 BPM and 4bpb, rather than 60-1. the slider interface for the BPM can be really finnicky to interact with as well, but I’ve recently learned that you can double tap the centre of the UI and have it set to the rhythm of your taps!
I had also only recently learned that you can long press on some of the watch screen designs to customise the look of them.
lots cute stuff hidden hidden inside 😊
@vikingtons oh wow, that’s a great feature, setting to the rhythm of your taps. Does it remember that setting, by any chance? The longpress thing doesn’t seem to be working for me, maybe I need to upgrade again.
And of course the greatest feature is that if I really want something it doesn’t have, it’s open source so I could write it myself! Haven’t wanted to yet, but some day …
i heard of pine64 but first time i heard of pinetime or any prebuilt open source smart watch(pbossw). this is awesome!
is this the only pbossw so far?
@quickenparalysespunk It’s the only one I know about, but there could be lots I don’t know about. Adafruit has a not-quite-built one, but it’s much more expensive and I don’t think it has much of a community around it.
So Lemmy does ads now?
Seems like a real human wrote a real blog post about something they found fun and interesting, I think we can call off the dogs
