The Motorola MOTO ACTV is sort of what you get if you stick a watch, an iPod Nano, a GPS device, and an FM radio in a blender. It’s an odd device with a starting price of $249 which is aimed at runners and other fitness enthusiasts.

But there’s something kind of cool about the MOTO ACTV: It’s basically a little Android-powered watch. And you can root it and install all sorts of Android apps to extend its capabilities.

That’s exactly what Chris Wade has done. By rooting the watch, he’s been able to install an app launcher, Android Market, Google Maps, YouTube, the Skyfire web browser, and even Angry Birds.

The 1.6 inch screen is kind of tiny for watching videos or playing games, but Wade says Android is surprisingly usable on the little display.

The MOTO ACTV has a 600 MHz OMAP 3630 processor, 256MB of RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS. It comes with 8GB or 16GB of storage.

Wade has also posted tools and instructions for rooting the device at his blog. You’ll need to have adb and fastboot from the Android Software Developer Kit installed on your computer for his instructions to work.

If Wade’s name sounds familiar, that’s because he’s one of the people responsible for the Dingleberry tool which can be used to root a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

via reddit

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4 replies on “MOTO ACTV watch rooted, turned into an Android wristwatch”

  1. This thing is awesome but what about the battery life? It should have two different power source, one for android, another for just the watch function so that you don’t have to worry about charging it everyday.

    I wanted to see how the android keyboard looks on that screen.

    1. It is everything I hoped it would be aside from not having a built in speaker.

      Well… or maybe a camera, too. Not for anything useful — but for the Dick Tracy jokes.

      (It does netflix. I don’t, but it does.)

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