alt.hn

2/12/2026 at 1:16:11 PM

Run Pebble OS in Browser via WASM

 https://ericmigi.github.io/pebble-qemu-wasm/

by goranmoomin

2/12/2026 at 6:23:44 PM

Can already see a nice web based AI app builder on the way, also can be used to quickly try apps before pushing to the device as interactive app store.

Please watch out some qemu targets for Cortex m0 or m3, increasing ram from linker out of supported ranges will cause random crashes. Would love to contribute if you are looking for people to crash some issues.

Awesome effort btw.

by ezulabs

2/12/2026 at 2:22:09 PM

I'm blow away at what Devs are able to do within a browser nowadays.

by KetoManx64

2/12/2026 at 10:21:33 PM

I’m very mixed about WASM. It’s clearly a very cool technology, and enables cool things by allowing native performance without needing multi-platform support.

But at the same time, it provides a vector for foreign, non-free software to run on my computer. Every time someone sends me a Google doc blocking printing/copying (on _my_ computer!), it makes me want to join a monastery.

by quailfarmer

2/13/2026 at 8:56:58 AM

Javascript already provides a way for foreign non-free software to run on your computer. WASM doesn't change anything about that.

by IshKebab

2/12/2026 at 3:51:18 PM

More that browsers have gotten sprouted downwards and obtained all sorts of low level access than older browsers didn't use to have. I believe this is partially why tools that were meant to just render markup have gotten so complex to build that a small team of devs is not enough to build a modern browser anymore. And by that I mean from scratch, not just piggybacking on Chromium or Gecko.

by bossyTeacher

2/12/2026 at 5:38:25 PM

> I believe this is partially why tools that were meant to just render markup have gotten so complex to build that a small team of devs is not enough to build a modern browser anymore.

Isn't it basically the opposite? The hard parts of the browser are layout, styling, and multimedia stuff that goes into rendering markup compliantly. Then there's the infinite sink of optimization work for a JS engine, the high-level scripting language for that markup. The low level access that something like this emulator use is comparatively easy; a WASM runtime and Canvas blitting pixels from some shared buffer.

Or am I mistaken that a WASM engine is much easier to build than a performant JS engine?

by idle_zealot

2/12/2026 at 7:09:54 PM

You could have done the same with plugins in the past.

by pjmlp

2/12/2026 at 9:42:32 PM

And now we don't need to use them and expose ourselves to security vulnerabilities. Win win.

by afavour

2/12/2026 at 4:48:12 PM

08:46:37.125 [err] [fps] 4.0 (12 frames in 3.0s) 08:46:40.225 [err] [fps] 1.0 (3 frames in 3.1s) 08:46:41.224 FIRM | * ASSERTION FAILED: ASSERTN 08:46:41.443 [err] DEBUG post-reset: halted=0 stopped=1 R13=0x20002170 R15=0x080001b4 thumb=1 08:46:42.123 [err] clktree_recalc_output_freq: Clock PCLK1 output frequency (32000000 Hz) exceeds max frequency (30000000 Hz).

found an assertion just by clicking up/down. doesn't seem too stable.

by mischief6

2/12/2026 at 4:52:47 PM

Yeah that happens when trying to go up into the timeline.

by cpfleming

2/12/2026 at 4:15:15 PM

Should I be getting more than .2 FPS?

by mmmlinux

2/12/2026 at 4:29:52 PM

I'm not even getting that - its stuck at: 10:26:18.027 Downloaded SPI flash: 16777216 bytes 10:26:18.027 [config] icount: off 10:26:18.028 [status] Loading QEMU WASM module (17MB)...

by davsti4

2/12/2026 at 5:33:45 PM

Any way to load a local watch-face? Am hoping there is and I didn't see it. This would be very helpful for testing.

by donohoe

2/12/2026 at 11:11:54 PM

Really slow FPS for me (macOS, Firefox). Not really getting past 1fps...

by infotainment

2/12/2026 at 11:35:19 PM

Getting 2 fps on my iPhone SE 2020.. it’s nearly usable!

by wolttam

2/12/2026 at 10:19:46 PM

Keeps crashing on iOS safari for me

by sonu27

2/12/2026 at 11:09:41 PM

Does not work in Firefox...

by vsviridov

2/12/2026 at 11:27:33 PM

Works fine for me in Firefox 147.

by nacs

2/12/2026 at 5:28:03 PM

Pretty impressive!

by hemmert

2/12/2026 at 9:07:24 PM

Cool cool cool

by pmkary

2/12/2026 at 4:31:28 PM

Probably could be made faster by:

- using native exception handling

- getting rid of asyncify (but it would require JSPI)

See my experiments with TempleOS here: https://zb3.me/qemu-wasm-test/

by zb3