When the Pebble smartwatch hit the market earlier this year, it
hewed to a "simple is best" philosophy, offering only a limited set
of features. But the company also pledged to help others develop their own
creative uses for the gadget, and it's now followed through with a more fully fledged set of developer tools and better iOS 7
integration.
The latter should interest iPhone users who
want Twitter, Facebook, Skype or other alerts on their Pebble watches with a
minimum of fuss. But the new software development kit, or SDK, should pique the
interest of Pebble developers, particularly those itching to explore niches
such as health monitoring, remote home security, automation and a variety of
other futuristic features.
As Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky put it:
“We’ve given them access to the sensors.”
Sensors lie at the heart of "cool
tech" innovations these days. Want to know what your heart rate is during
that run? Flip the lights and TV on as soon as you come through the door?
That's the work of sensors, and Pebble has them, including an accelerometer and
magnetometer. And that means you may soon be able to monitor or control gadgets
around you easily and conveniently, all from a watch strapped to your
arm.
Pebble's Kit And Kaboodle
Pebble launched with little more than a
basic—dare I say charming?—e-paper display and a handful of features. The
device handled alarms, music controls, some watch faces and alerts for email,
call and texts from iPhones and Android handsets. Likewise, Pebble's first SDK
was also rather minimal, allowing developers to customize watch faces or to nix
backlighting or vibrations and not much else.
Subsequent
updates, along with a snazzy new sports API, made things a bit more interesting, offering support for two-way
Bluetooth communication between the smartwatch and the paired smartphone. And
apps likeRunkeeper and FreeCaddie joined
the party, essentially turning the device into a wearable fitness gadget.
Now version 2 ups the game, turning the
Pebble into much more of a, well, platform. As Migicovsky told me last month, "It’s an open platform, which
means anyone and everyone can hack on top of Pebble."
So Migicovsky has put his SDK where his
mouth is. With the sensors available—including a 3-axis accelerometer with
gesture detection—app developers have chance to dig in and dial up the
innovation.
There's a lot of buzz around
sensors—hardware designed to detect changes in things like location, movement,
light or temperature, among other things. One of the company's early partners
includes iControl, whose technology powers new home-automation services from
Time Warner Cable and Comcast Xfinity. The company is working on a Pebble app,
says Migicovsky, so customers can see data about their home on their watch and
even perform some basic tasks.
Imagine Pebble sensors working with Apple's
geo-fencing API, so your home can sense when you've arrived and unlock your
garage or front door, play your favorite playlist when you shake your arm, or
automatically shut down your WiFi network when you've left the house.
In the context of a Pebblefied world, where
things like smartphone GPS can join forces with arm gestures, a flick of a
wrist can summon cool suggestions of activities to do in the area. Why not?
That's a feature Yelp is working on. And it's not alone; others working on
Pebble features include Foursquare and GoPro.
"For each of these apps,"
Migicovsky told me Monday, "there’s a small micro interaction, a small bit
of data that can be lifted from the smartphone and used by Pebble."
Pebble also flipped the switch on Bluetooth
Low Energy, adding that to its older, more stable Bluetooth connection profile.
That means new features have better odds of not sucking batteries dry.
iPhone Users Get Good Vibrations—Lots Of
Them
Of course, it will take time for new apps
and Pebble-compatible features to arrive. Meanwhile, some customers can take
heart in the new iOS notifications Pebble has just enabled.
Android users had more control over
vibration alerts than iPhone users, either via the official Pebble app or
third-party programs like Pebble Notifier. But now Pebble has just leveled the field.
Similar to the jailbroken app BTNotificationEnabler, the new iOS Pebble app
update "finally supports the full suite of notifications that show up in
the top part of the phone," Migicovsky says.
By taking advantage of the Apple Notification Center Service (ANCS)—which allows
Bluetooth accessories to access those notifications—Pebble is giving people the
opportunity to field an array of alerts on their Pebbles, from social networks
to game apps and more.
The updated Pebble app has already been
submitted to the App Store, so users will be able to get their hands on it as
soon as Apple approves it. Once downloaded and launched, it will automatically
update the smartwatch over the air.
I got an early peek at the beta version,
and the fuller range of alerts made me smile. It's been extremely useful not
having to dig out my iPhone 5S whenever I got a notification. The downside: The
stream of Tweets, Facebook messages, chats and other alerts set my arm on
near-constant jitter mode. This, however, wasn't a tech fail; it was a user
fail. I needed to tweak my settings to reduce the list of apps that shook my
wrist.
Assuming that the release version works the
same way as the beta version, it's a pretty easy process: To get Pebble alerts
for specific apps, you just enable them one by one in the Notifications Center
and make sure they're set to Banner alert style. Then go to the Bluetooth
setting. If the Pebble's paired, you'll see it in the list. Select it, and then
switch on the "Show Notifications" toggle on the next screen.
Beyond that, there have still been some
issues. Sometimes email notifications would appear repeatedly. Or the Bluetooth
connection would drop out and, upon connecting again, would dump an avalanche
of previous items into the pipeline of alerts again. Pebble is aware of these
bugs and already has some fixes in test mode, a company rep told me.
If Pebble can solve the pairing problems
and make the experience more stable for those 190,000 Pebble owners—and if the
SDK is sufficient to keep the developer community engaged and inspired—then
Migicovsky and company might actually be on to something.
Pebble is also upping its game in customer
service. With its manufacturing woesin the rearview mirror, it's promising to
put smartwatches in people's hands quickly, with free priority shipping (5 to
7 days) worldwide for a limited time.
Combined, these moves all suggest that
Pebble could have a lot more potential than it first appeared. “Pebble can be a
platform that other people can build apps and even companies off of,”
Migicovsky insists. Time—ahem—will tell.
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기