Hasta La Gadget!

Technology blogs and forums are rife with rumors about the upcoming launch of an Amazon Smartphone – coming as early as September. It’s a given that if they’re intending to … Continue reading

Smartwatch maker Pebble has finally released its full version 2.0 app for Android devices, following a public beta originally brought the software and the Pebble Appstore to smartphones using Google’s mobile OS last month. The update, if you haven’t used the beta or if you’re not an iPhone owner, offers the ability to search for, install and manage new apps and watchfaces for… Read More

Pebble started shipping its new Pebble Steel hardware last week, but until today, the version of the companion app available to the general public didn’t contain any of the version 2.0 goodness that granted access to the Pebble appstore. The new appstore is being billed as the “first open platform for sharing apps optimized for wearables” by Pebble, and as of today, it’s available to the general Pebble-wearing public, so long as you’ve got an iOS device.

The Pebble appstore works with any Pebble running OS version 2.0, which you’ll be prompted to install on your device when you download and install the updated Pebble app. You’ll also get a completely new interface for managing your Pebble and the new apps you can install on it from within the software. As you can see in our review, the update introduces an app and watchface management tray that lets you see what’s already on your Pebble (each smartwatch supports a maximum of 8 third-party apps and faces).

Pebble’s new appstore features apps updated to work with SDK 2.0, and is divided into either apps or watchfaces, with subdivisions within each. The apps section features categories, including fitness apps and remotes, for example, and the watchface category can be organized by popularity, recency or staff picks. In my review, I noted that it struck me as a bit rudimentary, but it’s perfectly functional for a version 1 release, and sort of resembles the early days of Apple’s iOS App Store.

I’ve already got some favourites picked out from the inaugural batch of Pebble apps: Both Yelp and Foursquare’s official software never leave my wrist, and the third-party Huebble app is arguably a better Philips Hue remote than the iOS app itself in many ways. The PipBoy 100 Pebble watchface also provides some great utility, including battery indicator, connectivity loss alarm when you venture too far from your phone, and what amounts to a loose step counter via an XP display and level up system. And if my life was exciting enough that I owned a GoPro, I’d definitely use the remote app for that gadget.

Already, Pebble’s app ecosystem offers up a number of software titles that can replace entire gadgets, with software for tracking daily activity and progress towards a goal, as well as stuff that turns your Pebble into a hardware remote for controlling your smartphone camera’s shutter.

Grab the updated Pebble app now if you want access to all that appstore goodness. Even if you aren’t one of the few pre-orderers lucky enough to have a Pebble Steel, you’re going to feel like you’ve got a brand new device with this update. Android users, Pebble promises you don’t have to wait long – they haven’t put a specific timeline on when the appstore makes it to Google’s mobile OS, but it should arrive “very, very soon” according to the company.

Although not as hot a topic as it was a few years back, web apps, particularly those written with HTML5, have become more or less an established category, especially on … Continue reading

Pebble is finally getting around to creating an official app marketplace for software devs build for its platform. The Pebble Appstore, as it will be known, is going to debut sometime early next year according to the company, and it’ll be integrated directly into the existing iPhone and Android applications for the smartwatch.

Third-party app and watchface discovery tools have existed for Pebble basically since it became available, including MyPebbleFaces.com. Those will continue to exist, Pebble says, and will be able to distribute Pebble software just as before. At the same time, however, the company notes in a blog post today that “[for developers, the Pebble App Store is the best way to promote and distribute your Pebble applications to users.”

The new official Pebble app store doesn’t support paid apps at launch, though devs can obviously still charge for their companion apps on iOS and Android (and theoretically offer Pebble support as a paid upgrade via in-app purchase. Developers will be able to publish apps to the Pebble App Store via a web-based portal, which is completely free to use, and apps will be chosen as featured by the dev support team. There won’t be any advanced screening of apps published to the Pebble Appstore, but Pebble does reserve the right to take down any apps that violate its developer agreement.

At launch the Pebble Appstore will feature seven different categories for apps: Daily, Remotes, Games, Notifications, Tools & Utilities, Sports & Fitness and Watchfaces. These are a little different from what we’re used to seeing in mobile software marketplaces, of course, but that’s to be expected from a device that has been a pioneer in the wearable computing category, and which is essentially working without a model to build from.

Pebble only just revealed its 2.0 Software Development Kit, which adds a lot of functionality but also requires that 1.0 apps get updated before they can be compatible with the 2.0 firmware. The pre-announced storefront, along with the ambiguous consumer launch, is probably designed to give the Pebble team and its developer partners time to update the existing library and get a good crop of new apps available so that the Appstore isn’t a ghost town when it arrives.