Hasta La Gadget!

Samsung has released its Tizen SDK for wearables, allowing developers to create apps for the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo smartwatches announced last month, and beating Google’s wearable SDK … Continue reading

Google helped put wearables on the map with Google Glass and now it’s aiming to solidify its position in that market. In around two weeks’ time, the tech giant will … Continue reading

Even with the recent additions of Vevo, RedBull.TV, and media center app Plex, there are currently only 14 compatible apps available for the Chromecast. That number is about to explode.

San Francisco-based Fleksy has launched its in-app SDK integration for iOS via four new partners who implement the software in their own apps today. These include Launch Center Pro, Wordbox, GV Connect and BlindSquare, and were chosen from a number of potential partners to help Fleksy demonstrate the power and range of its virtual keyboard.

Operating on iOS as a replacement for a default system component like the keyboard is not an easy task; Apple will not allow third-party devs to replace some system features like the keyboard, browser, messaging or calling app in the same way that users can do so on Android. Fleksy is attempting to get around this limitation by providing an SDK that third-party devs can use to build Fleksy into their own apps one at a time, in much the same way that Google makes it possible for devs to build in an option to have their software open links in Chrome on iOS.

These four launch partner apps are all available right now in the App Store, and take advantage of Fleksy’s unique ability to interpret a user’s intended input regardless of where they strike on the screen to different ends. Fleksy co-founder and COO Ioannis Verdelis explained to me the selection process for this first batch of apps in an interview.

“We’ve had a lot of interest [from third-party devs] really since our first release of the app on iOS,” he said. “We’ve picked four partners who worked with us through the beta process of the SDK, and we’ve tried to have one app that addresses the accessibility market, BlindSquare, and then we picked other popular apps that we think have meaningful use of text input in their design.”

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GV Connect is a Google voice client where you can use Fleksy to send SMS messages; Wordbox is a text editor; and Launch Center Pro is “a bit of everything,” says Verdelis, with shortcuts that help people navigate iOS and get things done quicker. For these first four partners, he notes that it was important not just to get partners who would use the keyboard in interesting ways, to help showcase the possibilities for others, but to use people who helped define the product, too.

From here, Fleksy intends to continue to be selective about SDK partners and work with third-party devs to launch their integrations for a little while, but eventually the plan is to open it up for anyone to use independent of Fleksy’s involvement. Revenue for Fleksy differs depending on how each dev makes their revenue, Verdelis says, with some like Launch Center Pro trying things like offering it up as an in-app purchase and then sharing revenue from those sales, and others going for a more straightforward licensing fee.

Fleksy launched as a standalone third-party keyboard on Android out of beta last week, and Verdelis says they’ve racked up over 100,000 downloads since then. On iOS, they’ve had over 500,000 since launching their standalone app, but the SDK is the focus here in terms of business targets, so watching to see how the stable of Fleksy-using apps grows from here will be key.

So far, development on Glass has been extremely limited by the tools put in the hands of app creators. Namely the Mirror API with its constant need for an internet connection and limited functionality. The newly released Glass Development Kit (or at least an extremely early version of it) puts many more arrows in the quiver of coders. For one, apps can be built completely for offline use and can now directly access to Glass’ hardware. This will allow Glassware to be made with the same capabilities as Google’s own creations. It also introduces a few new features, including “live cards” which, like Windows Live Tiles, feature constantly updating information. Where as the static timeline cards live to the right of the home screen on Glass, live cards are found with a swipe to the left. Exercise app Strava has a demo version of an app that keeps details about your jog or bike ride constantly updating on a live card, including distance and speed.

Filed under: Wearables, Google

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Source: The Verge, TechCrunch