Mobile Tech

Pebble Launches New SDK, Announces iOS7 Compatibility

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Pebble has launched SDK 2.0 as it continues to woo developers to its smartwatch platform. Unlike Samsung, who has severely limited developer access to its smart watch offering, Pebble is banking on developer support to drive revenues and ultimately make the usefulness of the device desirable enough to increase unit sales.

The new SDK 2.0 introduction adds four new APIs to the platform: Javascript, Accelerometer, Data Logging and Persistent Storage. This will allow developers to interface directly with the web (real-time weather, transit info, location check-in), access the accelerometer (health/fitness monitoring and gesture-based remote control), log data when disconnected from the phone (health/fitness tracking), and store info on the watch (high scores for games, settings).

The Pebble SDK now provides a library that allows developer to develop cross-platform, web-aware applications without a specific Android/iOS companion app. Developers with limited mobile experience can now build apps that work with both iOS and Android seamlessly, simply by bundling Javascript with watchapps. Also, apps can now store or cache data in between application sessions.

The new data logging API in SDK 2.0 introduces a simplified messaging system that ensures reliable one-way message transmission from the watch to an iOS/Android device. Developers can now take a “fire and forget” approach to messaging, leaving connection monitoring and buffer management to Pebble. The Pebble SDK now supports access to raw 3-axis data from the built-in watch accelerometer.

Developers can use this data to track users’ physical activity, to control software on a phone or computer, or to detect gestures. Also, Pebble has announced that it is fully integrated with iOS 7 and works seamlessly with Notification Center.

Pebble has also released current Pebble related numbers including 190,000 units sold, 2 million apps and faces downloaded, 2,200 apps available, and 10,000 developers who have downloaded the SDK. For more information visit the link below.