The new Pebble app store seems to be pretty popular. Via server logs, I'm monitoring 1 game played per second in the new version of my moderately popular game (http://www.mypebblefaces.com/apps/4736/4252/8720/).
Even though it's time to explore the pebble app store, it seems impossible to do so without creating a pebble account. All I want is to see the apps, to decide if pebble is worth buying. Apple allows you to browse their App Store just fine. Oh well.
iOS only for now. Although they did tweet an Android screenshot on Friday. Consistently failing every deadline since Kickstarter days :/
However, kudos to the team, they deserve it for all the hardwork. I'm an early KS backer and they've delivered far beyond my initial expectations. Can't wait to check out 2.0 and appstore!
As long as they deliver quality content I'm fine with companies delaying things. I'd rather have awesome stuff built compared to meeting every deadline.
Except they said it would be launched today. And never gave a hint the android would be delayed. It's like saying we're meeting steve for lunch at noon, and then I show up at noon and say you can't come, it's only me and steve.
Now if only Apple would approve apps to work with them. I have the integration done, it's approved and whitelisted by pebble for their MFI program, and Apple rejects it for not being in their MFI program. Thanks Apple.
As the early adopter of Pebble in my group of non technical friends I was always the one that people came to asking how they could install more apps on their Pebbles, and I had to guide them through the process of downloading and installing from the website in Mobile Safari. Now that its a one touch process they'll be able to do it on their own.
So does this mean that all purchases on the iOS Pebble App Store have to go through the iTunes App Store and thus Pebble pay a cut to Apple ? Because iTunes App Store T&C say all purchases go through them, right ?
All watch apps in the Pebble App Store are free. There are no purchases in the Pebble App Store.
However: It's common for a watch app to require a "companion app" that runs on the phone. The developer can charge for their companion app through the iTunes App Store and/or the Google Play store. Then Apple/Google take their usual cut (and Pebble is not involved in the sale at all).
I bought 2 pebbles and a sony smartwatch 2 for android development. pebble is a pain in comparison. only 8 pebble apps installable at once? black and white, no touch, just 3 buttons with #4 being reserved for "back". SW2 is rather easy to program but also has severe limitations. nothing can have buttons and scroll at the same time. pebbles is programmed in C++.
Yeah, these smart accessories are nice but still just gimmicks. Galaxy gear working only with 4.3 Android phones from Samsung is the biggest joke of all but yeah, they try to pull of an Apple-scam.
A little offtopic, but I love the mouse-over effect on the blog header. It makes the text immediately stick out and seem more real — in the sense that this presentation says about making games "juicy": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg
It's a pity that it only links to a permalink of the blog, rather than being a call to action of some kind.
How was Pebble on Android? I'm planning to buy Pebble and I'm on Android (Nexus 5). I first thought it was an iOS exclusive but then I saw in on Google Play [0].
I used to have trouble with it dropping the connection a lot, but it hasn't been a problem lately. I recommend adding the 3rd-party Pebble Notifier app to limit which notifications get sent over. It even has Tasker integration.
Edit: there was one case where a Pebble update didn't work (maybe got interrupted) and was basically bricked until I connected it to a friend's iPhone. So I would say overall, the Android version is a second-class citizen, but generally usable.
I've had the watch for some months now, and it works great with Android! With 4.3 and up, use can dismiss notifications on the pebble and they will be dismissed on the phone as well (using Notification Center). I use it to set timers on the watch (using Simply Alarm Holo) and also recently I've using it to track sleep with the Sleep as Android integration. And the biggest attraction to me for it is that with PebbleTasker you can trigger any Taskeer task you have set up to do pretty much anything you can think on your phone.
It doesn't seem to be quite as polished as the iOS version and I don't think it's using BT-LE, although at the moment I can't remember if the Pebble was supposed to.
[1] https://github.com/jbrooksuk/Purr
[2] http://skreksto.re/products/durr