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Hatchi turns your Pebble smartwatch into a virtual pet
For many of us who survived the '90s, virtual pets are but a distant memory. That said, the Tamagotchi just turned 17 and Bandai (its parent company) is still cranking out new pets, so apparently the digital species is far from extinct. It makes complete sense, then, that the concept would eventually make it to the Pebble; in fact, its black-and-white e-paper display should make virtual pets feel right at home. Developer Portable Pixels is celebrating Game Developers Conference (GDC) by launching Hatchi on the Pebble appstore sometime this week. Much like the Tamagotchi, you'll be responsible for feeding, cleaning, playing with and caring for your new Hatchi pet.
Pebble engineer explains why its Android app isn't ready yet
iOS users have been enjoying the new Pebble app store for the past week, but the Android version of the app is still MIA. Sure, you can download the beta if you sign up to be a developer, but if you'd rather wait for the final product, it's still in the works. What gives? Pebble engineer Kean Wong wrote a bit about the subject on the company's official blog about the process involved. The Cliff's Notes version is that there are two factors at play: one is how complex it can be to develop an Android app, and the other is a lack of resources. Wong explains that the team has to make the app jive properly with several environments of the OS, such as Bluetooth, Javascript runtime, the internet, background processes, several versions of Android and hundreds of different devices with different specs. This isn't unlike what many developers run into when writing apps for Google's mobile OS, but Pebble's complications with engineering run a couple layers deeper than most others because it's an accessory that involves its very own app store. Next comes the matter of available resources, which Wong explains is because Pebble has had a small team working on the Android app for a long time. "In order to ship a high quality, reliable Android experience that will work for many thousands of users across the myriad of devices and operating systems, we need engineers working on the Android app who are both fantastic engineers and great Android developers." This is where existing devs come in handy -- the more feedback Pebble receives, the better. The bad news is that the team doesn't have an ETA on Android release as of yet; on the bright side, however, the company apparently needs a few extra hands to help out, if you're on the hunt for a job.
