Winning on the Wrist

Originally presented at ManhattanJS:

Building Pebble Apps with more JavaScript than you’d think. Going from idea to the app store when developing for the Pebble.

Transcript

1. HAPPY
   MOVEMBER
   

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2. Winning on the Wrist
   Building Pebble Apps
   with more JavaScript than you’d think.
   

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3. A Bit About Me
   Product maker for the web & beyond
   Front-end Development at Krate
   Near extreme Disney Parks fan
   

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4. Overview
   • What’s a Pebble?
   • The Idea
   • The App in 3 Parts
   • Looking Forward
   • Wrap-Up
   

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5. What’s a Pebble?
   

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6. Pebble
   • Smartwatch
   • Cross-platform
   • e-paper display
   • not the first
   • $10 million from Kickstarter
   PebbleBot Icon
   

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7. Technical Details
   • Connects to phone through Bluetooth LE
   • 144 x 169px Screen Size
   • OS & Apps written in C
   • Average battery life is 3 - 7 days
   • 3D accelerometer, light sensor, compass
   • 50 meter water resistance
   

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8. –Walt Disney
   “Times and conditions change so rapidly that we
   must keep our aim constantly focused on the
   future.”
   

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9. The Idea
   

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10. Disney Pal
    The perfect companion for any
    Disney Park vacation
    Up-to-date park hours, wait times,
    show reminders, and tips.
    Get the most out of your trip with
    all the info at your wrist.
    WIP Logo
    

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11. Disney Pal
    The perfect companion for any
    Disney Park vacation
    Up-to-date park hours, wait times,
    show reminders, and tips.
    Get the most out of your trip with
    all the info at your wrist.
    Sample Screen
    

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12. MVP
    Watchface that shows the hours of operation for
    the nearest Disney park
    

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13. Watchface v. Watch App
    • Responds to user interaction and
    button presses
    • Uses the system status bar at the top of
    the display showing the time
    • launched through the Pebble system menu
    • Designed to run for long periods of time
    • Displays full screen without the system
    status bar
    • Updates only once per minute or second
    • Can’t interact with the user, except
    through gestures and the accelerometer
    

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14. –Walt Disney
    “The way to get started is to quit talking and
    begin doing.”
    

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15. The App
    in 3 Parts
    

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16. Node.js App
    JavaScript ‘Middleware’
    Pebble C Interface
    

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17. Node App
    • Scrapes park hours from Disney sites serves them
    through JSON API
    • Built with hapi, cheerio, request, & aws-sdk
    • Inspired by this article: http://scotch.io/tutorials/
    javascript/scraping-the-web-with-node-js
    

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18. https://github.com/HipsterBrown/Disney-Pal-Node
    

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19. JavaScript Middleware
    • Made available by Pebble SDK 2.0
    • Runs in sandboxed JS runtime on phone’s Pebble app
    • All about that Trace, no REPL
    • Bundled with the .pbw binary
    • Communication layer between the web & the watch
    

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20. C Interface
    • “Front-end” of the watch face
    • Constructed of Windows with UI Layers
    • Handles clicks, animations, and vibration interaction
    • Changes based around Timer struct
    • Not JavaScript
    

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21. https://github.com/HipsterBrown/DisneyPal
    

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23. –Walt Disney
    “I always like to look on the optimistic side of life,
    but I am realistic enough to know that life is a
    complex matter.”
    

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24. C Tips from a JS Dev
    • Keep It Simple Stupid
    • Always comment your code
    • Stay modular
    • Google the sh*t out of everything
    • What goes on screen, must eventually come off it
    

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25. Pebble.js
    • Beta, experimental JavaScript lib for writing Pebble interfaces
    • Announced at JSConf 2014
    • Runs for every user interaction
    • Use more power and respond slower to user interaction than a
    similar native app
    

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26. Looking Forward
    

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27. Future Features
    • Save parking spot location
    • Fastpass & Entertainment reminders
    • Wait times for current park attractions
    • Suggested attractions & tips based on interests and time
    • Directions to attractions
    • Web app front-end for accounts & planning.
    

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28. To Do
    • Publish Disney Pal to Pebble App Store
    • Iterate & Refine
    • Share what I learn
    • Work w/ Disney to make official app, instead of
    being sued.
    

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29. –Walt Disney
    “It's kind of fun to do the impossible.”
    

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30. Wrap-Up
    

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31. Resources
    • Pebble Developer Website - https://
    developer.getpebble.com/
    • Pebble Watch Development with JavaScript -http://
    www.sitepoint.com/pebble-watch-development-javascript/
    • Pebble SDk 2.0 Tutorials - http://ninedof.wordpress.com/
    pebble-sdk-tutorial/
    • Pebble Shop - $99 - https://getpebble.com/
    

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32. New Pebble Docs
    

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33. –Walt Disney
    “I would rather entertain and hope that people
    learned something than educate people and
    hope they were entertained.”
    

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34. Thank You
    Nick - @hipsterbrown
    

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