Recently Motorola Mobility announced and/or began shipping a couple of very special accessories for some of our Android-powered devices. These accessories--which we refer to as "smart" accessories--have capabilities that you can take advantage of in your Android applications. For instance, two of our new Bluetooth headsets have a "smart" button that signals the connected Android device (using the Bluetooth Serial Port Protocol); apps that watch for this signal can be controlled by the user clicking this additional headset button. Two other new headsets have built-in heart-rate sensors. They transmit heart-rate data to some of our newer Android devices, allowing fitness apps (or other Android apps that can employ heart-rate data) to track and report on your heart rate. Finally, there is our most sophisticated "smart accessory": MOTOACTV™. MOTOACTV is a complete fitness tracker and music player in an incredibly small form factor. While you cannot write apps directly for MOTOACTV, apps on a Bluetooth-connected Android device can present messages--such as weather updates, stock price changes, email subjects, and the like--to the user on MOTOACTV's 1.6" display.
Here's what the MOTOACTV looks like:
While not every app will need or even want to take advantage of these new capabilities, we encourage you to consider whether your apps should. If adding accessory support in your apps enables users who own these accessories to better interact with your apps, they will be more inclined to use and thus recommend your apps over similar apps without these additional capabilities. Give it some thought: we're looking forward to seeing just how creative you can be when taking advantage of these smart accessories in your Android applications!
Finally, note that not all of these accessories are available just yet. As well, not all of the necessary APIs are available. We are working hard to put together the libraries, sample code, and documentation that you'll need to interact with these smart accessories from within your Android applications. We'll be publishing the needed information in the MOTODEV Technical Library and announcing their availability on the MOTODEV Discussion Boards; if you are interested, be sure to subscribe to one or all of the "placeholder" announcement posts we currently have up there so that you'll be notified just as soon as they are ready.
Happy accessorizing!
- Greg Wilson
Android Technology Evangelist
Motorola Mobility, Inc.
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