Talk2Watch - an advanced Pebble BlackBerry 10 app

Update 2:
Great news - Pebble has given me a referral link for their store which will give you 20 $ discount. Buy your new Pebbles via https://getpebble.com/promotions/t2w


Update 1: Donation link

Hello everyone,
today I want to present you an application for BlackBerry 10 (you need 10.2 for it) which offers some features which were not yet implemented in other apps.

It is now available in the BlackBerry World - Talk2Watch - BlackBerry World
An update will follow soon, I’ve already done some modifications/improvements fort he next version. If you experience any problems or bugs you can contact me via PM.

First of all a quick overview
• Full Music Control
• Notifications
• Phone calls (limitation: no information about the caller and the number – at the moment it is not possible to access it but according to BB it will be added in a later OS version)
• Emails: scans the device for your email accounts and allows you to activate or deactivate them independently – you can also select a „only forward emails from favorite contacts“ option
• Calendar events
• SMS
• TCP/UDP messages: use the phone’s WiFi as a gateway for receiving network messages which will be transformed to SMS/Email notifications
• Social Media
• Facebook chat: optionally with a friend filter
• Twitter: direct messages and tweets
• Invocation: use the app as an easy interface for sending messages to the watch from your own applications
• RSSI Warnings: the device will check the signal strength to the watch and will send a warning if it drops below a (selectable) minimal value. This can be seen as a warning that you might have forgotten your phone somewhere
• Execution of scripts for automation purposes (see notes below)
• Self configuring: pair the watch with your phone and start the app , set up facebook and twitter account once and you are done


Audio Control
The main feature why I bought the watch was simple music control. So I was really disappointed when I heard it was not possible to use the watch for controlling music in combination with a BB10 device.
For this reason I started to develop this app. Result: full (even a bit extended) working music control:
• displaying music metadata
• stop/start/switch track (quickly press button twice)
• pause/play/volume control (press button once)


Execution of scripts for automation purposes
I’m not really a friend of Bluetooth when it comes to connecting devices for message exchange but I like WiFi very much. As the watch is intended to have a connection to a smartphone we can use the latter as a WiFi gateway.
With the music app it is possible to use the music control buttons for generating a logic code sequence and use it as a trigger for sending a (previously defined and stored) message over the network. The buttons are defined as: top=0, middle=1 and bottom=2. So what is it good for?

Example: garage door opener
Lets assume you have good knownledge in Arduino programming and you have connected an Arduino (+WiFi shield) to your garage door enabling it to open and close it. You don’t want to give everybody the possibility to open your beloved garage so you send a special code sequence (key) as an opening command.
As you are (like me) a lazy person who likes cool gadgets and you don’t want to take out your smartphone for this procedure but just press some buttons on your new smartwatch. And here we go: use the app to create a simple script which sends the key from the smartphone to the Arduino server program using a TCP-connection. As trigger signal you define a music control sequence – lets say: 2101. Save the script and the system will work when you press the buttons of your watch in the right order.

This is just a quick idea – and as I am too paranoid for this kind of automation not even one I would like to make real. But it demonstrates the possibilities very well. The script generator of the app is very easy to use and can be used for all kinds of automation ideas.


Simple connection to other network devices using TCP/UDP
The part about the scripts was mainly the TX direction – now we come to RX. The app also offers TCP/UDP server functionalities to send messages to the watch. Depending on the number of parameters a message is displayed as SMS or email. This means the watch can receive and display messages from as many signal sources as you want.

Welcome to Crackberry! Thanks for sharing!!!

I'm still waiting for my pebble watch to arrive but very glad to see another app available for it. Looks good so far and looking forward to any future updates!

Posted via CB10

Thanks for making this.

Might I suggest Bbm notification/preview be added fairly high on the priority list?

Posted via CB10

I agree - BBM would be a great feature. Unfortunately it does not seem to be feasible because an application cannot access a users BBM messages. But I will keep that in mind and hope for some changes with it in the future.

welcome on board...

Hi, great app.
I'm using it with my Pebble.
4 things only:
1.- are transfers to Pebble encoded in UTF8?
2.- Can you make it headless please?
3.- are you using BT API? I had to manually turn on my BT.
4. I have some suggestions for UI if you are interested. :)

Thanks for this app. ;)

Hi,
1. At the moment it uses different methods because sending some special characters caused problems (the whole message was not displayed). I know there are some issues (especially with cyrillic letters) but I guess this will be fixed soon.
2. I will go for it when I find some time.
3. The app assumes an established BT connection
4. Sure, I am thankful for all kinds of feedback and ideas. Send me a private message

I have installed and using your app which I really do like, I have latest official 10.2 installed on my Z10 and also the latest firmware version 1.12 on my pebble but seem to be having some control issues with the music. just wanted to get an idea if this is expected. and any idea on the release of your pending software update? great job keep up the great work

Originally Posted by Mioedwitnir

Hello everyone,
today I want to present you an application for BlackBerry 10 (you need 10.2 for it) which offers some features which were not yet implemented in other apps.

It is now available in the BlackBerry World - Talk2Watch - BlackBerry World
An update will follow soon, I�ve already done some modifications/improvements fort he next version. If you experience any problems or bugs you can contact me via PM.

First of all a quick overview
�Full Music Control
�Notifications
�Phone calls (limitation: no information about the caller and the number � at the moment it is not possible to access it but according to BB it will be added in a later OS version)
�Emails: scans the device for your email accounts and allows you to activate or deactivate them independently � you can also select a �only forward emails from favorite contacts� option
�Calendar events
�SMS
�TCP/UDP messages: use the phone�s WiFi as a gateway for receiving network messages which will be transformed to SMS/Email notifications
�Social Media
�Facebook chat: optionally with a friend filter
�Twitter: direct messages and tweets
�Invocation: use the app as an easy interface for sending messages to the watch from your own applications
�RSSI Warnings: the device will check the signal strength to the watch and will send a warning if it drops below a (selectable) minimal value. This can be seen as a warning that you might have forgotten your phone somewhere
�Execution of scripts for automation purposes (see notes below)
�Self configuring: pair the watch with your phone and start the app , set up facebook and twitter account once and you are done


Audio Control
The main feature why I bought the watch was simple music control. So I was really disappointed when I heard it was not possible to use the watch for controlling music in combination with a BB10 device.
For this reason I started to develop this app. Result: full (even a bit extended) working music control:
�displaying music metadata
�stop/start/switch track (quickly press button twice)
�pause/play/volume control (press button once)


Execution of scripts for automation purposes
I�m not really a friend of Bluetooth when it comes to connecting devices for message exchange but I like WiFi very much. As the watch is intended to have a connection to a smartphone we can use the latter as a WiFi gateway.
With the music app it is possible to use the music control buttons for generating a logic code sequence and use it as a trigger for sending a (previously defined and stored) message over the network. The buttons are defined as: top=0, middle=1 and bottom=2. So what is it good for?

Example: garage door opener
Lets assume you have good knownledge in Arduino programming and you have connected an Arduino (+WiFi shield) to your garage door enabling it to open and close it. You don�t want to give everybody the possibility to open your beloved garage so you send a special code sequence (key) as an opening command.
As you are (like me) a lazy person who likes cool gadgets and you don�t want to take out your smartphone for this procedure but just press some buttons on your new smartwatch. And here we go: use the app to create a simple script which sends the key from the smartphone to the Arduino server program using a TCP-connection. As trigger signal you define a music control sequence � lets say: 2101. Save the script and the system will work when you press the buttons of your watch in the right order.

This is just a quick idea � and as I am too paranoid for this kind of automation not even one I would like to make real. But it demonstrates the possibilities very well. The script generator of the app is very easy to use and can be used for all kinds of automation ideas.


Simple connection to other network devices using TCP/UDP
The part about the scripts was mainly the TX direction � now we come to RX. The app also offers TCP/UDP server functionalities to send messages to the watch. Depending on the number of parameters a message is displayed as SMS or email. This means the watch can receive and display messages from as many signal sources as you want.

Sounds interesting. Now I need a Pebble...

No, this is not expected but I also had it in the past. If you cannot transmit music control signals from the watch to the phone, try the following: "Unpair" the devices (also delete your pebble from the BT list on your phone), pair them again and restart the watch. This should fix it.

I personally have problems with it in combination with an Android music player (Synology DSAudio). But this seems to be an issue of the communication of Android and the BB Music app. So if you have a similar configuration, I cannot help you with it because it is an OS problem.

Thanks for the app! Downloaded but haven't had a chance to play with it much. My IMAP yahoo account works, but none of my exchange active sync accounts work for email. Haven't tried calendar items. Any way to get Active sync to work?

Also will this work with 3rd party apps like the golf caddie app?



Posted via CB10

Awesome. I'll try to borrow a friend's Pebble to give this a try.

Downloaded and everything seems to be going good. Would love either a headless app or better active screen to be displayed when minimized.

Originally Posted by lotuslanderz

TMy IMAP yahoo account works, but none of my exchange active sync accounts work for email. Haven't tried calendar items. Any way to get Active sync to work?

I will see what is possible but currently only those accounts work, which are displayed in the email drop down menu.
Third party apps won't be easy because my app does not really access the notifications as you see them in the phone OS but holds reference to the objects which create those notifications. For third party apps the developers have to offer an interface for accessing data on the phone (for example through invocation) or if it goes via the web (Facebook, Twitter) an API.

It is easy if we see it from the other side - I provide a simple interface for any app developer to use invocation and send data (currently displayed as sms or email) from their application via my app as a gateway to the watch.

You do know that when someone calls me, Pebble just shows Call Incoming and instead of caller name it displays callerId?
BTW I will hook up on your Invocation with my Whine notifications. Great approach. ;)

For all of waiting for your pebble to arrive check this picture out of what you can do to make it more interesting
Attachment 216424
Attachment 216425

Posted via CB10

Originally Posted by knobtviker

You do know that when someone calls me, Pebble just shows Call Incoming and instead of caller name it displays callerId?
BTW I will hook up on your Invocation with my Whine notifications. Great approach. ;)

Yep, it was on the roadmap for 10.2 but the number is still not accessible.
Thumbs up for the latter :)

Hi,

great app, but it does not seem to display music metadata for the currently playing music for me? Its on a q10 on 10.2 - any ideas what could be wrong please?

Some people have this issue, I'm currently trying to fix it. Did you try it with the app as active app?

hey,

Do you think it would be possible to adapt httpebble, so that all currently available watch face using it work with BB10.

This works fine (apart of the exchange accounts but I'm not looking to have emails on my watch).

This is the only app on BB10 that send calendar notifications to my pebble.

Thanks for the work, this is a great app.

Cheers

HIya, thanks for the reply, i've tried it again, with it minimised and maximised, and it doesn't seem to make any difference. It did once display the track artist, but nothing more, then it got stuck on that again. After that it returned to 'no music found' but it happily controlled the music. At least I know its not just me! Any other ideas at all please?

Originally Posted by FSLMobile

hey,
Do you think it would be possible to adapt httpebble, so that all currently available watch face using it work with BB10.

This works fine (apart of the exchange accounts but I'm not looking to have emails on my watch).

Httpebble - I will have a look at it when I find some time. Currently I'm doing bugfixes and work on support for cyrillic letters. Are the email accounts listed if you press the emai l drop down button?

@offyoutoddle
I had a similar issue with mp3 files from Amazon - it was caused by the player which did not send any signals that an event had happened (I guess it had problems with some of the metadata). A software upgrade fixed it for me - do you have the latest version?

hiya, if you mean the latest version of the os, yes, I have the latest 10.2 official release from my carrier 10.2.1791 I presume there is only 1 version of your app, the first and only release into BB World right now?

Yep, I meant OS version. An update to my app will follow when I have some issues fixed.