i’m Droidi’m Droid is the custom-tailored version of Android that runs on the i’m Watch. i'm Droid is the only full-fledged version of Android especially made to run on a smartwatch, featuring an optimized UI for the smartwatch form factor, innovative power-saving features such as Smart Tethering, and some unique capabilities. i'm Droid is based upon Android 1.6, slimmed down of its features which are not needed on the i’m Watch. We’ve worked on the OS of the i’m Watch adding support for advanced features not available on the underlying Android distribution, to perfectly integrate it with the i’m Watch hardware and to overcome the differences and limitations that the smartwatch form factor has on respect to the smartphones Android was designed for. |
OS Limitations
In general, all Android 1.6 SDK APIs should work with the i’m Watch. At the moment, these APIs do not work as expected:
Sensors APIs require a special library that you can download from the i’m Developer downloads page.
Audio recording/routing APIs since the i’m Watch is using a custom audio system, Android audio recording APIs are not working (we do plan to have them working sometime down the road).
Speech recognition APIs related to the previous item, will be working once that is in place.
ConnectionManager() does not report the Bluetooth tethering state (which is correct for API level 4, but worth pointing out)
Option menus are not working (UI/UX decision: screen is too small for this) – use OverlayMenu instead, which you can find on our GitHub account
Vibration APIs are not working (no vibration motor in the i’m Watch)
IMEs are not supported (UI/UX decision: screen is too small for this) – except the NumPad, which you can find on our GitHub account
Web browser is not available on the system (UI/UX decision: screen is too small for this). Avoid clickable links!
All input widgets that don’t use a predefined set of values (eg. the EditText) are not supposed to be used. EditTexts must always be not editable, and must at best open up a NumPad to input simple numeric values. All other input/configuration is to be performed on i’m Cloud.
