Samsung Gear Hackathon was held in Korea and this is how it went

Apps, apps, apps… Since so many of us are enamored with apps, there is absolutely no doubt that third party developers are like the cupid’s arrow in our relationship.  And who better to develop the best apps than the people who use the devices?  When Samsung released Gear 2at the MWC 2014, it also announced the software development kits (SDK) for it. Recently, Samsung held the love-filled Samsung Gear Hackathon in Korea for 2 days.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with hackathons, they are events where groups of passionate developers collaborate on a project for the love of creating cool software. At the Samsung Gear Hackathon in Korea, the mission given to participants was to develop an app for Gear 2.

Now, for those of you who are familiar with hackathons, you might be curious to know what kind of tools the developers were given:   The dev tool for Gear 2 is a Wearable Platform that helps developers to create web functionality using HTML5 and CSS. The dev tool for Gear 2 also provides motion API, sensor API, context related API, and multimedia API.

And yes, apps for Gear 2 paired with a host device consist of 2 parts: Apps for the host (Smartphone) and apps for the Gear 2. The communication between the two can be achieved with Accessory Package of Samsung Mobile SDK.

If you never been to one, Samsung Gear Hackathon was a great example of a hackathon but with more love, of course. As with many hackathons, it was intense and hectic, yet very passionate.  Imagine a sea of developers, with teams sharing desks and excitedly typing on their laptops.  Every mouth in the room is busy from constantly talking and laughing, and the noise and excitement level is high. Not only that, the developers were true multitaskers – they were seen jotting notes on paper with one hand and drawing a picture on their laptop with a mouse with the other hand, all the while playing around with the Gear 2.

To participate in the Samsung Gear Hackathon, each team needed to submit the general concept of their app and how they are planning to develop it. Talking to the some of the judges’ panels, it was obvious that they had hard time picking out the best ones, because they received an overwhelming amount of great ideas. From group of students to mid-age developers, total 32 teams were chosen to  participate for the event, thus the tough choice from various perspective and various ideas.

The schedule was intense – the first day was dedicated to developing. The second day was dedicated to presenting the app. Each team had 5 minutes to present their apps. The judging of the app was filled with love and passion. Unlike other hackathons, the team and panel actually talked to each other and shared ideas on how to make the app better.

One of the winning apps was the ‘Score (or sheet music) for Guitarists’ –the official name of the app has not yet been decided. Skill, technique and emotion are probably the most important things for guitarists. However, as important as they may be, style is a crucial factor as well. So imagine a guitar player pulling out the sheet music or score in the middle of the session, because he/she forgot the next note. Not so stylish, right? This app will show the score of the music on the Gear 2, so no one knows that he forgot the notes to the music and he can still stay cool.

There was also app that can help you escape the awkward moment of exchanging contacts with the person you met for the first time. Another app will let you know about the best time to catch the public transportation. It seemed like the participants wanted to make the best out of the characteristic of the Gear 2, which is convenience. 

Overall, Samsung Gear Hackathon was a great opportunity for various developers to share passion and get to know the possibilities of Gear 2.  

Samsung Gear Hackathon 2014 is over, but there is still a chance for wearable application developers! Tizen DevLab will offer session with plenty of hands-on exercises for app developers at Tizen Developer Conference in San Francisco, USA  4^th June. You can get more information about Samsung developers events at Samsung Developers site (http://developer.samsung.com/wearables).

Also, Samsung Gear App Challenge, an app competition is inviting developers to create innovative apps for Gear 2. Over two rounds, developer will have the chance to win $1,250,000 in total prize and top 200 finalists will be selected through Round1. The challenge is open till July 17^th, so do not miss the chance to join the big competition with huge prize money. Judging by the look and feel of the event, it seems there will be plenty of great apps to come! For further information, please visit the App Challenge website (http://gearapp.challengepost.com).