Table hockey madness (part 1)

Hi there,

a couple of weeks ago I wrote about my first app for the Garmin Connect IQ platform, i.e. “Juice Left” a data field for viewing the current remaining battery level. In the following post I intend to present another app I’m currently implementing, and maybe provide some deeper insights into the development  for Connect IQ and what has to be taken into account, where the limitations lie and what the biggest benefits and drawbacks are. One could ask why I want to document an app that does not exist yet, and at the moment my biggest driver is to simple get it done. If you know that there may be someone interested in the other end that wants to get more information and maybe dreams of implementing corresponding apps by himself, is a further factor that makes it more rewarding to do this. Naturally someone can now rob this fine and unique idea, but then I guess there’ll be several table hockey apps on Garmin Connect IQ store… 😉

Until now my previous data field has been downloaded about thirty times from the Garmin Connect IQ app store, a figure I’m relatively happy with, but obviously one always has a higher objective. Obviously the data field isn’t anything groundbreaking, but I hope it brings some added value to the users of Vívoactive HR (or other Garmin watches as far as the app is compatible with those…). At least for my own use it is adequate and fulfills its mission.

Table Hockey Madness app (for now that’s a name in progress, and may be changed later) will be targeted for bookkeeping of hectic table hockey matches or any other corresponding games. The features are planned to be limited to the most basic ones: measuring the duration of the game (or periods), bookkeeping of goals scored by both players. A small sound or vibration at suitable occasions would also be nice to have. The use of the app should be straight-forward, e.g. the game scores could be entered by simply tapping an area on the screen which would result to an increment of the score by one. Moreover, the app should contain simple configuration capabilities.

The next post will be about the basic app structure so please stay tuned.