Any time I’m in a position to have to learn a new technology platform, my “Hello, world” of choice is to build a fairly simple Now Playing widget for SomaFM internet radio – basically allowing a user to instantly see what track is playing on any of their stations at any given time.

In the last couple of years I’ve done this twice: in 2013 for Panic’s Status Board iPad app and most recently for the Pebble Smartwatch.

Wanna have a play?

• If you’re a Status Board user you can add the widget to your own iPad by tapping here.
• If you have a Pebble, oh hey look over here unfortunately due to Pebble shutting down there’s no longer an app store. 🙁

And if you have neither device handy but still want to peek under the hood, both codebases are on Github: Status Board | Pebble