I had another go with the BBC/Samsung micro:bit mobile app this week – and I’m afraid I was left wondering what the point of it is.
Now, I should admit I spent no more than an hour playing with it, mainly because I had to borrow the mobile devices as my own phone won’t run the app.
First I tried again with the Android version of the app on a Motorola Moto G phone, with an old and a fresh micro:bit, newly-flashed with some block code. And neither micro:bit would pair with Moto G phone after numerous attempts. I gave up. The reviews on Google Play are now littered with people who had similar Android pairing problems, so I know I am not alone with this.
Next I tried the iOS version of the micro:bit app on an iPhone 5C. This would pair with the exact same micro:bits, suggesting the Android app may not work with all phones – perhaps it only works with Samsung products since it’s their app?
I managed to write and flash some code from the basic block editor on the iPhone to the micro:bit, but I found using the block editor very fiddly on a phone screen – I think you need something tablet-sized at least.
Image may be NSFW.
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There were two problems: the buttons to compile the code got easily lost off the top of the screen and were hard to get back to; and on my first attempt I could not edit the text in the ‘show string’ block – though this did work normally on a later attempt.
The compiling process does work for the block editor on an iPhone, though it’s not quite seamless. You get presented with this screen:
Image may be NSFW.
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You then click on ‘open in micro:bit’ and then you can flash the HEX file to the micro:bit over Bluetooth. But man, is it slow! I mean, really slow, much slower than flashing over USB.
I had less luck with the official Python editor on the iPhone. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
When you compile the code you get an error message that makes sense on a desktop computer, but not a phone. You then get an error message saying the file cannot be downloaded.
Now struggling to find a reason to use the mobile app, I tried to write some block code to trigger an event on the phone:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I may have been doing something wrong, but even with the camera app open on the phone I couldn’t get it to trigger an event (other than displaying the words ‘say cheese’).
So: writing code on mobile devices is fiddly, pairing devices seems to be a lottery, and it’s very slow to transfer code. Add to this the fact that we are told only ever to power micro:bits from batteries or a computer’s USB port, and I am really struggling to see the point of the app, especially if you are powering the micro:bit from a computer that is easier to code on and faster to transfer the files.
If you have had better (similar, or worse) experiences with the mobile app, please let me know!
