Android Wear has come a long way since its first launch with the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live, we now have the Moto 360 available (well, if Motorola ever get around to fulfilling pre-orders that is) and we have many more devices coming from ASUS and Sony to name a couple. Still, with something like Android Wear, it’s arguably the software and its potential that’s more interesting than yet more device launches. With Android Wear being a direct descendant of Android itself, it’s no surprise that developers have been so quick to get all sort of apps on Android Wear, but one thing we didn’t expect to see is Minecraft on our wrists. Well, one enterprising fellow has done just that.
Corbin Davenport recently uploaded a video of Minecraft Pocket Edition running on his Gear Live and while it certainly runs – and surprisingly well – it doesn’t look all that much fun. I’m a big Minecraft fan and while I’m anxious about the recent Microsoft purchase, I’m excited for the future of the franchise as well, I’m just not so sure that smartwatches are the next big, sorry small, thing for the Mojang devs. The Snapdragon 400 and 512MB of RAM handles the game well, but the controls are pretty awful, and this just goes to show you that you can’t simply shoehorn a phone app onto a wrist-worn device and hope for the best.
What’s perhaps more interesting here however, is the fact that Davenport says he didn’t really do much tinkering in order to get Minecraft on his Gear Live (shown running the game below) and instead just sideloaded the APK using ADB commands. This latest trickery is a good example of how far we’ve actually come when it comes to miniaturization of powerful processors. After all, the first generation of Android devices like the Nexus One would struggle to play Minecraft, but it’s here running on a smartwatch. If you’re looking for a little Minecraft on your Android Wear watch and you don’t want to ruin a perfectly good experience, try out Craft, an Android app that provides you with recipes on your smartphone and using voice on your wrist. It’s pretty great, but perhaps not as easy to show off to your friends as this is.