Automatic wants to make your drive smarter. Or it wants to make you a smarter driver. Or it's only for smart drivers. Moving on, the company that makes its own proprietary Bluetooth dongle to offer real-time feedback and log your trips has announced a new phase for its car-centric project—it's opening an app store.

The Automatic App Gallery is a place for developers to drop apps that integrate with the Automatic adapter. Right now there are over twenty apps available, including software from the likes of Expensify, IFTTT, Jawbone UP, Nest, and Pebble.

To put content in an app store, developers need tools. So today we also see the launch of the Automatic Developer Platform. It provides APIs that give app creators access to the data Automatic's adapter collects.

Speaking of which, Automatic has released a 2nd generation adapter that supports dual Bluetooth data streams (one for the Automatic companion app and one to a third-party app), built-in GPS, and connector adjustments to better fit in more cars. It still goes for the same price of .99.

The Automatic Android app hasn't changed all that much since I picked a unit up and reviewed it over a year ago. Hopefully these changes inject life into an experience that, for a while, felt pretty stagnant.

Source: Automatic