This one time, at BlackBerry Jam Camp…

06.19.13

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BlackBerry Jam Camp isn’t your typical camp experience. We’ve replaced capsized canoes and itchy bug bites with an exclusive opportunity to gain the skills you need to create your own Built for BlackBerry app, get a free BlackBerry 10 smartphone, and compete to win your way to a BlackBerry Developer Jam event in your region.

Two days of intensive training

Attendees at BlackBerry Jam Camp will receive two days of in-depth developer training on the BlackBerry 10 platform and leave with the skills needed to create a Built for BlackBerry app. BlackBerry Jam Campers can choose from  native or  web tracks. Check out the BlackBerry Jam Camp agenda to see what the two days have in store for you. After BlackBerry Jam Camp ends, attendees will receive development support while they are building their apps.

Free smartphones and a Grand Prize

Any attendee who submits their Built for BlackBerry app to BlackBerry World within eight weeks of attending BlackBerry Jam Camp will also receive a free BlackBerry Z10 or BlackBerry Q10 smartphone. All developers whose apps meet the criteria will be invited to pitch their app to a panel of judges to compete for the Grand Prize: a trip to a BlackBerry Developer Jam in your region, transportation and accommodation included.

Don’t miss the bus to BlackBerry Jam Camp

There are several BlackBerry Jam Camp locations around the globe this summer. Visit the BlackBerry Jam Camp website to see the list of locations and dates, and submit your application to attend. Don’t wait too long – registration spots are limited!

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Qt China Developer Day 2013

06.18.13

Here’s a guest post from Sha Sa – Ed.

On June 6th, more than 500 developers across China attended the long-awaited Qt China Developer Day 2013 in Beijing. It’s extremely exciting to see how familiar Qt developers are with BlackBerry 10 platform. As soon as registration started, the BlackBerry booth was flooded with developers!

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Mike Zhou from our Developer Relations team presented on overview of the recent developments in Qt on BlackBerry 10 and discussed future plans. Coming all the way from Europe, our very own Qt Expert Vladimir Minenko also joined Mike on stage to co-present the technical session on “Developing with Qt for BlackBerry 10”.  The room was packed to the brim with eager developers wanting to learn how to build a BlackBerry 10 Cascades app using Qt.

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Vlad and Mike showcased really cool Qt apps on BlackBerry 10 smartphones developed with Qt 5.0. Not only that, they showed the developers how easy it was by porting apps live on stage! Think converting from Qt to a BlackBerry 10 native app would be hard? Not at all when you joined the onsite coding demo session on how to easily convert their existing Qt app to Cascades based applications.  Developers were very excited about BlackBerry 10 supporting the Qt framework and how easy the porting process is.

When Mike and Vlad announced “Bring your Qt app source code to BlackBerry booth to win a BlackBerry smartphone” challenge, the developers went wild! So they came forward, and so easily, they ported into BlackBerry 10.

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Jonah Lin, BlackBerry Elite from China joined BlackBerry experts on stage to showcase 2 of his apps developed on Qt, and also shared his experience on commercialization and internalization.

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QNX also showed their support to Qt onsite! Howard Zhang, the QNX Expert in China hosted the QNX Corner with hardware demos at the booth, sharing insights on QNX technology and future trends, attracting his fair share of keen and excited developers!

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Appcelerator Titanium: BlackBerry 10 SDK Update

06.17.13

Today I have two huge announcements for all our Appcelerator Titanium developers out there. First, the Appcelerator Titanium SDK is entering version 3.1.1. Second, this release includes integrated support for the BlackBerry 10 Beta SDK! Since the announcement of BlackBerry 10 support in Titanium, there have been huge strides made to get as many Titanium APIs supported on BlackBerry 10 as possible and today marks a major step in that direction, getting just inches away from the final GA release. Anyone interested in taking a look at just how far we’ve come can take a look at the change log to see what a remarkable feat has been accomplished by the Appcelerator developers in just a few short months.

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Up to this release, the BlackBerry 10 SDK was supported using a pre-release version of the Titanium SDK which added a both few extra steps and downloads in order to start testing/building your application for BlackBerry. Now the BlackBerry 10 SDK is officially supported in the public version of the Titanium SDK 3.1.1 and can be installed just like any of the other supported platform SDKs.

For those of you familiar with Appcelerator and the Titanium platform, this release brings the BlackBerry 10 SDK to about 90% coverage of the core Titanium APIs, including supporting the Alloy framework. This is a great time to start taking your existing applications and testing to see how great they look, feel and run on the BlackBerry 10 platform. The way Titanium builds for BlackBerry is using the Cascades framework, meaning you will receive native, intuitive applications with solid and fluent user experience out of the box. With just a few keystrokes you can have your existing application compiled and tested on a BlackBerry 10 device or simulator, then just a few more steps to get it signed and uploaded to BlackBerry World.

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On the other hand, if you have heard of Appcelerator but are not really sure what they offer, allow me to break it down very simply: Appcelerator’s Titanium IDE allows you to create full featured cross-platform applications using JavaScript. Titanium also recently added support for a new UI framework dubbed “Alloy” which allows developers to define all application UI using a mixture of XML and CSS. “JavaScript” and “XML” may make Titanium sound like it creates web applications, however the applications are actually bundled with a JavaScript engine that interprets the code and displays it in the native UI of the platform for which the application was compiled. The result is an application that can be created very quickly to support multiple platforms (ex BlackBerry 10, iOS, Android) but with the performance, look and feel of a native application.

Existing Titanium developers can get the 3.1.1 SDK update which includes the BlackBerry 10 SDK using the Titanium SDK’s built-in update mechanism. Anyone that needs to download the full IDE can grab it from here.

For more details on all that 3.1.1 has to offer please check out this Appcelerator blog post.

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BlackBerry 10 at AnDevCon Boston 2013

06.17.13

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This was my third AnDevCon conference, and first one in Boston. We ask the same question at every conference we attend – “Is anyone wondering why BlackBerry is here?”  I’m very pleased to report that the number of hands in the air is steadily decreasing. Perhaps only a dozen or so out of the 300 in attendance at the Lightning Pitches in Boston didn’t know why BlackBerry would be at an Android developer conference. This is great – the word is getting out there – BlackBerry 10 is a great platform for Android developers!

Over the three day event, we helped developers port and repackage their Android applications right there on the spot in just a few minutes. Most worked immediately without a hitch and developers were delighted to see their app running on a BlackBerry Z10. This opens up a whole new market for them. For the few apps that didn’t port immediately, our tools flagged the issues and we shared them with the developers. In most cases, the APKs that didn’t work included native libraries (something that we don’t fully support). For a full list of Android support, please refer to our Android developer site.

In addition to porting apps and demonstrating BlackBerry 10 in our booth, James Dreher held a technical session for Android developers that packed the room. We had over 60 developers in the session and lots of great questions. One question that came up often was “When will BlackBerry’s Android Runtime support Jelly Bean?”

James Dreher, our resident expert on the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps, presents at AnDevCon Boston

James Dreher, our resident expert on the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps, presents at AnDevCon Boston

If you’re following our Dev Blog, you’ll know that the we’ve launched the BlackBerry 10.2 beta with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean support!

One of the highlights of the show for me was discovering dot42. These guys have a platform for converting C# apps to Android. So, naturally, I immediately had the thought – “I wonder if I could take a C# app, run it through dot42’s conversion and then take the resulting AOK and port it to BlackBerry?”  Why not, right?  So we did it –the whole process took less than five minutes!  The app we tried was a fairly simple OpenGL ES Spinning Cube app, but it worked like a charm and performance was great. That was pretty cool, I have to admit.

The AnDevCon event continues to be a great developer event for BlackBerry.  Android developers are increasingly receptive to our run-time options and, more importantly, love BlackBerry 10. It’s not only a great phone platform, it’s a whole new market opportunity for Android developers!

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WebRTC, VoIP, and BlackBerry 10 Development [VIDEO]

06.17.13

Over the last few months, I’ve been talking about the possibilities for WebRTC and VoIP on the BlackBerry 10 platform. Last month, our own Alec Saunders joined myself, (Gurtej Sandhu), and Chief Architect of Hookflash, Robin Raymond to discuss the WebRTC platform and the opportunity for developers in real-time communications to bring their application to BlackBerry 10 platform.

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UCOSP Final – School’s Out For Summer!

06.14.13

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Well, school is done for most of our UCOSP participants, most of who were in their final year of university. Of course the time for learning never stops in this industry, which is why I love it so much. This was our first year involved with UCOSP and I wanted to do a recap off all that was accomplished through the program. A total of 12 upper year students from seven different Canadian universities received course credit while writing open source code with us at BlackBerry and learning what it’s like to be part of a distributed open source project. They also each developed at least one application for BlackBerry World to earn their own Limited Edition device.

Some of the students worked on BlackBerry 10 WebWorks Extensions, and we managed to produce six community extensions. The Compass extension was a temporary stopgap, later replaced by the Sensors API, but from the simple, useful, LED and Vibration extensions, to the more powerful UnZip, Thumbnail, and BarcodeScanner extensions, this is great work that’s very valuable to the developer community.

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Sweet Candy! Android Runtime Jelly Bean Beta for BlackBerry 10.2

06.13.13

Do you like Candy? How about a big bowl of Jelly Beans? Well, I’m happy to satisfy your sweet tooth with the Beta release of the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps and Plug-in for Android Development Tools for BlackBerry 10.2.

If you didn’t get the hint, this release includes the first beta release of Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean). All the great features that were previously available in Gingerbread will continue to be supported, as well as some specific Jelly Bean OS features such as Fragments, embedded fragments, animation framework and hardware acceleration. Keep in mind this is the first beta release, and there will bound to be some bugs as we work our way towards the gold release later in the summer.

If you want to start testing your app on Jelly Bean, just grab the BlackBerry 10.2 Beta SDK OS.  Support for Jelly Bean in the BlackBerry 10.2 device simulator will be coming later in the summer.

Additionally, our Android Runtime tools have been updated to support Eclipse 4.2, Android Development Tools v22 and can now target Android SDK level 10 to 17.

How do you start using these new tools? Jump to the Runtime for Android Apps microsite. There is an updated 1.6 release for the BlackBerry Eclipse™ Plug-in for Android Development Tools and Command-line tools to help get you using all these Android Runtime features for BlackBerry 10. For the Eclipse users, make sure to point your update site to:

http://bdsc.webapps.blackberry.com/android/downloads/eclipseplugin/

To see the full details and known issues, check out the release notes for the BlackBerry Plug-in for Android Development Tools and BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps.

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BlackBerry 10.2 SDK – Improving the Native SDK Out of Box Experience

06.13.13

Our Momentics IDE has always been powerful and rich in functionality, but at times it required our developers to be experts in Eclipse to use it successfully. As smart as our developers are, we would rather they focused on the job of coding and tweaking than on figuring out how to use the IDE. This is why we have made a conscious effort to improve the usability of Momentics along with the other improvements to the BlackBerry 10 Native SDK out of box experience.

The first thing we did is rewrite the installers. In the past we used to bundle the BlackBerry 10 Native SDK target libraries with the IDE in monolithic package . Not only did this result in significant download sizes, but it also didn’t scale well. This is why we have introduced a new streamlined installer with the BlackBerry 10.2 SDK beta. When you install the IDE and SDK from our developer site, our installer will walk you through a wizard that will determine what device and target you are using for development and based on that will download and install the appropriate SDK for you. We hope this will not only simplify your workflow but also avoid you having to download targets that you might not need.

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We have also introduced the concept of an API level.  In the past, the API was tightly integrated with the target OS that you were using. This meant that you would have to figure out which build you were running on your device and match that with a suitable IDE update. In this beta we have disconnected the APIs from the target OS. As a developer you only have to worry about setting your minimum API level based on a two octave number (10.0, 10.1 etc). While there is a global default, API levels can be set on a per project basis as well. As an example, once you set your app API level to 10.1, it means the app should be compatible with every 10.1 based device irrespective of what target OS is on that device.

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It doesn’t stop there. Once you launch the IDE, you will see a refreshed UI along with a new welcome screen.  We have incorporated a lot of the feedback we’ve been receiving from the community in this new UX. I hope you find that it reduces the amount of clutter on your desktop. That being said, it is important to note that we’ve not removed any features. We’ve just done some housekeeping and moved more advanced functionality into advanced menus and settings where they belong.

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The new welcome screen also provides links to our forums, documentation and samples. This way you are connected to the rest of our developer zone without having to leave the confines of the IDE. My personal favourite aspect of the welcome screen is the samples. If you are like me, I learn best by playing around with samples and we’ve made it easier for you to acquire and import samples. When you click on the samples link via the Momentics welcome page, you will see a list of samples that you can download. Clicking on any of the samples, provides you with a download option. Click on download and import and you are ready to go.

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There are just a few of the numerous new features and improvements that have been introduced. Rather than have you read about them here, I recommend you download the new BlackBerry 10 Native SDK and start developing with it. We also previewed the new Momentics at BlackBerry Live 2013, so if you didn’t have a chance to join us, you can watch a recording of the session here.

While the out of box experience is a key highlight, it’s not the only thing that is new in our NDK. We have introduced several new APIs in this release with many more to come with the gold release of the BlackBerry 10.2 SDKs. We hope you continue to enjoy your experience developing on our platform. Your enthusiasm and feedback is valuable in helping us improve our products.

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BlackBerry 10.2 SDK Beta Available Now!

06.13.13

Back at BlackBerry Jam Americas in May, we talked about the BlackBerry 10.2 SDK that would be available in June. Well, it’s June and we now have brand new updates available for you to experiment and build with. These updates include additions to the BlackBerry 10 Native SDK  and both our Android and Adobe AIR run-times. We have also been up-streaming core HTML5 BlackBerry 10 support into Apache Cordova and it should be hitting an official Cordova PhoneGap release very soon!

The updates to the run-times have been ones that have had a lot of anticipation. Adobe AIR 3.5 brings with it Stage3D for accelerated OpenGL graphics and the Android run-time upgrade brings it up to Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) compatibility. As with any beta, this is a work in progress as we work our way towards the gold release of the BlackBerry 10.2 SDK. Known issues will be outlined in the release notes for each run-time.

There are also BlackBerry 10.2 SDK OS updates for BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha B and C testing devices as well as the BlackBerry 10.2 SDK OS updates available for those who have BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones. All updates can be performed via the autoloader tool. Again, this is an SDK OS beta that is a trimmed down version of the BlackBerry 10.2 Operating System and is meant to provide a testing environment for you to try out the new SDK and experiment with the added capabilities that have been released. We have also released BlackBerry 10.2 SDK OS updates for the simulator. For this first release, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean testing is not yet supported in the simulator.

If you run into any issues or find bugs, please be sure to report them in the forums and the Developer Issue Tracker to make sure that we have them logged and ensure they are fixed for the BlackBerry 10.2 Gold SDK.We value your feedback as we continue to build the best mobile platform for our users.

There’s a bunch of new functionality that’s available in the beta and I encourage you to check out the roadmap pages and release notes for your favorite run-time to find out what all has been made available in this release. We have a lot more functionality scheduled to arrive in the BlackBerry 10.2 Gold SDK release as well, so I encourage you to check back often with the roadmap pages to find out more on timing and details.

So with all that said… grab the latest SDKs and development OS and have some fun coding!

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BlackBerry Tech Centers Open In Argentina

06.12.13

We recently had the great pleasure of having Alec Saunders visit our team in Buenos Aires as we opened the first three BlackBerry Tech Centers within local universities in Argentina, joining 16 other BlackBerry Tech Centers around the world.

The first BlackBerry Tech Center opened in the Universidad Technologica Nacional (UTN), one of the most recognized universities in the region. In the opening event, the Dean of the university thanked BlackBerry for the investment in the university and the focus BlackBerry brings to educating and improving the academic tools and resources available for their students. Ignacio Echechiquia, Director of Marketing for Argentina’s national airline Aerolineas Argentinas, was on hand to present the BlackBerry Tech Center with its first project: the development of a commercial app for the airline that allows users to check-in, book flights, get quick updates on flight statuses, and more.

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