Today, I am thrilled to tell you that the BlackBerry® 10 browser meets the Ringmark Ring 1 benchmark standard for HTML5 app compatibility. The browser team here at RIM has been working closely with the HTML5 experts at Facebook, who developed the Ringmark HTML5 test suite, to ensure the BlackBerry 10 browser would meet the standard. By meeting the Ringmark Ring 1 benchmark standard, developers can add a level of advanced functionality to their HTML5 apps and be confident that the BlackBerry 10 browser can execute the app without problem.What is Ringmark?
Ringmark is an HTML5 test suite developed by Facebook and delivered to the Open Source community. It identifies a much needed standard to ensure consistency and a basic level of functionality for HTML5 app developers. In fact, Facebook says, “One of Ringmark’s primary goals is to prove that web features work for mobile web developers.” This is a great benefit to web developers and we wanted to showcase our support for this kind of standardization initiative. More info is available here – check it out or you can run the test suite against your mobile browser by visiting http://rng.io. Developers with a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing device running the latest BlackBerry 10 developer OS, will find that the browser passes all the Ring 1 tests successfully.

What is Ring 1?
Ringmark connects various features into tiers, or Rings. Ring 1, which is actually the second tier, identifies functionality developers would need at a fundamental level to build some of the more advanced types of apps in HTML5, such as 2D games, music and video apps, and camera apps.

So, where do we go from here? On to Ring 2! We’re diligently working to continue our support for the Ringmark standard and to provide developers an increased sense of confidence in the web as a platform.

We’re no strangers to the importance of standardization – especially in support of Web technologies. I’m proud to say that the BlackBerry 10 Browser is not only the highest scoring browser for HTML5 standard support (on html5test.com), but is actually built entirely in HTML5! Talk about putting your money where your mouth is, right?

We also participate in W3C’s Core Mobile Web Platform Community Group (AKA CoreMob), along with Facebook and other organizations dedicated to promote the adoption of the mobile web as a platform for app development.

Check out Ringmark and let us know what you think. And, in the meantime, score another amazing achievement for the BlackBerry 10 browser!

Guest post from Morgan Evans – Ed.

Today, our UK office the opened its doors to developers with the grand opening of the first BlackBerry® Tech Center. Located in our Slough office, the BlackBerry Tech Center will be open weekdays from 9AM – 5PM, offering a dedicated workspace for developers looking to create applications for BlackBerry® 10. Our BlackBerry developer evangelist team will be on hand every day to provide expertise and guidance, with each day having a specific theme so that developers can attend on a day that guarantees the support that is most relevant to them:

Monday: Native/Cascades™/Qt
Tuesday: Android™ porting
Wednesday: BlackBerry® WebWorks™ and HTML 5
Thursday: iOS porting
Friday: Windows Phone porting

As announced by Alec Saunders at last month’s BlackBerry® Jam Americas, this is the first of several BlackBerry Tech Centers planned for various locations around the world, including Silicon Valley, Indonesia and Vancouver.

In addition to the regular stream of activity, the global BlackBerry Tech Centers will also provide a space for a wider range of developer engagement activities, while serving as an open, collaborative forum for our developers to share their experiences developing for BlackBerry 10.

To register to attend the new center, click here:
https://developer.blackberry.com/devzone/jamcommunity/techcenters.html

Whether you’re a Native, Web, AIR or Android developer, BlackBerry Jam Americas will be a fantastic opportunity to dive into our open platform. This event is a great opportunity to continue, or start, building outstanding apps for BlackBerry 10. Like our previous developer conferences, BlackBerry Jam Americas will feature a broad, compelling mix of content for beginners and experts alike. A high-level overview of BlackBerry 10 for each platform is just the beginning: attendees can choose from dozens of sessions that dig deeper than ever into the BlackBerry 10 platform, exploring the opportunities it presents for differentiation and revenue generation.

At BlackBerry Jam Americas, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with RIM experts and developer leaders alike. Through deep dive sessions and hands-on labs, we’ll help you realize the creative and business potential of your ideas. We’ll teach you how to engage users with beautiful UI and compelling user experience. We’ll show you how enterprise apps on BlackBerry 10 can change the conversation and take advantage of the BlackBerry architecture. And we’ll connect you with fellow developers and BlackBerry partners to network, collaborate and innovate.

Best of all, BlackBerry Jam Americas is our most affordable developer conference yet! Register by August 31st to take advantage of our Early Bird pricing. The Main Rate is $449 (an Early Bird discount of $150). Alumni – including developers who attended previous Developer Conference events, this year’s BlackBerry 10 Jam event in Orlando, or any of the stops on the BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour – can register now for $299 (an Early Bird discount of $150). And we welcome those of you in academia: faculty can register for $299, and students can attend for just $199!

This is an amazing opportunity to get in-depth information and hands-on guidance before the launch of our upcoming BlackBerry 10 devices.

What do you think? Are you as excited as I am?

One of Alec’s favourite things is to do a little myth busting regarding developing apps for BlackBerry®. He’s in Beijing at the BlackBerry® 10 Jam World Tour today doing just that. There’s a myth out there that there aren’t apps for BlackBerry smartphones and the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. Let me help bust that myth.

BlackBerry smartphone and PlayBook users around the world have downloaded over three billion apps since BlackBerry App World™ launched! (Editor’s Note: You can tell Victoria is excited, because she doesn’t like using exclamation points in blog posts)

Three billion app downloads averages out to over 2.5 million downloads each day.  What’s even more important – and impressive – is that the number of daily downloads continues to increase. It took 786 days to reach the one billion mark, 210 days to reach two billion, and only 176 days to reach the three billion number. I should also note that this number does not include apps downloaded from third party BlackBerry app stores, or those pushed internally at companies around the world, or those downloaded directly from the web.

Special thanks is due to the over 28,000 BlackBerry App World vendors and the BlackBerry App World storefront team. BlackBerry App World has continued to grow steadily with more than 90,000 applications now up for sale (we know other platforms use other metrics like submitted, or approved, but we prefer the more tangible “up for sale”).

I look forward to sharing more great numbers from our app and dev teams as we continue toward the new year. What was the first app you ever downloaded onto your BlackBerry?

The BlackBerry® Jam World Tour has officially begun! Developers in Milan, Italy have been working with our Developer Relations crew all day, attending sessions that they may have missed at BlackBerry® 10 Jam in May, getting hands-on time with our BlackBerry 10 tools and connecting with other developers – all of whom are ready to build apps for BlackBerry 10!

And can I just say – wow. I am completely amazed and thrilled at the response to the BlackBerry Jam World Tour. BlackBerry developers, you are amazing! We’ve already had several stops sell out, including Toronto, which filled up in less than 24 hours. It’s pretty clear to me that people are not only interested in BlackBerry 10 – they are excited to be part of the launch and are already invested in what BlackBerry 10 will mean to the mobile industry.

What is the BlackBerry Jam World Tour?

The BlackBerry Jam World Tour is a series of full-day events dedicated to providing the developer community with insights on the BlackBerry 10 platform; its strengths, the vision, and how developers can make apps that stand out to app-hungry BlackBerry users.

Developers in attendance will:

• Be amongst the first to develop for the BlackBerry 10 platform.
• Discover the power of BlackBerry 10. Learn about the unique capabilities that will set applications apart.
• Collaborate with others in the developer community. Learn, share and network with fellow developers.
• Have access to BlackBerry 10 platform and tools experts.

The Tour events offer one-on-one expert guidance from BlackBerry platform experts, to help attendees build better apps. Sessions focused on HTML5 + BlackBerry® WebWorks™ and Native C/C++ and Cascades QML development for the BlackBerry platform. Developers will be able to interact with development experts who can provide guidance, tips and tricks, and other information to help developers get started building apps for BlackBerry 10.

Check out upcoming dates and locations here, as well as more info on the tour – www.blackberryjamworldtour.com

Thank you for your support

I’m going to take this moment and thank all of the developers who are joining us on the tour and those who joined us at BlackBerry 10 Jam in May, as well as those who were not able to be with us but are already downloading the tools and building. The feedback we have had to date on the tools and the BlackBerry 10 apps that are already underway has been phenomenal. Please keep sending us your stories and letting us know what you’re creating.

Yesterday at BlackBerry® 10 Jam, we held an AppCircus event. Developers registered their apps for the contest last week and three finalists were chosen for each category – BlackBerry® WebWorks™, Adobe® AIR®, and Native – earlier this week. The nine finalists had three minutes each to pitch their apps to a panel of judges that included our own Alec Saunders, Bob Taniguchi and Peter Valin. Also joining the judging panel was Kevin Michaluk of Crackberry.com fame, as well as Peter Hansen, Michael Brooks and Jeremy Adams, some of our most recognized community members. All of the finalists have their apps working on (or being finalized for) the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, and several had a running version on their BlackBerry Dev Alpha device.

The BlackBerry WebWorks finalists:

B’Giftee is a real world social sharing app that lets people gift real-world items to others. If you go to a restaurant and like the burger there, you share that knowledge and offer friends a gift of the burger – a reward that could be for the first to take advantage or for all involved.

2Scoops allows people to find the best gelato in Rome, Paris, New York and London, and also gives pronunciation for ordering in Italian. It includes map integration, business hours and ratings and reviews.

Pesktop creates a desktop feel on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with video playback, audio playback, note-taking and picture viewing all in one place.

The Adobe AIR finalists:

Cooklet is a guide to cooking that includes recipes with shopping list integration, gesture interation through the camera, photo and recipe libraries and more.

Nobex Radio allows people to listen to radio stations from their BlackBerry® smartphones or BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. They have a selection of over 16,000 stations and have worked to integrate social features for sharing stations and songs.

Nexus is a direct BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to BlackBerry PlayBook tablet file-sharing app that allows people to share content over their local network without using any mid-server.

The Native Finalists:

Training with Messi is a soccer game that uses device motion and hand gesture controls to take Messi down the field. This app has Scoreloop integration with leaderboards and achievements.

DOO-DOo-Doo allows people to play piano on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and goes beyond a normal keyboard with pre-recorded sounds. People can even adjust the tones and harmonics.

Kami Retro is a new game with an old-school feel that takes the fun of 80’s and 90’s side-scroller games and brings it to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

The winners were B’Giftee, Cooklet, and Training with Messi. All three had their apps working and running on the BlackBerry Dev Alpha device. They also had the apps working during their initial pitches, which took place the day that they got the device.

Winners received $25,000 to go see their favorite bands in concert! More details are available at http://devblog.blackberry.com/2012/04/blackberry-10-jam-appcircus/

Congratulations to everyone!

If you are interested in building BlackBerry® applications using jQuery Mobile, the developer relations team here at Research In Motion® (RIM®) have a great opportunity for you at BlackBerry® 10 Jam. The experts from appendTo are holding a training event during the Unconference Day at BlackBerry 10 Jam on May 3, 2012.

This is an exclusive opportunity with limited space, so register through your session scheduler now. Attendees will receive hands on training from the jQuery development experts on how to develop BlackBerry HTML5 + WebWorks™ applications using the jQuery Mobile framework.

This single day event will feature 6 conference-style presentations of 30 minutes in length.

Here are the requirements:

1. Bring your laptop. Space is very limited and attendees who do not intend to actively participate will be encouraged to allow others to enter the room in their place.
2. Working knowledge of developing web applications.
3. Bring your laptop.
4. Familiarity with jQuery is a considered an added bonus (although not a strict requirement).
5. Bring your laptop…seriously.

Jonathan Sharp, Doug Neiner and Levi DeHaan from appendTo will join our Adam Stanley to lead the sessions. More information is available at www.blackberryjamconference.com.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

BlackBerry® 10 Jam is where app developers will meet in May to learn about the innovations coming to the BlackBerry 10 developer platform. This special developer conference will include in-depth breakout sessions, instructor-led labs and roundtables focused on HTML5, Native C/C++, Adobe® Flash® & Adobe® AIR®, and Android™ development for the BlackBerry platform.

Register now to secure your limited edition developer prototype device.

Now that we’ve filled you in on the Unconference at BlackBerry® 10 Jam and compiled all your great ideas for possible sessions, we wanted to open the floor to you to tell us which sessions you’d like to see the most. Out of all the submissions, we chose the most requested topics and set them up in handy poll format. Click here to take a look at the list and VOTE on the session you’d like to attend.

You’ll see the top 5 sessions at the conference, and we’ll announce those next week. Don’t worry, we’ve got more sessions coming your way every day!

BlackBerry 10 Jam is just 2 weeks away and we couldn’t be more excited to build this conference for you. You have until 11:45pm EST on Monday April 23rd to cast your vote, so spread the word!

(editor’s note: title image was made using Meme Generator from the original at hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com)

If you’ve developed – or are currently developing – a BlackBerry® WebWorks™, Adobe® AIR®, or Native Gaming app for the BlackBerry® platform, bring your app to AppCircus at BlackBerry® 10 Jam and work with RIM experts on-site to port it to the BlackBerry 10 platform. You could win $25,000 to see your favorite bands! (Winners will have up to a year to use the prize.) In order to participate in the contest, ensure you register your application with AppCircus by April 29th and attend BlackBerry 10 Jam in Orlando! If you enter now, you can get some tips for building and pitching to help you prepare for the event at BlackBerry 10 Jam.

After you’ve had a chance to tweak your apps for BlackBerry 10, you’ll pitch your app to a panel of RIM and AppCircus judges where the top three applications from each category – BlackBerry WebWorks, Adobe AIR and Native Gaming – will move on to the finals. AppCircus and RIM experts will be on hand to help these finalists perfect their presentation and apps in preparation for the finals. Finalists have a three-minute pitch and two-minute question and answer on stage, and winners are chosen by a jury. One winner in each of the three categories will receive the grand prize. Each grand prize is worth up to $25,000 USD for you and your friends to see your favorite bands throughout the year!

The prize package includes:

• $10,000 USD cash award to purchase concert tickets and to be used as spending money for you and your friends
• $15,000 USD Travel Voucher (booked through RIM’s agent) to purchase airline tickets, hotel reservations and ground transportation for you and your friends to attend the concerts in cities where you’ve purchased concert tickets

To find out more details on the AppCircus at BlackBerry 10 Jam contest and to view full terms and conditions please visit http://blackberry10jam.appcircus.com.

We’re looking forward to seeing you and your apps at BlackBerry 10 Jam – good luck!