I hope you’ve enjoyed the series and we look forward to seeing you all at BlackBerry Jam Americas in Orlando. Please let us know what you thought of the videos to ensure that we can bring information to you in a way that’s educational, but entertaining as well.

This particular video will give you some information about the current opportunities and upcoming roadmap items that we’re looking at for extending connectivity for developers. In this video we’re joined by Rob Williams who talks about how you can connect BlackBerry 10 to the world around you to incorporate context into your apps.

We’ll be posting videos as part of this series leading up to BlackBerry Jam Americas in Orlando in order to give some more background surrounding the topics that we’ll be discussing in detail during the conference.

This particular video will give you some information about the upcoming roadmap items that we’re looking at for extending BBM capabilities for developers. In this video we’re joined by Nick Kalkounis to talk about new APIs that are coming to better connect your application through BBM.

We’ll be posting videos as part of this series leading up to BlackBerry Jam Americas in Orlando in order to give some more background surrounding the topics that we’ll be discussing in detail during the conference.

This particular video will give you some information about the upcoming roadmap items that we’re looking at for further integration into BlackBerry 10. In this video we’re joined by Michael Clewley to talk about how integration with BlackBerry 10 can improve the user experience of your application.

The things I like to look for at these events are the technologies that have the potential to disrupt the apple cart. These revolutionary movements do more than simply evolve last year’s technology. They beg the question whether whole companies or industries will radically change and shift to address this new force, and whether or not new players will emerge as drivers in this movement. At GDC this year, I could see that such a shift is starting to take place and I’m excited that BlackBerry is actively engaged in this movement. What’s the shift? We’re starting to see mobile devices provide a console gaming experience, anywhere, anytime.

We’ve been playing games on phones for many years, why talk about this now? What’s changed?

Technology Advancement

As with many disruptive forces, a number of normal evolutionary changes take place first that, by themselves, are not disruptive. However, when brought together, they can change the game considerably and challenge an entire once-stable industry. The critical technologies all on mobile devices that are beginning to put pressure on the gaming console industry are the following:

• Multitasking Operating Systems
• High Performance GPUs
• High Definition Video (HDMI)
• Wireless Mobile Game Controllers
• Portable Game Software

When all these technology advancement come together in a smartphone, you have something very close to a game console in the palm of your hand. Each of these plays a vital role. Let’s explore the contribution of each.

Multitasking Operating Systems

A true multitasking operating system is critical for providing smooth performance and interactivity for today’s most demanding games. Not only must the OS manage the game itself, but it must also juggle location information, gyro, accelerometer and other sensors, concurrent voice or VOIP for trash-talking your friends during gameplay, and interact with the cloud and social networks for storing and sharing your results. Neither iOS nor Android has a great multitasking solution here. In contrast however, BlackBerry 10, powered by QNX Neutrino (a leading world class RTOS), is very well positioned to provide all the power necessary for managing the ever-increasing demand of concurrent functionality in the next generation of mobile games.

High Performance GPUs

GPUs render the images. Without them, our game visuals would be slow, blocky, and flat. There’s no question how important these processors are. Over the last couple of years, the advancements made by companies like ARM, Imagination, NVidia, and Qualcomm for smartphones have been enormous. It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between a game rendered by a GPU on a laptop vs. a game rendered by a smartphone GPU. Perhaps the most obvious difference has been the physical screen size. However, when you add a multitasking OS and a high performance GPU to HD Video (the next critical technology), things start to get really interesting.

High Definition Video (HDMI)

One of the things we did in the BlackBerry booth this year at GDC was connect a bunch of our BlackBerry Z10 smartphones (using the standard HDMI port) to large HD monitors. We also did this at our interactive pods in the Unity and Marmalade booths. I can’t tell you how many times people walked up and asked questions like, “Since when did BlackBerry start making game consoles?” When we told them they were looking at a game being rendered and played on the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone they had that mind blown look on their face.

In the picture above, a young gamer is playing “Shadow Gun” on a BlackBerry Z10. This is a great First Person Shooter game built on the Unity3D game engine. You can just see the Z10 on the table in front of him below the monitor. What you can’t see in this picture is the awesome SteelSeries Free game controller he’s using to play the game. That piece of critical technology is next on my list.

Wireless Mobile Game Controllers

To an awesome multitasking OS, killer GPU, and HDMI out, you add a wireless game controller and you’ve just about got the whole package. Using a controller accomplishes two important things: First, it gets your fingers off the valuable screen real estate freeing up more pixes for game play. The other benefit of the controller is that it adds that real, immersive game feeling you get with console controllers. The controllers we used at GDC are the SteelSeries Free Mobile Wireless Controllers (shown below). The last time I checked, the controller will set you back about $80USD and you can find one here. Other controllers, such as the Wii Remote and the Gametel, are also usable and there’s more to come.

For you game developers out there, you can get more information about how to instrument your code to work with these controllers including samples and tutorials by checking out Sean Paul Taylor’s devblog: “Adding Gamepad Support to Your BlackBerry 10 Game”. You can also read about Ramprasad Madhavan’s experience at GDC this year and the Unity BlackBerry 10 Open Beta coming soon on his devblog: “Unity and BlackBerry Gaming at GDC 2013”

Portable Game Engines & Frameworks

The final critical technology contributing to the end of the game console industry as we know it is portable game engines and frameworks. The easier it is to get your game ported from one platform to another, the harder it is for games to be locked to a single console or device. Companies like Marmalade, ShiVa3D, and Unity3D/Union all contribute here. As a developer, you want the highest quality game experience you can get with the largest distribution possible. This is exactly what these frameworks offer and each has been tuned to deliver a killer experience on BlackBerry 10.

Summary

I confess I own an Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and a PlayStation 3. However, I more often find myself connecting my Z10 to my 46” flat screen, the audio-out to my surround system, and kick back on the couch with my SteelSeries Free remote to enjoy a great game of Angry Bots or Critical Wave. There’s no question that smartphones like the BlackBerry Z10 are providing near console game experiences. This is being driven by advancements in 5 areas: real multitasking OS’s, high performance mobile GPUs, HD Video, mobile game controllers, and portable frameworks.

Consoles will need to adapt and add value to remain competitive. Where does that leave game consoles in the future then? Are they becoming extinct? Will smartphones replace game consoles outright? Will consoles evolve into something even better? Or, will they become the mobile extension of their stationary counterparts? As the great Yoda once said, “Always in motion the future is”.

Today is the launch of the Gold version of the BlackBerry 10.1 SDK for Adobe AIR. Thank you to everyone that has been helping us test it so far! For a full list of API updates and fixes, please head over to the release notes.

Port your AIR apps

Re-compile your existing BlackBerry PlayBook AIR applications to BlackBerry 10. If you’re already using the fuse component set that debuted with the BlackBerry PlayBook SDK for Adobe AIR, the port should be quick and easy. You can get more details from this blog post.

For more details on what’s coming after Gold for the BlackBerry 10 SDK for Adobe AIR, please visit our Adobe AIR roadmap.

Hot on the heels of our last episode, which covered the Momentics tooling, this particular video will fill you in on our SDK for Adobe AIR. Julian Dolce joins us to discuss upcoming roadmap items that we’re looking at to improve the AIR SDK.

BlackBerry Jam Unplugged is an ongoing series that gives a bit of color and insight into the BlackBerry 10 SDK roadmap. We’ll run this video series leading up to BlackBerry Jam Americas in Orlando to give some background on the topics that we will discuss at length during the conference.

So tune in, and find out which upgraded version of the Adobe AIR Runtime will come to BlackBerry 10!

Back in November 2012, China’s BlackBerry 10 App Contest kicked off by launching mini sites on cooperating developer community homepages. It caught the attention of hundreds developers right away. The 16 total prizes offered amounted to 350,000 CNY ($56,382 USD), with an additional 28 brand new BlackBerry 10 smartphones for winners, plus the opportunity to be promoted on the BlackBerry World carousal. All 16 winning teams were invited to Beijing for the award ceremony. One attending student developer said, “I need to thank you for the opportunity you gave us, no other company has ever done this before. BlackBerry truly cares about developers like us.” I am sure he will continue to build apps for BlackBerry 10 with his counterparts.

From November 2012 to February 2013, more than 500 developers signed up for the contests and more than 600 apps were successfully submitted to BlackBerry World across mainland China. In February of this year, 16 outstanding apps out of 30 finalists were picked by a team comprised of a BlackBerry app development manager, a marketing expert and selected BlackBerry consumers.

Sarim Aziz, one of the contest judges and head of Developer Relations in APAC attended the ceremony on March 30th to award the Grand Prize check of 100,000 CNY (1,588 USD) to Zhang Dong.

Photo: Sarim Aziz with the grand prize winner Zhang Dong

Mike Zhou, Developer Relations App Development Manager also presented the updated BlackBerry 10 platform technical overview, with a very interactive Q&A.

Photo: Mike Zhou presenting on the BlackBerry 10 technical platform introduction</p>

Cooperating developer communities played an important role in supporting the contest. Community leaders were also invited to be on stage to share their BlackBerry 10 experiences. Terry Zhao from HMTL5 DreamWorks said he was very satisfied with the exemplary performance of HTML5 on the BlackBerry 10 platform and he is expecting a number of high-quality games from his community this year. Xiangning Liao from the Flash Community was also very happy because out of 16 winning apps, four of them came from his group. Liao added, “I am glad to see how well the BlackBerry 10 platform supports Adobe Air and I am sure Flash developers will submit more BlackBerry apps!”

Photo: Dev Community leaders sharing experiences

Thanks again for the great support from Chinese Dev Communities, HTML5 Dreamworks, the Flash Community, and the CNBBDev Group!

Photo: Group photo with developers

Meanwhile, the Taiwan BlackBerry 10 Enterprise App Contest wrapped up on March 20th. Pipedeal and Nlink (free version)/ (paid version) were the winners from Taiwan. Judges are currently reviewing submissions for the Hong Kong BlackBerry 10 App Contest. Six finalists will be selected by the BlackBerry team and public voters by April 9th. We saw great enthusiasm coming from the region and will keep everyone posted on the results.

For more information on Chinese BlackBerry 10 App Contests, please check out the videos below:

Video 1:Special prizes winning apps introduction (10)

Video 2:2nd and 3rd prizes winning apps introduction

More information about winning apps:

MoWriter – By Zhang Dong – MoWriter has been the most popular third-party Sina Weibo client on the BlackBerry® platform since 2009. Now a new version for BlackBerry® 10 has been developed, with full functionality and an excellent user experience. The senior software developer works for an automotive company’s Shanghai office. He spends his spare time working on the Weibo client using the Cascades SDK. MMMOOO has been collaborating with him since last year.

Let the ball roll up – By the Air Mobile Team – The game’s idea is based on an old Chinese trick. Audiences must use their skills to keep track of a ball that has been put in one of three fast-switching bowls. This app was selected as the winner of the BlackBerry JamHack in Shanghai in October 2012. The app has been polished further since. The Air Mobile Team has formed a startup company early this year and is planning to submit more online games within the coming months.

PTCInquiry – By Leo Wang – This is a tool that can read the information from metro cards using NFC technology. The app reads the balance of metro cards and records the last 10 transactions. It was developed by Leo Wang of Nanjing Youdian University, who established iiberry.com on the BlackBerry Developer blog. (PTCInquiry currently only supports Beijing, China but will be expanded to more cities in the coming versions).

Photo Club – By Wu Zhou – This app features the ability to: Adjust Photos, Add Clipart, Add Frames, Add Effects, and Add Custom Elements. Users of Photo Club also have the developer’s guarantee of free updates for the app’s lifetime.

Oxygen Bubble – By Team Zero – Two Flash developers developed the Oxygen Bubble game during Shanghai JamHack in October of 2012 and continued polishing the app after the event.

Truth or Dare – By Wteam – This application is a virtual Truth or Dare game. One person must complete a randomly drawn card labeled “Truth” or “Dare”. This all-ages game was developed by Wteam, an innovative startup from Guangdong Ocean University.

Gif Animator –By Zhongfei Ge – This is a cool GIF making app that allows users to create the most attractive animations on mobile devices. Users just have to select photos from their gallery and use the tools provided to create amazing animated GIF pictures. Users also have the ability to share GIFs via SNS or BBM.

Clash of Stars – By Finger2Finger – This game invites users to go on a space adventure, dodging cosmic rays, black holes, and interstellar attacks. The development group, Finger2Finger, has submitted over 600 games via the BlackBerry 10 portathons. A majority of the games were developed based on Cocos-2D.

Infinity lands – By Ifree studio – This is a strategy game developed by a leading company of over 400 developers.

Back to Whale Island – By Air Mobile Team

Star Tracker – By Weibin Pan – This app features the ability to identify what stars, constellations and deep sky objects you are looking at in real-time. The app utilizes a mobile device’s gyroscope, digital compass, and accelerometer to drive the best user experience. This paid app has been featured on the BlackBerry World carousal and has so far generated over 2000 downloads for one month.

Wallpaper Shifter – By Liangcheng Cao – Wallpaper Shifter is a tool that enables the automatic rotation of wallpapers on BlackBerry 10 devices. Users can define a profile and desired interval at the same time!

Dtrip – By JiangDan – Dtrip features the ability to help users plan their trips abroad.

Berry Sonar – By Air Mobile Pioneer s – This app was developed by a participating team of attendees at the Shanghai 2012 BlackBerry JamHack.

Mega Emoji –By Jibiao – Mega Emoji is a useful tool with more than 1000+ smiley, symbols, and BBM emoji that can be used in messages on SMS, BBM, Facebook, and Twitter.

There was one place, however, where 3D made business sense: gaming (well, native gaming). 3D enjoyed, and still enjoys, a happy existence on PC and Console platforms. The question I always wondered was when will 3D in the browser be of high enough performance and quality across all platforms and browsers to support a solid business case for 3D on the Web? I believe the time has finally come. The confluence of mobile gaming, mobile Web app development, and a solid javascript API called WebGL (a biding to the powerful and ubiquitous OpenGL), is fueling its arrival. I’m proud to say that BlackBerry has been very active in providing one of the first complete mobile WebGL implementations on the BlackBerry PlayBook, and has also brought this capability to BlackBerry 10.

WebGL provides developers with the ability to write immersive, high-performance, console-quality, 2D and 3D games accessible directly on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone. This could be done directly though the browser, or even better, directly by a BlackBerry HTML5/WebWorks application. By building and packaging your HTML5 application into a bar file (a BlackBerry app file container), it enjoys the same rights and privileges as a native application. These apps look, feel, and behave as native apps, as they don’t run inside a browser context. They don’t need to be online to work, and they can leverage great BlackBerry services like the Payment Services SDK and the BBM APIs. BlackBerry WebWorks apps can also be certified as Built for BlackBerry affording them additional advantages.

The game shown below is called “Pearl Boy” and is a great example of what a WebGL application can do. It was developed by Goo Technologies, makers of the Goo Engine for GDC this year. It’s a 100% Web application, written using HTML5, Javascript, and of course, WebGL. The graphics and performance on the BlackBerry Z10 look great. Reflections, environment maps, pixel shaders, they’re all there. WebGL is the real deal.

If you want to learn more about programming with WebGL on BlackBerry, check out these additional WebGL resources on the BlackBerry DevBlog. I also recommend you check out the O’Reilly book, “WebGL: Up and Running” by Toni Parisi.

With the release of the Gold BlackBerry 10.1 SDK, we wanted to touch base on some of the updates when it comes to OLED displays.  For one, the default theme for an OLED BlackBerry 10 device display is the dark theme which reduces burn-in and also reduces power consumption.

There will also be additional color improvements built into the Cascades and Adobe AIR BlackBerry 10 standard controls to ensure that if your app is using standard controls, they will provide the best experience when it comes to both burn-in and power consumption for the user on the BlackBerry 10 gold build that will go to end users.  These are simply slight tweaks on the shades of colors used on the core controls.

Below you’ll see the changes that will be applied to the core controls in Cascades and Adobe AIR for the launch of the BlackBerry Q10.

Light Theme Changes

Dark Theme Changes

We are also working on a CSS media query for detecting an OLED device for HTML5 developers and will have more information on that topic once we have solidified the final syntax.

For ActionScript development you are able to turn on the default OLED coloring changes by setting your application’s global theming attribute in ActionScript.  Otherwise it will continue to use the LCD coloring in your app.  This ActionScript functionality was put in place because the default screen background colorization isn’t controlled in the same manner as it is in Cascades and could have had impact on coloring in your application if you used the core BlackBerry 10 controls in your Adobe AIR application.

ThemeGlobals.useOled = true;

These small shading changes make a big difference on overall device experience and we look forward to seeing your apps on the BlackBerry Q10!

That said, we wanted to put our money where our mouth is so Alec Saunders sat down with Frédéric Boulanger, CEO & Co-Founder of Macadamian, to find out what their reasons are to port to BlackBerry 10. Watch what happened below.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

If you’re interested in using Macadamian to port to BlackBerry 10, make sure you visit them here.

Have you ported your app to BlackBerry 10? We want to know your story! Let us know in the comments!