The BlackBerry 10 app ecosystem is thriving today because of the awesome work of you, our developer community. On Wednesday, May 15th, we celebrated the winners of the 2013 BlackBerry Developer Community Awards at the BlackBerry Live Tweet Up. Thank you again for the over 200 nominations and thousands of votes on HashAwards and on Twitter. Here are your 2013 winners!

Must Follow BlackBerry Developer on Twitter - Joel Ortiz

Must Follow BlackBerry Developer Evangelist - Luca Filigheddu

Most Helpful Developer Community Forum Member - Peter Strange

Most Helpful Developer Relations Team Member on Twitter - Brian Zubert

Best Built for BlackBerry App – CB10

Best Open Source Project for BlackBerry – bbui.js

Best Scoreloop Integrated Game - Jetpack Joyride

Thank you again to everyone who nominated and voted – see you in Hong Kong for BlackBerry Jam Asia!

For anyone new to analytics let me explain why I am so excited and why you should be as well. Analytics gives you the ability to know who is using your application as well as how they are using it. Sounds easy enough right? The Flurry SDK integrates with your application and allows it to log “events” when they occur. A simple example would be logging an event where a button is clicked. That data is recorded and then sent up to the dashboard where patterns start to emerge on how many people are clicking that button, how they got to it, and what users do after it gets pressed.

Analytics helps by telling you two very important pieces of information:

Who is using your application?

The Flurry Analytics service will report the following information about the user/user’s device by default:

• Locale set on the device
• Time Zone
• Approximate location
• Device name (ex “BlackBerry Z10”)
• Device OS version
• Carrier

And can also be configured by you to report:

• The version of the app being used
• The user’s geolocation (with permission from the user)
• The user’s gender (if supplied by the user)
• The user’s age (if supplied by the user)
• The user ID (if used by your application)

This will let you know where your application is being used, as well as provide you an idea for the type of people that are using it. This in turn gives you the ability to tailor content to various regions and locales based on demand, as well as determine which device models you may want to focus on in the future.

How are people using your application?

Of course after you know who is using your application you will definitely want to know how they are using it. Flurry lets you log events that occur within your application, letting you map out every step the user takes. This is helpful so you can see trends for where they may be getting stuck, areas for improvement, and features that are being used more than expected and can be prioritized for enhancement in future releases. This information is invaluable for making informed decision on where to take the direction of your application.

From the aspect of monetization, knowing user patterns can help you understand what will make your application and possibly digital goods for sale, more attractive/valuable to the end user. Events would also allow you to track the success of promotions within your application. If you happen to sell a limited edition digital good, or offer to unlock the premium features of the app at a reduced price, you have the ability to track the success of the promotion with a relatively short turnaround.

The idea of tracking everything your users do may sound like a scary concept, however all data is made anonymous by the service meaning there is no way of tracking specific actions back to one device/user. Keeping the data anonymous keeps users from compromising their privacy while still maintaining the integrity of the data.

If you’re ready to add some analytics to your application then getting started is easy. Simply go over to the Flurry home page and create an account. Then create an application to get the analytics SDK for BlackBerry 10.

I’ve also whipped up a sample app that you can take a look at to get a feel for the APIs that can be downloaded from the Community Samples Repo on GitHub.

JAM68 – Flurry Mobile Analytics on BlackBerry 10!!

If you’re lucky enough to be at BlackBerry Jam Americas this week, you can attend JAM68 where Anthony Watkins and Rich Brett from Flurry will be presenting with me on how to integrate the Analytics SDK into your BlackBerry applications. For those unable to make it, the recording should be posted a few days following the session and you can always send me a message on Twitter with your questions/comments: @garettBeuk

For more information you can also refer to our Analytics page on the forums:

http://developer.blackberry.com/devzone/develop/platform_services/platform_analytics.html
http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/BlackBerry-Analytics-Service/bd-p/analytics_serv

One of our goals for this year’s BlackBerry Live conference is to integrate mobile technology not just in the discussions, sessions, and resources – but into the actual conference itself to help keep attendees closely plugged into all of the action.

Near Field Communication (NFC)

One of my all-time favorite technologies, Near Field Communication (NFC) will be integrated into BlackBerry Live in a big way. You’ll be able to scan into BlackBerry Live and BlackBerry Jam sessions and interact with aspects of the venue using the BlackBerry Live Conference App, but that’s just the beginning. You’ll also be able to share contact information with sponsors, scoop up links to resources and web sites, and take advantage of all that BlackBerry 10 has to offer when it comes to NFC.

BlackBerry Live Conference App

Shortly before BlackBerry Live the Mobile Conference Guide app will be available in BlackBerry World for you to download. This will be your ultimate conference guide, including a wide range of features:

• Find sessions, speaker, sponsor, and event details
• Receive event update messages
• View the conference agenda and floor plan
• Build and edit your conference schedule
• Scan into sessions using Near Field Communication (NFC)
• Complete conference and session surveys
• Share your information with conference sponsors using NFC

It’s not too late to register for BlackBerry Live!

Head over to www.blackberrylive.com to register for this year’s conference, and don’t forget that if you’ve attended a BlackBerry event in the past, you may be eligible for a $150 discount as part of the Alumni Discount!

Stay tuned for availability in BlackBerry World, and get ready for a seriously mobile conference! See you next week in Orlando.

Voting for the 2013 BlackBerry Developer Community Awards is now open! We’ve been overwhelmed with the positive reception from the community this year and are proud to announce the finalists below.

Having a hard time deciding who to vote for? Well, the awards seek to honor those that have gone above and beyond to actively engage and help fellow BlackBerry developers so make sure your choices reflect that. You’ll have until May 12, 2013 to cast your ballots for a winner in each category so start voting for your favorites today!

The 2013 BlackBerry Developer Community Awards finalists in each category are:

Must Follow BlackBerry Developer on Twitter

1. @jcarty Jerome Carty
2. @johnbiibs John Bibal II
3. @flashinstructor Joel Ortíz
4. @TheMarco M van Hylckama Vlieg

Must Follow BlackBerry Developer Evangelist on Twitter

1. @demianborba Demian Borba
2. @jorgecasar Jorge del Casar
3. @edgarparada Edgar Parada
4. @filos Luca Filigheddu

Most Helpful Developer Community Forum Member

1. peter9477 Peter Hansen
2. Zmey Andrey Fidrya
3. Jtegen John Tegen
4. peter_strange Peter Strange

Most Helpful Developer Relations Team Member on Twitter

1. @n_adam_stanley Adam Stanley
2. @bzubert Brian Zubert
3. @WaterlooErik Erik Oros
4. @PBernhardt Paul Bernhardt

Best Built for BlackBerry App

1. Blaq
2. SayIt
3. CB10
4. Gadget Box

Best Open Source Project for BlackBerry

1. bbui.js
2. OpenDataSpace
3. GoodCitizenCascades
4. Endare / ParkInGhent

Best Scoreloop Integrated Game

1. WordsPlus
2. Run in a crowd
3. Jetpack Joyride
4. Super Hexagon

Users can vote and follow along with the award’s progress through our online page. This year’s winners will be announced at the BlackBerry Jam Americas TweetUp on May 15, 2013 in Orlando, Florida. If you want to get a feel for how the awards will work, check out this video below from last year’s ceremony.

Now that you know who’s up for the vote during this year’s BlackBerry Developer Community Awards, who are you hoping will win? Let us know who your favorites are in the comments below.

So what is a Built for BlackBerry app? In a nutshell, a BFB app is an application which is designed from start-to-finish to be awesome in performance, looks, and functionality. Apps which apply for, and pass, the Built For BlackBerry program tell users that this app meets BlackBerry’s high standards for quality and performance.

My latest sample app was created to give you a head start in achieving the BFB designation, allowing you to focus more of your time on the functionality of your app, rather than the actual UI and setup. It’s simply a starting point/blank slate for you to work with and customize.

I’ve incorporated all of the features we look for in a Built For BlackBerry app. Right out of the box you’ll have an application that meets the BlackBerry 10 UI guidelines, connects to BlackBerry Messenger and to the Share Framework. There are also several other features including: App Menu (swipe down), Toasts, Window Covers, and device specific Splash Screens. I’ve even included CSS media queries to show you how to style your app on a Z10 vs. Q10 with CSS!. This will allow you to quickly customize this “boiler-plate” to meet your own needs and focus on the content of your app rather than getting the “right” look.

Check-out the application over at GitHub.

If you find this sample useful, have any questions, or just want to keep up-to-date on the world of BlackBerry WebWorks and HTML5, follow me on Twitter!

Continuing the last UCOSP posting, where we talked about the release of the Barcode Scanning Extension for BlackBerry 10 WebWorks, we have some thoughts from another student regarding development of BlackBerry 10 WebWorks Extensions. Developing extensions in C++ that can be called from JavaScript involves some challenges, so if you’ve been thinking about diving in, these hints will be quite useful. Here’s what Alex has to say about his experience this term:

“I had the fortune of joining a number of great software development students as we embarked onto BlackBerry’s new platform, BlackBerry 10. During this term, we explored bbUI.js, BlackBerry Webworks, and the Native Development Kit. I had worked specifically on creating new Webworks community plugins. Two plugins that I had worked on were a vibration feature to allow for additional parameters accessible only through the native development kit and a barcode reading feature with Michael Delong and Tim Windsor. In the end, I had done a great deal of research and developed various approaches to tackle the barcode reading feature.

The vibration community plugin was an effective introduction into developing between Javascript and C++. The feature was originally recommended to be completed when another colleague had required additional granularity in the vibration settings. While I had looked into this issue and was able to flesh it out, we found the APIs themselves were somewhat limiting with how the colleague had envisioned the outcome. Overall this situation was a positive experience in understanding the BlackBerry 10 Webworks architecture and the BlackBerry Platform Services.When developing this plugin I ran into a number of issues due to my own lack of patience which lead to some rather confusing errors.

• JNext does method invocation through string matching

Somehow through development I was using a certain keyword for indicating my command I wanted to invoke from Javascript. On the C++ side, I seemed to have switched around the naming and thus was expecting to read an event from a keyword that did not exist. Since these constants are being used in two different languages and there is not much common ground between this two language process, nothing was telling me that I was passing in the wrong keyword. Copy and paste can be your friend.

• Vibration falls under the BlackBerry Platform Services

While creating the vibration code, I was confused why it was not working at all. I had the keywords matching in both Javascript and C++ and it had all compiled from what I could see. Since vibration falls underneath the BPS family, you need to initialize the BPS before it can be used.

bps_initialize();

After completing this feature, I went on to work with Mike on the barcode scanning feature. Barcode scanning is a relatively interesting concept as it would combine a fairly wide knowledge base of media with my current understanding of Javascript and C++. When working with this feature, initially we tried to piece together what we could from other examples in cascades and the NDK github samples. Requiring a rather large knowledge base was something we had not expected from a feature like barcode scanning. Having to take advantage of input from the camera on the C++ layer introduced us to a number of concepts such as image formats and subsampling. In addition to worrying about these fundamental multimedia concepts we were trying to understand how to take a raw frame from the camera and extract a barcode with the ZXing library. While another of methods were taken in attempting to complete this feature I had participated in two approaches of development to get barcode reading to where it is now on WebWorks.

1. Displaying the images from a base64 representation from C++ to Javascript layer

• Attempted to use card invocation to support video feedback for barcode scanning

Prior to this project, I knew of base64 encoding but I had not ever used it in my own development. The ability to encode the bytes of the image in a string was an interesting idea to take advantage of the JNext bridge to carry the image from the native layer to the web layer. Unfortunately during the actual process, the encoding and decoding process can take a fairly long time and actual rendering on the canvas was not fast enough to capture a snappy mobile experience. it was an interesting usage of base64 but this was not quite the answer for the barcode scanner in its current state.

The second attempt that I had looked into was utilizing card invocation to skip the barcode reading altogether and take advantage of a cascades application to do the barcode reading for us. Card invocation is a great idea that can also be seen on other platforms such as Android. Specific functionality that another application may be able to accomplish very well, can be used as a “card”. These cards are invoked from an application which will run that portion of another application. When the card action is complete, that application is closed and the user is returned to the original invoking application. The advantage to this option was visual feedback the user would feel as if it had been built into the Webworks framework and created a fluid native feel to this highly user requested feature, as I was switching into a cascades barcode scanning application. Unfortunately with the card invocation, an application which did the barcode reading would have to exist on the device prior to launching this Webworks application. In addition to this pitfall, Webworks in its current state allows for the ability to query potential cards to handle jobs and the ability to invocate these actions, but was unable to return values. This is an issue if the developer wants to capture a QR code and use this value in their own application. I however did not look into copying the barcode into the clipboard or providing the option to do this however this extra step could be potentially approached by other developers that are fine with running a utility application and a Webworks application.

Overall the experience on BlackBerry 10 with the Webworks framework has been an enjoyable opportunity into the world of mobile web applications. With the ability to utilize open source community driven libraries, BlackBerry has helped build an environment to utilize rich web applications with the raw power of the BlackBerry 10 platform. I look forward to seeing what new applications and innovations can arise from this new way of hybrid mobile/native development.”

You can check out the growing list of BlackBerry 10 WebWorks extensions on our Github repository. The university term is wrapping up now, so our next UCOSP update will have the final thoughts from our last two students and an overview of what the students were able to do this term. If you’re interested in doing some open source coding yourself, I’m putting together some projects for the summer. Contact me through email or twitter.

What about Dev Alpha B devices?

We’ve got an update for that too! With this release you’ll be able to check out how your Z10 apps will run on the 10.1 OS, and make all the necessary changes, if needed.

Have you already submitted your awesome app and received your LE BlackBerry 10 device? Or have you already picked up your own BlackBerry Z10?

We certainly want to see more of your great app ideas come to life, so you’ll also be seeing a 10.1 SDK OS update for these devices as well.

Will the simulators be getting an update too?

Yes! There will be a 10.1 SDK OS build for the BlackBerry 10 simulator, so whether you test on a device or a simulator, know that you’ll be able to test on the most recent build available. You won’t see two different simulators available but you will get one simulator with the option to boot to a Z10 or Q10 resolution.

Let’s recap the updates that you’ll be seeing:

• Dev Alpha C device
• Dev Alpha B device
• BlackBerry Z10 devices
• Simulator for Z10 and Q10

So how can you get these updates for your device?

The 10.1 SDK OS will be available for each device through its own autoloader – you’ll see one each for the Dev Alpha C and the Dev Alpha B.

For developers who want to test it on their BlackBerry Z10, you’ll need to find out your device model number and grab the corresponding autoloader. The device model can be found under Settings> About. See the example screenshot below.

Note: This SDK OS update is only for testing purposes and does not replace your full BlackBerry 10 OS. To revert your BlackBerry Z10 to a public OS release, please follow the steps outlined in this KB Article. Using BlackBerry Link, you will be able to reload your device software to a full OS and, if needed, download any OS updates from your carrier.

Device targets for the Momentics IDE will also be updated. If you need a refresher on how to download the target OS and configure it, we’ve got a detailed description right here.

Now that you’re ready for the Q10 (and subsequent 10.1 release!), we can’t wait to see and use your apps! Go on and grab the updates and the simulator at developer.blackberry.com!

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.

The Port-A-Thons are now closed and it’s time for you to be rewarded.

Some of the Port-A-Thon rewards required draws. We needed to wait until the app approval deadline (April 9, 2013) to draw the names of the winners.

We are pleased to announce that the draws have taken place for trips to BlackBerry Live 2013 and BlackBerry Dev Alpha B devices.

Notifications are being sent out this week to the developers that have won and all winners will be contacted via email by the end of next week. Please check your spam folder for any messages from blackberrydeveloperprogram@blackberry.com that might have snuck in.

Again, thank you for your incredible dedication and support. More importantly thank you for your patience. We were humbled by the turnout at these events and worked as quickly as possible to work through the unexpectedly large number of applications that were submitted.

If you have any more questions please contact us at blackberrydeveloperprogram@blackberry.com. Let us know in the comments what you thought about the Port-A-Thons and if you think we should do them again.

BlackBerry developers that rely on a simulator for app development, listen up, because you need to read this! The latest simulator release for BlackBerry 10 brings a heap of new improvements, features and core apps, taking development one step closer to using a physical device.

In the latest BlackBerry 10.1 simulator release we now offer the ability to select which form factor you want to launch the simulator with. In this release, we support the layout for both the Z10 and Q10 devices. No more need to download multiple simulators! You’ll see these boot options listed as follows:

1. BlackBerry 10 All-Touch [1280x768]
2. BlackBerry 10 Keyboard [720x720]

Once the boot option is selected, you’ll notice some handy tool tip information during the simulator boot up screen. These tips will highlight new features as well as suggestions for maximizing simulator performance. Additionally, the simulator adds support for multi-touch input where developers can simulate up to 10 individual touch paths. For example, you can simulate using a two finger pinch and zoom. For more details, check out the documentation for simulator gestures.

The simulator controller joins the new feature party with added support for automatic simulator connection, incoming and outgoing phone call simulation, and mouse mode selection for controlling touch events. If your application supports incoming phone calls, you can test this by sending a call from the simulator controller. The incoming number will be detected by your application. For all the details on what is available in the simulator controller, check out the documentation.

Now let’s talk about what applications come with the simulator out of box. Previously, we supported a basic set of core applications including:

• BlackBerry Hub
• Contacts
• Calendar
• Browser
• BBM
• BlackBerry World
• Phone
• Settings

Today, we have added a whole bunch more; including support for social connect accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Evernote and LinkedIn. These new apps include, but are not limited to:

• Calculator
• Facebook
• File Manager
• Games
• Help
• Maps
• Pictures
• Remember
• Smart Tags
• YouTube
• Weather

So, what are you waiting for? Grab the latest simulator download and get started using all these great new features today! For additional information, please see the release notes.