As developers, when we have an idea for app, we can build it. But what if you’re not a developer, but you have the idea for the next great app? Dandy recently launched their beta where people can share their app ideas with the Dandy community and help build an amazing app together. Last week, I spoke with Karl Allen-Muncey and Taylor Jones during BlackBerry Live to talk apps, BlackBerry 10, and building the next great app.

http://www.webrtc.org/reference/architecture

I would like take this opportunity and introduce you to our good friends at Hookflash who have successfully ported all major components of both WebRTC and Open Peer libraries to BlackBerry 10. To provide a brief overview, WebRTC is an open source multimedia & network stack that supports real-time audio & video. The value Open Peer delivers to WebRTC applications is peer-to-peer (P2P) signalling on the wire, Instant Messaging, Federated Identities and multiple mobile platform support.

So why is this so important?  Well, it enables developers to build rich, compelling, real-time communication applications integrating Social Identities with Voice, Video and Messaging using BlackBerry 10 Native SDK. Secondly, WebRTC is free to use if you decide to commercialize your application. What Hookflash has achieved on BlackBerry 10 really exemplifies the power of our BlackBerry 10 Native Platform to deliver the best communications experience.

I would like to further highlight Hookflash team’s experience in porting both WebRTC and Open Peer stack’s over to BlackBerry 10 platform. Check out my interview with Erik Lagerway (Co-founder) & Robin Raymond (Chief Architect) from Hookflash below:

What is Hookflash?

Hookflash is a globally distributed software development team building “Open Peer”, new “open” video, voice and messaging specification and software for mobile platforms and web browsers.  Open Peer enables an important new evolution of communications; Open, for developers and customers to create with. “Over-the-top” on the Internet, where users control their economics and quality of service. “Federated Identity” so user’s connections aren’t limited by service provider’s walled gardens and operating systems. “Integrated”, as communications become a native function in software and applications. Hookflash founders, lead developers and Advisors accomplishments include; creators of the world’s most popular softphones, built audio technology acquired and used by Skype, built GIPS technology acquired and open sourced by Google to create WebRTC, and engaged in WebRTC standards development in the IETF and W3C.

What is Open Peer SDK and how would this empower BlackBerry 10 developers?

Open Peer enables direct integration of social identities, video, voice and messaging communications for developers building native BlackBerry 10 (NDK) applications. Voice, video and messaging flow Over The Top (OTT) via the Internet.

These services are delivered peer-to-peer (P2P) providing extremely strong privacy, security and encryption. Open Peer enables federated identities and allows developers to leverage and integrate whatever identity model they currently have, so their users remain their users!

What features does Open Peer SDK support?

The Open Peer SDKs are built according to the Open Peer specification. Here are a few of the features we have built into the current SDKs…

• HD real-time video
• Wideband voice and messaging
• Peer-to peer signalling & media transport (greater efficiency, reliability & privacy)
• Federated identity for cross-platform communications (not to be confused with Single Sign-On)
• Encrypted & secure communications

Would HTML5/WebWorks developers be able to leverage this in BlackBerry 10?

Yes. The current SDK is for BB10 NDK developers at this time. However, we have an active “opjs” project under development that will allow interaction between a native BB10 application and an HTML5/WebRTC enabled browser thus allowing web applications to communicate directly with native BB10 applications.

Share your experience in cross compiling your code for BlackBerry 10

Like all platforms, there’s is a learning curve relative to what you are used to until you find yourself comfortable in a new environment, and BB10/QNX is no different. The richness to the platform experience is impressive on the BB10 and made iOS feel somewhat dated by comparison.

Since QNX is a POSIX compliant system, it was relatively easy to get a majority of open source code ported to BlackBerry 10. The QNX GCC-compliant mode has helped us as well.

There were a few wrinkles along the way. The documentation and NDK felt young compared to other more established platforms but that kind of level of documentation grows out of community support and interaction.

One major difference between this project and other platforms has been the phenomenal support that Blackberry has provided us as developers, especially as Hookflash is pushing the platform and technology harder than most with real time communications in audio and video. This was refreshing, We’ve never seen such incredible support for their developer community.

Have you ported over the entire webRTC engine to BlackBerry?

Yes, we have ported all major components of webRTC library to BlackBerry. We will be extending what is offered by WebRTC’s library as well.

How long did it take to port the WebRTC and Open Peer code to Blackberry 10?

When you consider the size of the code-base that had to be moved, and the fact we had not worked on QNX /  Blackberry 10 before, it went relatively quickly. The entire move took us approximately 90 days.

Are you going to commit this work back upstream to WebRTC project?

Yes, our code will migrate back to the WebRTC project. Hookflash is extremely busy on a number of fronts making Open Peer widely available with limited resources.  We appreciate help from other developers. Pushing the WebRTC codebase back upstream will be of tremendous value to the Blackberry developer community. Requests to join our Open Peer BB10 github project are always appreciated.

What APIs did you use to build your application on BlackBerry 10?

NDK’s audio, camera and rendering subsystems and Boost are the bulk of the components. We use Cascades/QT for the sample application.

Do you have VP8 Video working on BlackBerry 10?

Yes. We had some difficulty getting the assembly to compile properly but with Blackberry’s support we were successful in porting an optimized version of VP8 to the BB10 platform. Keep in mind we have tested this mostly on Z devices at this time with limited testing done on the Q devices.

How was your experience relative to working with other platforms and BlackBerry 10?

As mentioned earlier, Blackberry feels a bit new in the documentation area and there are still a few bugs to take care of in the platform. Having said that, the platform is forward thinking, flexible and impressively powerful. Blackberry’s support has been beyond anything we could have hoped and even expected.

As more developers are drawn to the platform, documentation and community involvement will improve the access to information on the platform and increase the samples available to draw upon.

For such a new entrant into the market, our team is thoroughly impressed.

How was your experience working with the RIM team?

Bar-none, the best support we’ve ever had from a major platform vendor directly into the project. Kudos to RIM / Blackberry for providing such a spectacular community outreach.

When is Open Peer SDK going to be available for BlackBerry 10?

Our SDK is ready now in beta, developers can get it on Github today. We continue to polish this and our other toolkits, we expect commercialization to begin later this year. Follow us on github and twitter to get the latest news on Hookflash and Open Peer development.

I hope you found this interview informative and useful.  If you have any questions or feedback please leave a comment below or reach out to me directly on Twitter _GurtejSandhu. Kudos to Hookflash team for making this all happen.

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.

In this video we’re joined by Dale Ducharme (against his will) to talk about the cool features available for gaming developers on BlackBerry 10.

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”.

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 the Cascades UI Framework. In this video we’re joined by Markus Landin, all the way from Malmo Sweden, to talk to us about Cascades and the evolution of the framework on BlackBerry 10!

We’ll be continuing this video 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 WebWorks and HTML5 developers. We’re joined by Erik Johnson from the WebWorks R&D team to talk to us about Apache Cordova and the evolution of the BlackBerry 10 Web Platform!