Be a part of the first simultaneous Asia-Pacific-wide BlackBerry® hackathon! Hack your way through 40 hours of non-stop coding. From ideation to creation, together with our experts, make it all app-en to win cash, devices, trips and more. Indulge on an endless supply of food, drinks, activities and giveaways. Go head-to-head in ten major cities and advance to BlackBerry Jam Asia 2012 to represent your team and country. Whether you are an experienced or aspiring developer, designer or an entrepreneur, you can bring your skills and ideas to turn your ideas into reality. It’s going to be a blast!

Organised by ten Developer Groups & Communities in Asia Pacific, each 40-hour JamHack event will provide an opportunity for four-member teams of developers, designers, marketeers, entrepreneurs to work on an awesome app for BlackBerry 10.  To ensure that each team is properly equipped for the challenge, RIM is providing round-the-clock Global Technical Helpdesk support, by the tech experts from Developer Relations Asia Pacific team onsite, as well as platform experts streaming live from North America.

Don’t miss the great opportunity to hack with the subject-matter experts and fellow brilliant minds, across continents! On each weekend, there will be five simultaneous JamHack events happening:

Jammin’ on Oct 12-14 (5-city simultaneous Hacks):

• India – Delhi (by @skjsaurabh)
• India – Bangalore (by Rubus Labs DevGroup)
• Singapore (by @BBDevSG)
• Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur (by @BBMYCoders)
• Philippines – Manila (by @PinoyBBDev)

Jammin’ on Oct 19-21 (5-city simultaneous Hacks):

• Indonesia – Jakarta (by @BBDevID)
• Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City (by @Louis_Keeper)
• Thailand – Bangkok (by @BBDevThailand)
• China – Shanghai (@immmooo)
• Australia – Melbourne (@csaunders_ca)

Over each of the weekend events, RIM will also be sharing market insights tailored to the respective cities so developers can develop market-relevant applications. Beyond that, the two days will also include sharing sessions aptly named as JamBytes. During these sessions, participants will have the chance to understand in-depth developmental tips and tricks on BlackBerry 10 platform, how to enhance their BlackBerry 10 applications, as well as go to market strategies for their new apps.

The ten winning teams from the JamHack events will receive an all-expense paid trip to BlackBerry Jam Asia, where you will represent your city and compete at the Asia-Pacific Finals.

Final winning team of the “Asia-Pacific Finals” will win the grand prize of:

• Cash Prize of US$10,000
• BlackBerry App World™ marketing for 2 months for BlackBerry 10 launch in Asia, Middle East and Africa (where applicable) & one  week marketing in North America, Latin America and Europe (where applicable)
• App marketing with launch campaign of BlackBerry 10 in market
• Dedicated technical & Business Consultancy for up to third month after launch of BlackBerry 10 in team’s market

Don’t hesitate! Sign up or find out more at: www.blackberryjamhack.com!

Good news! We’ve just launched registration for the final stop of the BlackBerry® 10 Jam World Tour in Asia Pacific – Sydney, Australia.

On Thursday July 12, the World Tour crew will be jamming with you at Four Points By Sheraton Sydney, Darling Harbour.

Expect sessions that provide you insights into the BlackBerry® 10 platform; its strengths, the vision, and how developers can make apps that stand out to 77 million app-hungry BlackBerry users globally.

We look forward to connecting with all you developers at Australia!

Check out the BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour - Sydney page now to register.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

In this second post in our series of BlackBerry® developer stories (see our previous interview with Paul Haenel), we’re pleased to present an interview with Damian Keeghan, a front end developer for Deloitte in Australia who also builds apps in his spare time. His latest app for the BlackBerry platform is Hivemind, a tracking tool measuring sentiment of events/TV shows/speakers and so on, developed for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet.

In the above video, Damian talks about using the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ API, which allows his skills to translate to the BlackBerry platform easily and smoothly. This is the same for most programming languages, including HTML, CSS and Adobe® Flash®, which means that any web developer can bring their skills to the BlackBerry platform without having to learn an entirely new code.

“Developing for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is easy and gives you an opportunity to expand your skills by developing for a new device,” says Damian.

For more news from Australia, follow @BlackBerry_AU on Twitter.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

We sat down with Sydney developer Paul Haenel to chat about his experience developing for the BlackBerry® platform. Paul has developed a number of apps for the Australian market, including the Australian Weather Channel, Channel V and Manly Fast Ferry, all available from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.

In the video above, Paul shares his recipe for creating apps for the BlackBerry platform, and discusses developing for the new BlackBerry® 7 operating system Near Field Communication, Augmented Reality, Super Apps and distributing through BlackBerry App World.

For more news from Australia, follow @BlackBerry_AU on Twitter®.