As you know, there are BlackBerry 10 smartphones coming in Q1 2013 – an all-touch model similar to the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha, and a BlackBerry 10 smartphone with our industry-defining BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard.
Today we announced the next phase of the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha program – the BlackBerry Dev Alpha C. It is a testing device for developers so that you can adjust, debug, and test your BlackBerry 10 applications to get ready for the launch of the BlackBerry 10 QWERTY device next year.

We’re only producing a limited number of these testing devices, and they will be reserved on a priority list for developers who have demonstrated that they are building apps for BlackBerry 10.

Distribution will be limited to developers who submit two or more applications; these developers will be given priority seeding for the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha C. These developers will be determined on the following point system:

• 50 points for ported Android™ applications
• 250 points for all other applications (Native, BlackBerry® WebWorks™, Adobe® AIR®)
• 1500 points for Built For BlackBerry certified application
• BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha A/B recipients start with 200 points
• BlackBerry Elite Members start with 200 points

The BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha C offer will run from December 1, 2012 through February 5, 2013. The details on the program can be found here, and keep following @BlackBerryDev for more info.

Everyone here in Developer Relations at RIM® is excited that developers are now able to submit their BlackBerry® 10 applications to the BlackBerry App World™ storefront and target BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing devices. This means that developers who are using the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing devices will be able to download and test each other’s applications through BlackBerry App World.

How do you submit an application? It’s the same process you’d use for any other BlackBerry® smartphone or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet app – you just need to select the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha for your app.

Next, apps are vetted for content to ensure that the BlackBerry App World Vendor Guidelines are adhered to. Then they’re tested to ensure they do not interfere with the normal operation of the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing device. You may be contacted by a member of the Review Team if they run into any problems or have any questions/concerns. This entire process normally takes a five to ten business days.

Once your application is Approved, it will automatically be posted Up for Sale. You can opt out of this automatic posting during the submission process, but must be done prior to submitting your application(s) for approval. Keep in mind it may take a few hours before your application is searchable and visible in BlackBerry App World.

The recent update to the OS on the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing devices includes a BlackBerry App World client, so developers will have to update their test devices to access apps. Additionally, anyone that visits the BlackBerry App World webstore will be able to see your application after you click “Post for Sale”. Please ensure that you use app Icons and descriptions with that in mind.

You can also choose to leave the application in an Approved status. This allows you to deep link to your application using the AppID (found on the Details page of your application). Using the standard Web Store URL, you can deep link to your application from a device. The standard Web Store URL is http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/<AppID&gt;. You can download your application using the deep link for testing purposes and you can share this link with select users for targeted testing.
All applications on the store can be reviewed, but only by users who purchase or download the application. Use these reviews for your testing purposes. These will be reset when you submit your application for commercial release of BlackBerry 10.

As a BlackBerry App World vendor with an application live in the store, you are able to generate download and purchase reports for your app.

Finally, we recommend that your app is available for free as this is a testing period. However, we do allow you to charge for your app and test in-app payments.

Happy testing and we look forward to seeing all your great apps!

The first fix addresses an issue with the Invocation API. The invocation framework does not launch the target on the simulator. For all practical purposes, this means that if you create an invocation target application and install it on the simulator, no app will be able to invoke it. This functionality does already works on the device, so if you are developing your BlackBerry 10 app on the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing device, you should be fine. But for all those developers who are using the simulator for development, we felt it was necessary to provide a fix to this as soon as we could.

The other noteworthy fix is with regards to the Notifications API. When you develop an app with the capability of posting notifications, it gets vibrate set to ON and Badge set to OFF by default in the Notification Settings. It should actually be the other way around – vibrate should be set to OFF and Badge should be set to ON by default. Oops, reminds me of something Dr. Nick would do.

Other than that, there are no new features included in this patch. If these fixes are not important to your development, you can continue to use the Beta 2 version of the BlackBerry 10 Native SDK that you currently have installed.

You can download the latest BlackBerry 10 Native SDK here.

The event was held Cinnamon Lakeside, Colombo on August 3rd. Over 100 developers gathered at the venue even before registration for the Jam Session started!

To kick start the day, Navin Pieris (General Manager, Mobile Business and Broadband, Dialog) welcomed the developers and the RIM® team. Hitesh Shah (Director, Channel Accounts, RIM India) charmed the developer audience with the possibilities of BlackBerry® 10 as a platform and RIM’s commitment to it.

Next, BlackBerry Developer Evangelist Prakash Sainani took over the stage with a session on BlackBerry 10 architecture. He then introduced Chamikara Jayawardana (BlackBerry Product Manager, Dialog) who announced the launch of a BlackBerry Developer Group for Sri Lanka.

Chamikara shared his plans of making the newly-formed Sri Lanka BlackBerry Developer Group a success with regular meetups, activities around BlackBerry 10, and Dialog’s commitment towards BlackBerry. Hitesh took to stage again with BlackBerry App World™, telling developers about its reach and how developers generate revenue through BlackBerry App World as well as working with the carrier.

After lunch, Dilip Sridhar of Unvired delivered the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ and Native Development sessions. Kalana Meth, an 18-year-old developer, had an app up and running on a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing device he received in Orlando at BlackBerry 10 Jam. He demoed the app – which provided tips for treating common ailments and first aid – to the awed crowd.

Last but not least, the Lightning Pitches contest towards the end of the lunch saw over 20 participants present their ideas. The “food locator” idea was judged best by Prakash and Sashimaal Fernando (Manager, Mobile Business, Dialog).

At the end of the day, there were loads of giveaways for the attendees. It was indeed an amazing day and was well-received by the developer community. The first ever Sri Lanka BlackBerry Jam Session was a hit and we look forward to amazing apps from the Sri Lankan developers!

BlackBerry Jam Americas – Sept 25-27, San Jose CA
BlackBerry® Jam Americas 2012 is a showcase for the bold, new direction BlackBerry is heading with the upcoming BlackBerry® 10 platform. The event attracts developers and industry leaders who understand the power of BlackBerry and want to build their success with the platform. Whether you’re a Native, Web, or Android™ developer, don’t miss this opportunity to explore the powerful, game-changing BlackBerry 10 platform.

Join us, September 25-27 in San Jose, California. Register by the August 31 Early Bird Deadline for some incredible savings.

When digital media company PineLake Communications® wanted to learn more about BlackBerry® 10 development, it developed a simple application on the Android™ platform and ported it to the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device. The company quickly learned that porting the app was not only a simple and straightforward process, but also that the visibility of their application on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet was far superior to any other platform. After enjoying measurable early success with their Cubifice® app, the company is looking forward to the official launch of the game on the BlackBerry 10 platform.

PineLake’s Creative Director, Bill Larocque, Cubifice lead developer, Dave Wagler and Associate Account Director, Liana Buenaventura Brown talked about the ease of porting the application, why it is important to develop for the BlackBerry platform and the importance of sharing the app with other BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device developers.

Describe your experience porting your application to the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device.

Dave: The porting process only took us one hour. The application was built using the OpenGL framework, which has a lot of existing support. Once I read the documentation about how to convert the application, it was extremely easy to install the BlackBerry tools into Eclipse™. After a couple of clicks, we came up with the BlackBerry 10 application. It took a very small amount of increased labor to build on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry 10 versions, and the rewards have certainly been worth it.

Bill: We couldn’t believe how quick, easy and powerful the porting process was. That last hour of work was the most productive time that we spent on the entire project and it allowed us to work with a real live device. I would recommend that all Android developers try it because it is so straightforward and has already proven to be successful for us.

Why was it important for you to develop this application on the BlackBerry platform?

Bill: The BlackBerry user community is very engaged, and there is far greater visibility of your application on the BlackBerry App World™ storefront than on other platforms. BlackBerry App World has a clear layout and does not suffer from the over-saturation that you find somewhere like Google Play, where your app quickly feels lost in a huge sea of similar applications. With this application, not only do we have 25 times more downloads on BlackBerry App World than on Google Play, but we’ve also been able to maintain that high number and visibility. This visibility translates into a far better return on investment once the app becomes monetized because we will have to spend far less on marketing the application to users.

Why is developing for the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device such a good opportunity?

Bill: It’s important to be able to put an application on an actual device, put it in other peoples’ hands and have them test it. Having access to the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device means that we can avoid going through launch issues and beta testing. We also have the ability to submit this application to BlackBerry App World and allow other developers to download it on their BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha devices. Developers are keen to download each other’s apps and outdo each other, leading to healthy competition and better overall apps.

Liana: We feel confident that we are well ahead of the curve for the launch of the BlackBerry 10 smartphones. Developing the application on the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device ahead of time helps us ensure that we’ve covered all of our bases and gives us the utmost confidence that we’ll be able to deliver a great experience to the public. We now have the opportunity to fine-tune the experience with the help of every BlackBerry developer who downloads it onto their device, and that’s a huge plus.

With the release of the BlackBerry® Native SDK Beta 2 comes the Cascades™ Camera API. If you want to see it in action, check out the spiffy Photobomber sample app available in the BlackBerry Jam Zone and on GitHub. You can just import it, compile it, install it on your BlackBerry® 10 Dev Alpha and go.

However, there are a couple of set-up gotchas in the current beta you are going to run into if you are just trying to add Camera functionality to your own app. Luckily, they are pretty simple to get past, especially with me here telling you exactly what to do! Let’s quickly run through them.

1. QML Imports

In your QML file, right underneath the default:

import bb.cascades 1.0

you want to also add:

import bb.cascades.multimedia 1.0

This will let the QML editor know about the camera components so it doesn’t complain at you.

2. Include the Camera headers

This is pretty standard C++ stuff, but don’t forget to also import the headers into your C++ code. In your default app.cpp you will want to import at least this:

#include <bb/cascades/multimedia/Camera>

You may also end up needing a few others if you are doing more involved camera work in C++, like this:

#include <bb/cascades/multimedia/CameraSettings.hpp>

#include <bb/cascades/multimedia/CameraTypes.hpp>

3. Register the Camera in C++

In your default app.cpp file, right before the call to:

	QmlDocument *qml = QmlDocument::create("main.qml");

Add:

	bb::cascades::multimedia::Camera::registerQmlTypes();

If you don’t do this, the Camera components won’t actually get loaded and you’ll get an error. This is also why you imported the Camera header file, if you are doing the rest of the camera work in QML.

4. Link to the Multimedia Libraries

Right now the linker isn’t quite set up properly to connect your app to some of the new libraries added in R6. For now, you’ll want to manually open the <appname>.pro file and add the following line:

LIBS   += -lcamapi -lscreen  -lbbsystem  -lbbcascadesmultimedia –lzxing

Not all of those are strictly necessary (for example, the zxing library will only be helpful if you want to connect to ZXing to do some custom barcode scanning. We’ll talk about how to do that in a future blog post), but it’s not going to hurt, and the names of the libraries are not terribly discoverable on your own.

You’ll note there is no LIBS line by default in your .pro file. I like to add mine below the CONFIG line, though I’m not sure it really matters.

5. Done!

That’s it, you’re all set up! Now you can use the Camera API to your heart’s content. If doing so results in your app taking a lot of pictures, don’t forget you can use the Invoke Framework to let your users easily share them. It’s a snap.

The latest BlackBerry® 10 Beta SDKs are now available for download! They bring a whole lot more functionality, along with a software upgrade for the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing device for those who have received one at our BlackBerry Jam World Tour events or BlackBerry 10 Jam in Orlando this past May. This new device update now includes the BlackBerry App World™ storefront client application (the same version that is on the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet). Yes, this means you can start to submit your BlackBerry 10 applications to BlackBerry App World and share it with fellow BlackBerry 10 developers to get early feedback.

So what’s next?

To keep the ball rolling for our developer community, we’ve scheduled a series of tooling and SDK releases that will be rolled out over the next few months. Each runtime (Native, HTML5, Adobe® AIR®, and Android™) will have incremental updates to functionality. Each runtime’s functionality won’t necessarily be in sync, as they each have different developer audiences where APIs are prioritized based on what each of these communities are asking for.

Each release is named Rn where R stands for “Release” and n stands for “number”. So for the first BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha release, the SDK was R4 to match with 10.0.4.xyz version. We also sometimes do internal-only releases, which is why you’ll see some numbers skipped.

The BlackBerry 10 SDK Beta schedule looks like the following:

• R4: May SDK Beta Release (first beta)
• R6: July SDK Beta Release (just launched)
• R8: September SDK Beta Release (API Freeze, Binary Compatible with Gold)
• R9: October SDK Beta Release (bug fixes)
• R10: November Gold SDK Release (bug fixes)

But what’s coming in these releases?

We’re going to step out of the box and do something that we’ve never done before and quite frankly, something that I’ve rarely seen any tech company do in this industry. We’re going to share with you our feature release plan for each of the runtimes. We’ll be providing a list the top level line item deliverables — but not getting into the details of each feature, or else the list will turn into something as long as a DVD’s extended director’s-cut limited edition!

The beta roadmaps will be posted in the form of flight arrival boards so that you can see the feature, the flight/release it is on, the scheduled arrival time and the current status. These roadmaps should be available in a couple of weeks.

Now I’m going to give the usual disclaimer: These are “targets” and the usual laws of software delivery apply around priorities, dependencies and customer issue firefighting that can impact delivery schedules and scope. We’re being transparent as we can with you, our developer community, to help you better plan your app development leading up to the BlackBerry 10 launch. We want to ensure that we are releasing updates to the SDKs as frequently as possible leading up to gold. Once you have finished digesting and implementing what has been made available in one Beta update, there will be another one waiting for you with more goodies.

Before we talk about what’s new in BlackBerry 10, let us recap what is available for the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps for BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1. There were three major enhancements added to the Android Runtime in 2.1:

• Each Android app will now run in its own window. This greatly improves the user experience and consistency among the other application runtimes.
• Access to the cameras is now supported for Android apps, allowing many more application types to work on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
• In-App Payments are now supported through the BlackBerry App World™ storefront, so Android applications can include virtual items for sale in their applications.

Building on this fantastic set of features, there is now support for telephony APIs for the Android Runtime in the BlackBerry 10 Beta. This includes support for cell location, and access to information about the network services on the device. For additional information, head on over to our API support page. We have completely revamped our Documentation and API Support page to make it easier to find the information you need! Let us know what you think.

All these features are now available for the Android Runtime on the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device and simulator. How do you start using these great new features? Jump to the newly updated Runtime for Android Apps microsite. There is an updated 1.2 Beta release for the BlackBerry Eclipse™ Plug-in for Android Development Tools and Command-line tools to get starting using all these new Android Runtime features for the BlackBerry 10 Beta. For the Eclipse users, point your update site to https://bdsc.webapps.blackberry.com/android/downloads/eclipseplugin/beta/

Here’s William from our BlackBerry Developer Relations team in EMEA to report on the most recent BlackBerry® 10 Jam tour stop! – Ed.

The London BlackBerry 10 Jam was our largest event to date, attracting developers looking to see what the BlackBerry 10 development tools are capable of. This was another great event to experience, as both the sheer number of developers and their positive attitudes alone were amazing. The venue, Vinopolis (a massive wine bar/conference center home-extension project bunker), was somewhat odd in its complex levels and floors and winding passages, but we didn’t lose one developer all day. They came, they saw, they enjoyed what they saw of BlackBerry 10 – now they want more!

Stephen Bates, Managing Director Europe, kicked off the proceedings with an excellent keynote job that covered all the points effortlessly and gave the day an energetic buzz that kept building after each presentation. Andy Tipton was our MC for the day and kept the flow going on schedule.

Vivek Bhardwaj presented a seamless “Experience of BlackBerry” presentation, generating ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the audience when they saw the demos of the photo correction app and new virtual keyboard UI. Michael Weitzel continued with an animated trek through the BlackBerry 10 architecture and was assisted by Luca Sale on the demo device showing Cascades™. Later, Nick Smith of Marmalade provided his magical demonstrations of games running on both a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device.

Rana and Suavek both introduced what they were going to cover in the afternoon breakouts, and following their brief introductions we stopped for lunch and managed to move the almost 500 developers through the labyrinth to be fed and return for the lightning pitches.

The afternoon split into its native and web tracks, and we repeated the formula of Suavek being assisted by Nick from Marmalade. Yet again, this combination provided a lot of information and excitement. At the end of the day, we’d given out the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha prototype devices to a delighted audience of both new and established developers.This was another wildly successful day, and I was excited by the developer comments on Twitter®.

We generated a huge level of interest through this one-day event, but don’t take my word for it – take a look at what our developers are saying:

@BlackBerryDev I've already sat down to work on BB10 app today after yesterday's London #BB10Jam! Excited by range of development options!—
Kate Glover (@lifson) June 15, 2012

@Derrickerrol Surprisingly tiring! So much good information and guidance! With #BB10Jam BB are really showing they care about devs – I did!—
Julian Clark (@B1uehoo1igan) June 15, 2012

Yesterday's WebWorks session at #BB10Jam was awesome and even got my 14 year old inspired to create apps. @BlackBerryDev—
DJ Reyes  (@djr3yes) June 15, 2012

@ardiri I did, thanks to all the staff at #BB10Jam today! They sorted out us devs who are keen to get apps out. Appreciate this opportunity.—
Matt (@blackberry_matt) June 14, 2012

@blackberrydev I love using my BlackBerry dev alpha thanks to #BB10Jam thanks —
Ben Smith Bortey (@BensmithB) June 14, 2012

My BlackBerry 10 hands on fun. Pure sweetness! crackberry.com/hands-blackber… #BB10Jam—
James Richardson (@j4mes73) June 14, 2012

Next stop, New York City (sold out!) on Tuesday June 19th.

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]