Every once in a while, a feel good story comes around that rallies the troops in the BlackBerry® Developer Relations team. Such was the case with this story. It all started with a developer named Laurence Muller taking advantage of the RIM® offer to submit his Android™ app (fIRC) to the BlackBerry App World™ storefront to qualify for a free BlackBerry® PlayBook™tablet. After Laurence received his BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, he instantly recognized how powerful the device was – especially the BlackBerry® Tablet OS built on QNX – and thought that it might be possible to port the NodeBeat application to BlackBerry PlayBook tablet as a native app.

Laurence had worked on porting the NodeBeat application to the Android platform in collaboration with Affinity Blue (owned by Seth Sandler). NodeBeat is built using an open source application framework called openFrameworks. Therefore, the first task at hand was porting the framework. Laurence started reading the NDK documentation and began the process of porting the API under the ofxQNX repository he setup on GitHub. One by one, each API set and sample was ported and running.

Laurence eventually hit a roadblock with audio. He built a native app to test some audio code but it wasn’t running properly. He finally decided to post a question to the BlackBerry Developer Support Forum to explain his project and ask for help. I was assigned this question to answer. I reviewed the question and sample code provided, checked the blogs that Laurence previously posted (Laurence’s blog is available at http://www.multigesture.net/) and, after checking the NDK documentation myself, ascertained that Laurence was running into a buffer underflow issue and that his current test approach was not running consistently enough without a separate thread.

I answered the post and provided some suggestions to try to correct the problem. Laurence tried the suggestions and it did get better, but not quite good enough. After someone else on my team suggested that OpenAL might help and I passed that suggestion on to Laurence, further investigation by Laurence’s partner Seth Sandler led to switching over to SDL for injecting the audio — and suddenly the audio was performing much better. At this point, the ofxQNX port was complete, and Laurence contributed it to the BlackBerry GitHub repo. To see some of the samples in action, check out the video below:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

The next task was porting the NodeBeat app, which took just a few days once RIM supplied another BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to Seth. Laurence and Seth were pleased that the native BlackBerry PlayBook tablet port easily outperformed their Android port. This was primarily due to the low input and audio latency for the native implementation (whereas the Android build runs slower since native code is running in a different layer and communication between GUI and the native thread is slow over JNI) and its performance was on par with their iOS version. NodeBeat was quickly submitted to BlackBerry App World for approval.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

What’s in the cards for NodeBeat? Well, Laurence has already started porting it to BlackBerry® 10 using the simulator, and they’re looking forward to getting their hands on a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing device. In the meantime, if you like composing music and want to try a new app for doing so, give their app a whirl.

What makes this story so special is this project was not sponsored by RIM. It was totally driven by developers in the open source community and it was almost completed without any help from RIM. This clearly demonstrates that RIM’s open source strategy is working, facilitating the port of apps from other platforms to BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry 10. Our developer community is engaged, resulting in even more improvements to the platform for all developers. We strongly encourage our developer community to follow their desires and port what they need to the platform. However, know that we’re here and ready to help if you run into any issues. In the end, by working together, the platform will get even better and everyone wins.

If you are working on an open source project for the BlackBerry platform utilizing the NDK, let us know. We’ll be glad to write a blog post about it.

For more information about OpenFrameworks, Laurence’s port, and Laurence himself, check out the links below:

• The openFrameworks repository that where ofxQNX is currently hosted: https://github.com/falcon4ever/openFrameworks/tree/developPlayBook
• Some additional video material (most links are on Laurence’s Twitter stream): https://www.youtube.com/user/falcon4ever?feature=mhee
• The official openFrameworks website/ support forums: http://www.openframeworks.cc/
• Some more information about the project on Laurence’s blog: http://www.multigesture.net/2012/04/27/playbook-add-on-ofxqnx/ and http://www.multigesture.net/projects/ofxqnx/

By Rob Pongsajapan (Flickr® photostream) CC-BY-2.0

As Alec mentioned in his previous blog post, we’ve added features to BlackBerry® Tablet OS 2.0.1 to help curb the piracy of BlackBerry Tablet OS applications. I’m going to explain what we’ve done and what you can do to take this protection one step further.

Backup Files Tied to a BlackBerry ID

Backup files created using BlackBerry® Desktop Manager are now tied to a BlackBerry® ID account. This prevents users from sharing backup files between devices, but still allows them to switch devices. If a user needs to move to a different BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, they can restore their backup files to the new device after configuring their new device with their BlackBerry ID.

Backup Files are Encrypted

Starting in BlackBerry Tablet OS 2.0.1, backup files are now encrypted. This not only helps to protect a user’s data, but also your applications. The key for the backup file is also tied to a user’s BlackBerry ID account, meaning each user has a different encryption key for their backup file.

How Developers Can Protect Their Applications

You might be thinking that this is all well and good for the future, but won’t the people who pirate applications just leave their BlackBerry PlayBook tablet at version 2.0.0, which doesn’t encrypt backup files? This is a possibility, but one you can help to mitigate. History has shown us that approximately 90% of BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users upgrade their device within a month of an upgrade being released. This means that in a month from now, most of your target audience will be running version 2.0.1.

And so, the BlackBerry App World™ Vendor Portal comes to the rescue! In a month from now (or when you release the next update to your application), you can set the minimum OS version required by your product to version 2.0.1, preventing it from being downloaded on a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet running a lower version. This will help thwart those individuals who may want to try to extract your application files from a backup made using a lower version, because they won’t see it listed in the BlackBerry App World storefront catalogue on their device, therefore they won’t be able to install it.

How to Use Backup & Restore

If you are looking for instructions on how to backup or restore your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, have a look at How to Back Up and Restore a BlackBerry PlayBook on the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog.

BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users who have installed the OS 2.0 beta may have already seen the improved WebKit engine, as it was upgraded starting with version 2.0.0.7262 of the BlackBerry Tablet OS software. The current version of WebKit on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet comes from a November 2011 branch of the upstream WebKit code base. A complete list of all changes can be found in the Trac for WebKit issue tracking system.

Wait, do you mean HTML5 development on BlackBerry is designed to be even better now?

Yes I do, and you’re in for a treat.

In general, BlackBerry web developers will see enhanced stability and performance in their web applications running on BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0. However, some of the more significant improvements include the following:

• Support for WebGL, including 3D context and native binary data. Take advantage of Open GL ES technology and 3D graphics in your BlackBerry application content.
• Updated Web Inspector is now designed with better debugging support. New features such as settings menu, network panel, contextual menus and pretty print JavaScript® make it easier for developers to debug and optimize their web content.
• HTML5 canvas is now hardware accelerated, meaning it is designed for faster performance and higher frame-per-second (FPS) rendering of 2D graphics content.
• CSS3 accelerated animations and transforms are now smoother thanks to high quality service improvements to graphics rendering for the engine.
• Added FileReader API, which is designed to search, retrieve and display files from the BlackBerry Tablet OS shared folder, and helps integrate camera pictures, videos, music and documents from the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet into your web applications.
• Improved HTML5 support including new form fields (keygen, output, meter) and input types (text, search, tel, url, email, datetime, date, month, week, time, datetime-local, number, range).
• Enhanced XmlHttpRequest object adds support for text and array buffer response type

Show me!

I know you’d much rather see some of these awesome improvements yourself instead of just reading about them, so here are some examples. Using the browser application on a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet running Tablet OS 2.0, open the following pages:

• HTML5 Test – Tablet OS 2.0 currently scores 354 on the HTML5 test, ranking it at the top of the results for tablet browsers. Created by Niels Leenheer.
• TunnelTilt game – Try out the WebGL sample which was demonstrated onstage for the first time at BlackBerry DevCon Americas. Created by Jonathan Feldstein.
• Craftymind GUIMark3 – Performance test from CraftyMind that measures the frames-per-second the HTML5 canvas element can handle under load. Created by Sean Christmann.
• File Reader API – pPge from the kitchenSink BlackBerry WebWorks sample application that demonstrates how to use the file reader API. Created by Adam Stanley.
• Holiday DOM tree – Uses 3D transforms and HTML form elements to display an animated tree of various holiday greetings. Created by Hakim El Hattab.

Meet the Web team

Recently, I asked members of the BlackBerry® Browser team to share their thoughts about the meaning behind the high-quality improvements they have delivered to developers as part of the Tablet OS 2.0 web platform. Here is some of their feedback:

“I know many web developers who now use the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet as their mobile development and testing environment of choice. The support for remote Web Inspector is simply awesome, and a year after we introduced it, remains a defining aspect of our approach to mobile web development. We have made it even better!”

- Laurent Hasson, Technical Director, Web platform

“Personally I’m most excited about all the graphics and animation improvements (CSS3, HTML, canvas, WebGL). I think we’re most proud about being able to bring the full web to tablet – proper implementation of the standards and specifications coupled with a rich, touch-friendly user experience.”

- George Staikos, Vice President, Web Technologies

How do I get started with BlackBerry web development?

I’m glad you asked. Visit the BlackBerry HTML5 WebWorks developer site to learn more about developer tools, such as the Ripple emulator or the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK. See the developer documentation and reference guides for techniques on how to transform samples into fully-featured BlackBerry applications.

Most importantly, tell us if you create something awesome! We want to hear from you.

Hope you enjoy BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0.

There are many great things about developing for the BlackBerry platform – including our commitment and support of open source technologies and multiple development languages (Native, HTML5 with BlackBerry® WebWorks™, Adobe® AIR®, Java®). One thing we’ve really invested in over the last year is to respond to developer feedback and requests, in order to enable you to build the way that’s best for you. One of the areas we’ve been focusing on especially is code signing.

What is Code Signing anyway, and why does BlackBerry code sign?

Code signing has been designed to provide security for consumers. They can feel confident that the application they are installing has not been modified after it was signed by the application developer. Code signing is also a means for applications to protect their data.

Code signing has many benefits for both developers and consumers. Developers can distribute an unsigned version of their application along with a debug token to a limited set of beta testers. The debug token helps to ensure that only those beta testers that a developer has issued a token to can run the application. I’ll walk through this process in more detail in a future blog post.

Debug tokens also allow for central key management, allowing for a single code signing key to be used by a team of developers testing an application. Debug tokens can be issued to each developer, allowing them to test builds on their BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. The code signing key can be deployed to a secure build server, protecting it and ensuring that only official builds of the application are signed for public distribution.

BlackBerry® Tablet OS applications each have their own sandboxed private data area that only the application itself can access, which is protected in part by the code signing key. This can prevent a malicious application from impersonating another application. If a malicious application – signed with a different code signing key – were to attempt to masquerade as an upgrade to an existing application the user has installed, it would install it as a new, unique application and it would not have access to the private data area of the original application. This makes it important to back up your code signing key because if you lose it, you’ll be unable to provide upgrades to your application.

Data protection isn’t just limited to BlackBerry Tablet OS applications. BlackBerry® 7 OS (and lower) support similar data access control through the use of a custom code signing key. You can read all about that here.

What We’ve Been Doing over the Last Year

We’ve made a number of improvements to code signing over the last year and we will continue to build on this in 2012. Here is a rundown of what we’ve done so far:

• Made code signing keys easier to obtain by removing the credit card requirement for ordering them
• Reduced the order time for code signing keys from 7-10 days to approximately 1-2 hours so you can start building right away!
• Created Configuration Wizards to walk you through configuring and backing up your keys
• Automated many previously manual steps by integrating Debug Tokens into the SDKs
• Updated the hardware for our code signing servers
• Created the Code Signing Supportsite to walk through the ordering, configuration and signing process

This is by no means the end of the road when it comes to improvements. The golden age of code signing will arrive when you can request keys instantly from the SDKs themselves and have the tools take care of all the dirty work for you. We’re actively re-writing the code signing infrastructure to accommodate this in the future.

The Future Is Secure AND Easy

These are just some of the major benefits that code signing provides. Of course, in any situation, the benefits have to outweigh the effort. We hope to achieve a near zero effort for code signing for both developers and consumers.

Got questions about the code signing process? Let us know in the comments!

• http://developer.blackberry.com/android
• http://developer.blackberry.com/html5

Read on for an overview of what’s included in the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Developer Beta build.

BlackBerry® Runtime for Android™ Apps

A beta version of the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps is included in the developer build, which allows ported Android apps to run on the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 platform. A toolset, including an Eclipse® plugin for modifying existing Android applications, will be available along with a PlayBook simulator for testing. To simplify the process even further, you may also use the BlackBerry Packager for Android Apps, which provides a guide for converting existing apps and ensures compliance for signing and uploading to BlackBerry App World™. The BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps supports Android v2.3.3 apps. Some apps may require slight modifications to be supported. Head over to the Android microsite to check out the available toolsets!

BlackBerry® WebWorks™

The BlackBerry WebWorks platform has received another round of significant improvements, with the WebWorks SDK v2.2 for the BlackBerry PlayBook now available for developer use. Version 2.2 of the SDK includes features such as full system level file manipulation with read/write access, updated BlackBerry PlayBook tablet simulators, support for WebGL on BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, signing improvements, ability to play audio when the screen dims and various bug fixes. For more information on the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK v2.2, check out the new WebWorks microsite.

Adobe® AIR®

The recently released Adobe AIR 3.0 Runtime is included in BlackBerry® PlayBook OS SDK for Adobe® AIR®, allowing developers to take full advantage of the new features. Developers can now take advantage of features such as Enhanced Native Extension Support to integrate native libraries and code bases into apps, Secure Sockets and Flash Access DRM for media rich content, Encrypted Local Storage to keep files secured and encrypted while storing sensitive information within the application and more! To learn more about the new Adobe AIR 3.0 Runtime, check out our BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR microsite.

We hope that you’re excited to try out the Developer Beta build, as well as the new tools and platform updates it supports. BlackBerry DevCon Americas attendees: don’t forget to check out the App Express stations at the conference to quickly port your existing Android apps to the BlackBerry PlayBook!

Today at the BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 conference, the Native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook (“NDK”) left beta and ‘went gold’ for general availability. The NDK allows developers take full advantage of the power of the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet when developing apps. The NDK includes support for C/C++ POSIX library and compliance, device events like gesture swipes and touch screen inputs, access to code management systems using industry standard Eclipse CDT (C/C++ Development Tools) and advanced debug and analysis tools. QNX® Momentics Tool Suite, an Eclipse-based integrated development environment, is also included. It provides memory profiling, application debugging, and memory usage statistics to help developers debug sophisticated programs.

For the v1.0 release, we’ve kept the NDK lean and mean. APIs have been provided for the sensors on the device, as well as OpenGL ES 2.0. For sound, we’ve brought OpenAL along. For performance, POSIX threading. For portability, POSIX compliant APIs are included as well.

Additionally, the simulator team has been able to provide an OpenGL ES 2.0 environment to test out your 3D games. This means that our simulator makes use of your development platform’s hardware acceleration for 3D. As the NDK simulators mature, more and more features will be included as we are committed to providing developers the best tools possible.

The NDK is here, and it’s the start of a new and exciting episode for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet application development. If anyone has feedback they’d like to share, our doors are always open – don’t hesitate to engage with us on social media channels or the BlackBerry Developer Zone.

Download the Native SDK for BlackBerry Tablet OS

How will you be using the new NDK in your application development?

• Two runtimes: BlackBerry WebWorks for BlackBerry smartphone OS and the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet
• Corresponding API Documentation for each runtime
• A growing number of Code Samples, including the code for Aura, the BlackBerry WebWorks based demo shown at BlackBerry Developer Day at this year’s Mobile World Congress
• Alice, a micro-library focusing on fancy visual effects using CSS3 2D and 3D facilities – to see it in action, point your modern browser to the demo page
• A community owned repository containing JavaScript Extensions for BlackBerry WebWorks
• Two repositories for our Ripple Emulator: one for the UI, and one for the Framework.

Open Source is changing how we interact with the BlackBerry WebWorks community in many ways, including:

• The samples are now directly usable, with a clear, well-known (ASL2) license, and in a location we can update easily – our plan is to take all existing useful samples, currently in places like Knowledge Base articles, mail threads, forums, or posts, and post them as Open Source.
• When we wanted to add BlackBerry WebWorks support to Nitobi PhoneGap, Ken and the team travelled to Vancouver and leveraged that both projects are open source. This is especially useful to us now that Nitobi is contributing PhoneGap to start incubating Apache CallBack.
• When Laurent and Jim want to add new features to Alice, they can change the repository directly… and the demos are available right then. And all the GitHub features are available from Fork-me to Watchers.
• Tim, Ken and the team can make new experimental features available via the BlackBerry WebWorks Community APIs
• And we can have a continuous release for both the runtimes and the tools. You can even check our Roadmap.

Year two is just beginning and we will continue our commitment to providing more source code to the community, contributing to other OSS projects as well as a focus on performing our daily development in the open.

Do you believe that support for open source projects is important? Share your thoughts in the comments.

I am very pleased to announce today that we are moving to the next stage in our launch plans for the Native SDK for BlackBerry® Tablet OS (‘Native SDK’) tools targeted at game developers. As of today, developers from around the world can apply to participate in our closed beta program to get access to these new and exciting tools.

The Native SDK provides you with the ability to create rich and compelling games for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet using C/C++, the Standard Template Library (STL) and Open GL ES 1.1/2.0. The Native SDK includes a number of POSIX compliant libraries, as well as support for accelerometer, device orientation, and a variety of other functions to make porting your existing games as easy as possible. When you check out games like Need for Speed: Undercover or the new Dead Space from EA, what you are seeing is the Native SDK in action, providing the framework for EA to build incredible gaming experiences on our platform. We are incredibly excited to see what the broader developer community can do when provided with access to these tools.

The Native SDK includes the industry leading QNX® Momentics® Tool Suite, which is an Eclipse-based integrated development environment. QNX Momentics provides unparalleled memory profiling, application debugging, and memory usage statistics, giving you the tools you need to debug sophisticated programs, including hardware accelerated OpenGL applications. QNX Momentics is designed to provide you with a safe, secure, and powerful environment to quickly and efficiently build applications for the BlackBerry Tablet OS.

During the beta we will be providing periodic updates to QNX Momentics to include additional APIs to further enhance your games on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet platform.

To apply to participate in the closed beta, please fill out the form, and we will contact you with more information. Space is limited in this preview and space will be granted on a first come first served basis. We will work to expand the program in the coming weeks for anyone interested in C/C++ development for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet platform.

UPDATE 9/8/11: Thank you for all the applications to participate in the NDK closed beta. As discussed above, the focus for the beta is game developers who would be leveraging OpenGL ES to create or port games to the platform. We’ve received an overwhelming number of applications and appreciate your patience as we review them.

We held some fantastic “Meet the PlayBook” events across Europe in May – be sure to check out our blog post about the first few dates. Now, we’re excited to announce further event dates and locations!

These half-day events have been a great success so far, and our delegates have learned a lot about developing rich applications for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet using Adobe® Flex®, Adobe® AIR® and the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK! The hands-on sessions with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet have been extremely popular, so don’t miss your opportunity to get a look at our new tablet device!

The event comprises two parallel sessions, one business and one technology focused, and technical teams from Research In Motion and Adobe will also be available to answer your questions.

Our next events are as follows. Places are limited, so early registration is recommended!

• 14th June in Milan
• 21st June in Istanbul
• 21st June in Malmo
• 28th July in Cologne – tbc

BlackBerry Tablet OS Development Resources:

BlackBerry – Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR Development Resources
BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for Tablet OS