As mentioned in April we have been getting ready to kick off the BlackBerry 10.3 beta. Starting right now, you can download the BlackBerry 10.3 SDK OS for your existing BlackBerry 10 smartphone and the latest version of your favorite SDK so you can start testing your applications.
Our latest beta brings a variety of additional functionality for you to take advantage of in your applications, including the new capabilities previously outlined on our SDK roadmaps. We’ve updated these roadmaps once again to show functionality that will become available in the upcoming gold release.
Where do I find the BlackBerry roadmaps?
You can review what’s been delivered and check out what’s coming for your favorite SDK by visiting the following links:
BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps
What can I expect from BlackBerry 10.3 as a developer?
As you can see from the SDK roadmap updates, we delivered a variety of new features and tooling improvements. One thing you’ll notice right away when you load up the 10.3 SDK OS or 10.3 simulator is that there have been some visual styling changes made to the core controls.
We’ve updated our UI guidelines to provide you with the information you need to become familiar with these UI changes. Some of these changes are represented as new functionality in the Native SDK, while others are simply core control styling changes that should automatically apply to your Cascades application. Details of those additions can be found in the Cascades Release Notes.
Another important note for developers is that BlackBerry 10.3 is targeted only for new device hardware being introduced later this year. This new hardware will follow our promise of keeping the square screen (1:1 aspect ratio) and 16:9 aspect ratio, including our common 720×720 and 1280×720 resolutions.
Also, when you fire up the 10.3 beta simulator, you’ll notice another square screen. This is for a new device with a 1440×1440 resolution and pixel density of 453 DPI.
I know, I know…you want more details on that new device, but we’re not quite ready to give them yet, so hold tight and watch the blog for more information! In the meantime, testing with the 10.3 beta simulator will allow you to see how your application will behave in this new resolution and DPI combination, so we encourage you to check it out as soon as you can.
BlackBerry Classic is also arriving this year!
Now that you know that BlackBerry 10.3 targets new hardware and that the BlackBerry Classic device is arriving this year, I’d like to clarify that the BlackBerry Classic will launch with BlackBerry 10.3.1. BlackBerry 10.3.1 will also be available to all current BlackBerry 10 smartphones as an OS update later this year. So the time you spend testing your app right now will help get it ready for upcoming and in-market BlackBerry 10 devices.
Yes, there will be another SDK release to support BlackBerry Classic
We’ll have a BlackBerry 10.3.1 SDK available to give you both the necessary time and APIs to ensure that your application works great with the “toolbelt” hardware of the BlackBerry Classic device. We want to make sure that all of the BlackBerry 10.3.1 goodness comes to the BlackBerry Classic and existing in-market devices as soon as possible, so our BlackBerry 10.3.1 SDK will be mainly focused on supporting the Classic device updates, and we’re looking into a few small SDK additions.
We’re really excited to make the BlackBerry 10.3 SDK beta available and we’re charging forward to have the gold release ready very soon.
Please feel free to continue to provide your feedback and questions to our teams through the developer forums, developer issue tracker, tweeting @BlackBerryDev or your favorite Developer Relations and Product Management representative.