something in the way

Here we go, folks – the second BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet development environment to be released: the BlackBerry® WebWorks platform. Today, we’re releasing an early access version of the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK. The SDK provides web and mobile web developers with a framework, API’s and tooling to develop web applications for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

If your background and skills are in using web technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript®, then this is the platform for you! The platform extends some of the native device capabilities like system utilities, dialogs, and invoking other apps on the device and makes them available for you to use in your applications – helping them to become Super Apps!

Remember: this is still early access and the product team will be adding more and more capabilities from now until the launch of the device. The design and architectural principles for the BlackBerry WebWorks platform on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet were to keep as much in common as possible with the BlackBerry WebWorks platform on BlackBerry® smartphones. This means that apps written on one will work on the other; however some modification might be needed depending on the underlying device capabilities. For example the tablet may have characteristics like bringing up a native dialog box including various options like the size and appearance of the dialog on the PlayBook’s screen that aren’t on the smartphones. However, all of your HTML5, CSS and JavaScript code should all be compatible.

Also, we’ve released the source code to the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet – please check it out and join the open source project. This is an opportunity for the larger developer community to get involved in shaping the future of this platform and tooling. So get involved!

And lastly, all BlackBerry PlayBook WebWorks applications that are submitted to BlackBerry App World™ are eligible for a FREE BlackBerry PlayBook tablet! To submit your apps, please go here, and see the terms and conditions here. To keep in touch with all the announcements and release information related to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, please enter your information here.

Thanks for your support!

Attention BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet developers! As a follow up to our BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Webcast series, we’ve put together a video overview demonstrating how easy it is for developers to use the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK Beta2 for Adobe® AIR® and the BlackBerry PlayBook Simulator Beta to develop BlackBerry PlayBook applications.

In the above video, I walk through deploying your app to the BlackBerry PlayBook Simulator and the similarities between the Simulator and testing your app on an actual BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. I also demonstrate how the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK integrates directly into Adobe® Flash Builder 4 and the GUI builder in Flash Builder “Burrito”.

With the tools available to developers, practically anyone can create a BlackBerry PlayBook application, so start building! You might also be interested in learning that developers who create a qualifying application for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet prior to its initial North American release are eligible for a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

BlackBerry Tablet OS Development Resources (SDK, Simulator, Webcasts)

Don’t forget get to also check out my friend Matthew’s new BlackBerry PlayBook Web Fidelity video on the Inside BlackBerry blog, which demonstrates rich multimedia, Adobe Flash games and social networking websites like Facebook running in the BlackBerry Browser.

Thanks also to our friends at Universal Mind for providing the code and app used in the video! For more information, please visit http://www.universalmind.com/

One day after we called out Google for holding onto the Android 2.0 SDK, it magically appeared on their website. Developers can now grab the new SDK from the official Android site.

Hightlights of the Android 2.0 platform include:

Contacts and accounts

• Multiple accounts can be added to a device for email and contact synchronization, including Exchange accounts. (Handset manufacturers can choose whether to include Exchange support in their devices.)
• Developers can create sync adapters that provide synchronization with additional data sources.
• Quick Contact for Android provides instant access to a contact’s information and communication modes. For example, a user can tap a contact photo and select to call, SMS, or email the person. Other applications such as Email, Messaging, and Calendar can also reveal the Quick Contact widget when you touch a contact photo or status icon.

• Sync support for contacts from multiple data sources including Exchange. Handset manufacturers can choose whether or not to include Exchange support in their devices.
• New way to hover on a person to see more info and select communication mode (for example, phone, SMS, email).

Email

• Exchange support.
• Combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page.

Messaging

• Search functionality for all saved SMS and MMS messages.
• Auto delete the oldest messages in a conversation when a defined limit is reached.

Camera

• Built-in flash support
• Digital zoom
• Scene mode
• White balance
• Color effect
• Macro focus

Android virtual keyboard

• An improved keyboard layout to makes it easier to hit the correct characters and improve typing speed.
• The framework’s multi-touch support ensures that key presses aren’t missed while typing rapidly with two fingers.
• A smarter dictionary learns from word usage and automatically includes contact names as suggestions.

Browser

• Refreshed UI with actionable browser URL bar enables users to directly tap the address bar for instant searches and navigation.
• Bookmarks with web page thumbnails.
• Support for double-tap zoom.
• Support for HTML5:
  • Database API support, for client-side databases using SQL.
  • Application cache support, for offline applications.
  • Geolocation API support, to provide location information about the device.
  • <video> tag support in fullscreen mode.

Calendar

• Agenda view provides infinite scrolling.
• Events indicate the attending status for each invitee.
• Invite new guests to events.

Media Framework

Revamped graphics architecture for improved performance that enables better hardware acceleration.

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth 2.1
• New BT profiles: Object Push Profile (OPP) and Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP)

New Framework APIs

Android 2.0 includes several new developer APIs. For an overview of new APIs, see the Android 2.0 version notes.

For a complete report of all API changes, see the API Differences Report.