The BlackBerry PlayBook OS v1.0.8.4985 contains the following fixes and updates:

• Updated version of Adobe® Flash® Player version 11.1 and Adobe AIR® 3.1
• Daylight savings time updates for time zones in the regions of Latin America, Australia and Central America
• Updated Bluetooth® and Wi-Fi® software to help to improve connectivity
• Fixed issues some users were experiencing with account payments in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront
• Improved synching when restoring applications with BlackBerry Desktop Software

This update also includes a security update for Adobe Flash Player, as noted in Adobe Security Bulletin APSB-11-28, which addresses issues that can potentially affect any PC, tablet, or other device with an operating system that supports Adobe Flash. While there are no known reports of any BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users being affected by these Adobe Flash Player issues, we (as always) encourage all BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users to update to the newest version of the BlackBerry PlayBook OS.

How to update your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Existing BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users will automatically receive a software update notification on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet status ribbon, or they can check for the software update at any time in the settings menu under “Software Updates”. Users who purchase and activate a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet on or after Thursday November 24th, 2011 will automatically be updated to v1.0.8.4985 or later as part of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet setup process.

For users who are already running BlackBerry PlayBook v1.0.7.2942 or higher, the update to this new version (v1.0.8.4985) will include only the Adobe Flash Player update and is expected to take only a few minutes to install.

Wow! BlackBerry® DevCon Americas 2011 was one heck of a busy week for the Developer Relations team, and we’re sure the same thing can be said for attendees. BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 featured: an action-packed general session keynote; oodles of announcements (see below); App Express stations for Android™ developers to quickly get their apps ported to the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet; recognition awards for outstanding BlackBerry developers; Breakout and Ask the Experts sessions for one-on-one time with BlackBerry development experts; special BBM™ Hackathon events just for BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 attendees; and our biggest BlackBerry DevCon TweetUp ever! Oh, and did I forget to mention we gave every attendee a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with the option to load the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Developer Beta build?

For those who were unable to attend BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 in person, here’s a brief overview of some of the DevCon-related announcements you’ll want to catch up on.

Announcing BlackBerry BBX – The Next Generation BlackBerry Platform – BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 introduced BlackBerry BBX, the next generation mobile platform for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets. Development environments supported by the BBX platform include HTML5 with BlackBerry® WebWorks™, Adobe® AIR®, Native C/C++, and the BlackBerry® Runtime for Android™ Apps. Click the link above to learn more; BlackBerry developers will also want to read this outlining the developer roadmap for BlackBerry BBX and the BlackBerry® Java® SDK.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »

BlackBerry BBX, the next generation mobile platform for BlackBerry® smartphones and tablets, was introduced to developers during the General Session Keynote at BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 today. BBX combines the best of the BlackBerry platform and the best of the QNX platform to to connect people, devices, content and services.

Development environments supported by the BBX platform include HTML5 with BlackBerry® WebWorks™, Adobe® AIR®, Native C/C++, and the BlackBerry® Runtime for Android™ Apps. Apps built today for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet will also run on BBX.

Additionally, BBX will include the new BlackBerry Cascades UI Framework for advanced graphics, also demonstrated during the General Session Keynote. BBX will also extend the core BlackBerry DNA of collaboration, communication and immediacy, with familiar “Super App” capabilities such as deep integration between apps, always-on Push services, BlackBerry security, the BBM™ Social Platform and much, much more.

Specific details regarding BBX products and availability will be provided at a later date, so stay tuned for more information in future posts on the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog!

On September 21st, Adobe issued an update for Adobe Flash Player, as noted in Adobe Security Bulletins APSB-11-26, which addresses issues that can potentially affect any PC, tablet, or other device with an operating system that supports Adobe Flash.

While there are no known reports of any BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users being affected by these Adobe Flash issues, we (as always) encourage all BlackBerry PlayBook users to update to the newest version of the BlackBerry Tablet OS. For more information about what these security updates mean to the BlackBerry PlayBook, please see our security advisory.

How to update your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Existing BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users will automatically receive a software update notification on the BlackBerry PlayBook status ribbon, or they can check for the software update at any time in the settings menu under Software Updates. Users who purchase and activate a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet on or after Thursday October 6th will automatically be updated to 1.07.3312 or later as part of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet setup process.

For users who are already running BlackBerry PlayBook v1.0.7.2942 or higher, the update to this new version (v1.07.3312) will include only the Adobe Flash update and is expected to take only a few minutes to install.

(Originally posted on the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog)

Mobile apps in the corporate environment are more creative and influential than ever, helping businesses work faster, more profitably, and with the kind of efficiency that others envy. Here’s why we think attending BlackBerry® DevCon Americas 2011 can help your corporation go even further and do even more.

1. Understand more about the tools and options. Many of the sessions at the show are designed to increase your know-how and skill base, such as:

• DEV19 – Introduction to the BlackBerry PlayBook Native SDK: Building a Sample Application
• DEV21 – Creating a UI using the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR
• DEV22 – Mobile Application Architecture: How Do I Start?
• DEV23 – So You Think You Understand Mobile Web Services
• DEV29 – Lab: BlackBerry WebWorks Bootcamp for the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet

2. Learn from another corporation’s success. Nothing teaches as well as a company willing to share their experience, and PricewaterhouseCoopers is offering to do just that. Don’t miss COM01 – Enterprise Application Development Made Easy: The PricewaterhouseCoopers Story.

3. Train with the best. Sign up for training sessions on using Adobe® Flex®, Adobe® AIR® and BlackBerry® WebWorks™ to build apps for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. Both one-day courses are offered on Monday, October 17 from 9 am to 5 pm and cost $499 USD.

4. Discuss and influence the future. BlackBerry DevCon 2011 features a new series of “Collaboration Roundtables”. GRP04 – Collaboration Roundtable: Native App Development for BlackBerry Tablet OS is your chance to join an interactive discussion and offer feature requests and feedback on the technology roadmap.

5. Get one-stop access to everything and everyone to do with BlackBerry. Weeks of learning on your own can’t compare to three focused days where everything about the BlackBerry platform and technologies and corporate development is in one place. The sessions, labs, speakers, experts and networking opportunities are all here. If you need to tell your boss why you should attend, we’ve made it easy by summarizing it all with this Convince Your Boss Letter!

Make sure you don’t miss out – register now.

(Originally posted on the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog)

Lots of developers work day (and night) to try out a new technology until they understand it completely – but BlackBerry® DEVCON Americas 2011 has a shortcut. Research In Motion® (RIM®) and training partner New Toronto Group (NTG) are pleased to announce the launch of two new application development courses at this year’s conference. Choose between two one-day training opportunities that are intended to improve your skills for developing for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet OS!

Develop for the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Using Adobe® Flex® or Adobe® AIR® is a great course if you’re an experienced developer working with Adobe Flex or Adobe AIR and need hands-on experience with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS. You’ll create your own code and work through various features of a sample application, focusing on fundamentals such as designing the user interface, geolocation, consuming XML data and JSON data and deploying the app.

Develop for the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Using BlackBerry® WebWorks™ is a course designed for experienced HTML5, JavaScript® and CSS developers. This course will teach you how to create, compile, package and deploy a BlackBerry WebWorks -based application for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. As well, you’ll focus on details like debugging an application using the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Simulator and using an offline database within an application.

Both courses are offered at BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 on Monday, October 17, from 9 am to 5 pm at the rate of $499 USD per person (lunch and refreshment breaks included). The course fee is in addition to the registration fees for access to BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011.

In one day, you can come away with skills that can make your apps better or your development process faster. And you can do it all while taking advantage of the resources offered at the biggest BlackBerry developer conference in the world. Register now and receive a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet when you arrive at the conference!

We’ve held some fantastic “Meet the PlayBook” events across Europe in the last month – 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

Earlier today I sat in on the Day One general session at BlackBerry World™. To help celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the show, and since we’re in Orlando, the home of 3D, the keynote was conducted in 3D.

As you know, the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet comes preloaded with a ton of great apps – Facebook®, video chat, Kobo, Need for Speed, Tetris, Docs 2 Go, Podcasts, Slacker and more. In addition to all of these out-of-the-box apps, we already have thousands of BlackBerry PlayBook tablet apps in BlackBerry App World™, and today during the keynote, a number of new and exciting apps were showcased and will be coming soon – including Angry Birds!

We also had special guests join us in the keynote.

Adobe®

There are more than 3 million active Adobe developers, and we’ve done a lot of great things with Adobe to enable the development of high performance mobile apps for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. So we were really excited that Shantanu Narayen, President and CEO of Adobe Systems, and Danny Winokur, VP of the Flash Runtime at Adobe Systems, were able to join Mike Lazaridis on stage to talk about some new developments and run through a number of Adobe® AIR® app demos for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, including Readers Digest (an app developed using the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite), Facebook, and Adobe Connect.

As part of the keynote, Adobe announced that they are now shipping a major update of Creative Suite, Creative Suite 5.5, which includes the latest version of Flash Builder 4.5 that supports the development of apps for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. This will be followed with Flex 4.5 in June, an open source framework that will include support for building mobile apps for BlackBerry® Tablet OS. We can’t wait to see all the apps that will be built with these tools for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Microsoft®

We also were joined today by Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. RIM and Microsoft announced a partnership where Bing will be deeply integrated into the BlackBerry experience starting this holiday season. BlackBerry devices will use Bing as the default search provider in the browser, both here in North America and internationally.

Also effective today, Bing will be the preferred search and maps applications with regular, featured placement and promotion in the BlackBerry App World carousel. Microsoft showed how OCR camera search, voice search, streetside block view, photosynth panorama would work with the BlackBerry platform, and Blaise Aguera y Arcas from Microsoft also performed a number of demos including access to contextual info, local restaurant search and Bing deals search.

And to top it off? Mike Lazaridis closed the keynote by announcing that all BlackBerry World 2011 attendees will take home a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

The BlackBerry® Partners Fund has just announced the launch of the BlackBerry® Developer Challenge for 2011 and has started accepting submissions for the first Competition! This year, there are three Competitions in total. Their purpose is to recognize, reward and celebrate innovation within the BlackBerry developer community. Similar to last year, each Competition will recognize winners in their respective regions, which will give developers the opportunity to stand out from one another with local content and language support.

The three Competitions are as follows:

• Best Adobe Flash/Adobe AIR app for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet – now accepting submissions – click this link for the Official Rules
• Most innovative BlackBerry® WebWorks™ app on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry® 6 (same app or companion app) – begins May 9, 2011
• Most Addictive social app using the BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) Social Platform – beginning later this summer

New this year, in addition to the Competitions, the BlackBerry Partners Fund will be honouring applications in six categories to receive a Recognition Award. The recipients, which will be recognized regionally, will be selected in the following categories:

• Best B2C app developed for a customer by an Agency or ISV
• Most useful enterprise application (all technologies)
• Best website conversion using the BlackBerry WebWorks platform
• Most creative implementation of Super App characteristics
• Top Performers – Most innovative use of Payment Service and/or Advertising Service
• Academic – Most compelling app created by student or faculty

It’s exciting to note that across the three Competitions, there is approximately $3 million US in prizes available to be won. That’s almost double the value of last year’s prizing. This includes the incentive prizes that will be given out to the first 100 submissions in each Competition. Each incentive prize includes a free BlackBerry smartphone and a feature in the BlackBerry App World™ carousel for 1 week! Please click this link for the full terms and conditions.

To find out more details on the BlackBerry Developer Challenge and to submit your apps, visit the BlackBerry Partners Fund website and BlackBerry Developer Zone. I’m very much looking forward to seeing your apps submitted to the Competitions – happy building and good luck!

We recently announced plans to enable developers to leverage existing assets for the BlackBerry® Java® Development Environment and Android® platforms to be easily ported to the BlackBerry® Tablet OS via ‘application players’. The application player for supported Android apps will be available this summer, followed soon after by the application player for supported BlackBerry JDE apps. Both will be available through the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.

As a follow up to this announcement, I thought I’d devote a blog post to explain the benefits for our customers and developers. The bottom line is we continue to advance software technologies and other capabilities in order to offer the best platform for both users and developers.

What does this announcement mean for Customers?

For both consumer and business customers, this announcement reinforces our commitment to providing choice while bolstering our platform. Our customers will benefit from having access to highly optimized and integrated apps developed specifically for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet using BlackBerry tools, as well as a much bigger catalog of apps drawing from multiple other sources, such as the Adobe® Flash® and Adobe® AIR®, HTML5 and JavaScript® developer communities (as previously announced) – and now the Android developer community. And this is all being done through our BlackBerry App World storefront to manage the app discovery and download processes for consumers.

We are already hearing overwhelmingly positive customer feedback about the greater choice and flexibility that our broad approach will allow: the best apps built for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet coupled with the “long tail” of apps built for the above-mentioned BlackBerry JDE and Android platforms.

What does this mean for Developers?

• For the majority of developers, the way to go is still the BlackBerry platform and the widened set of tools we’ve made available. Only these can ensure that the developer harnesses the full power of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in terms of extremely rich graphics, full multitasking, and ultrafast processing. BlackBerry smartphone development options include the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ platform. BlackBerry WebWorks offers leading HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript support on a mobile platform. The BlackBerry WebWorks platform also supports modern web frameworks such as Sencha, PhoneGap, jQuery and Dojo.
• BlackBerry PlayBook tablet development options currently include BlackBerry WebWorks as well as Adobe® (Flash® and AIR®).
• RIM will add full tooling support for native C/C++ development for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet over the coming months. We’re highly confident about this. The QNX team RIM acquired to develop our BlackBerry Tablet OS has won awards for its Eclipse-based native Integrated Development Environment (“IDE”).

Because of the app players we’re providing, if there are developers currently developing for the Android platform, they can now rapidly move onto our platform while they evaluate our other development paths. We can now offer such developers an on-ramp to package and distribute their apps to our growing customer base of consumers, enterprises and governments.

Going forward, we will continue to evolve our various development technologies to deliver the most powerful, flexible and open experiences for developers whether they choose to build with HTML5, Java®, Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR, or native C/C++. And for those developers using our BlackBerry platform tools, we will continue to offer access to a growing set of on-device API’s to enable best-in-class integration with core BlackBerry applications and features (which we call “Super App” experiences). We are also planning to provide a range of advanced cloud-based services including the BlackBerry Payment and Advertising Services, advanced location-based services, application analytics, and powerful Push services. Stay tuned for more details on these future release plans.

Final Thoughts

We believe we are the most committed of any mobile platform to providing both our customers and developers with uncompromised solutions, characterized by offering choice, open standards and tools, and the opportunities to build and enjoy deeply integrated Super App experiences to take advantage of all that the BlackBerry platform has to offer.

We will continue to share more information in the coming weeks so that BlackBerry developers and customers can make informed choices. And stay tuned for more partner announcements along with some exciting details that we will share at the BlackBerry World™ conference in early May.

- Jim Tobin, SVP of the Software, Services & Enterprise Markets business unit at RIM