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!

(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.

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

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

I’m really excited to have to have this opportunity today to present you with a new BlackBerry PlayBook video. Our friend Jonathan from the Product team at Research In Motion® (RIM®) was kind enough to help us demonstrate a few of the many BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet use cases for business professionals. Included in the video above is a brief demo of email pairing with your BlackBerry® smartphone via BlackBerry Bridge, multi-tasking, viewing Microsoft® Office® documents, and secure access to business applications such as Flash®-enabled dashboards from SAP® BusinessObjects Explorer.

I think the video demonstrates how easily the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet makes your corporate information portable and accessible in a variety of different ways. Post a comment below and let us know what you think, as well as noting which additional business features of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet you’d like to see demonstrated.

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]

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.

Read more at the BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »

You may know that many attendees were surprised during the Adobe MAX keynote when Kevin Lynch of Adobe revealed that the tablet he was using was a BlackBerry PlayBook. You may have also seen RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis joining him soon afterward for a detailed BlackBerry PlayBook app demo.

What many of you might not know is that, owing to the ease-of-development of the BlackBerry Tablet OS and related tools, developers are already writing apps—and quickly. (Keep in mind that the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR has only been out since Monday!) Here’s a quick highlight of what developers are already building for the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Read More at the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »