We are pleased to announce the availability of the BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) Social Platform SDK v1.0 for BlackBerry® WebWorks™! The SDK is now ready for download and hardened thanks in large part to your beta feedback. So now it’s time to realize the power of social interactions with BBM right within your BlackBerry WebWorks application.

In conjunction with BlackBerry WebWorks SDK v2.2, this documented set of APIs is designed to give developers the ability to accomplish the following with BBM:

• Access and update fields in the user’s profile such as status, avatar and personal message
  create app-specific custom areas within the user’s profile for promoting your app and recent activity
  related to it, e.g. achievements
• Initiate BBM chats with BBM users
• Initiate file transfers
• Share applications for download virally with friends in the contact list
• Initiate application-to-application background communication through BBM for sending and receiving application signaling, data

Furthermore, we’re excited to share a few changes that complement this SDK since the last beta release and here’s what you can expect to see:

• Published sample code and documentation for a BBM version dependency checker
• included all BBM WebWorks APIs into the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK as of version v2.2
• BBM WebWorks API documentation now published with BlackBerry WebWorks API Reference

To get started, download the SDK of the BBM Social Platform for BlackBerry WebWorks from the BlackBerry Developer Zone. For on device testing with the BBM Social Platform SDK, you will need to upgrade to the latest BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 version available on BlackBerry App World™. BBM-Connected Applications are supported on BlackBerry smartphones versions 5.0 and later.

To get started with the BBM Social Platform SDK 1.0 for BlackBerry WebWorks and review all the supported features, be sure to check out BlackBerry® Developer Zone’s BBM Social Platform page, and as always, stay tuned to the BlackBerry Developer Blog for more updates on our platform.

We look forward to hearing about your experiences combining the power of the Web and the BBM Social Platform!

LBS nation, we have good news! The Wi-Fi® geolocation service officially launched on September 9th, 2011. This in-house technology at Research In Motion® (RIM®) uses Wi-Fi Access Point data that’s been collected anonymously by your BlackBerry® smartphone to provide a quick and accurate location fix to location-aware applications globally. This service is a further enhancement to our Cell-site geolocation service, which has been in service globally for more than a year.

Unlike GPS-based location fixes, this service offers a faster and more convenient way for developers to get location fixes via a secure connection with minimum bandwidth usage. Although the accuracy of this service is lower than GPS, it’s higher than Cell-site geolocation, and the speed is expected to be much faster than GPS. One advantage to Wi-Fi geolocation service is that it typically works even when GPS is not available. For example, when a user is indoors or when a user prefers not to turn their GPS on in order to preserve battery life, Wi-Fi geolocation service is still an option.

The APIs needed to acquire Wi-Fi geolocation fixes have been available since the BlackBerry® 6 OS release; therefore, all devices running the BlackBerry 6 OS and higher are able to leverage this service via existing APIs upon provisioning of this service. Please note that service provisioning may take up to a month from the launch date, so we’re asking for your patience and understanding if it doesn’t start working immediately. For APIs and other relevant technical details, please refer to the KB article Location APIs – Start to finish. You can also leverage Simple Location API if you want to get a head-start by skipping the full details.

I am really excited about this service as it opens up a lot of possibilities for innovation and great apps. Let us know when you integrate your app with this service, and let us know how it goes!

New APIs and application functionality are now available for download with the release of v2.1 of the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK for smartphones! For those following the project on GitHub™, this release has also been known as the “Epsilon” release outlined on the BlackBerry WebWorks roadmap.

The goals for this release are focused on bringing new BlackBerry WebWorks functionality and APIs to the BlackBerry® smartphone OS and continue the convergence between the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK on BlackBerry® Tablet OS.

New capabilities available to WebWorks developers for BlackBerry Smartphones are:

• NTLM & BASIC Authentication support (NTLM support requires a BlackBerry Enterprise Server)
• Camera API (take a picture or a video)
• Top Banner Indicator API
• Enhanced Push APIs
• Improved rendering speeds for applications not using loading/transition screens

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »

With the release of v2.1 of the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK for Tablet OS, new APIs and application functionality are now available for download! For those following the project on github, this release has also been known as the “Delta” release outlined on the BlackBerry WebWorks roadmap.

The goals for this release are focused on narrowing the gap between the BlackBerry WebWorks API functionality available on the BlackBerry® Smartphone OS and the APIs available on the Tablet OS, as well as exposing more BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet development functionality to web developers.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »

Now that BlackBerry® Java® SDK v7.0 is available in BlackBerry® Developer Zone, it’s time to start getting your apps ready for BlackBerry® 7 in order to ensure that you’re ready to support the new BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 and BlackBerry® Bold™ 9930 smartphones at launch. To help you out, I’ve prepared a little step-by-step guide for getting your app BlackBerry 7 ready.

But before we get into things, it’s important to note the following: If you are currently distributing your apps through the BlackBerry App World™ storefront, you will need to log into the vendor portal and select the apps that you would like to have posted as “For Sale” for those smartphones running BlackBerry 7, because your apps will not automatically be available for these new smartphones. So, now’s the time to start testing, updating, and posting your apps for BlackBerry 7 to be ready for launch.

With all that said, on to the step-by-step guide!

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »

Following the announcement of BlackBerry® 7 at the BlackBerry® World™ conference, I’m pleased to announce that the BlackBerry® Java® SDK v7.0 is now available in beta!

This new version of the SDK also comes with simulators for the new BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 series of smartphones, allowing you to test your applications against the latest and greatest. With the new BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone and BlackBerry® Bold™ 9930 smartphone on their way, you will have the tools you need to make sure your apps are running on these smartphones at launch. What’s more, the BlackBerry App World™ storefront is also accepting app submissions for these new devices! You now have the chance to be among the first to have your application submitted and ready for these exciting new products.

The BlackBerry Java Plug-in for Eclipse™ and the BlackBerry Java Development Environment have also both been updated to support the new OS version, featuring an abundance of new APIs. They’re all listed out in great detail in the “New in this Release” section of the Release Notes.

For more information on what developers need to know about BlackBerry 7 and to download the BlackBerry Java SDK v7.0 beta, check out the BlackBerry 7 landing page on BlackBerry Developer Zone.

The BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK 2.0 for Tablet OS and Smartphones is here! We are extremely excited to introduce our most significant release yet for the BlackBerry WebWorks platform.

What’s new in this release?

Our development teams have spent a great deal of time re-architecting the BlackBerry WebWorks framework to prepare for bringing the two platforms together. Some of these changes are as follows:

• JavaScript APIs are now separated from the OS. This new architecture is designed to allow developers to easily modify and enhance the existing APIs and package them with their BlackBerry WebWorks application. This will also allow new APIs to be easily added to your application.
• The BlackBerry WebWorks framework and all of the APIs are open sourced and available on GitHub! Developers can now contribute to and participate in the evolution of the BlackBerry WebWorks project.

This release is the first step towards convergence of the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK forTablet OS and the BlackBerry Webworks SDK for Smartphones. As we continue to improve and enhance the SDKs, we will better align the features and APIs so developers can easily develop and deploy applications onto both platforms.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »

Sincere thanks to everyone who joined us for the “Developing using the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK” Webcast series. The recordings for each session of the webinar are available to access online. If you haven’t already done so, please schedule some time to set aside and watch them at your own convenience.

During this series, attendees were presented with a variety of topics, code samples and best practices. The goals of each of these sessions were to provide developers with new information they can use to build great applications for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, as well as enabling them to share the knowledge they learn within their own development communities. Here’s an overview of what each webcast covered:

Webcast Part 1 – Getting Started: Discover the purpose and capabilities of the BlackBerry WebWorks platform. Learn how to setup your development environment and build a “Hello World” application. Understand how to configure and deploy applications to a BlackBerry® Tablet OS virtual machine.

Webcast Part 2 – My First App: Learn how to add visual enhancements and application functionality to your BlackBerry Tablet OS applications using BlackBerry WebWorks. Discover how easy it can be to leverage existing assets in constructing your application. Become more confident and efficient at using the development tools.

Webcast Part 3 – BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Integration: Understand what platform features and supported APIs exist that can be used to add functionality to your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet applications. Discover how to use the BlackBerry WebWorks JavaScript® APIs to integrate your application content with the underlying BlackBerry Tablet OS.

Webcast Part 4 – User Interface Guidelines and Best Practices: Learn how to design great BlackBerry PlayBook tablet applications that optimize the experience for your end users. Incorporate best practices and habits in your development processes to help reduce overall development and troubleshooting time of your BlackBerry WebWorks applications.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »