Inside BlackBerry » BlackBerry Browser

How HTML5 Apps Can Match a Native Experience

Donny Halliwell — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:01:24 +0000

I was recently talking with a friend—one who’s not altogether tech-savvy—and he asked what makes BlackBerry 10 a different experience from other mobile devices. I talked about many of the new features such as BlackBerry Flow and BlackBerry Hub, and I also mentioned better navigation and the smoothness and power of the HTML5 support built into the BlackBerry 10 operating system. At that, he stopped me and asked, “I can already use a ton of apps on my smartphone. Can HTML5 make mobile apps work faster?”

What a great question! The best way I can answer this question is by example. For instance, if you’ve ever been prompted to allow a game or quiz access or post to your Facebook page, you’ve most likely just engaged a Facebook (HTML-based) app. Even signing into your Facebook or Twitter profile from another website using OpenID or OAuth engages a web app of sorts.

The HTML5 support built into BlackBerry 10 is designed to enable web apps to function faster and smoother. It’s this tight integration that allows web apps to look and feel like native apps, while leaving things like processor and memory on the device and to support native apps. So running HTML5 apps on your BlackBerry 10 device will indeed make the mobile apps run faster, while not making the native (apps) restless.

What are your thoughts on web apps and BlackBerry 10? Let us know in the comments.

For an even more basic explanation of the above, check out this post titled “Inside HTML5 and the New BlackBerry 10 Web Browser”

Missing the BlackBerry Bridge Browser icon on your BlackBerry PlayBook? Find out why!

Ty Williams — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:05:11 +0000

I wanted to shed some light on a question I’ve been asked a few times by friends and family after upgrading to BlackBerry® Bridge™ 2.0. The question in particular: “After upgrading to BlackBerry Bridge 2.0 on my BlackBerry® smartphone, my BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet no longer shows the BlackBerry Bridge Browser icon. Where did it go?”

Here’s your answer:

When the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet was launched in April 2011, BlackBerry smartphone users had the ability to install BlackBerry Bridge 1.0, which allowed them to pair their smartphone and tablet together to get even more features. One of these features was the “Bridge Browser”, which allowed users to browse the web on their BlackBerry PlayBook tablet using their existing BlackBerry smartphone’s connection, if supported by their wireless service provider.

Five Tip Friday – BlackBerry Browser shortcuts, pop-ups, zoom and RSS

Ty Williams — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:46:07 +0000

Happy Friday #TeamBlackBerry! Today I’ve got five handy tips for when you are browsing the web on a BlackBerry® smartphone. For this post, I’ll be using my BlackBerry® Torch™ 9860 smartphone which uses the BlackBerry® 7 OS.

If you have a tip you’d like to share, make sure you leave a comment and let me know because your tip may be featured in an upcoming post.

Let’s get started!

1. Accessing Pop-up Menus

The next time you are using the BlackBerry® Browser, you can open a pop-up menu that contains a lot of commonly-used actions by touching and holding the screen or pressing the trackpad for a few seconds. I love this feature because it’s a quick way to share links with friends, family and coworkers.