Inside BlackBerry » BlackBerry PlayBook OS

BlackBerry PlayBook OS Update

Michael C. — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:31:20 +0000

A new version of the BlackBerry® PlayBook OS is now available to all BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet users – BlackBerry PlayBook OS v1.0.8.6067. This free update can be downloaded over-the-air from your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

The BlackBerry PlayBook OS v1.0.8.6067 contains the following fixes and updates:

Daylight savings time updates
Security updates as outlined in the BlackBerry Security Advisory KB29191

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 December 5, 2011 will automatically be updated to v1.0.8.6067 or later as part of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet setup process.

For users who are already running BlackBerry PlayBook v1.0.8.4985 or higher, the update to this new version (v1.0.8.6067) will include only the updates outlined above and is expected to take only a few minutes to install.

The BlackBerry PlayBook Protects Your Milk from Aliens (Or: Using the BlackBerry PlayBook for Rapid Prototyping)

Luke Reimer — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:49:32 +0000

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Hi everyone! We’ve got a special treat for you today – Mathias and Fredrik, our friends at The Astonishing Tribe, have put together a great blog post about the Arduino™ platform. If you’re searching for E.T., this might be your best weapon – how? Find out below… – Ed.

Today’s consumer devices pack an unparalleled bang-for-your-buck, giving end users blazing-fast and high-performing products. This is more than “fine and dandy” for users in the intended demographic of the device, but what about users like ‘The Prototyper,’ ‘The Hobbyist,’ and ‘The Startup Techie,’ to name a few? You recognize them from their desire to change the way that we use devices; to disrupt the established models; to get their hands dirty and create something new.

Yep, people like us are especially excited by new devices, and in our experience the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet’s power and performance has no equal for tinkerers.

With the relative complexity of today’s electronics, it’s not feasible to start from scratch; you need good building blocks to implement your vision. You’ll want to use commercial off- the-shelf (COTS) components as much as possible and you most likely don’t want to be bound to a bulky PC.

Fortunately, we have the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. It’s a powerful and portable consumer tablet, with a great user interface and an open SDK. We find it is an ideal platform to host your UI, crunch data, and more.

So how do we get started prototyping our ideas with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet? For electronics concepts: enter Arduino.

RIM’s commitment to support a full web and app experience today and tomorrow

BlackBerry — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:18:59 +0000

RIM is committed to delivering compelling user experiences so you can stay connected and take action wherever your life takes you. Often, that action is enabled by a BlackBerry® smartphone or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ app, and other times it’s through your BlackBerry device’s web browser. We’re able to deliver a full-featured web and app experience because BlackBerry embraces and integrates a variety of developer platforms to make it possible for you to experience and consume the content you want, while you’re on the go – whether that’s powered by the BlackBerry native applications, BlackBerry PlayBook OS, Open Source, superior Flash integration, Adobe® AIR®, Web Works, or websites that use HTML5 to deliver cutting-edge graphics and video.

Earlier today, Adobe announced plans to stop investing in Flash® for mobile browsing, and focus more efforts on HTML5. As an Adobe source code licensee, we will continue to work on and release our own implementations, and are looking forward to including Flash 11.1 for the BlackBerry PlayBook.

The strategic direction announced by Adobe today further validates RIM’s decision to launch the BlackBerry PlayBook with a full-powered and uncompromised desktop class browser supporting both Flash and HTML5. We are pleased that Adobe will focus its efforts on next generation Flash-based apps delivered via AIR and BlackBerry App World™ as well as the great opportunities that HTML5 presents for our developers as we discussed at DevCon Americas.

“The PlayBook browser does a great job of supporting both HTML5 and Flash, including industry leading HD video streaming. Adobe and RIM are focused on HTML5 innovation for mobile browsing and believe it is the best solution for developers to deliver rich web experiences on RIM’s BlackBerry products and other mobile devices. RIM has the ability to continue working on and releasing its own implementations of Flash Player 11 and beyond,” said Danny Winokur, VP & GM, Interactive Development, Adobe Systems Inc.

RIM is also energized by the powerful, open standards-based development platform that HTML5 delivers through our BlackBerry products. To us, this means working with thousands of talented BlackBerry developers to bring new gaming, entertainment, and video experiences that deliver depths of experience we had only dreamed of a few years ago. That’s progress we support, and we look forward to seeing the innovation soon in BlackBerry App World.

If you have questions or comments, please log in and share them with us. We promise to read them all and come back and answer what we can.

- Dan Dodge, President and CEO, QNX

Gaming on the BlackBerry PlayBook

Luke Reimer — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:54:11 +0000

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

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Since the launch of the Native SDK for BlackBerry® Tablet OS closed beta, game developers have been able to leverage rich tools to take advantage of the power within the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. With the general availability launch of the NDK, along with the Scoreloop NDK beta availability, leveraging the full capabilities of the BlackBerry PlayBook is now easier than ever.

The video above highlights some great examples of gaming experiences on the BlackBerry PlayBook, including apps like Dead Space for BlackBerry PlayBook, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD, and N.O.V.A. 2 HD (full list below).

Spacelings by HotGen Limited
BattleBallz Chaos by Pocketeers Limited
Raging Thunder by Polarbit
Bejeweled 2 for BlackBerry PlayBook by Electronic Arts Inc.
THE GAME OF LIFE for BlackBerry PlayBook by Electronic Arts Inc.
Dead Space for BlackBerry PlayBook by Electronic Arts Inc.
Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD by Gameloft Inc.
N.O.V.A. 2 HD by Gameloft Inc.
Let’s Golf 2 HD by Gameloft Inc.
ToFu by HotGen Limited

Cascades: Rich UI Development for BlackBerry Apps

Douglas Soltys — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:00:29 +0000

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Here’s a guest post from our friend Anders at RIM TAT! – Ed.

Cascades is the user interface (“UI”) framework that TAT has been using for many years to create numerous advanced UIs and applications, such as Scrapbook for BlackBerry PlayBook. I’m happy to announce that it will soon be part of the BlackBerry Native SDK for Tablet OS.

Here’s a short list of Cascades features:

Great performance, including amazing transitions and animations
Flexible UI layouts including free form lists.
3D support
Support for mixing pre-packaged UI components with custom components
Core UI feature support

Cascades was originally developed to enable development of really innovative and unique applications. This put hard requirements on the flexibility and extendibility of the UI framework. The need for designer/developer collaboration was also one of stronger driving factors when developing the framework. Let’s dig deeper into how Cascades will aid the development of rich and compelling UI.