Blackberry Jam Nairobi is happening today at the Nailab. This is a developers’event geared towards exposing developers to the various tools they have been provided by Blackberry to develop compelling apps for the Blackberry 10 platform. I came in late so I didn’t get the introductions, got to interact with the Blackberry Z 10 though, great work. Blackberry Developer Evangelist, Luca Sale (@BlackberryLuca) was on stage to explain the great value the HTML 5 browser.
Among the things explained, there is the Preview of apps on the Ripple Emulator whose features include:
- Ability to switch between Blackberry devices
- Switch between platforms, information about your application
- Enable the developer to simulate device rotation and movements using a 3D device using the accelerometer
- You can even type messages and send them to your device
- Push messages using the Blackberry WebWorks Push API
- Theme and tool-tips display changes and other Ripple-specific settings
- Geo-location panel that allows you to simulate changes in physical location
- The events panel that allows the developer to simulate system level events supported in the platform
- The Config panel allows you access infoemation about the config.xml file of your application
- You can also simulate the various call states such as missed or received calls on the phone
- You will also have a way to set the build, packaging and signing of your application
Luca says that Developers will get USD 5000 when they have well developed Built For Blackberry applications that pass all the guidelines, this will be for the best “Built for Blackberry” app in Africa and is only for the Africa region. The applications will be entered into a contest and the best app will be picked in October for the prize. These apps will be featured in the Blackberry App World.
He added that for Nairobi, if there are 15 built for Blackberry apps that meet the guidelines, three of them will be selected and they will have an option to pick from either the Blackberry Z10 or Blackberry Q10.
