Now that the BlackBerry Bold 9900 series has been announced, along with BlackBerry 7 a whole subset of features are going to be rolled out. While the environment itself is not much of a stray from the current BlackBerry smartphone SDK it does offer a whole new set of API to make use of as well as, a whole new subset of features in which developers can leverage to make their applications better. Looking at the new features developers will have have access to:

• OpenGL ES 2.0, taking advantage of the new graphics chip, allows you to create games rich in compelling graphics.
• Window Manager API, also taking advantage of the new graphics chip and increased device horsepower, allows you to overlay OpenGL or any other UI component on top of anything you want, including camera and video.
• Compass APIs, taking advantage of the new magnetometer sensor, allows you to determine the device’s orientation and direction. When combined with Window Manager API, enables the creation of augmented reality applications.
• Near Field Communication (NFC) APIs, taking advantage of the new NFC radio, allows you to read and emulate virtual tags and create rich solutions for payment and m-commerce.
• Video capture APIs updated with support for HD video recording, taking advantage of the improved camera, allows your application to provide the user with the same high end media experience they get from the core apps.

Quite a wide array there but -- that's not all that is coming with the new SDK, make sure you jump on past the break for more items that are geared toward deeper integration with in apps.

• Send Menu API, allowing apps to share content with contacts the same way that core apps do, by adding a “Send…” menu to their apps.
• Unified Search API has been updated, making integration with this device feature easier than ever before and allowing more control of indexed keywords.
• BlackBerry® Maps API has also been updated, simplifying how data is overlaid on top of BlackBerry Maps. Couple that with support for geofencing and the ability to overlay complex shapes and polygons, and you’ve got the richest integration with BlackBerry Maps to date.
• Options API has evolved to match the new look and feel of the BlackBerry 6 options screens, allowing third party apps to add their own entries into the options screen including an icon and descriptive text.
• Multimedia API has added support for buffer control for playback and bitrate definition for video recording.
• Barcode API has been updated to support ZXing 1.6 and allow for the definition of custom decorders. 

Although it's still in beta form currently, Research In Motion has plans to roll the BlackBerry Java SDK v7.0 out to developers this month. Something you'll want to be sure to grab of you're looking to ensure your apps will work on the forthcoming BlackBerry Bold 9900 series devices.