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Given the past few days and some of the leaks we've seen, this might sound a bit obvious but finally, the Jelly Bean 4.2.2 Android Runtime improvements will be arriving beginning in BlackBerry 10.2.1. If you're wondering how exactly that helps you out, well this particular update brings hardware acceleration while improving the overall compatibility of the runtime and add support for many highly requested features and APIs within the Android app player. In short, Android apps on BlackBerry will run a lot smoother and there will be support for more features in those apps:

  • Android Native Support: Android apps that use shared libraries written in native-code, such as C and C++, will now be supported on BlackBerry 10. Support is limited to the recommended system headers and APIs as documented by Google. Headers and APIs outside this scope may not function correctly.
  • Bluetooth: Android applications using Android Bluetooth APIs will now work on BlackBerry 10. Bluetooth Low Energy for Android is planned to be supported in a future OS release. As a reminder, Bluetooth LE is supported in the BlackBerry 10 Native/Cascades SDK.
  • MapView v1: Applications that use MapView from Google Maps v1 API are now supported using OpenStreetMaps. Support for MapView v2 API is being planned for a future release.
  • Share Framework: Android applications that register with the share framework in Android will now also appear as share targets on the BlackBerry 10 share menu.
  • Spellcheck: Applications that use text input can now leverage support for spell checking and correction, and the ability to add words to the BlackBerry 10 dictionary.

Additionally, a new Beta release of the BlackBerry Tools for Android is forthcoming which will better support developers looking to port their Android apps to the BlackBerry 10 platform along with a new BlackBerry 10.2.1 SDK OS so that developers will be able to start testing and submitting their applications to BlackBerry World.​

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Developer Blog

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