It was an action packed Monday and Tuesday in Orlando at BlackBerry World 2011, and things proved just as busy on Wednesday (lots of BB World posts in the hopper for us to get up). Following up our video look at how RIM plans to make TAT tools available to 3rd party developers, we sat down with Chris Smith and Mike Kirkup from RIM to do a deeper dive into the BlackBerry app development story.

The podcast clocks in at 38 minutes, and we cover a lot of topics here. We clear up some of the questions surrounding the myriad of development options available for the BlackBerry PlayBook, talk NDK for the PlayBook and also talk about Android app support for the PlayBook and what it means. There are a lot of great bits of info in this show, so definitely tune in whether you're a developer or just want to be on top of the BlackBerry game.

And stay tuned... we'll be recording our BlackBerry World 2011 recap podcast THIS FRIDAY with the whole CrackBerry crew, and we'll sound off on all of the news of week. In the meantime, enjoy this show. It's a good one! 

Sneak Peek at the BlackBerry PlayBook NDK that will allow developers to tap into powerful effects via TAT's engine

During BlackBerry World 2011 we had the opportunity to sit down with Chris Smith, Sr. Director of the BlackBerry Development Platform, and Rasmus and Karl from the The Astonishing Tribe, to get a look at how RIM plans to utilize TAT's creativity on the PlayBook AND ALSO make the technology that enables the creativity available to 3rd party developers via the PlayBook's Native Development Kit so they too can create PlayBook apps with stellar effects in minimal time. Be sure to watch the video above to get filled in on all the details and see some basic demonstrations of how developers will be able to benefit from TAT. 

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At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week RIM brought forth the notion of "Super Apps" to the smartphone world. It wasn't that RIM introduced any new apps here, but defined what makes a smartphone application great and cited some examples of existing BlackBerry apps that fit that description: Poynt, eBay for BlackBerry, 7Digital Music Store, Facebook, the in-beta Twitter client, etc.. Some of the charateristics that take an app to the level of super app are as follows:

• The Always on Experience
• Tight Integration with the Native BlackBerry Apps
• Proactive and Notification-driven
• Highly Contextualized
• Social and Connected
• Designed for Efficiency

During the BlackBerry Developer Day at App Planet, this idea of building super apps was extended upon and I caught on video Chris Smith walking through the thought process RIM went through in building their new Twitter for BlackBerry Smartphones client. Chris is the Senior Director of the BlackBerry Development Platform for RIM. The key to Chris' presentation here is not here's what we did to build a great twitter app but the message is for developers to approach their own ideas, whatever they may be, with this thought process that will really uncover way to build an app experience that is tightly and fully integrated with the BlackBerry experience, making a super app experience for the end user that is greater than they will find anywhere else.

It's an interesting video and one that all mobile developers should definitely watch. To learn more about BlackBerry Super Apps, you can check out RIM's page on Super Apps. What I'm waiting see next are Super Duper Apps. I'm thinking a Super Duper App takes the definition of Super App and adds to it the ability to save/run the apps from the MicroSD card so they can be HUGE in filesize and therefore extremely pretty with tons of nice graphics and video. The best of both worlds combined. 

* We'll get this into iTunes and RSS later. In the meantime, listen in the player below or download the .mp3 *

The first day of the BlackBerry Developer Conference had us going from early morning till late at night, but just before the evening reception kicked off we had a chance to sit down for an interiew with Chris Smith from Research in Motion. Chris' title is Sr. Director, BlackBerry Development Platform, which means a WHOLE BUNCH of major software responsibilities fall on his plate. For all of our faithful CrackBerry readers out there, THIS IS THE PODCAST YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO. We cover a LOT of topics here.... all the hot issues and topics that pop up in the forums daily - the web browser, OS 5.0, app memory, and WAYYY more.  It's about 32 minutes. Take a listen. Enjoy the show!!

Listen to our Interview with Chris Smith, Sr. Director, BlackBerry Development Platform

• Download Pocast .MP3 Directly >>