Way back in October 2011, at DevCon Americas, we saw the game TunnelTilt demoed at the keynote. I remember seeing it and trying to look it up in BlackBerry App World as some other applications were being made available that day as well. Silly me, I should have known better. TunnelTilt was used to show off the power of WebGL (Web Graphics Library) via WebWorks in OS 2.0. WebGL does away with plug-ins and renders 3D graphics within a web browser (no need for Flash). It’s based on OpenGL ES 2.0 and makes use of the HTML5 canvas element. If you check out Part 1 of the keynote, skip to the 24:18 to see the “first demo” in action. The game was actually developed by the team that implemented WebGL, which can also be used by developers to aid them in developing web applications. An interactive demo was made available at GitHub not too longer after. Read more about WebGL here.

In the wee hours of the morning, TunnelTilt made its way to BlackBerry App World as a free download, for those using PlayBook OS 2.0 or higher. Now I was supposed to go bed at a reasonable time last night. Thanks to time zones, and me being on the west coast, I stayed up past my bedtime playing this demo. That being said, remember that this is still the same interactive demo we saw at DevCon11. There are no other levels, no score and no scoreboards. What you do have is an addictive game that is vivid, smooth and just plain amazing.

More information/Download TunnelTilt for the BlackBerry PlayBook

Bumming around a bit at the BlackBerry DevCon 2011 party, I took some time away to run off with Kevin's sweet "PlayBook on a chain" to do up a fun video. I ambushed pretty much anyone I could find and snagged them on video. I'll apologize off the bat to anyone who didn't notice what the PlayBook said and/or thought that the video would never see the light of day.

The app running on the PlayBook is Screamager by our own CrackBerry Fanboy Marco. Also note that the background track, Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People, is apparently Kevin's favorite song since he played it incessantly during our DevCon blogging sessions (and thus now I can't stand it). Enjoy!

One of my favorite experiences at BlackBerry DevCon 2011 was the press briefing I attended on the topic of BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps. Present from Research In Motion were Chris Smith, VP of the BlackBerry Development Platform, and Larry McDonough, Manager of Handheld Software Platform (focus on APIs and runtimes).

In addition to fielding questions, the goal of the session was to educate the press with demos of Android apps running on the PlayBook and to witness just how easy the re-packaging/porting process is. Normally a session like this is half demo, half Q&A, but with a lot of bloggers and media in attendance for this one the questions started flying within minutes and didn't slow down right up until the end. 

I actually recorded the audio from the session (on my Bold 9900 of course) have embedded it above for playback or you can download it here. You may have to crank up the audio to hear everything, but if you're interested in learning more about RIM's ambitions in supporting Android apps on the BBX platform, I suggest you listen. There's a lot of great stuff in here. Note - I was pretty fired up in this Q&A so ask a LOT of questions (seriously... I was the annoying kid in class who had his hand up the whole time). 

For those who don't have time to listen to the audio, below I've condensed and written up in my own words the answers to what I felt have been some of the biggest lingering questions on the topic of Android Apps on BlackBerry. Keep reading for more!

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At this year's BlackBerry Developer Conference I had the opportunity to be one of the Community Speakers and host a session, so I chose to present on a topic that I have a lot of direct experience in - working with bloggers.

All said and done, my session COM32: Working with Bloggers and the Media to Promote Your App turned out to be a pretty solid success. It was the second most attended presentation of the week (after featured speaker Jane McGonigal's session) and the survey responses from those in attendance were overwhelmingly positive!

In general it's a pretty common sense subject, but it's one of those topics where the common sense doesn't necessarily jump out at you until you're made aware of it. If you're a developer, you know apps from the standpoint of a developer. This presentation gives you the perspective of how bloggers and the media will look at apps, which is a perspective you may not have thought too much about previously. 

Even though I approached this presentation based on my experience with CrackBerry.com and geared it towards BlackBerry Developers, there are a lot of good bits of info in here for app developers on all platforms. Even fans of CrackBerry who are not mobile developers might want to check out it - I kick things off with a bit of CrackBerry history and you'll pick up a bit of a glimpse of my perspective along the way. 

I hope you enjoy the session and find it useful. I had a lot of fun putting it together!! It also shows how far RIM has come on the social media side of things, letting a blogger give a session at DevCon. Kudos to RIM!

If you weren't able to attend the BlackBerry DevCon 2011 sessions, RIM last night posted them up for everyone. Historically, you needed to have attended DevCon to view the content or purchase it for a one-time-fee after but this time around -- RIM appears to be offering it for free. By free, we mean you will have to register for the site but after that you will gain access to all the content from DevCon -- that includes Kevins Working with Bloggers and the Media to Promote Your App session.

View the DevCon Americas 2011 Sessions

Back in March of this year when RIM announced the Android player for PlayBook, my first thought was awesome! We were going to get the best of both worlds, we'd be able to run apps from two of the great software platforms out there. When the leaked version made its way to the internet a couple months ago and I had some actual hands on experience my feelings became a little bit more mixed. Being a leaked beta I tried my best to hold off judgment until something was released officially by RIM. The leaked beta was slow and required launching the app player then launching apps within it, not to mention app compatibility was fairly low, but it did show some promise.

Fast forward to DevCon 2011 this past week and the PlayBook OS 2.0 Developer Beta with Android support. Immediately the changes were noticeable. No longer did we need to launch the separate Android player, it was built right into the QNX OS and Android apps would display as regular icons on the home screen. The first thing I did was hit up the forums and start side loading BAR files that other users had converted from Android apps. Some apps such as Kindle worked great, and others, well... not so much.

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I've been wanting to write on this topic for a while now, and I think having attended DevCon this past week makes it a ripe opportunity. So here goes …

BlackBerry Gaming Today: RIM has done a pretty good job proving that QNX can absolutely scream when it comes to gaming. It's right up there with the iPad2. And now that gaming SDKs such as Marmalade and Unity bake in full support for the Playbook (and BBX in the future), there is going to be no shortage of kick-ass games in BlackBerry App World.

But as it stands right now, companies like Apple are still way ahead of RIM when it comes to gaming. I think the Playbook has a form factor advantage, and I suppose you could argue that a direct HDMI connection supports 1080p video, which is extremely high quality. However that's about where the benefits end today.

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Finishing up with our BlackBerry DevCon 2011 mobile pavilion tour, these participants may be , but certainly not least. It was great to meet with everyone and discover the name/and faces behind the applications and other services. So rounding up the last set of interviews are representatives from Perfecto Mobile, TeleCommunication Systems (TCS), Rhomobile, Wikitude and New Toronto Group. It was a highly informative tour and hopefully we shed some light on some useful tools developers can use it order to get the best out of their potential applications. As always, if you want to read more on the companies in this video, all you need to do is click on their names. Thanks for watching!

Continuing on with our mobile pavilion tour at BlackBerry DevCon 2011, we met some amazing people behind some equally amazing products. Part II of our tour doesn’t fail to wow either, as we are introduced to companies that help other companies build and market their applications. Though some were more animated than others, you couldn’t help but feel their passion. This time around, we took a look at App-Promo, Grabba, Xtreme Labs, iSpeech and Marmalade. Marmalade’s President, Alex Caccia, walked us through some of the projects they are currently working on. There was a light hearted moment when I helped him clear a level of Cut the Rope, but it ended up on the cutting room floor. Click on each of the links to learn more about each company. Part 3 is coming up.

The mobile pavilion at DevCon 2011 is a showcase for sponsoring companies in order to show off their wares/applications. This year, the pavilion was apparently smaller than it was in previous years. Nonetheless, they did provide excellent insight to the possibilities; they ranged from application development support, to in app GPS mapping tools, to searching for potential BBM contacts. Camera in hand, I asked them to tell me their story and let the CrackBerry Nation know what they were all about. In this video, we’ll take a quick look at Search 4 BBM, Polar Mobile, Metova and Universal Mind. To learn more about each of them, click on the link above. Stay tuned for Part 2.

What You May Have Missed

Liquid Graphics broke BlackBerry Theme Studio; RIM looking into fixing it
We salute you Gary Klassen, Inventor of BlackBerry Messenger!
Porsche designed BlackBerry to be officially announced October 27th
BASIS International takes legal action against RIM over BBX trademark
#1 reason BlackBerry PlayBook sales are lacking is due to no native email client
BlackBerry DevCon 2011 General Sessions posted online
First Look: BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Developer Beta!
RIM introduces BlackBerry Jam - a new resource for BlackBerry developers
BBX OS announced at DevCon 2011 today
Breaksclusive: Introducing the BlackBerry KickStand!
Research In Motion offers free premium apps to customers following service interruptions

Contest Reminders

Super Pipa - 20 free copies to give away

Following Jane McGonigal's featured speaker presentation at BlackBerry DevCon, she sat down with @berryvic to answer a few questions. I didn't have a chance to attend her session, but talking to a few of the people who did attend they said it was really awesome.

So if you've got 12 minutes, sit back, relax and check out the video above. You'll be glad you did! And if you like what you hear, be sure to check out Jane's book, Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.

During the BlackBerry DevCon general session keynote, Alex Caccia of Marmalade took some time to show off a bit of what the BlackBerry PlayBook can do. It seemed that much of the keynote was about gaming on the PlayBook and here we got a good look at the upcoming Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. I for one and super pumped to check this game out in full as I've been a big Tomb Raider fan for years. The gameplay looks amazing and I'm hoping it will be a hit. Check out the video above for more.

Sitting down to live blog the BlackBerry DevCon keynote this week, my hopes were high that we'd see the RIMPIRE walk up to the plate and smack a homerun, knocking a QNX-based BlackBerry SuperPhone out of Moscone park.

That didn't happen. Instead, we saw RIM's Founder and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis take a couple swings, hit a foul ball with a confusing BBX announcement, and ultimately strike out in delivering a QNX phone announcement. The press box was full and all eyes were on the RIMPIRE to deliver... it was definitely an opportunity missed.

Of course that's not to say there were no QNX phones at DevCon. I'd bet my free PlayBook that a few were on hand, being shown off to valuable partners by high ranking RIM execs. We know these phones exist.

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Citrix Receiver for the BlackBerry PlayBook was announced a few weeks back, and during the BlackBerry DevCon general session keynote, Chris Fleck took some time to show it off a bit. Citrix Receiver runs over wifi and allows you to remotely connect to your desktop from anywhere in the world. It gives you full access so you can get things done on the go, allowing you to use Enterprise apps right from your PlayBook. Check out the video above for more.