Ever since the release of the BlackBerry PlayBook we have been looking forward to the Native SDK to be available to the developers to see just how far they can take their development. We have seen the Adobe Air SDK as well as the WebWorks SDK but unfortunately we have been waiting for the official Native SDK to arrive. Well we just moved one step closer to it becoming a reality as today RIM announced on their Developers Blog that the Native SDK has reached a closed beta phase and they are allowing developers to apply now for access to all of the goodness.

The closed beta is limited in space, and will be on a first come first serve basis, so if you are an interested developer be sure to fill out the form now! This news is the start of many good things to come, let's hope the beta goes smooth and they are able to get this into the hands of all the anxious PlayBook developers.

Source: Developers Blog

The third installment of webcasts for BlackBerry PlayBook developers kicks off tommorow. Continuing on with the BlackBerry Tablet SDK and Adobe AIR integration this webcast will cover a larger portion of testing and debugging your apps once created. The full break down is below:

Date: Thursday, November 18, 2010
Time: 2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST

Summary:
Join our webcast to learn how to integrate your application with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. We’ll provide examples on how to integrate your application with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet using the Adobe AIR 2.5 APIs and the BlackBerry Tablet OS APIs. The following topics will be covered during the webcast:

• Adobe AIR 2.5 device integration APIs
• BlackBerry Tablet OS device integration APIs
• Testing and Debugging your application BlackBerry Tablet Simulator
• Live Q&A with experts from Research In Motion Limited and Adobe

Presenters:
Prosanta Bhattacherjee, Application Development Consultant, Research In Motion Limited
Renaun Erickson, Adobe Developer Evangelist, Adobe Systems Incorporated 

If you are planning on attending, you can get yourself registered via the webcast login page today. There will only be 2 more upcoming webcasts to attend, so best to take them all in when you can.

• Click Here To Register For The BlackBerry PlayBook Developer Webcast Today>>

During yesterdays keynote we got a look at some amazing new super apps. One of these was the e-reader Kobo. Kobo had a great demo on how they will integrate BBM socially into the application, allowing users to chat, share items and much more. This is just one of many super apps down the line that we have to look forward to. Check out the video above to see what it's all about.

Press Release

Kobo Debuts Social Reading Application for BlackBerry Smartphones

SAN FRANCISCO-September 28, 2010 - At BlackBerry® DEVCON 2010, Kobo announced the development of an industry-first social eReading experience and released a video of the social reading app in action. Kobo, a global eReading service, demonstrated during the keynote presentation how application developers will be able to leverage the new BBM^TM (BlackBerry® Messenger) Social Platform. The BBM Social Platform enables developers to build applications that take advantage of the BlackBerry smartphone's social aspects, as well as the push architecture of the BlackBerry® platform. Kobo plans to integrate information from various functions of BBM into the eBook shopping and reading experience on its application once the BBM Social Platform is available. The company today released a video of the forthcoming application: http://blog.kobobooks.com/BBM

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A few days ago, a few of the folks heading up this year BlackBerry Developers Conference got to sit down and discuss some of the events happening at DevCon this year. Those individuals, Chris Smith, Tyler Lessard, Tim Neil and Mike Kirkup  all appear in the above video and give us all some great insight regarding what to expect. A lot of questions were asked and a lot of good answers were relayed throughout the video. Of course, no striking details were revealed as we all know we'll have to wait for DevCon for more information. But, the excitement around DevCon is building and you better believe we'll be there to cover it. Stay tuned for more DevCon coverage! For more info on the event and to register, click here.

Question of the Day for Developers: If you've decided you're not attending DevCon or are still on the fence, what would make you decide to go?? Drop your DevCon wishes in the comments!

Source: BB Dev Blog

Bla1ze gave developers a head's up about bbthemelab a couple months ago, the site is a great resource for theme developers no matter what their experience level, offering tutorials, icons sets, etc free to the development community. A couple of weeks ago, the theme community was buzzing when the Official OS 6 icons were extracted and released for download from multiple sources, and we've seen an explosion in OS 6 themes since then. The only thing missing in these themes though has been an "OEM" focus icon, which has frustrated some people looking for the closest replica possible. Matt from bbthemelab fired me an email this morning to let me know that one of the members from their forums has taken the time to create a full set of focus icons in mutiple sizes for the various devices, and that they have been posted for download on their site. They are there for personal and commercial use, they simply ask that proper credit is given if you do so.

• Head over to bbthemelab and grab these icons>>

Calling all BlackBerry Developers... Need some motivation to take your apps to the next level? Get in on the BlackBerry Super Apps Challenge! 

Over the past year or more we have seen a push from within Research In Motion to reach out to developers in an effort to create better, more compelling applications for the BlackBerry platform. Better tools, more API's and more education on what, exactly developers can do with the BlackBerry platform has been passed on. Events such as the BlackBerry Developers Conference and such initiatives as the BlackBerry Developers Challenge have led the way in increasing that awareness. But, with all that is going on in the "app" sector, do you all as end users feel that such things have offered assistance with making BlackBerry applications better? Let your be counted and of course, please feel free to explain why you voted how you did in the comments.

This one is for all the application developers out there... If you've been longing to develop a BlackBerry app that utilizes VoIP you'll want to stay on the look out for the new FGVoIP Engine being released in early May. Available from fg microtech as an SDK, the FGVoIP Engine will allow developers to add full duplex (sending and receiving) real-time voice to a BlackBerry Smartphone, with no GSM interaction required. You can watch the video above for a demo and check out the full details in the press release below. Now let's see some BlackBerry VoIP apps!!

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2009 was a HUGE year for BB development. It started with BlackBerry App World, and has steadily snowballed from there. At DEVCON, RIM broke the news on several stunning new additions to the BB development world, highlights being Open GL, the 5.0 API library, and Widgets. With New Year's fast approaching, addicts the world over are looking forward to 2010 as a banner year for development. I am totally pumped to see the offerings brought forward this year by the development community as a whole.

Are you excited at the possibilities? Interested in getting involved, or maybe know someone who is? Perhaps you're already a developer, and you've been thinking about developing for BB? We would love to see what you can do! I would love to see our developer community grow, producing more and better apps for us to toy with.

To get you started, I'm going to compile the best of the links for developers from RIM, and finish off with some reference materials to give you a place to learn from. I'll start with Java apps, then cover Widgets. More info after the jump.

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