It wasn't all that long ago that we let you know the BlackBerry Beta Zone was accepting applications from developers for the closed beta testing of the BlackBerry PlayBook Native SDK. We've been getting tipped here and there over the past few weeks of developers having recieved invites or even declination letters but nothing to indicate a mass rollout -- until today. Today, it appears quite a few developers have recieved their notifications of acceptance and as such have been given a pass word to go ahead and download the BlackBerry PlayBook Native SDK v0.9.4 Beta. As noted in those emails:
Features BlackBerry PlayBook Native SDK Beta 0.9.4 Include:
- The Native SDK for BlackBerry Tablet OS is now supported on Mac host systems. Mac Developers can now take advantage of the QNX Momentics Tool Suite, which has everything you need to develop programs for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet!
- Want to extend Abobe AIR applications by writing part of the application using the Native SDK? We now provide support for Adobe AIR Extensions.
- Updated BlackBerry Platform Services APIs and samples to help get you started developing applications right away!
- Enhanced editing capabilities for packaging allow you to quickly update your application package for deployment, without having to edit xml files.
- New profiles in the IDE allow you to customize the content developers see, which means seeing only functionality you need.
With all that said, we're sure it will still be quite some time yet before we see apps built on the SDK rollout but that's not really here nor there -- we'll just enjoy the fact that those who had great ideas for apps were selected and now have better means of building those apps that will eventually be available to all in BlackBerry App World.
Thanks, Anon!