14 DAY TRIAL // Research in Motion made several important announcements during the recent BlackBerry DevCon event, including the availability of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Developer Beta.
The new version of the platform comes with support for Android apps, Adobe Air 3.0 and Adobe Flash Player 11 support, as well as WebGL graphics rendering.
With the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps and the BlackBerry Plug-In for Android Development Tools, developers will be able to test their Android apps within the SDK and bring them to BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.
In addition, developers who created Android apps can repackage their apps for the BlackBerry PlayBook online by using the BlackBerry Packager for Android Apps.
The process is simple as the online tool guides developers step by step, thus allowing them to test their apps for compatibility with the PlayBook.
In order to be complete the porting process, Android apps need to be repackaged and signed. Then the apps will be submitted to BlackBerry App World.
Furthermore, the BlackBerry Plug-In for Android Development Tools offers devs more options when using an Eclipse Android development environment to support the PlayBook.
The plug-in includes the BlackBerry PlayBook Simulator that allows devs to test and debug their apps before they are repackaged, signed and submitted to BlackBerry App World.
Obviously, this is also possible using a PlayBook running the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Developer Beta.
As we already mentioned, the new BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Developer Beta supports WebGL technology, which allows devs to create rich, interactive 3D graphics within the BlackBerry WebWorks app.
Basically, WebGL web technology brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser and devs won' t need to download and install any additional software.
Developers who want to port their Android apps to the BlackBerry PlayBook can head to RIM's developer's website and download the Android app repackager.