14 DAY TRIAL // Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry, announced recently that it brought more enhancements to its BlackBerry Application Platform, offering developers the possibility to come up with rich content and applications. Among the new improvements, we can count support for OpenGL ES, the upcoming availability of a Java GUI builder, and the launch of BlackBerry Theme Studio.
“We are making it easier than ever for developers, hobbyists and content providers to build graphic-rich experiences for BlackBerry smartphones,” said Alan Brenner, senior vice president, BlackBerry Platform at Research In Motion. “These new features will help drive a multitude of engaging themes, games and applications for BlackBerry smartphone users.”
The inclusion of OpenGL ES support with the BlackBErry platform will offer developers the possibility to build 3D games and graphics for the company's smartphones. However, the games will only be supported by the BlackBerry OS 5.0 and higher, the Canadian phone maker announced. The currently available beta version of BlackBerry Java Software Development Kit (BlackBerry Java SDK) already includes OpenGL ES support, the company added.
The upcoming Java GUI builder, that will be included into the BlackBerry Java Plug-in for Eclipse, is aimed at offering developers the possibility to easily build interfaces for their applications. According to RIM, developers will enjoy fast creation of user interfaces with a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) view and with new drag-and-drop capabilities. Moreover, they will also have the possibility to easily view the interfaces on various BlackBerry smartphones. The Java GUI builder is expected to become available in mid-2010.
As for the new BlackBerry Theme Studio, it comes as a suite of theme design, illustration and animation tools that should enable an easy creation of custom interfaces (themes) for BlackBerry smartphones. The new BlackBerry Theme Studio is offered for free and the themes will work on smartphones that feature BlackBerry OS 4.2.2 and higher, such as the newly launched BlackBerry Storm2 and BlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphones.
The new BlackBerry Theme Studio, which replaces the Plazmic Content Developer’s Kit, includes: - BlackBerry Theme Builder – a design tool for customizing a smartphone’s user interface, including the home screen layout, fonts, icons, message list colors, cursors, dialog boxes and home screen application icons. - BlackBerry Composer – an illustration and animation tool for creating animated SVG graphics that can be used to add animation to theme buttons and backgrounds as well as animate web sites and applications for BlackBerry smartphones.
The BlackBerry Java Software Development Kit is available for download here. The BlackBerry Theme Studio can be downloaded from here.