I use Web Inspector all the time to work on BerryReview and other projects on my desktop and I was really glad to see it included on the BlackBerry PlayBook. I knew that RIM managed to stick it into BlackBerry 7 and I finally got a chance to use it this weekend. In case you have never heard of Web Inspector before then here is a brief explanation. Web Inspector is a feature in WebKit (usually only desktop clients) which allows you to view and edit the page source, CSS, live DOM hierarchy, script debugging, profiling and much much more. For example, you can see what it would look like if you changed the text color or you can navigate what your script has done to the DOM.
Back to the topic at hand. I needed to debug a JavaScript error on the mobile version of BerryReview along with an issue with our CDN that did not show images or styling sometimes on BlackBerrys. I had tried debugging this issue on my Bold 9930 when it launched but the Web Inspector did not work that well in the early builds.
Now on my BlackBerry Curve 9350 I have to say Web Inspector is the easiest way to debug and test any mobile web apps or websites for BlackBerry. It is essentially like having the Chrome or Safari WebKit based Web Inspector tool for BlackBerry. From what I understand it even works with the BlackBerry 7 simulator so you don’t need a BlackBerry 7 device. There are a few tricks to get it running so read below:
To setup Web Inspector on your BlackBerry 7 device:
Let us know if it works for you! I am amazed how responsive it is and how fast it is. Even when you hover over elements on the DOM it hovers them on the BlackBerry browser. Changes are instant. Great work from the Torch Mobile team on this one!
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We have two more gifts from RIM’s outage gift in their Thank You category. The latest are coming from Electronics Arts with two Sims games. They both seem to be for a nice range of devices but let us know if you run into any issues. Kudos to @rr_yy for spotting them!
In a pleasant surprise RIM has more in store for us with a new BlackBerry Messenger beta round in the Beta Zone. They have just uploaded BlackBerry Messenger v6.1 to the Beta Zone and it includes some real nice usability updates.
You can pick up the new BlackBerry Messenger 6.1 in the Beta Zone or read more about it in RIM’s announcement.
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I have always hoped that RIM would add Push to Talk or other voice calling features into BBM. So far RIM has just made it a little simpler to send voice notes but nothing near a full push to talk with presence solution. That has not stopped Tuk Digital Solutions from trying. I noticed a few friends on BBM were using BeepUs and decided to check it out. The free BeepUs app uses the new BBM social network APIs to allow you to have free Push to Talk conversations with your BBM friends.
I am not sure how well this will work continuously since RIM does have some limits on the transfer size and continuous connections on BBM but the concept is awesome. If you like sending voice notes or using Push to Talk you will love BeepUs . Hopefully Tuk keeps on adding new features to the app!
Over the years there have been quite a few apps that let you control your BlackBerry from your PC. The latest to come to my attention (thanks Jaybo!) is TinyController by CompactByte. TinyController simply gives you no frills control of your BlackBerry smartphone from your PC or Mac through a USB, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth connection between the devices. The app is also focused on speed instead of features which is a different spin.
The best part is that TinyController offers up a 14 day free trial for you to give it a spin. This is because not all apps can work over such an app like BBM Groups so you should definitely try it out before you make the plunge. You can read more about it at www.tinycontroller.com or pick it up in App World for $9.99.
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If you had your eyes on the BlackBerry Bold 9790 that RIM made official today then you definitely want to check out this video. One of our longtime tipsters, Ronishak, let us know that he uploaded his unboxing video of the new device. It goes on sale next week in Jakarta Indonesia for ~$500 USD or 4.7jt. Let him know what you think of it!
Many of you may be familiar with MobiHand or some of their affiliates including our own BerryReview store. They have been facing some stiff competition from App World but it seems like they are really feeling the pain. We noticed that something has been off for the last few months especially with them moving their pay schedule to developers. Then Kyle over @BlackBerryCool heard from a large MobiHand dev, Mobile Stream, that they are owed over $150,000 by MobiHand. The dev was told by MobiHand to keep quiet because publicizing that info would mean that MobiHand would have less of a chance of paying them back. Here is exactly what Mobile Stream posted on their website:
MobiHand Inc., a Californian company, does not pay royalties for EasyTether. They owe me a huge sum of money – $163,976
Here is a detailed debt breakdown: July royalties: $50,645.70 August royalties: $69,759.51 September royalties: $43,570.81
The guys at MobiHand admitted the debt and said they were in financial difficulties. But they refused to work out a payment schedule. They still run their business, so they obviously have some money. But that money is stolen from my EasyTether royalties.
Now MobiHand has posted on their own blog about their “Financial Strain” that they claim is caused by having to compete with large companies like RIM and App World. You can tell from their post that they are looking to be acquired so that they can get a large cash infusion. Here is what they had to say:
MobiHand was founded seven years ago by software industry veterans committed to providing responsive and cost-efficient services to developers of mobile applications.
Through that entire period of time MobiHand has maintained a nearly perfect record of supporting and paying developers on a timely basis. With increased competition from very large, well-capitalized companies such as RIM and Google, in 2011 MobiHand has seen the need to invest heavily in developing new, differentiated services.
These new services combined with several new partnerships with large companies will result in revenue growth in the coming year. But developing and launching these new initiatives has created significant financial strain.
As a result, MobiHand is in the process of evaluating strategic alternatives which may result in the sale of the company to a larger, more well-capitalized partner. We expect this process to be completed before the end of this year allowing us to fulfill our obligations to all of our partners.
I am hoping that MobiHand manages to turn things around since they were pretty solid until the beginning of this year. Now they are falling behind even though they definitely have money coming in the door. I know that many of you have purchased apps through MobiHand and the BerryReview store along with many other branded stores. You might want to download and backup that information in case MobiHand is not acquired and goes under. We will keep you up to date as this develops.
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Back in August I got a chance to sit down with Mike Kirkup who was then the Senior Director of Global Developer Relations at RIM. Since then Mike has left and Alec Saunders has made a big splash as the new Vice President of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development at RIM even posting his email address publicly. This week we got a chance to sit down with him and pick his brain on a few of the issues developers want to know about the current BlackBerry Platforms, initiatives, and future goals. Read on for the details!
What is the main message that you are trying to convey to current and potential BlackBerry developers?
Alec clarified his message to developers as a three pronged approach that he sort of hit upon at DevCon.
What is your main goal or measure for success? Or simply what is your departments mission statement for developer relations?
Alec summed it all up into two words: “More Apps.” Though he did say the whole mission statement was to “Educate, support, and inspire developers to create new, better, and more apps for BlackBerry.”
So what are some of your goals to improve the experience of current and new BlackBerry developers?
There are three main areas that we are focusing on to improve the development experience for developers both new and experienced:
We also measure success based on many metrics but you can boil it down to the number of apps available and the satisfaction of developers. We then base our strategy on beta feedback, developer surveys, and other information points like the support forums. If they see an issue escalated in the forums by multiple devs they will escalate it further as a priority.
Tell us a little bit about some of the new initiatives for the developer relations team?
I am a firm believer of having “boots on the ground” and reaching directly to developer communities. For example, a few companies came to us saying that they were confused about what RIM’s future BBX plans were for peripherals (think stuff like card swipers, printers, etc). We ended up organizing a whole Meetup in Waterloo where these companies interfaced directly with the teams developing the peripherals, BBX strategy and groundwork.
On top of that the Developer Relations team is a growing team around the world. We have people in many growing markets which is an area of large growth for RIM. They are also reaching out to developers in the support forums and Twitter @BlackBerryDev where developers can reach out directly to RIM’s team. You can even simply email Alec directly and he will try to delegate it.
What is your team doing in terms of recruiting new developers for BBX (HTML5, WebWorks, Flash, Native, Android) and the current BlackBerry ecosystem (Java, WebWorks)?
With BBX and even WebWorks we are reaching out to communities of developers to help them bring their expertise and catalog of apps to the BBX platform or WebWorks on both platforms. For example, we did this with game engines on the PlayBook along with web developer communities like Sencha and jQuery. We are also working on different opensource tools for the BBX platform which we have posted on our GitHub repositories to help native BBX developers. This goal is to help attract communities to the platform by making it enticing.
What about differentiating factors of the BBX and PlayBook platform? For example, currently it is not possible to create what RIM calls a “Super App” for the BlackBerry PlayBook. When is that functionality coming?
This is something that is definitely in the works. We have these “Super App” APIs in the works now for everything from notifications to deep system integration. Definitely more on this in the future as we keep on improving the PlayBook 2.0 OS with some of the features possibly being exposed to developers to test in beta.
What about more powerful integration into the core OS such as developers building their own Bluetooth, Bridge, NFC, USB, or other integrations into the hardware?
This is also coming. As long as it does not compromise the security and reliability of the OS then we are working on it. It might include some sort of extra certifications for Bluetooth stacks or drivers.
Does BBX allow RIM to be more agile in dealing with the development environment and updates? Until now RIM has worked in a 2 year cycle where they release a product and then they get feedback during the lifecycle throughout the release and then a year later provide the improvement. Is BBX going to finally change this?
BBX definitely allows us to be more agile. For example, with BBX the carrier only certifies the radio stack allowing RIM to update the rest of the OS without needing carrier certification every time. I (Alec) personally love working with developers and I plan on making it a much more effective feedback loop. Talking directly to developers and then taking that feedback back to the appropriate teams at RIM to take action. This will allow us to do continuous improvements to developer API’s and functionality instead of simply trying to ship the whole kitchen sink.
What about App World? How does that fit into the developer relations sphere?
App World is an integral story of the BlackBerry experience. Downloads are growing like crazy with 90 million in August to 140 million in October. They also noticed that 200 BBM connected apps account for 10% of downloads which just shows how much of a differentiator the BBM Social Platform SDK is.
What about for BBX? Will App World remain the only place to find apps for BBX just like the PlayBook? Is there a reason RIM is deviating from the current BlackBerry model to a more Apple-like walled garden of app markets?
The PlayBook and BBX app store experience is an “unapologetically curated experience. “ RIM is maintaining this control for a few reasons including the fact that we have found customers prefer to go to one place for apps. This also gives RIM the ability to exclude malicious apps and have editorial control so we don’t have an abundance of irrelevant or unnecessary apps.
This is important for devs too because it increases discoverability. I used to work at a startup and the hardest part was dealing with payments and transactions especially with carriers wanting a large portion of deals. App World handles all of that and offers 16 countries with carrier billing. This is critical in developing markets and places where users do not have credit cards, a key growth market for RIM.
What about the current limitations of App World such as a lack of discount codes, coupons, beta testing ability, slow approval times and release times, small pictures, no video trailers, and gift cards?
Stay tuned! Many of those are coming! I cannot speak directly to that but the App World team is working hard on adding those features after a successful App World 3.0 release.
What about HTML5 and WebWorks? Now that Adobe has killed their mobile Flash development to focus on HTML5 does that play well into RIM’s strategy.
HTML5 and WebWorks allows us to recruit new devs that weren’t previously mobile to easily make their applications mobile. It is also a key piece for devs to create enterprise apps that use HTML5 for easier deployment. RIM is following the standards and continues to expand on them. Our Torch team is blazing the trail by adhering to the latest standards and implementing things like WebGL.
What about PlayBook functions and BBX functions and API’s beyond the standards? Say for example the desktop notification API in HTML5?
The Torch team is planning on staying pretty close to the standards but exposing capabilities of the BBX platform. I cannot speak directly to the notifications API but we plan on exposing the BBX APIs to WebWorks developers and changing them to HTML5 standards if it expands to cover it. This is a way for developers to move away from proprietary and the current push by other ecosystems to native development.
Well it was a pleasure to speak to you Alec. We wish you, your team, and RIM the best of luck!
If you have any more questions you want us to ask Alec let us know in the comments!
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I have been having a field day reading all of the articles readers have sent in today about Adobe getting out of the mobile browser Flash game. Read some of the titles and you will see what I mean:
All of these bloggers are harping on the fact that RIM immediately reassured Flash developers who have spent time developing for QNX and the PlayBook that they would not be left in the cold. Andry Gryc from QNX nicely points out that these bloggers seem to have missed what Adobe and RIM actually said. Adobe essentially said that it will be no longer developing Flash plugins for mobile devices for use in their browsers including Android and the PlayBook while still pushing Adobe AIR as a way to package mobile apps. What RIM responded is that they are not going to suddenly dump all of their Flash developers in the cold.
This essentially means that Flash on mobile will continue to be useful since Adobe admits that they are going to continue pushing it for desktops. That means if you want to browse on your tablet just like you do on your desktop you will need some sort of Flash. HTML5 is a strong promise and RIM CLEARLY states that:
We are excited to see Adobe focusing their efforts on HTML5, and on bringing their world class development and design expertise to HTML5 and mobile. As many of you noted, at BlackBerry DevCon Americas this year we strongly emphasized HTML5 development, and all of our platforms include best-in-breed HTML5 browsing capability, based on the WebKit engine. We believe that HTML5 is the future of mobile, and are delighted to be aligned with Adobe on this.
RIM has invested a ton of effort in HTML5 and it is a key building block of BBX. RIM is just saying that Flash will continue to be supported in its current form. All of the future improvements Adobe has planned for Flash in v12 are not intended for mobile devices. On top of that there is the Adobe AIR side of Flash that Adobe clearly says they are going to continue driving:
Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc.) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook. We will of course continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates for existing device configurations. We will also allow our source code licensees to continue working on and release their own implementations.
So are these bloggers just taking a cheap shot at RIM for essentially supporting developers and saying the same thing as Adobe? Let us know what you think in the comments!
lol, and if RIM dumped flash, they’d be ALL over that as well!
I’m happy with RIMs decision.
It is not like RIM is really going out of their way to continue to support flash. All of the work of putting flash onto the browser is already done. Continuing to support bug fixes and security updates is just common sense, and takes very minimal effort.
You can criticize RIM’s actions a year ago for making a big deal out of supporting a feature that honestly no one cares about. But at this point why should RIM remove a feature from its browser without any good reason to do so? If having flash support really annoys you that much, you can just disable it.
Yeh its insane… The biggest complain with iPad is flash.. here RIM promises to keep flash on the PlayBook which works great.. all the blogs are hammering RIM. Wow.
they’ll never do anything right in the eyes of the media
Amen… I’m sick and tired of the damned RIM bashing… The iLemmings are annoying… Just wait and see what they say when OS 2 finally arrives and the Colt is finally released… Its going to be the best phone on the market and all you’ll hear is “Day late? Dollar short?” Comments all over the place… QNX is going to be the biggest power player around… These morons just don’t know it yet
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We don’t have any official confirmation from Staples or RIM here but ShvartzBerry let us know that BFAds has scored an interesting promotion for Black Friday. According to this screenshot they show above Staples will be offering the 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook for $199 on Black Friday. The 32GB version will be $249 and the 64GB version is $399. Jared over @CrackBerry seems to have spotted a similar ad but that one only shows the 16GB version.
So who is going to pick one up? I am starting to eye that 32GB model for only $249!
Adobe just dropped an interesting bomb this morning. They have decided to relegate Flash to PC browsing and mobile apps while giving up on flash in mobile browsers to focus on HTML5. They plan on releasing Flash 11.1 for the PlayBook and Android and from then only continue to offer critical bug fixes and security updates.
Alec Saunders from RIM confirmed to me that RIM is a Flash source code licensee which means they can continue to release their own implementations even when Adobe stops. RIM has confirmed as much on their official blog saying that they are committed to “support a full web and app experience today and tomorrow” whether it be Flash, WebWorks, or HTML5 websites. This also sort of makes sense since RIM is just trying to attract developers though they mentioned at DevCon that HTML5/WebWorks and Native development are the future.
RIM is committed to delivering compelling user experiences so you can stay connected and take action wherever your life takes you. Often, that action is enabled by a BlackBerry® smartphone or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ app, and other times it’s through your BlackBerry device’s web browser. We’re able to deliver a full-featured web and app experience because BlackBerry embraces and integrates a variety of developer platforms to make it possible for you to experience and consume the content you want, while you’re on the go – whether that’s powered by the BlackBerry native applications, BlackBerry PlayBook OS, Open Source, superior Flash integration, Adobe® AIR®, Web Works, or websites that use HTML5 to deliver cutting-edge graphics and video.
Earlier today, Adobe announced plans to stop investing in Flash® for mobile browsing, and focus more efforts on HTML5. As an Adobe source code licensee, we will continue to work on and release our own implementations, and are looking forward to including Flash 11.1 for the BlackBerry PlayBook.
The strategic direction announced by Adobe today further validates RIM’s decision to launch the BlackBerry PlayBook with a full-powered and uncompromised desktop class browser supporting both Flash and HTML5. We are pleased that Adobe will focus its efforts on next generation Flash-based apps delivered via AIR and BlackBerry AppWorld as well as the great opportunities that HTML5 presents for our developers as we discussed at DevCon Americas.
“The PlayBook browser does a great job of supporting both HTML5 and Flash, including industry leading HD video streaming. Adobe and RIM are focused on HTML5 innovation for mobile browsing and believe it is the best solution for developers to deliver rich web experiences on RIM’s BlackBerry products and other mobile devices. RIM has the ability to continue working on and releasing its own implementations of Flash Player 11 and beyond,” said Danny Winokur, VP & GM, Interactive Development, Adobe Systems Inc.
RIM is also energized by the powerful, open standards-based development platform that HTML5 delivers through our BlackBerry products. To us, this means working with thousands of talented BlackBerry developers to bring new gaming, entertainment, and video experiences that deliver depths of experience we had only dreamed of a few years ago. That’s progress we support, and we look forward to seeing the innovation soon in BlackBerry App World™.
If you have questions or comments, please log in and share them with us. We promise to read them all and come back and answer what we can.
- Dan Dodge, President and CEO, QNX
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This one has been a long time coming and I am happy to announce that the time is finally here. We have just launched a new redesign of the BerryReview desktop site. It takes into account quite a bit of feedback we have received over the past few months and we really hope you enjoy it. The whole team has put quite a bit of effort into it and this is still a work in progress. Expect much more in the future!
With that said we need your help to squash out the bugs and any suggestions and tips about the new design. We will be running a contest later on around the new look but for now just send us a tip of leave a comment telling us what you think!
Thanks to everybody who helped with the redesign and their suggestions! You know who you are!
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In case you have been playing with LocalBar on your PlayBook all weekend you may be interested in this. Yohan, the developer of LocalBar, posted on his blog offering a bit of insight into how LocalBar works and what it does. In essence he is replicating the sideloading process from a PC by performing it using the PlayBook NDK to load apps from Localhost. This is a hack RIM could probably easily block by blocking sideloading from Localhost but I really hope they DO NOT decide to do that. If anything RIM should be promoting OTA downloads since that is the only way for Beta Testing and even their own Beta Zone concept to work on the PlayBook.
We are getting one step closer to being able to easily install PlayBook applications OTA just like current BlackBerry smartphone apps. Until now RIM has forced us to load apps only through App World or by using a convoluted sideloading method which requires a PC and quite a few steps. Now Yohan aka TinyHack has managed to bypass quite a few of those steps. He has released a small program called LocalBar that lets you sideload any BAR file for an application onto your PlayBook directly from your PlayBook. The only downside is that you need to first sideload the LocalBar application but after that you can use LocalBar to simply install any app from the device storage. That means you can download or transfer BAR files over Wi-Fi and then install them using LocalBar. In other words you get a sort of OTA download in two steps.
You need to sideload LocalBar using your PC/Mac. There are many guides on the Internet like this one or this one.
Next time when the upgrade of this app is available, you can install the upgrade directly from PlayBook using this app.
You MUST enable development mode before installing the apps (you should have done this step when you sideload LocalBar.
You will need to grant some privileges to this app after first install.
Here is the main screen after you grant the privileges.
Swipe down from the top bezel to show the menu.
Choose “Install”. It will show the list of bar files that you have. It will automatically scan all your documents folder (including downloads folder from the browser).
Select a bar file, a confirmation dialog will appear.
Click OK to confirm. A password dialog will appear. Just ignore the user field. This is the PlayBook standard login dialog, and I haven’t explored yet how to disable the username field. And you need to press the OK button (the “Return” key doesn’t work yet).
After you fill in the password, it will start the installation. If everything is fine, then this dialog should appear.
A few readers let us know that RIM has made the next app available as part of their free apps gift in response to their previous outage last month. They have made the popular voice command app Vlingo free for a limited time which is a huge boon considering its $19.99 price tag. It essentially expands the BlackBerry voice commands to be able to control many different parts of the device by saying things like:
The popular Show Me the Images app has been updated by Kisailabs this week. The new update finally gives it BlackBerry OS 7.0 compatibility which they were struggling with for awhile. As a reminder Show Me the Images makes images download automatically in messages based on your safe list, block list, or without any restrictions instead of RIM’s method of making you request the images.
Update: RIM let us know that their note in their blog post this morning that said App World not being included in this version of the PlayBook OS 2.0 developer build ”was a typo that has since been removed.” Hopefully that means RIM is not even considering it anymore. Now I can finally download the update and check for myself.
RIM has rolled out an update to the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Developer Beta bringing it to v2.0.0.3894. This is not the regular consumer build and to ensure that RIM has taken the DRASTIC measure of removing App World from the developer build in this update. That means you can only sideload applications for testing. The problem is that RIM has essentially turned the developer build from something you could more or less still use regularly and test on to a device that is for development only. There is a reason other OS development builds of upcoming OS releases like Windows, iOS, etc DO NOT DO THIS! It pisses developers off!
Either way if you want to update to this new developer build you will get updates that include two development improvements including:
I really hope RIM reconsiders this mistakenly altruistic idiotic approach of removing App World. Make sure to let them know on the BlackBerry Dev Blog. I for one will not be upgrading but let us know if there is anything new if you do.
Update: RIM let us know that their note in their blog post this morning that said App World not being included in this version of the PlayBook OS 2.0 developer build “was a typo that has since been removed.” Hopefully that means RIM is not even considering it anymore. Now I can finally download the update and check for myself.
That was quick! We told you earlier today that RIM posted up a new version of the PlayBook OS 2.0 Beta with a huge disclaimer. It specifically said that they had removed App World from the development beta. Now just a few hours later that text has been removed from RIM’s announcement and updaters are reporting that they are getting App World. Specifically RIM’s old blog post said (from Google Cache):
Please note that this build is strictly designed for developers and is NOT a build designed for consumer use, since some apps built for BlackBerry PlayBook OS v.1.0.7 may not work correctly. As such, we have removed the BlackBerry App World™ storefront from this developer build (you can still “side load” your applications for testing). If you’ve downloaded and installed this build by accident, or if you’d like to return your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to its previous state, check out our guide to downgrading on the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog.
While the updated announcement now reads:
Please note that this build is strictly designed for developers and is NOT a build designed for consumer use, since some apps built for BlackBerry PlayBook OS v.1.0.7 may not work correctly. If you’ve downloaded and installed this build by accident, or if you’d like to return your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to its previous state, check out our guide to downgrading on the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog.
Notice the retraction? Hopefully that means that RIM has realized how big of a colossal screw up it would be to remove App World from development builds. If anything they could simply not allow users of Dev Builds to leave reviews on apps in App World. What do you think?
T-Mobile let us know that they have made the BlackBerry Torch 9810 official. The new device is already available in an exclusive pre-sale to T-Mobile business customers starting today and will be available to all online and in stores starting November 9th. The Torch 9810 is expected to cost $249.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate card with a 2 year contract. There is no mention of UMA which is interesting… so I doubt it will be included at launch.
Announcement below:
Today, T-Mobile announced the upcoming availability of the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810, the latest 4G BlackBerry smartphone to join America’s Largest 4G Network™. Powered by the latest BlackBerry 7 operating system and a 1.2 GHz processor, the BlackBerry Torch 9810 provides a fast and fluid premium smartphone experience. The BlackBerry Torch 9810 combines a brilliant 3.2-inch TFT VGA capacitive touch-screen display with a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard for a truly efficient and intuitive mobile communications experience.
Encased in a sleek and stylish form factor with a zinc grey color finish, the BlackBerry Torch 9810 is equipped with essential smartphone features, including access to BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger), personal and corporate e-mail, and social networking applications; a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p HD video recording; and access to BlackBerry App World™ for downloading premium applications and games.
The BlackBerry Torch 9810 is expected to be available in an exclusive pre-sale for T-Mobile business customers beginning today, November 2. The smartphone is expected to be available nationwide at T-Mobile retail stores, select dealers and national retailers, and online at http://www.t-mobile.com starting November 9. The BlackBerry Torch 9810 is expected to cost $249.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate card, with a two-year service agreement and qualifying Classic voice and data plan.
RIM has rolled out an update to the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Developer Beta bringing it to v2.0.0.3894. This is not the regular consumer build and to ensure that RIM has taken the DRASTIC measure of removing App World from the developer build in this update. That means you can only sideload applications for testing. The problem is that RIM has essentially turned the developer build from something you could more or less still use regularly and test on to a device that is for development only. There is a reason other OS development builds of upcoming OS releases like Windows, iOS, etc DO NOT DO THIS! It pisses developers off!
Either way if you want to update to this new developer build you will get updates that include two development improvements including:
I really hope RIM reconsiders this mistakenly altruistic idiotic approach of removing App World. Make sure to let them know on the BlackBerry Dev Blog. I for one will not be upgrading but let us know if there is anything new if you do.
