WebKit and the BlackBerry Browser: Ask Us!
As previewed at Mobile World Congress, the new BlackBerry® Browser will be based on the WebKit rendering engine. This change will enhance the browsing experience for BlackBerry users and will enable developers to deliver rich web content and applications that take advantage of WebKit. At WES 2010, we showed a sneak peek of BlackBerry® 6 and the new WebKit-based browser, highlighting some of the enhancements that it will bring that will change the way you develop web applications for the BlackBerry® smartphone.
Now that my colleague Michael has blogged about the BlackBerry Browser development process – including the new browser’s great performance on standard HTML5 and CSS3 tests – I’d like to give you, our developer community, the chance to ask us your questions about WebKit. My colleagues and I are currently hard at work creating learning resources such as reference guides, white papers and sample code for BlackBerry 6. We are looking forward to providing our developers with helpful guidance on topics such as:
- What can I expect from WebKit on BlackBerry?
- How can I prepare my web content for BlackBerry 6?
- What types of applications can I create when WebKit is ready?
- How and where should I start?
- How can I apply the Super Apps principles to my web applications?
Keeping the above in mind, post a comment and let us know if there’s anything else you’d like to learn about!
BlackBerry Developer Days in Southeast Asia
City: Singapore
Date: 17 August, 2010
Venue: Pan Pacific Hotel Ballroom 3
Time: 8am to 7pm
City: Jakarta
Date: 19 August, 2010
Venue: The Ritz-Carlton Pacific Place
Time: 9am to 9pm
The long-awaited BlackBerry® “Developer Days” are finally coming to Southeast Asia, where the first stops will be Singapore and Jakarta! Whether you are a beginner who wants to get your feet wet or a guru who wants to engage in advanced discussions with the experts, BlackBerry Developer Days are the perfect event for you. They’re also a great opportunity to network with some of the leading mobile application developers in the region.
Beginning with an introduction and sharing of experience from a local alliance partner, we will deep-dive into a variety of different development topics and also get some sneak peeks of the upcoming BlackBerry® 6.0 features and APIs. We’ll also look at making Super Apps by leveraging the unique features of the BlackBerry® platform. If you are thinking about how you can best develop a compelling application for over 41 million BlackBerry smartphone users, this is an event you definitely don’t want to miss.
Seats are limited and first-come-first-served, so please act now to save your spot!
BlackBerry Developer Day Agenda (Singapore) – Register Now!
08:00 – 08:30 Registration 08:30 – 09:00 Introduction – Monetizing on the BlackBerry® platform (Johan Kremer) 09:00 – 09:30 Experience from Local Partner BAK2U – Successful Application on BlackBerry (Paddy Tan) 09:30 – 10:30 Getting Started with the BlackBerry Development Platform (David Lim) 10:30 – 10:45 Break 10:45 – 11:45 In the Know: Understanding BlackBerry Web and Widget Development 11:45 – 12:45 Understanding the BlackBerry Web and Widget Development Platform 12:45 – 13:45 Lunch 13:45 – 14:30 Profiting from Compelling Themes 14:30 – 15:30 Leveraging the BlackBerry Platform Services : Advertising, Payment, Push, Location and BlackBerry® App World™ 15:30 – 15:45 Break 15:45 – 16:45 The BlackBerry Experience: Creating Integrated and Compelling Super Apps 16:45 – 17:30 Wrap up and Q&A 17:30 – 19:00 CocktailsBlackBerry Developer Day Agenda (Jakarta) – Register Now!
09:00 – 09:30 Registration and Coffee Break 09:30 – 10:00 Introduction – Monetizing on the BlackBerry® Platform – Alliance Program (Johan Kremer) 10:00 – 10:30 Experience from Local Partner 7Langit – Successful Application on BlackBerry (Daniel Tumiwa) 10:30 – 11:30 Getting Started with the BlackBerry Development Platform (David Lim) 11:30 – 12:30 Lunch and Pray 12:30 – 13:30 In the Know: Understanding BlackBerry Java Development Platform 13:30 – 14:30 Understanding the BlackBerry Web and Widget Development Platform 14:30 – 15:15 Profiting from Compelling Themes 15:15 – 15:45 BREAK and Pray 15:45 – 16:30 Leveraging the BlackBerry Platform Services : Advertising, Payment, Push, Location and BlackBerry® App World™ 16:30 – 17:15 BlackBerry 6 17:15 – 18:00 The BlackBerry Experience: Creating Integrated and Compelling Super Apps 18:00 – 19:30 Fasting Break (Dinner) and Pray 19:30 – 20:15 Wrap up and Q&A 20:15 – 20:45 Lucky draw and Quiz 20:45 – 20:50 ClosingLooking forward to seeing everyone there!
Developing The NEW BlackBerry Browser
Over the past year, the team responsible for the new BlackBerry® Browser in BlackBerry 6 has been challenged with identifying what makes a great mobile web browsing experience, and then building it. In addition to the new experts that have come on board through the acquisition of Torch Mobile, many of Research In Motion’s (RIM) brightest engineers have collaborated to set a new course for the BlackBerry Browser. As the senior product manager responsible for BlackBerry Browser development, I can personally attest that we’re extremely excited to see how customers will respond to this new direction when they fire up BlackBerry 6 for the first time.
At the core of the new BlackBerry Browser is the WebKit rendering engine. WebKit is a high quality open source rendering engine, which is used in many desktop and mobile web browsers. Our Browser development team not only has the WebKit expertise of Torch Mobile (a leading contributor in the WebKit community), but also years of RIM mobile expertise to help ensure that the WebKit engine is optimized for mobile. What does this mean? Click the link below and I’ll show you!
Rendering Speed and Web Standards SupportOur development team made it a priority to ensure that new BlackBerry Browser supports web standards both now and going forward. Below are few examples of where we stand today with some important web standards — including HTML5, an emerging web standard and a key focus in future versions of the BlackBerry Browser.
- Our Acid 3 test score: Perfect (100 of 100)
- Our CSS3 Selectors test score: Perfect (574 of 574)
- Our HTML5 test score: 208 of 300 – note that total compliance is not yet possible
The combination of the WebKit engine, web standards support, and our efforts to optimize for the mobile environment means that the new BlackBerry Browser is designed to provide a significant improvement to HTML rendering speed, and JavaScript® execution. Combined, these two performance improvements will drive the most obvious and customer-facing metric of all performance metrics – page load performance!
New UI and Features
Encapsulating the core rendering engine is an all-new user interface. The BlackBerry Browser UI in BlackBerry 6 has been designed to help users get to their desired content quickly, with minimal latency and required steps. New features we’ve added to the BlackBerry Browser include: a redesigned start page, unified URL and search entry box, tabbed browsing, pinch to zoom, and automatic content adjustment. Check out my post on Inside BlackBerry for a thorough overview of these new features.
While many things have changed in the BlackBerry Browser, one key element has stayed the same: The BlackBerry platform optimizes, but does not compromise the web content and application experience. We are the only platform that uses WebKit while also reducing the data consumed to render most sites significantly. BlackBerry 6 is designed to allow users to access desktop and premium mobile web content while using significantly less data, making it easier for them to stay within the confines of their service plans. This is also great news for developers, because the BlackBerry platform will not compromise your web content while reducing data consumption for consumers. It’s a win-win!
We have a lot of great BlackBerry Developer’s Blog posts in the coming weeks discussing WebKit and HTML5 in more detail. BlackBerry developers, please leave us a comment and let us know what you’re looking forward to the most in the new BlackBerry 6 platform!
BlackBerry App World 2.0: What Developers Need To Know
Today, an enhanced BlackBerry App World™ comes out of beta and launches in full. This release has some great news for our developer community, as it includes the launch of additional pricing tiers. You can now offer applications for US$0.99 or US$2.99.
Every day, more and more BlackBerry® smartphone users are discovering the benefit of applications; however, they have also been vocal about wanting price tiers between $0 and $2.99. Developers have also asked for these new price points to better align with the value and target market for certain applications, and to better encourage impulse purchases.
While we believe that the introduction of these tiers will entice new customers to BlackBerry App World and bring applications to the attention of even more users, we also know that BlackBerry customers have embraced applications that are priced according to their individual value, and we strongly encourage vendors to continue to price their application as strategically as they have been doing.
The BlackBerry platform continues to offer developers the opportunity to create very meaningful applications with our extensive API set and a high level of customization. That personalization and integration will continue to drive success for our developers as customers seek out high-value “Super Apps” from our developer community.
We are also excited that the introduction of new billing models in BlackBerry App World 2.0 – including credit card and carrier billing – will help make it even easier for consumers to purchase applications. There has never been a better time to be a BlackBerry developer!
In addition to these great announcements, we are thrilled to announce that BlackBerry App World 2.0 is now available in 65 countries! Head on over to the Inside BlackBerry blog to check out posts that cover all the exciting end user features and some frequently asked questions.
As a developer, this all means more opportunity for your applications – more users in more places, more ways for customers to purchase your apps, and more ways to be found in top applications lists!
Finally – what are your questions about BlackBerry App World 2.0 as a developer? We’d love to hear them in the comments below!
HTML5 Elements for BlackBerry
As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, WebKit has come to BlackBerry®! This is an exciting time not only for the BlackBerry Web Platform, but for web technologies in general. With the combination of WebKit and the new W3C standard for HTML5, web applications are going to become more and more powerful.
Here at Research In Motion® (RIM), we’re incredibly excited about this development. The support of WebKit and HTML5 in BlackBerry® 6 – along with the recent introduction of BlackBerry® Widgets – shows the way the platform is changing and growing for web developers looking to make rich, compelling apps that have the same look, feel and features as a native application.
HTML5 contains lots of new elements for developers to leverage, including elements to help make web content easier to index and optimize for search engines; elements that enable you to play media in your application; elements that let you take it offline; and a plethora of other features to make your application a thing of beauty. The BlackBerry implementation of WebKit and HTML5 will be no different – going forward with the BlackBerry 6 Browser and Widget engines, you’ll be able to leverage all of the same elements that you would for any desktop browsers with virtually no limitations.
These elements include:
With the added capabilities of HTML5 to the BlackBerry® Browser, web developers will be able to create content that they would have never been able to run through the mobile web before – compelling games, interactive media, 3D graphics, and the list goes on. HTML5 looks to be an invaluable tool for web developers around the world!
Here’s a few blogs and websites with some examples of the compelling features of HTML5:
Please feel free to post your HTML5 experiences so far, and share with us how you plan to leverage this exciting new technology!
