Research In Motion announced the release of updated Java and web-based tools for its BlackBerry smartphone platform, promising developers new capabilities to simplify creation of feature-rich applications. According to RIM, the new BlackBerry Java Plug-In for Eclipse v1.1 enables developers to leverage the Eclipse 3.5 open-source environment to build, debug, profile and simulate apps across a variety of BlackBerry smartphone simulators, physical devices and multiple versions of the BlackBerry OS--features include the ability to instantly load and immediately run a modified application for debugging without resetting the simulator or device. RIM also introduced BlackBerry Web Plug-In v2.0, enabling developers to create web applications, content and widgets using standard web technology and programming languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and AJAX. New features include BlackBerry Widget debugging and profiling, Eclipse 3.5 support and simulator "hot swap" to slash testing and debugging time between iterations.
RIM's new BlackBerry Java SDK v5.0 includes more than 20,000 APIs, promising access to smartphone hardware features, native BlackBerry software applications and related BlackBerry Application Platform system capabilities. Highlights include OpenGL ES support for 3D graphics, touchscreen and accelerometer, new pre-built UI components like spin-box fields, file pickers and screen transitions, SQLite support for data sharing across different applications, and Location Based Services APIs enabling cell-site geolocation, GPS, geocoding and reverse geocoding to obtain address and location data.
For more on the new BlackBerry tools:
- read this release
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