A few days ago we let you know that BlackBerry will be hosting a BlackBerry Jam event that will be virtual as anyone interested in joining can certainly do so. The event will take place on August 14th from 2 pm – 5 pm EDT. BlackBerry will be discussing the BlackBerry 10.2 Gold SDK release which will have many users and developers very excited.
What exactly will be in the BlackBerry 10.2 Gold SDK?
– Headless Apps – The ability to create a headless service. As a headless service, you can register for predefined triggers and the platform will invoke your application in response to the trigger. Similar for BlackBerry legacy devices, the ability to close an app and have it running in the background will be possible.
– Screen Services -Various screen services that allow an app to take screenshots, initiate a VNC-style screen share and inject touchscreen and keypad style events into the screen window.
– USB Host – Allows the BlackBerry 10 device to act as a host and provides functionality to enumerate and connect to USB devices. Once a device is connected, the app can transfer data to the end point both synchronously and asynchronously. Note that some BlackBerry 10 devices will need to be equipped with a BlackBerry dock to act as a host.
– USB Serial – Allows your app to connect to host mode capable devices. Similar to host mode, USB serial APIs can enumerate and connect to host mode capable accessories, open a channel to the device, and send and receive data using the channel.
– Altimeter – Altimeter APIs provide sensor pressure and temperature reading, current altitude, and 24-hour pressure and temperature history.
– BlackBerry ID – Allow 3rd parties to store and retrieve key value pairs into the BlackBerry ID infrastrucure and also allow 3rd party apps to use BlackBerry ID as their authentication systems.
– VPN – Provide APIs to integrate VPN services into BlackBerry 10 VPN Manager.
– Smart Card – APIs that provide smart card integrating such as PIN verification and signing.
While these terms are mostly “developer’s talk”, many users who attend the event (virtually) will get a better explanation as to how this will improve app developing and usability. For those interested in attending, check out our previous post on this. See you there!