BlackBerry Androi dapps

In addition to providing a sneak peek at the future of BlackBerry tablets and smartphones with the introduction of the BBX software platform today, RIM announced a few new updates for the existing BlackBerry Playbook tablet.

First, the Native Software Developer Kit, or NDK has hit version 1.0 which means the tools to create native apps for the PlayBook are finally out of beta. Developers can also write apps using Adobe AIR and other software tools.

But the much more exciting is that a beta version of NDK 2.0 is also now available — and developers can download BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 beta from the BlackBerry Dev Zone and install it on a PlayBook starting today.

The new beta operating system includes a number of enhancements, but one of the most hyped new features is support for some Android applications. This will allow developers to write apps for Google Android phones and tablets, and deliver them to BlackBerry PlayBook users with minimal fuss.

PlayBook users will be able to download, install, and run Android apps just as if they were native apps written for the tablet.

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 also supports Adobe AIR 3.0, Adobe Flash 11, and WebGL.

Right now the beta software is aimed at developers rather than the general public. Hopefully it’s a sign that users will be able to update their devices soon as well.

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5 replies on “RIM launches BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 beta (with Android app support)”

  1. I think that although there are formidable restrictions on the Android apps, its not a reason to despair, leave the NDK to blackberry developers.  I mean really, what are we going to do with apps written to change the android keyboard? The only one that realllly gets under my skin is the in app purchases.

  2. The Android app support is still only BB-signed apps through the BB app store?

    1. Side loading apps should still work as long as it doesn’t deal with any Live Wallpaper, SIP and SIP VoIP, anything built using the Native
      Development Kit, apps containing only App Widgets, any packages which rely on Google Maps, in-app billing services, Android’s text-to-speech engine, or the cloud-to-device messaging system, and apps containing
      more than one activity tied to the Launcher.

      Hopefully, someone else will come out with a better emulator or find a way to dual boot Android but for now there are some fairly distinct limitations for running Android apps on the Playbook.

      Though the main reason to want to run Android Apps on the Playbook is because they have yet to build much of a app database for the Playbook but hopefully that will change soon.

        1. Would have to agree with the sentiment, latest report indication they won’t release the final update till February 2012.

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