BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR Updates (0.9.2)

Posted on January 12, 2011 | 6 comments

BlackBerry released some new beta bits for the PlayBook device and Tablet OS recently. As part of the latest beta release for the PlayBook, the WebWorks SDK for Tablet OS was introduced (that’s for another post). Along with the introduction of WebWorks SDK for Tablet OS the update to the Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR, the simulator was updated.

First the simulator update details. The main change was the added ability to simulate the rotation events. In your AIR application you will need to include the <autoOrients>true</autoOrients> to the application descriptor file. And then to simulate the rotation event, start in the bottom right corner and swipe up.

In the Beta3 drop for BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR was updated to 0.9.2. Which includes a bunch of interesting changes (full release notes here).

  • Application control permissions – For example, to access the camera, add <permission>use_camera</permission>
  • Changed & New APIs – Device.bsn is interesting
  • Simulator and SDK available for Linux
  • You can ssh into the simulator, used to be just telnet
  • Splash Screen – Use the “splashscreen” attribute in the application descriptor file.
  • Support for the Payment Service – You can now use the Payment Service APIs that are provided in the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR to permit tablet users to make purchases without leaving your application. (I found some initial APIs and whipped an example application)
  • Reports of Video/Sound working in Simulator

Also with the release are some bug fixes and known issues. The main known issue that I should point out is possible issues with application descriptor files with the <android> manifest values.

Along with these changes the free PlayBook offer has been extended to March 15th. Happy PlayBook application development :)

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  • Flackery

    Do you know where I put use_camera?
    It is giving me errors if I put it in the application tag or initialWindow.

    error 103: application.permission is an unexpected element/attribute

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  • http://unitedmindset.com/jonbcampos jonathan campos

    Great post as always. Love having someone out there on the bleeding edge. Can you recommend a good size for that splash screen image?

    • http://www.renaun.com Renaun Erickson

      The sample splash screen is 1024×600. I would assume this same image is used for portrait mode as well (at least for now, that might change in the future).

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  • Alan

    Is it possible to convert a .air file (built with Adobe Air + Javascript/HTML) to a .bar file for the Playbook?

    • http://www.renaun.com Renaun Erickson

      AIR applications with the mobileDevice profile (PlayBook, Android, iOS) do support HTML/JS AIR applications. You have to look at using the StageWebView api’s that are available in the AIR mobileDevice profile.