The long wait is over -- sort of. Research in Motion just reached a major milestone in finally getting its long-awaited BlackBerry 10 platform off the ground: The company has officially given developers the essential tools for creating BB10 apps, including prototype hardware running the new software.
The BlackBerry 10 "DevAlpha" device (see the gallery below) looks like a relatively thick Android phone (though it's lightweight). It has a 4.2-inch screen with 1,280 x 768-pixel resolution -- pretty decent for today's phones -- and an HDMI output for mirroring. It packs an OMAP processor, though RIM was quick to say the hardware wasn't necessarily indicative of what final products will have.
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RIM's giving all developers attending BlackBerry World a DevAlpha device. It's also put the BlackBerry 10 native software development kit (SDK) up for download. The toolkit gives developers the key APIs (application programming interfaces) for accessing core device functions like payment services and push alerts.
"[We're] giving developers full access to the native platform," says Christopher Smith, RIM's vice president of application platform and tools. "You can have your application messages flowing right into the main unified inbox. You can register pattern recognizers, so that when you're in some other app, it can launch based on an address."
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The developer toolkit also includes tools for building HTML5 apps. For apps where performance is less of a priority than compatibility with other platforms, it's much easier for a developer to build an app with HTML5. The BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK gives developers what they need to create BB10 apps with native-like abilities.
"We really have two pillars to our platform," says Smith. "There's the native site and then there's HTML5. Developers coming from a web perspective have different needs. With WebWorks, we let you take HTML5 out of the browser and build a complete native application."
We got some brief eyes-on time with the DevAlpha device. Apps appear to run very fluidly, with a speed and ease of use that's characteristic of iOS and Android. Menus tend to follow a side-swiping pattern (think the iOS Facebook app), and there are some nice bells and whistles, such as easily adding animation to backgrounds and other elements.
However, from our few minutes with the device, we didn't see any "wow" factor that separates BlackBerry 10 from the experience on other smartphones. But much of that depends on what developers end up creating.
Are you a developer? What's your take on BlackBerry 10? Share your thoughts in the comments.
BlackBerry 10 DevAlpha Device
The device developers will use to create apps for BlackBerry 10 has a 4.2-inch screen with 1,280 x 768 resolution.
Click here to view this gallery.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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