RIM Touts BlackBerry Storm2 as Developer Device

Research In Motion is touting its BlackBerry Storm2 as a hot device for developers, as the BlackBerry OS 5.0 is the first smartphone operating system from RIM to support Google Gears and SQLite for BlackBerry Widgets.

BlackBerry OS 5.0 is expected to be available in the coming months for the BlackBerry Storm, BlackBerry Bold 9000, BlackBerry Tour 9630, BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry Curve 8350i and BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphones—creating vast market potential for mobile applications built for BlackBerry OS 5.0, the company said.

Developers interested in building BlackBerry Widgets can download a beta release of the BlackBerry Widget SDK (software development kit) at www.blackberry.com/developers/widget.

Moreover, an update to the beta release of the BlackBerry JDE 5.0 (Java Development Environment 5.0) for building Java-based applications for smartphones running BlackBerry Device Software 5.0 is available at na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/devbetasoftware/javasdk5.jsp. BlackBerry JDE 5.0 also includes new APIs for developers to use to create feature-rich applications with deep integration with BlackBerry OS 5.0, the company said.

Key features of BlackBerry JDE 5.0 include: APIs for deeper integration with BlackBerry smartphone applications, including access to multiple phone lines and multiple Contact lists, links to BlackBerry Contacts, and customizable phone screens with text and images, embedded video capture and streaming, RIM officials said. Other key features include new user interface APIs, networking APIs and a new SQLite API that provides Java developers with a familiar way to manage their application data in a persistent database.

BlackBerry OS 5.0 includes further enhancements to the BlackBerry Browser that improve Website rendering and deliver faster JavaScript and CSS.

RIM will be talking at length about developer tools and resources for building applications for the BlackBerry Storm2 smartphone and BlackBerry OS 5.0 at the BlackBerry Developer Conference, which will be held Nov. 9 to 12 in San Francisco.