1. san4berry's Avatar
    So, I've been thinking for a while and some of the podcasts going around have also suggested that there are already too many platoforms out there for phones when it comes to developing apps (IOS, android, blackberry, webos, wp7, etc..etc..) Developers are only going to develop for 1-3 platforms, and the rest are going to have to suffer with subpar apps. IMO, Rim has a jump on the competition by developing a way to port apps from one of the leading app platforms. I think going forward a lot of devs will favor a way to convert of port their games over to different platforms rather than totally rewrite thier apps. It'll make their lives easier as well as give them more $

    do you relaly care if your kindle app is an android app or blackberry? as long as it runs smoothly and we can open multiple instances?
    newcollector likes this.
    06-27-11 02:03 PM
  2. Foreverup's Avatar
    I particularly don't care what the app is written in but I do agree with other posters that while releasing the app player alone is a great start, RIM does need to find away to bake it into the core OS so you have the ability to multi-task.

    I don't want to have to close my kindle app, just so I can open something else if it is another android app.
    Mojoski likes this.
    06-27-11 02:11 PM
  3. kzeusr's Avatar
    From what i understand its not that you wont be able to multitask with other playbook apps. I was under the impression that you wont be able to run more than one android app in the app player at the same time.
    06-27-11 02:45 PM
  4. san4berry's Avatar
    yup, that's what I heard! let's hope it's not true
    06-27-11 02:47 PM
  5. Foreverup's Avatar
    yup, that's what I heard! let's hope it's not true
    based on the demo should at bb world it is true. I hope down the road not true but with first release it probably will be.
    06-27-11 02:57 PM
  6. Angelo_Campher's Avatar
    I doubt they can bake Android into the OS because it runs on a different kernel. As for multi-tasking android apps i would assume that that would entail opening multiple Android emulators which would be to memory intensive.
    06-27-11 03:44 PM
  7. andrewmcwhirter's Avatar
    I listened in on the NDK webinar a few weeks back, and during the q & a, the question of weather multiple android apps can run at the same time would be possible on the Playbook, and the answer was 'yes'.
    06-27-11 04:01 PM
  8. Foreverup's Avatar
    I listened in on the NDK webinar a few weeks back, and during the q & a, the question of weather multiple android apps can run at the same time would be possible on the Playbook, and the answer was 'yes'.
    wow that's news hope your right
    06-27-11 05:12 PM
  9. s219's Avatar
    I would have been impressed, no -- make that satisfied, if RIM had a native SDK ready to go before the device launched. That sort of baseline product support should be standard behavior nowadays (for example Apple gave developers several months lead time with the SDK before introducing the iPad in 2010). Instead we have a lowest-common-denominator Flash/Air SDK that had already demonstrated mostly hideous app quality, and we're waiting for a partial solution that will allows only "some" Android *phone* apps to run inside a sandbox. This is far from innovation -- it's more like pathetic developer support.

    Serious developers want a good native SDK, and they want it yesterday. Time and time again, it's been demonstrated that a native SDK is the only real way to take full advantage of hardware capabilities of a device. Look to webOS as one example of a failure.

    Seriously, if RIM wants to compete with iOS, Android, and WP7 in terms of developer tools, they need to stop bringing dull knives to the gun fight. They need to focus all efforts on the native SDK and get it out there.
    BSFA2008 likes this.
    06-27-11 05:45 PM
  10. Economist101's Avatar
    I would have been impressed, no -- make that satisfied, if RIM had a native SDK ready to go before the device launched. That sort of baseline product support should be standard behavior nowadays (for example Apple gave developers several months lead time with the SDK before introducing the iPad in 2010). Instead we have a lowest-common-denominator Flash/Air SDK that had already demonstrated mostly hideous app quality, and we're waiting for a partial solution that will allows only "some" Android *phone* apps to run inside a sandbox.
    To be fair to RIM, they've been racing the clock on this from day one. Apple had the luxury of taking its time, prepping its product and announcing it on its own schedule. I'm sure RIM would've liked to do the same, but it seems as though their goal was to release the device by March 2011, preferably ahead of the iPad 2. As a result, RIM (which is not a tremendously large company) had an awful lot to accomplish with precious little time (roughly a year according to Jim B.). I'm sure if RIM believed it had the time it would've released the NDK before the device launch, would've had all their native apps ready for launch, etc. But when you're pressed for time, there's only so much you can do.
    BSFA2008 likes this.
    06-27-11 05:56 PM
  11. 123berryaddicted's Avatar
    Yep, only so much ya can do eh

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    06-27-11 06:28 PM
  12. JustAnotherBeerbot's Avatar
    I doubt they can bake Android into the OS because it runs on a different kernel. As for multi-tasking android apps i would assume that that would entail opening multiple Android emulators which would be to memory intensive.
    What does "different kernel" have to do with it? QNX supports the POSIX APIs, so port should be straightforward.
    06-29-11 03:17 PM
  13. blackjack93117's Avatar
    So, I've been thinking for a while and some of the podcasts going around have also suggested that there are already too many platoforms out there for phones when it comes to developing apps (IOS, android, blackberry, webos, wp7, etc..etc..) Developers are only going to develop for 1-3 platforms, and the rest are going to have to suffer with subpar apps. IMO, Rim has a jump on the competition by developing a way to port apps from one of the leading app platforms. I think going forward a lot of devs will favor a way to convert of port their games over to different platforms rather than totally rewrite thier apps. It'll make their lives easier as well as give them more $

    do you relaly care if your kindle app is an android app or blackberry? as long as it runs smoothly and we can open multiple instances?
    Makes me wonder what it took to port "NFS undercover" - quite sure it wasnt written exclusively for playbook. But what do I know about games or developing apps. It's the only game app I have because I had no choice. But seems to be an indication that a lot is possible in the realm of porting apps, no?
    .
    Last edited by blackjack93117; 06-29-11 at 03:51 PM.
    06-29-11 03:48 PM
  14. Angelo_Campher's Avatar
    What does "different kernel" have to do with it? QNX supports the POSIX APIs, so port should be straightforward.
    You not getting what I'm saying. Porting would allow the given app to run natively along with all the QNX goodies. Whereas running an app through the emulator is not going to give you those benefits such as multitasking. Running multiple Android apps at the same time would entail opening multiple emulators which would be a resource hogger unless they've somehow figured out a way to open multiple apps under the one emulator but even then all your open Android apps won't be visible when in window mode as it would fall under the Android player window.
    06-29-11 04:21 PM
  15. ADGrant's Avatar
    I doubt they can bake Android into the OS because it runs on a different kernel. As for multi-tasking android apps i would assume that that would entail opening multiple Android emulators which would be to memory intensive.
    Android apps are written in Java. They do not make kernal level system calls. It would definitely be possible to integrate an Android JVM into the OS (along with a BB OS JVM).
    Angelo_Campher likes this.
    06-29-11 04:28 PM
  16. chiefbroski's Avatar
    They have demoed the android player and the native email already, so it's only a matter of time. I'm guessing RIM will already have a few android apps to begin with to make it useful. It'll probably take a while for a significant number are submitted to App World.
    06-29-11 05:23 PM
  17. haimez's Avatar
    Android apps are written in Java. They do not make kernal level system calls. It would definitely be possible to integrate an Android JVM into the OS (along with a BB OS JVM).
    My inner geek can't let this *mostly* correct statement slide without some clarification. The Android and BB JVM's (and PlayBook App runtimes of all flavors) each come bundled with a bunch of libraries that allow the apps to run. The more VM's on the device, the bigger the OS becomes in terms of storage. That's no big deal really, but it could start affecting the 16GB crowd. Also, each type of VM running will incur a memory overhead (The android VM + BBOS VM + AIR + Playbook JVM running at once makes a sad panda).

    Now, *most* android apps are written in Java and therefore, don't make kernel calls, but some actually do. In fact, most of the games that employ real time physics engines actually run them in native code to improve performance and prevent the JVM garbage collector from temporarily stalling physics calculations.

    TLDR: more VM types take more storage (and more running vm types take more memory), and some android apps won't be port-able.
    06-29-11 06:02 PM
  18. s219's Avatar
    Makes me wonder what it took to port "NFS undercover" - quite sure it wasnt written exclusively for playbook. But what do I know about games or developing apps. It's the only game app I have because I had no choice. But seems to be an indication that a lot is possible in the realm of porting apps, no?
    .
    That's an example of what devs can do with the native SDK. It was likely a typical C/C++ game (due to use of OpenGL) that was ported over.
    06-29-11 08:32 PM
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