My buddy Josep caught this little tidbit at WES on his Twitpic account. RIM has been slowly trying to turn their web browser into a sort of low-fi application suite. They plan on letting developers create simple web apps that have more access to the BlackBerry API. This includes the use of Gears for caching and supporting new versions of CSS and HTML.
Josep managed to garner the following information about these widgets:
- They are developed via regular html and JavaScript
They have access to Blackberry functions via APIs - Developers still have to sign the app
- User needs to approve url pages if the widgets access to external content
- The apps can be delivered via app world
- The widgets require a certain web component package that will come soon
- And last but not least they need OS 5.0
RIM was showing off a simple contact app as you can see below. Its a pretty cool idea and a great way for companies to easily launch a simple application without having to hire a team of Java developers. In essence it lowers the bar for entry into custom BlackBerry development.
