With RIM’s DevCon event set to commence in a number of hours, the Canadian smartphone giant has started to publish more information related its presentations and keynotes, finally making available information on how to port Android applications over to the BlackBerry PlayBook in a new video posted to its YouTube account.
The BlackBerry Packager for Android will be discussed at DevCon but as Engadget points out, it only receives a brief mention in the conference schedule. However, the video provides the necessary information for an Android developer to quickly and easily sign and package their applications so they can turn their APK files into BAR files and run on the BlackBerry PlayBook.
In September, RIM engineers detailed the limitations of Android applications on the PlayBook, noting that Live Wallpapers, SIP and VOIP apps, tools created using the Android NDK and app widgets would not be supported on the tablet device.
On top of that, packages that rely on Google Maps, utilise in-app purchases, use Android’s text-to-speech engine or cloud-to device messaging will not work on the PlayBook.
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RIM’s compatibility tool will of course help developers work out just what will and won’t work if they port apps to the PlayBook. We expect more information to become available as DevCon gets underway.
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