BlackBerry Developers At Work!

Today marks the release of the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 smartphone, the device pictured to the left. If you haven’t heard about this device yet, now would be a good time to read the press release announcing the BlackBerry Pearl. The Pearl is initially available on T-Mobile in the United States (starting today) and on Rogers in Canada (in October).

This new device is particularly significant to the BlackBerry developer because it’s Research In Motion’s first real attempt at cracking the consumer market. I’ve been able to play with it for the past month in preparation for the launch of the AvantGo for the BlackBerry beta — more on that in a later post — and now that the device has been released I can share some of my thoughts about it. (By the way, if you’re reading this and the CTIA show is still on, go to the iAnywhere/Sybase booth and ask to see AvantGo running on the Pearl.)

It’s a phone, not a wireless handheld

Up until now, RIM has always referred to its devices as wireless handhelds, except of course the earliest models which were referred to as interactive pagers. But the Pearl is labeled a smartphone. Here “smartphone” is used in the generic sense, not as a reference to the Microsoft Smartphone platform — application programming for the Pearl is still done in Java, just like the other BlackBerry platforms.

Unlike the previous BlackBerry models — even the 7100 series — the Pearl really looks and feels like a mobile phone. The keypad is similar to the 7100 and supports RIM’s SureType predictive typing system. The screen is gorgeous. The device is light. And, good grief, it includes a camera! (Longtime BlackBerry aficionados will remember how Mike Lazaridis once said that there’d never be a camera in a BlackBerry: “We will not offer such a device. Not that we could not do that. But because such a feature is a security risk for corporate and government environments.” But don’t expect the camera to show up on the traditional BlackBerry models.)

There’s no trackwheel!

And yet, the inclusion of a camera isn’t the biggest change from an application development viewpoint. Current BlackBerry users will be surprised to discover that the trackwheel on the side of the device — a signature feature since the early days of the Inter@ctive Pager — has been replaced with a trackball on the front of the device, right under the screen. It’s a bit disconcerting at first if you’re an experienced BlackBerry user, especially when you try to hit the key on the side of the device and end up taking pictures because the escape key is now on the front of the device:

The trackball makes navigation simpler for the user since it operates in two dimensions versus the trackwheel’s single dimension. To move left or right on the classic BlackBerry you had to hold the ALT key while scrolling; now you can just move the trackball in the right direction.

But wait, you say, will my existing applications work with the trackball? Yes, but the navigation may be awkward, because the ALT+up and ALT+down semantics will still be needed to move left and right in most cases. You need to adapt your code a bit to use the new APIs that RIM provides for transparently handling trackwheel and trackball input.

Latest OS is now version 4.2

The Pearl ships with version 4.2.0 of the BlackBerry operating system and includes a bunch of new APIs. Some are from Java ME JSRs (Java Specification Requests, community-developed Java standards) and some are obviously specific to the BlackBerry. And a bunch of bug fixes. You can read the JDE 4.2 release notes for more details. And be sure to download the JDE version 4.2 if you plan on doing any Pearl development.

The developer documentation — which has always been the weakest link — has been completely revised for the 4.2 release. I haven’t had enough time to look at it very closely yet, though, so I can’t comment on whether or not it’s a real improvement.

It has a filesystem!

The BlackBerry Pearl has a microSD slot on it, which is accessed through the standard JSR-75 FileConnection API. Until now all that was available was the BlackBerry persistent object store. Now applications can store and access files in the usual way.

You won’t find the microSD slot on the device, however. You have to pry off the battery cover and take out the battery to expose the slot. No plug-and-play here, you’ll be resetting your device every time you change the microSD card.

But it’s still a BlackBerry

Despite the obvious consumer focus of this device — it’s meant to be used with the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) — it’s still a “real” BlackBerry. That means you can pair the device with your BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) and access your corporate email, surf the intranet, etc. As usual, IT policies are available to control all aspects of the device.

Should you buy one?

The Pearl is definitely a sexy device. If you’re a 7100 lover, it’s probably a no-brainer to upgrade. If you like the full QWERTY keyboard of the other devices, though, spend some time playing with the Pearl and using the SureType system. Personally, I prefer the full keyboard, probably because I’m a touch-typist and so I don’t really have to hunt for the keys. Also, I find that selecting the SureType alternate phrases more difficult/awkward with the trackball versus the trackwheel.

Still, if you’re a developer who wants to sell outside the corporate market you’ll need to get your hands on one of these for testing, even if you don’t use it yourself. I’ll have more to say about the Pearl in later posts.

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