Web Directions Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

With the rise of native mobile apps, what place is there for web developers in the mix? Frameworks like KendoUI, jQuery Mobile, and SenchaTouch can help develop UIs that feel more “native app-like”, and technologies like phoneGap can both give us lower level APIs, and help us wrap up our code to be deployed into App Stores.

But a platform we’ve been excited about for some time, Blackberry 10, makes web technologies first class citizens.

BlackBerry’s browser is a modern webkit browser, with industry leading scores in terms of performance, and feature support. But, unlike with many other platforms, Web developers get access to low level device APIs right from JavaScript. You can debug your apps using a web browser on your desktop, while they run natively on the device, and then package your apps to be deployed in BlackBerry World, the app storefront for the BlackBerry platform.

So, if you’ve already got mobile friendly or optimised content or apps, it makes sense to consider spending that little bit of extra effort to turn it into a BlackBerry 10 Native App.

Web Directions Code Blackberry App Competition

To give you just a little more incentive, BlackBerry are holding a competition for Australian and New Zealand residents, with top entrants showcased at Web Directions Code, and some pretty awesome prizes. And you don’t have to be attending Code to enter!

What you have to do

1. Check out http://developer.blackberry.com/html5 for platform documentation/tools
2. Create a mobile app using web technologies (and phoneGap or WebWorks)
3. Submit a .bar app file to [email protected] (with a short description for voters) by noon on May 1st AEST.
4. Win awesome prizes!

so, you’re thinking this is going to be a lot of work. Think again! And to give you a little more incentive, here’s what’s on offer.

Prizes

First Prize

1. All expenses paid trip to BlackBerry Jam Asia 2013
2. BlackBerry Z10 smartphone
3. $2000 cash

Second Prize

1. BlackBerry Z10 smartphone
2. $1500 cash

Third Prize All

1. BlackBerry Z10 smartphone
2. $1000 cash

All voters at Web Directions Code will walk away with great swag!

Judging

Judging will have two components:

1. A crowd vote by attendees at Web Directions Code
2. Judging by a panel of Judges including Chris Saunders from BlackBerry and John Allsopp from Web Directions

The Workshop

To make it even easier to enter, Chris Saunders from BlackBerry will be hosting a workshop at Web Directions secret lair in Sydney, from 2pm to 5pm, Friday April 26th. Just bring your laptop, and code, and have Chris on hand to help you get up to speed, and maybe even complete your porting job, as well as test on some real live Blackberry 10 devices, before winding up the week with a beer. Then head around to #Fridayat4 to catch up with many more from the Sydney web community

It’s free, but places are limited, so sign up now, and get in the running for a trip to South East Asia later this year for BlackBerry Jam Asia (including flights and accommodation), cash prizes, and brand new BlackBerry devices.