RIM packs widgets; Palm opens developer programme

A suite of tools allowing third party application developers to build rich, web-based applications for BlackBerry handsets.The new offering bring RIM into line with the rest of the mobile OS world, whereas it previously only supported BlackBerry applications written in Java, a BlackBerry widget uses the handset’s browser engine to render an application’s user interface using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Developers are then able to use existing web content to create BlackBerry Widgets and extend the capabilities of their web applications using optimised APIs, while interacting with the BlackBerry email and calendar applications, files and documents stored on the device, and location-based services or the media player.

Developers can also take advantage of RIM’s push technology, enabling dynamic widgets to run in the background and provide alerts and updates to users. The SDK runs on version 5.0 of the BlackBerry OS and a beta release of the BlackBerry Widget SDK is available today.