Zombie Attack! is an incredibly addictive game that originated on iPhone and has been ported to BlackBerry. ZA! is a tower defense game that pits you up against wave after wave of zombies, and forces you to strategically place your weapons to properly defend home base. Features of the game include:
Different zombie types to slay
4 weapon types for a variety of zombie killing techniques
Survivor machete: hack and slash the undead when needed
At the BlackBerry Developer Group in Ottawa, Anthony Rizk demonstrated how easy it is to create an app for the PlayBook using the Adobe AIR SDK. Zeebu has posted a video of Zeebu’s Baby GO running on the BlackBerry PlayBook simulator. According to Anthony, this took about 4 hours of work, including time figuring out the tools and packaging the output from Flash Professional CS5. The app also plays audio, but unfortunately they couldn’t get audio output working in the simulator.
The first of the BlackBerry PlayBook apps are being developed as we speak and it will be interesting to see what people come up with. Today, RIM hosted the first webcast for developers in a series that will span 5 weeks of PlayBook development help. Some of the details we learned in the webcast include:
RIM will be opening app world for PlayBook app submissions in about 2 weeks. More details about free PlayBooks for developers will come then.
The PlayBook will have a few cool gestures for switching apps, showing the keyboard and displaying device information such as battery life (pictured above).
The PlayBook will eventually support more than just Adobe AIR development. Developers will also be able to write apps for the PlayBook in Java and WebWorks.
Currently, there is no support for app splash screens but RIM will include it if there are enough devs asking for it.
App deployment over the BES is not finalized. The first version is a WiFi only version so no direct connection with BES but there will be tethering. No more details just yet.
Not a lot of information available on GPS and location support but this will be explained in future webcasts.
The PlayBook will have capabilities that the BlackBerry doesn’t.
The AIR SDK can leverage both front and rear facing cameras.
Theme Builder is not in the plans for the initial release but they’ll consider it if there is enough positive feedback.
The best part of the webcast was when Mike Kirkup said the PlayBook has a “kick ass” video processor. Can’t wait to check it out.
Millennial Media and DIGIDAY released a report called the “State of the Apps Industry Snapshot.” There is some interesting data in the report on the current mobile app landscape and things look okay for the BlackBerry platform but there is definitely more action in other smartphones like Windows Phone 7. The main reason for this is that Microsoft is paying developers upfront royalties to give them incentive to push their apps to WP7. Maybe RIM should consider doing something similar for big titles that aren’t on their platform yet. Hit the jump for more details. Continue reading ‘State of the Apps Industry Snapshot Shows Developers Optimistic About Revenue’
The PlayBook QNX OS looks pretty sweet. The device’s multitasking looks really powerful and we’re excited to see more demos of this device before it hits the market. Just as we saw BlackBerry 6 themes before the launch of the OS, we’re starting to see QNX OS themes hit the market now. One of these themes is BeAmplified and it comes with the BlackBerry 6 icons and a PlayBook style carousel with tiled app icons. This theme also comes with hotkeys that let you access features such as the browser, pictures, music, clock, SMS and more with a single key.
