Category Archives: PlayBook

Version 2.7 of Pixelated released

This past weekend Pixelated was updated to version 2.7 in BlackBerry AppWorld. Like with Pixelated Plus version 2.7 includes better navigation on the BlackBerry PlayBook, as well as support for the upcoming 9900, 9930, 9360, 9810, and 9850 BlackBerry models.

PlayBook interface

The BlackBerry PlayBook version of Pixelated Plus now has an interface that can be mostly controlled by swiping around the screen. The main menu can be swiped down from the top bezel as before, but now can also be swiped back up. Additionally these additional screens for statistics and options slide down from the top of the device, and can be swiped back up in order to return to the game. This is more consistent with general navigation throughout the PlayBook’s OS where most everything is opened and closed via swipes rather then button presses.

New Devices

Pixelated Plus now supports the soon to be released BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930, the Torch 9810, the Curve 9360, and the touchscreen only 9850. The full list of supported BlackBerry models are as follows: 8330, 8350i, 8520, 8530, 8900, 8910, 8980, 9000, 9100, 9105, 9300, 9330, 9360, 9500, 9520, 9530, 9550, 9630, 9650, 9670, 9700, 9780, 9800, 9810, 9850, 9900, 9930, and the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Links & Information

Pixelated Plus updated to version 2.7

Pixelated Plus has been updated to version 2.7 in BlackBerry AppWorld. This new version includes better navigation on the BlackBerry PlayBook, as well as support for the upcoming 9900, 9930, 9360, 9810, and 9850 BlackBerry models. Also there was a bug fix in regards to the saving of in progress games that was added in version 2.6 of the game.

PlayBook interface

The BlackBerry PlayBook version of Pixelated Plus now has an interface that can be mostly controlled by swiping around the screen. The main menu can be swiped down from the top bezel as before, but now can also be swiped back up. Additionally these additional screens for statistics and options slide down from the top of the device, and can be swiped back up in order to return to the game. This is more consistent with general navigation throughout the PlayBook’s OS where most everything is opened and closed via swipes rather then button presses.

New Devices

Pixelated Plus now supports the soon to be released BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930, the Torch 9810, the Curve 9360, and the touchscreen only 9850. The full list of supported BlackBerry models are as follows: 8330, 8350i, 8520, 8530, 8900, 8910, 8980, 9000, 9100, 9105, 9300, 9330, 9360, 9500, 9520, 9530, 9550, 9630, 9650, 9670, 9700, 9780, 9800, 9810, 9850, 9900, 9930, and the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Links & Information

Updated PlayBook sales estimate

I took a crack at estimating PlayBook sales about a month ago, but with RIM set to release sales number tomorrow, I figured that I would take one more guess to see how accurate any of my estimating actually is.

The Wall Street Journal reported that analysts expect that RIM has shipped about 436,000 PlayBooks. CrackBerry is estimating sales under 200,000 units. I think the Wall Street Journal is much closer.

As of yesterday I am estimating that RIM has sold between 258,000 and 800,000 PlayBooks. My best guess is that they have sold 429,000 tablets, which is very close the the analyst guess.

This estimate is based on a lot of assumptions, and guess work but is based on the number of downloads of the free game Pixelated. However, as Pixelated has remained one of the top 10 most popular applications on the PlayBook, I feel that I have better numbers then most people to base this guess on.

Developers need access to Payment API as well

With OS 1.0.5 being released earlier this week for the BlackBerry PlayBook, one of the new features is “in-app payment support”. But there is a catch. Developers only have version 1.0.2 of the SDK in order to compile their code against. Without any sort of upgrade developers can not actually make use of this option, and therefore consumers will continue to not have a chance to use in-app payments either. RIM needs to keep the updates to the PlayBook coming early and often, and that means both to users and developers.

In-App payments are awesome. They have helped make Xploding Boxes a success, and will give developers more opportunities on the PlayBook. RIM just needs to complete all of the pieces to make this viable.

PlayBook Sales estimate

According to BGR (found via BlackBerryCool), RBC is estimating that RIM has sold 250,000+ BlackBerry PlayBooks in what has now been about a month of availability. This is in line with my estimate last week at the same number.

I don’t know exactly as of what date the RBC estimate is based off of, but as of yesterday I am now estimating that RIM has sold between 238,000 and 570,000 PlayBooks. Based off of the data I have, my best guess is that have sold 272,500 tablets in the first month.

This estimate is based on a lot of assumptions, and guess work as I do not have the actual number of tablets sold. However, as Pixelated has been one of the most popular applications on the PlayBook, I do have better numbers then most people, so I figured that I would share.

Black Out now available in BlackBerry AppWorld

Black Out is now available for the BlackBerry PlayBook through AppWorld. This strategy game was previously announced and has now been released with version 1.1 of the application.

How to Play

The goal to Black Out is to tap the tiles, so that they all get ‘blacked out’. This is complicated because whenever you tap to flip a tile, it also flips all of the tiles surrounding it. As such it requires a well laid out strategy.

In order to accommodate different difficulties, the game supports board sizes from 3×3 all the way up to a 10×10 grid. Furthermore, there is also a hint button in case you find yourself a bit too stuck.

Links & Information

New Version of Pixelated Plus

Pixelated Plus, currently the 6th most popular app for the BlackBerry PlayBook has now been updated to version 2.6. This update fixes the bugs found in the first PlayBook version, and now automatically saves any in-progress games for both the tablet and smartphone versions of the app.

New in version 2.6

In addition to the bug fixes on the PlayBook version, much of the user interface was also reworked making fonts easier to read, and adding direct links to take you to the website, and to email support for the app. The main change for the smartphone version of the app is that persistence of games from one session to another. You can now exit the application (or even restart your phone) and not lose any progress in your current game.

About Pixelated Plus

Pixelated Plus is an addicting puzzle based strategy game that requires a mixture of skill and luck in order to accomplish. The object of the game is to change the colour of the squares until the entire screen is a single solid colour. Starting with the square in the upper left corner you can change the colour of the blocks in order to match that of the surrounding squares. This is done repeatedly until the entire screen is a single colour. The object of the game is to clear the screen in as few moves as possible. Under the default settings you must do so in under 22 moves in order to win.

Links & Information

More PlayBook Applications need to make use of the swipe down menu

The bezel on the top of the PlayBook is reserved for developers to integrate a menu that can be swiped down from the top. However, an unfortunately large number of applications do not currently make use of this option. This breaks the consistency of the platform, and makes it more difficult for users to quickly get used to the tablet’s interface.

If not enough apps make use of the swipe down menu, users will not expect it to exist, and for those applications that do use it, users are liable to be unaware of the menu’s existence, and any additional items that are located there. Furthermore the alternative is to place a menu button on the screen that takes up space, and prevents the app from feeling like a native application.

Currently of the top 10 free apps, only 3 (including Pixelated) support a swipe down menu. Furthermore RIM is not even including one in all of its own applications such as the Scrapbook App, or even BlackBerry AppWorld. Given all of the support that RIM has offered to EA for Need For Speed, you would think that it would implement this basic UI function, but instead this app ignores the top bezel, and uses a convoluted two finger swipe instead.

RIM does not appear particularly interested in promoting this swipe down menu, but should they change their mind, they could do so by requiring that an app make use of such a menu in order to be featured in AppWorld. If RIM were to do this, the number of apps implementing a menu would rather quickly hit critical mass, and in turn give users a more consistent, and predictable interface to navigate.

How to invoke AppWorld in ActionScript

The ActionScript SDK for BlackBerry AppWorld does not include any published api’s to directly invoke native applications such as BlackBerry AppWorld. There is however a round about way to do so. The navigateToURL() method can be used to launch the web browser. Furthermore the browser intercepts specific app URLs to launching BlackBerry AppWorld instead. So if you wanted to launch AppWorld directly from inside an ActionScript app, all you need to do is to use the navigateToURL() method by pointing it at an AppWorld URL.

The following is an event that is fired following a click to a “Launch AppWorld” button.

public function lauchAppWorld(event:MouseEvent):void
{
navigateToURL(new URLRequest(“http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/1839”))
}

You can test this approach by simply entering the URL into the browser on your PlayBook. The one downside this course of action has however, is that along the way you will end up launching the browser with a blank window. But until more API’s are available this is at least an approach that works.

Update:

A better approach has been found. In order to go straight to AppWorld you can use navigateToURL() with a link in the format “appworld://content/1839” instead. The below approach is much cleaner and preferred to the work around listed above.

public function lauchAppWorld(event:MouseEvent):void
{
navigateToURL(new URLRequest(“appworld://content/1839”))
}

Version 2.5 of Pixelated

The free version of Pixelated has been updated to version 2.5. This new version improves navigation using the trackpad, and adds support for the BlackBerry PlayBook.

About Pixelated

Pixelated is an addicting puzzle based strategy game that requires a mixture of skill and luck in order to accomplish.

The object of the game is to change the colour of the squares until the entire screen is a single solid colour. Starting with the square in the upper left corner you can change the colour of the blocks in order to match that of the surrounding squares. This is done repeatedly until the entire screen is a single colour.

The object of the game is to clear the screen in as few moves as possible. Under the default settings you must do so in under 21 moves in order to win.

New in version 2.5

Trackpad support has been expanded so that you can also flick up and down in order to scroll through the colour options as well as left and right. Also the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is now supported, although there are a few issues that will be fixed soon, so it is actually recommended that you wait until version 2.6 is out before adding this game to your PlayBook. If all goes according to plan, version 2.6 of Pixelated will be out this time next week.

Links & Information

RIM’s PlayBook development guide is wrong

I recently found some issues with my apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook. These issues were a direct result of following RIM’s BlackBerry Tablet development guide. They need to fix this and stop making suggestions that simply do not work.

The article wisely recommends that you make sure that the application’s state is saved when it is deactivated and pushed to the background, but recommends a technique that is inconsistent at best. They are recommending that you save data by listening for Event.DEACTIVATE which detects when another application receives focus. However this event is never fired when the application exits (unless you run in Paused mode like the simulators used to). Assuming that you could use this approach to save data upon exiting is at the root of a lot of the problems in the early PlayBook applications.

Instead you can actually detect the application closing by using NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener(Event.EXITING,saveData) to listen for an exiting event, and saving data then. Until RIM’s development guide on the life cycle of PlayBook applications mentions this, it will just be wrong.

Pixelated Plus on the PlayBook does not save your data

I just wrote yesterday about the problems some applications will have on the PlayBook at launch due to a complete lack of testing. Just a few hours ago RIM finally updated the simulator, and it reveals that under normal situations your game data in my application will not be saved.

As such Black Out will be pulled from AppWorld until it can be updated to version 1.1 and tested on an actual device. Pixelated Plus and the free version of Pixelated will remain for sale in order to not disrupt the many customers using the application on their phones. The free version of Pixelated has not yet been approved in AppWorld, but probably will be later this week.

An update to these applications is (obviously) going to be a top priority and will be released as soon as possible. Until then, however, THE ONLY WAY TO ENSURE THAT YOUR PROGRESS IN THE GAME IS SAVED IS TO OPEN UP THE GAME OPTIONS AND CHANGE THE COLOUR SCHEME. So at least there is a workaround (as bizarre as it may be).

The disappointing thing is that this issue could have been avoided completely had RIM just send out devices to developers a week ago. Although the issue has not yet had time to be fully investigated, a few days notice probably would be enough to have this fixed by the launch of the device. Instead Research in Motion is sending out units to developers a week late, which is just going to delay everyone getting their applications updated even more.

Early PlayBook applications will reflect the shortcomings of the simulator

The BlackBerry PlayBook goes on sale tomorrow, but the applications that will be available for download at the start will reflect the shortcomings of the simulator that they were designed in. Developers have still not received their devices yet (and ironically may be among the last to do so), while the simulator used for developing PlayBook applications is based on a build that is around two months out of date at this point. As a result most of the applications in AppWorld for the PlayBook are very under-tested, and will be for the first few weeks after the PlayBook’s release.

First most of the applications will reflect the limitations of the simulator which didn’t support things like the accelerometer, and multi-touch. As such very few of the initial applications will make use of these features even though they will be available from day one. Additionally there will be very few applications that work in portrait orientation. Related to the lack of accelerometer support, the implementation of this in the simulator was a bit clumsy, and not entirely clear.

The other issue, is that these applications have not yet been tested on version 1.0 software or a real device. As such there are many settings and situations that these applications have not been tested under and developers do not yet know if bugs exist or not.

The Ebscer applications that will be available for the BlackBerry PlayBook this week will be Pixelated, Pixelated Plus, and Black Out. While I hope that these applications are in good shape, they honestly represent the least tested applications that I have ever released. The only evidence that I have of them running on an actual device is a tweet from Alex Kinsella saying that he enjoyed Pixelated Plus. There are rumors among the developers that they way I implemented saving data and displaying the menu may have issues. Expect all of these applications to receive another update in the near future.

As I said about PlayBook battery life

For quite a while now there have been varying reports that the battery life on the BlackBerry PlayBook was going to be disappointing. I have been quick to claim otherwise starting just days after it was announced, and continuing even when some analysts felt the need to say otherwise. So now that the PlayBook reviews are finally coming out how does the PlayBook’s battery actually do?

From Joshua Topolsky the battery lasted nearly 11 hours — an outstanding run for a device of this type and from Jonathan Geller at Boy Genius Report The battery life on the PlayBook has been extremely, extremely good. It lasts for days and I rarely worry about remembering to charge it.

It looks like I was right all along…

ActionScript (Life without threads)

With the release of the BlackBerry PlayBook next week, a good amount of time has been spent coding in ActionScript rather then Java. One of the main differences between ActionScript and most other object oriented languages is that ActionScript does not support threads.

Instead ActionScript is an event driven language. Instead of worrying about a main thread, or which one of many threads are running you instead just respond to events as they happen. Languages like Java are like this in some respects, such as reacting to key presses, but not to the point where you get rid of threads. As such in ActionScript methods doing complex work are never blocking, and you don’t have to create temporary threads for doing things like editing the main UI. Furthermore using the flash.utils.Timer class is a much cleaner way to periodically preform an action then any separate thread and loop system that you would otherwise have to do.

While the lack of threads may be limiting for the few uses that actually need them, for the most part ActionScript instead gives you an alternative for the instances where you were only using threads for lack of a more efficient option. The end result is that ActionScript can result in cleaner and more efficient code that is better for both the developer and the user.