Deploying a BlackBerry app for OTA installation

When testing a build of a BlackBerry app, one method to deploy the app on a BlackBerry OTA is to host all of the application COD files and a main JAD file with the relevant details of each COD file in it. Once hosted, one can point the BlackBerry device to the JAD file being hosted and the application COD files will be installed on the device.

While this isn’t such a problem with single projects in isolation, anyone who has had to do this manually where multiple projects (such as library projects) are involved in the deployment of a single app, will known that the process of assembling the COD details into a single JAD file is rather menial and in general quite insufferable. Fortunately, the BlackBerry JDE comes with a tool called updatejad.exe and works as follows:

Let’s use a main project name of Peanut and peanut relies on the library projects Raisin and Salt. To assemble the Peanut.jad file with the COD details of all the projects, one can use the following command:

updatejad.exe Peanut.jad Raisin.jad Salt.jad

I find it easiest just to copy the necessary JAD and COD files to a single directory when running this command. There you go… you now have a deployable JAD file to host along with all of the application COD file :)


Mii:Stephen

And for our next Mii..

Name: Stephen Asherson
Nickname: Jobs
Likes: Coffee and bananas
Dislikes: Nokia and Symbian
Speciality (what we go to Steve for): Network security and technical info.
MK signature move: First item is always a giant mushroom and goes on a rampage.


5FM BlackBerry app

5FM Mobile App

In case you haven’t heard the ads on the radio yet, the 5FM BlackBerry app is out and available on App World here. The app was developed by Cobi Interactive.


Mii:Steve

So if you’ve read my previous blog posts, you would know that we have a wall of Mii’s in our office. First Mii on the wall is Steve.

Name: Steve Preston
Nickname: Ballmer
Likes: Chicken burgers
Dislikes: Curry smells
Speciality (what we go to Steve for): CSS help
MK signature move: Attain 3 red shells, wait for opponent to pass, shoot, wait for opponent to recover, shoot again, and again.


Mario Kart 3DS and Wii U!!!

So some exciting announcements from Nintendo today at the E3 conference. Mario Kart 3DS and Wii U. We knew Mario Kart was coming, still not much details on it, but looks like it will be good. The Wii U looks really cool. HD graphics and a portable device to add some extra ways to play console games. Check them out here.

Mario Kart 3DS:

Wii U:


New Apple stuff!!

Lion:

iOS 5:


Mario kart artifacts around the office


Steve’s Yoshi mini infrared RC car, with turbo boost.


The banana, the most common item when you in 1st or 2nd.


The green shell. I hate it when I get hit by these.


Wired Mario RC standard kart all the way from Japan!!


Our wall of Mii’s designed by me. I will post details with a closer look of each character in future posts.


Cobi @ MS Dev Day

Cobi went to the Microsoft Dev Day in Cape Town on 24 May at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The keynote speech that started it off was quite interesting – MS giving us a nice overview of new features to help developers, nice IDE plugin management, showing off their new Azure web servers, and how they are going to help us move onto the cloud in the future. My main interest was to see their new WP7 development, so Steve Asherson and I decided to attend their morning lectures introducing the WP7 development cycle.

Rudi Grobler from BB&D took us through creating a beer-brewing recipe app – something very simple showing us how to piece together a menu system with a details page, linking up to a local database. WP7 development looks good, the platform looks good, and from this initial introduction, the tools look easy to use.

Of particular interest to me was the device emulator used during development. Those who know me would know that I really dislike most of the emulators that the manufacturers have given us. The iPhone one is so far the best out there – stable and loads really quickly. This new WP7 emulator also seemed to load up fast (of course depending on the laptop running it), but it also has some nice location-spoofing tools. Finally a way to test GPS code on an emulator easily – Android & BlackBerry, take note.

On the platform side, WP7 has some stringent requirements, the chip must be running at 800Mhz. Coupling that with the fact that only one app runs at any one time, means that the UI experience looks great, smooth and slick. Unfortunately, coming from an Android fan, I am a bit disappointed that there is such limited multi-threading, but that can of worms can be opened on another day.

Otherwise, the conference was very well run, the food was great, drinks readily available, conversation on tap at every corner – I could do this everyday. Oh, and there was a raffle for an X-Box 360… I can’t help thinking that if I’d put my entry in after Steve did that I would have won it. Well done, Steve, for winning – get those dancing shoes on!


The Padfone

Asus has announced it’s Padfone. It’s a mobile phone with a “pad” you can plug in into if you want something with a bigger screen. It’s concept is similar to that of Motorola’s Atrix. I like the ideas, but I would prefer something wireless. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could just buy a generic tablet or netbook that you could connect any phone to rather than a specific phone. I guess that would be the next step and a little closer to moving to the cloud.


MK desk track


  • Topics

  • Archive

    May 2012
    S M T W T F S
    « Feb    
     12345
    6789101112
    13141516171819
    20212223242526
    2728293031  
  • Copyright © 2010 Cobi Interactive (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved.
    Jarrah theme by Templates Next | Powered by WordPress