BlackBerry developers, it’s time to get your ‘widget’ on. RIM has announced that the BlackBerry Widget SDK is now available for download. You can grab it at www.blackberry.com/developers/widget.
The BlackBerry Widget SDK 1.0 Beta 1 contains the BlackBerry Widget Packager 1.0 Beta 1, a BlackBerry Device Simulator, and a lot of documentation and samples. So what can you do with it? I think the official description from RIM does nicely:
The BlackBerry Widget Packager 1.0 Beta 1 is a new tool that allows web developers to package up their web assets into BlackBerry Widgets (small, discrete, standalone web applications that use HTML, CSS and JavaScript). A BlackBerry Widget looks, behaves and has the same security mechanisms as a native BlackBerry application. BlackBerry Widgets can be installed on a BlackBerry smartphone like any native application and can be extended to use device-specific information and data using the BlackBerry Widget APIs.
For more details, tutorials, samples and downloads, head on over to BlackBerry.
Note: This will be a biggie for BlackBerry Developers looking to get a jump on OS 5.0. Widgets will be supported in 5.0, and will be available for download/purchase via App World. Get on it developers!