RIM at BlackBerry DevCon unveiled BBX, its unified platform for BlackBerry phones and tablets as well as even some embedded devices. Both share the same open-source, standards-focused QNX roots as the PlayBook. They also use an interface layer from RIM’s acquistion The Astonishing Tribe.
The interface relies on Cascades, a new framework that can create complex presentations from simple code.
BlackBerry Balance, which splits home and work, is now OS-level. Visiting BlackBerry App World, for example, has a separate “work” section that will show a company’s specific apps and which ones they’re allowed to see.
Like on the tablet, it’s optimized from the start for multi-core but still has a layer of security. HTML5 is now much more important and can be used as a “bridge” between BlackBerry 6, 7,and true BBX apps, RIM said, with Web. Native is still an option for when performance is important.
