Research In Motion’s Blackberry 10 release in January will draw...
Research In Motion’s Blackberry 10 release in January will draw the company’s smartphones closer to the automotive software it inherited in buying QNX Software Systems two years ago, QNX executives said Monday at CEA’s CES Press Preview event in New…
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York. The tying together of RIM’s much-delayed Blackberry 10 operating system and the software that QNX supplies carmakers to drive automotive infotainment systems has been RIM’s goal since it bought the company from Harman International. QNX’s Neutrino real-time operating system debuted in RIM’s Playbook tablets in 2011, but the company has long sought to spread the software across smartphones. With the expected release of QNX’s Car 2 operating system in December, RIM’s efforts to co-mingle QNX and Blackberry software will come to the forefront, QNX executives said. Car 2 was created using RIM’s WebWorks software that allows developers to take advantage of standard Web technologies like CSS, HTML5 and JavaScript to build applications. Developers can use popular mobile Web frameworks like Sencha, PhoneGap, jQuery or Dojo to speed development of applications by reusing existing Web assets. In Car 2, developers also can use RIM’s Ripple emulator to point to a website running WebWorks and emulate the WebWorks software development kit without compiling code. Ripple allows for editing source code and then refreshing it using the emulator. Car 2 will likely be added to vehicles in stages with the first versions arriving in 2014 models, said Kerry Johnson, senior automotive product manager at QNX. HTML5 compatibility will be delivered the following year. QNX Car 2’s HTML5 SDK will be released in Q1, he said. Car 2 allows developers to blend HTML5 applications with those created using Qt, Open GL ES and other user interface technologies on the same display. It allows developers to create browser-based or browserless applications in HTML5. The Car 2 operating system is contained in a maximum 300 to 400 MB file, well within the 1 GB to 2 GB flash memory automakers are increasingly installing in vehicles to handle software upgrades, Johnson said. While Car 2 can be upgraded using a USB stick, automakers are also weighing updating it via Wi-Fi or through a carrier, Johnson said.