Saturday, February 4, 2012

RIM Offers Free PlayBook to Piss-Off Android Developers

See the tweet that started it all: https://twitter.com/#!/asaunders/statuses/165097598624075777

Sounds great, huh? Here's my ordeal so far.

Tried to sign up using iPhone- fail
Tried again from desktop- where's my email confirmation registration? who knows...
3 separate legal agreements to go through if trying to sell apps- really cumbersome process.

Tried to get blackberry tablet simulator- web link text was correct on the page but wrong in the html code. I figured it out. Just an extra challenge.

Crazy how much stuff to install- vmplayer, vm for tablet simulator, extra plugins for eclipse, certs to download, etc

Then you have to configure the plugin for eclipse- requires new process and legal agreements to get RIM software signing certificates (which come within 2 hours! oh boy!) Just another roadblock. Note to RIM: on android, I can make my own certs.

So I get my certs, try them out, and get another error. Not yet registered to create debug tokens. How many registrations do I need, seriously? Another note to RIM: easier to sign up for Android.

Got another email about cert registration. It says it succeeded and "the client has 2147483647 code signing request(s) left." Wow! This number looked familiar. Wikipedia says:
The number 2,147,483,647 (two billion one hundred forty-seven million four hundred eighty-three thousand six hundred forty-seven) is the eighth Mersenne prime, equal to 231 − 1
I'm guessing this is an error.

You can't install any apps without the cert. Need debug tokens, too, which also require the cert and to be registered. 3rd note to RIM: ever hear of self-signed certificates?

Almost an hour into the process. Still no verification from RIM I've even signed up as a developer!

3 hours after registering I finally get an email from requesting proof of identity. And it says it'll be another 24-48 hours (I'm guessing Sunday won't count) until the process is over. Well, no development for me anytime soon. I doubt I'll even get anything done now before the app submission window closes, since this is the last (and only weekend) during the Playbook giveaway promotion.

Does anyone wonder why no one wants to write apps for Blackberry devices? Such a horrible process just to get started. Something is clearly wrong with Canadian laws and/or RIM. No surprise there.

After over 3 hours of trying I have:
  • extra software installed, but none will work since my registration is not complete
  • a tablet simulator, but no way to install software on it
  • 24-48 hours more to wait

RIM does not allow you to use the tools to simply load unsigned applications on the simulator. This is absurd. I can't even try to convert my apps to their format. But I did change my icon from 96x96 to 86x86.


2 comments:

  1. I like your blog detail.This is one of the significant post.Nice to share with us good.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Update- I registered on 4 Feb for the Blackberry Vendor Portal. My account has still not been activated. How many more people are trying, this, I wonder?

    ReplyDelete

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