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This really is depressing. Being Canadian and all I really want to root for the home team. Moreover I hate polluting my blog with complaints about BlackBerry development. Alas, here we go again…

Todays topic: BlackBerry Push Service. BlackBerry push can be routed through BlackBerry Internet Service or it can route through a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The difference? BIS is the one you want to use if you are a developer targeting the consumer market at large. To route push notifications through BIS, you must request to evaluate the push service. It also appears you must submit another request when you want to go live, but I haven’t made it that far.

This is where the problem lies. I have submitted three requests in the past two weeks with no response. Each time I submit one, I’m greeted with a friendly message:

“Thank you, someone will contact you in two business days“

Bottom line I can’t finish OR test my app without access to this service.

What about the other guys?

This is where it gets sad. The software I’m working on is also being developed in parallel for Android and iOS. So what does the process look like for the other platforms?

Android

The Android Cloud to Device Messaging framework also requires developers to signup to access the service. The difference being two seconds after you fill out the signup form you are ready to go!

Slightly off topic, but the C2DM API is extremely simple to use. It was a pleasure to work with since I could use basic Unix shell scripting to send requests to the service during testing.

Apple

After you register as an iOS developer (and you drop $100 US for the privilege), Apple gives you access to something called the iOS Provisioning Portal which is a web interface for generating all manor of certificates and mobile provisioning bits and bobs. In this portal access to the APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) can also be enabled with a few mouse clicks… instantly.

So what have I done so far?

Not wait on RIM, that’s for sure! In the last two weeks I have managed to completely finish the iOS and Android versions of my app including full push integration.

Let me say that again. In the time it’s taking RIM to grant me permission to write software that uses their services, I have created the same thing on competing platforms.

The simulator doesn’t sim and the signing tool doesn’t sign. These two issues cause a serious problem.

First the simulator. If you take an OS 4.3.1 simulator and a device also running OS 4.3.1 the two will behave very differently in a few subtle, but important ways. My gripe is localized to the mmapi api (handles audio/video playback). Long story short, the simulator can’t be trusted so we have to debug device/OS idiosyncrasies on the device itself.

But hold on a second. The signing servers aren’t working so I can’t debug on the device in all it’s developer friendly glory with lack of usable debugger and lack of even something as simple as a means to read text written to freaking standard output!

Thank you RIM! Thank you for wasting my valuable time. Thank you for reminding me that no amount of money can justify writing software for this platform any longer.

(10:30, signing servers still not working)

So top 5 dream jobs:

1. Robot maker
2. Prop maker for the movie industry
3. Google Python developer
4. Bar owner
5. BlackBerry software developer

I don’t really want to be a BlackBerry developer but I had a hard time coming up with a 5th so I just put what I am currently doing (check out bbTv).

Well that’s not fair, it can be cool if you use something like Spider Man or Optimus Prime. But these people these days seem to want to use some picture of themselves smiling having fun with all their smiling friends. I don’t want to see you and your friends having fun. I want to see something clever and origional.

So with that said, I’m out. I’m not doing anything interesting these days so I should probably put “something” on this damn blog.