RIM has just put the word out through the Inside BlackBerry Developer Blog that they plan on transitioning all WebWorks development from Visual Studio (VS) and Eclipse to the Ripple Emulator from tinyHippos. The transition will bring developers a more synchronized and easy-to-use WebWorks development experience. WebWorks via the Ripple Emulator will allow developers full access to the features they know and love from VS and Eclipse and add some new functionality to the mix.

If you’re a developer you’ll want to go ahead and download the Ripple Emulator and begin making the transition over from VS or Eclipse. These tools will be available for downloading from the Developer Zone until October 19, 2011. RIM will end support for VS and Eclipse on December 31, 2011. You can get all the information on this transition, including technical specifics and download links, from the link below.

• View the WebWorks transition article via BB DevBlog

RIM acquired the development firm, tinyHippos, a few weeks ago and some fruit from that acquisition is already coming. There has just been a new beta release of the Ripple Emulator and this beta contains support for RIM’s WebWorks API’s. This means that developers can harness the full power of WebWorks while using the Ripple Emulator to create some pretty awesome applications. You can view all the details and download the Ripple emulator at the link below.

• Visit tinyHippos to check out and download the Ripple Emulator

Source: CrackBerry

RIM has been quite hot with their acquisitions lately. They acquired companies like TAT and QNX, along with many smaller development firms. We have already seen QNX implemented in a big way and TAT is working hard as well. RIM’s latest acquisition is the mobile web development firm, tinyHippos. This team focuses on developing applications and interfacing with the mobile web, an area that RIM has been quite lacking in. tinyHippos is best known for their work on the Ripple Mobile Environment Engine, a cross-platform debugger for mobile applications. There’s no concrete plans from RIM as to where tinyHippos will be implemented, but judging from what RIM has done with their past acquisition,s we can expect some big things from tinyHippos.

• Check out the tinyHippos Website to learn more

Source: Inside BlackBerry