Real-world training

We are leaders in Mobile, Web, Desktop & Cloud software development; and masters in training professionals in smartphone development (BlackBerry, Android). developerlife.com is owned & run by ScreamingToaster, a software company that creates award-winning cloud-based Mobile, Web, and Desktop software.

All the tutorials on developerlife, as well as the course-ware for our training courses come from ScreamingToaster’s real-world experience building cutting-edge software. The information in our classes cannot be found in any book or college course, and is not academic or theoretical; it is based on knowledge and best practices gained from developing, deploying, and supporting real-world applications in production environments (for both the consumer and enterprise markets).

We are the only company in the world that offers such a comprehensive portfolio of BlackBerry training courses.

Our vast array of training programs (ranging from beginner to advanced) will get you & your team up to speed quickly. We can enable you & your team to create production ready, enterprise-grade smartphone apps that connect to your enterprise services and data. If you are interested in on-site training for your development team, we can come to you. Please contact us to discuss coming on-site at +1 (571) 297-1301.

Relaxed, stress-free learning environment

We are unique in our relaxed, stress-free teaching style that is focused on knowledge retention. We do not overwhelm you with too much information too quickly. We start out with the fundamentals and teach you in the correct order, always building on what you have learned the day before, with lots of repetition.

Our students tell us they are amazed at how much knowledge they retain from our training courses. They are constantly amazed at how fast they are up & running with their development efforts upon returning to work. We maintain long-term relationships with our students and we enjoy hearing updates from them on the success of their projects made possible by our training (and their hard work). Most of our students come back and take more courses from us. Our students often contribute to developerlife.com based on their real-world experiences, which benefits the entire community.

Our Accolades

• Finalist 2009 BlackBerry Developer Challenge (1 of 16 in the world)
• PC World – Hottest Apps of the Year 2009
• GearDiary – collaboration + usability
• CrackBerry, CMSWire, BlackBerry Rocks, etc…

Developers, Developers, Developers!

We are committed to fostering the growth and maintenance of a vibrant and cutting-edge developer community for mobile/web/desktop/cloud development. We have a long history in open source and knowledge sharing, beginning in 1998 when developerlife.com was started. We continue to provide the highest quality open source developer tutorials on the internet, and the highest quality and real-world BlackBerry training courses. We’ve helped large enterprises roll out innovative products and trained their developers. We’ve helped consulting companies train their consultants. We’ve helped startups roll out consumer products.

Courseware

Each course is taught using our world-class training materials, which include real-world source code (production-quality, not demo-ware). All courses include daily hands-on labs, and Q&A sessions. With each course, you will receive a .zip file with lecture slides, source code for labs, and pre-configured development tools (IDE & Simulator) to get started fast, no time is wasted on downloading, installing, and configuring software.

If your group is large enough, we can tailor the curriculum to suit your specific needs, please contact us if you have a large group with specific requirements at +1 (571) 297-1301.

Washington D.C.

All of our courses are instructor-led, and are held at our training facility near Dulles Airport (just outside Washington D.C.). The minimum class size is 5 students, and the maximum is 10 students. Hotel, airfare, food and other expenses are not included in the course price, and you will need to make these arrangements yourself. We can help make suggestions for nearby hotels, dining options, etc.

On-Site training

If you are interested in on-site training for your development team, we can come to you. The maximum class size for onsite training is 10 students per class. Please contact us to discuss coming on-site at +1 (571) 297-1301.

Schedule – Q1 2010

Click here to view our schedule for Q1 2010.

Registration Form

BB 101 | BlackBerry Beginner Bootcamp

Duration: 5 days | Price: $2500/person

Overview:

No prior BlackBerry development experience is required, only Java. Get up to speed with the basics as soon as possible, and create simple apps.

This course will teach you how to:

• Create BlackBerry applications with GUIs using the RIM native API.
• Create BlackBerry applications that connect to the network (Wi-Fi, APN, BIS-B, MDS/BES, WAP) using HTTP(S) & JSON.
• Create BlackBerry applications that use the camera and GPS.

Please contact us to get a detailed course description.

Prerequisites:

• Experience in Java programming is required
• No experience in BlackBerry development is required.
• Experience developing graphical user interfaces will be helpful but is not required.
• Experience with JavaME will be helpful but is not required.
• You will need your own laptop running Windows (any version) with approx. 250 MB of free disk space on c:\blackberry.
• Students seeking advance preparation for the course should visit: http://developerlife.com.

BB 201 | BlackBerry Essentials Bootcamp

Duration: 5 days | Price: $2500/person

Overview:

If you have prior BlackBerry development experience and want to get up to speed with new APIs and techniques, this is the course for you.

This course will teach you how to:

• Create BlackBerry applications with GUIs using the RIM native API.
• Create BlackBerry applications that connect to the network (Wi-Fi, APN, BIS-B, MDS/BES, WAP) using HTTP(S) & JSON.
• Create BlackBerry applications that use the camera and GPS.
• Create multithreaded apps, and custom fields, use list fields, use persistence API and File I/O.

Please contact us to get a detailed course description.

Prerequisites:

• Experience in Java programming is required.
• Experience in BlackBerry development is required.
• Experience developing graphical user interfaces will be helpful but is not required.
• Experience with JavaME will be helpful but is not required.
• You will need your own laptop running Windows (any version) with approx. 250 MB of free disk space on c:\blackberry.
• Students seeking advance preparation for the course should visit: http://developerlife.com.

BB 301 | BlackBerry Masters

Duration: 3 days | Price: $2500/person

Overview:

Learn how to take your BlackBerry apps to the next level with UI, network, and task multithreading. Learn how to effectively use and create UI animation, etc.

This course will teach you how to:

• Use multithreading techniques in your UI, networking, and persistence code, to create responsive apps.
• Use UI Animation effects to create visually stunning apps, and create custom fields.
• Effectively use list components (searchable/filtered lists, with custom cell rendering).
• Use the Push API to create apps that support push and poke-pull.

Prerequisites:

• Completion of BB 101 or BB 201 course or equivalent experience.
• You will need your own laptop running Windows (any version) with approx. 250 MB of free disk space on c:\blackberry.
• Students seeking advance preparation for the course should visit: http://developerlife.com.

BB 302 | BlackBerry Touch UI

Duration: 3 days | Price: $2500/person

Overview:

Familiar with creating BlackBerry apps for keyboarded devices? This course will teach you how to “think touch”. Learn how to design and create apps that are optimized for touch, and keyboard use.

This course will teach you how to:

• Create touchscreen UIs for Storm/Storm2.
• Use UI Animation effects to create visually stunning apps, and create custom fields.
• Effectively use list components (searchable/filtered lists, with custom cell rendering).

Prerequisites:

• Completion of BB 101 or BB 201 course or equivalent experience.
• You will need your own laptop running Windows (any version) with approx. 250 MB of free disk space on c:\blackberry.
• Students seeking advance preparation for the course should visit: http://developerlife.com.

BB 303 | BlackBerry Media

Duration: 3 days | Price: $2500/person

Overview:

Learn how to leverage all the media capabilities of BlackBerry devices. Learn how to stream and download podcasts. Learn how to create media rich apps, and even do video capture (inside your apps).

This course will teach you how to:

• Perform audio and video playback.
• Perform streaming audio and video playback.
• Capture images from camera.
• Capture video from camera (5.0 OS only).
• Work with images over network, load/save to network, create thumbnails, and perform other image manipulations.

Prerequisites:

• Completion of BB 101 or BB 201 course or equivalent experience.
• You will need your own laptop running Windows (any version) with approx. 250 MB of free disk space on c:\blackberry.
• Students seeking advance preparation for the course should visit: http://developerlife.com.

BB 304 | BlackBerry Hybrid Native Apps

Duration: 3 days | Price: $2500/person

Overview:

Learn how to create hybrid native apps that are composed of web content as well as native UI components. Learn how to transform web content so that it works on BlackBerry devices.

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Create web content that renders correctly on the BlackBerry web browser.
• Embed the browser component in apps (NOT making web widgets for 5.0).
• Create “hybrid” native apps that are part native API and part web content and services.

Prerequisites:

• Completion of BB 101 or BB 201 course or equivalent experience.
• You will need your own laptop running Windows (any version) with approx. 250 MB of free disk space on c:\blackberry.
• Students seeking advance preparation for the course should visit: http://developerlife.com.

BB 305 | BlackBerry RPC

Duration: 3 days | Price: $2500/person

Overview:

Learn how to create service-enabled apps that are powered by services. Learn how to create responsive apps that don’t consume lots of resources (CPU, network, battery), but are up-to-date with remote services.

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Connect to services to upload/download information.
• Create secure and generic RPC services for your BlackBerry apps.
• Create service enabled BlackBerry apps that are up-to-date, responsive, and consume very few resources.
• Connect to web services, REST APIs, HTTP/JSON, etc.

Prerequisites:

• Completion of BB 101 or BB 201 course or equivalent experience.
• You will need your own laptop running Windows (any version) with approx. 250 MB of free disk space on c:\blackberry.
• Students seeking advance preparation for the course should visit: http://developerlife.com.

In addition to training services, we provide consulting services to help you build BlackBerry, Android, web, and desktop applications that are service enabled. We can empower your business by bringing your ideas to life. It takes time to get up to speed with BlackBerry or any other new technology, and our consulting services can accelerate the rate of your initial development, while you’re getting up to speed with new technology; you can take over as soon as you’re up to speed.

We offer an accelerator program to our students. This accelerator program is a mentoring engagement where we will oversee the success and launch of your project in the real-world. Typically, this entails between 1-3 weeks of consulting at a rate of $150 per hour (we bill time & materials, this not a fixed price/length engagement).

Our expertise: architecture, user experience design, graphic design, and implementation services for BlackBerry, Android, GWT, desktop Java, and cloud computing.

Our specialties: crafting stunning user experiences, LBS, real-time collaboration and syncing between services and web/mobile/desktop apps, location based mobile e-commerce, and location based mobile advertising.

If you are just in our consulting services (with or without training), please contact us using the form (to the right) to get a price quote, and discuss your requirements. Our hourly rate for consulting is $150/hr. Roughly, for an app that runs on BlackBerry and Android and is service enabled, the development cost is between $24,000 – $48,000 (depending on your requirements).