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General FAQ's

1. What is the Plazmic Content Developer's Kit for BlackBerry®?
2. Why does the Plazmic Content Developer’s Kit v4.1 have two handheld simulators? What is the difference between them?
3. What are the minimum requirements to run the Plazmic Content Developer's Kit for BlackBerry?
4. Can I see some rich mobile media content right now, to get some ideas as to how the Content Developer's Kit can be used, or what type of content I can create with the Content Developer's Kit? Are there any sites I can browse to, to see some demo examples?
5. Why doesn't the Media Engine play SVG?
6. What are .pme files?
7. What is .pmb format?
8. Do you support formats other than the pme and pmb file formats?
9. What types of images do you support?
10. What audio formats do you support?
11. Can I reference movies, such as AVIs and QuickTime?

1. What is Plazmic Content Developer's Kit for BlackBerry®?

The Plazmic Content Developer’s Kit for BlackBerry is a collection of GUI and command line tools that enable content developers to build, test, and optimize animated, 2D graphical SVG content for BlackBerry wireless handhelds™. The Plazmic Content Developer’s Kit utilities include:

• Composer
• Transcoding Utility
• BlackBerry Handheld Simulator
• SWF Conversion Utility
• Theme Builder

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2. Why does the Plazmic Content Developer’s Kit v.4.1 have two handheld simulators? What is the difference between them?

The BlackBerry Handheld Simulator that is shipped with the Plazmic Content Developer’s Kit v.4.1 simulates the entire BlackBerry handheld experience, and is geared toward developers who do not have access to a BlackBerry handheld. The BlackBerry Handheld Simulator displays .html, wml, pme and .pmb.

The Media Engine Simulator that is shipped with the Plazmic Content Developer’s Kit v.4.1 is intended for content developers and has features specifically for content developers, such as ‘on the fly’ transcoding of SVG files, play, pause, and restart buttons, scene properties dialogs, etc… The Media Engine Simulator displays .pme and .pmb files.

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3. What are the minimum requirements to run the Plazmic Content Developer’s Kit?

View the minimum requirements to run the Plazmic Content Developers Kit v4.2 for BlackBerry Category Top

4. Can I view examples of rich mobile media content right now, to get some ideas as to how it can be used, or what type of content I can create with the Plazmic Content Developer's Kit? Any sites I can browse to view demo examples?

The Plazmic Content Developer's Kit ships with a series of content samples. They are installed with the Plazmic CDK. You can also user your BlackBerry Browser, to browse to the following site: http://www.plazmic.com/svg_gallery and view a series of rich content demos.

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5.Why doesn't the Media Engine play SVG?

The PME format is more compact than the SVG format. Thus, PME files are transmitted ‘wirelessly’ more quickly than SVG.

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6. What are .pme files?

The Media Engine runs content in .pme format and .pmb format. The .pme file format is a binary representation of your SVG content that plays on wireless handhelds. SVG is a text-based language similar to HTML that represents 2D graphics, animation, and interactivity. .pme and .pmb formats enable you to:

• Animate primitives (e.g. rectangles, polygons)
• Animate color
• Animate images (PNG, GIF)
• Create hotspots (similar to links in HTML, but more flexible)
• Trigger events (e.g. clicking a hotspot changes a color or plays an animation)

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7. What is .pmb format?

The .pmb format combines images, audio, and a .pme file into a single file to minimize the number of connections made over the wireless network.

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8. Do you support formats other than the pme and pmb file formats?

Content developers can create flash content and then use the SWF Conversion Utility to convert the .swf file into supported SVG. The resulting SVG can then be compiled into a .pme file using the SVG Transcoding Utility. Please note that we *strongly* recommend content developers become familiar with the SWF elements the SWF Conversion Utility supports before creating content in flash.

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9. What types of images do you support?

The .pme file format supports GIF and PNG image formats. You can create content with other image types but they will need to be converted to GIF or PNG format in order for them to be viewed correctly.

• GIF is CompuServe image format that supports 256 colors and 1 color transparency.
• PNGs can be encoded with either a single alpha color, or with a full alpha channel, or with paletted alpha information.

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10. What audio formats do you support?

Single channel MIDI files are supported for playback.

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11. Can I reference movies, such as AVIs and QuickTime?

Media Engine does not support .avi or .qt files.

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