Danny Coward's Sun Weblog

Wednesday September 10, 2008

The Planetarium
Filed under: javafx javame javase

Each morning I check the news wires, blogs and get the podcasts downloading to try to stay on top of what's going on in the world of Java for client devices from smartcards to desktops and everything inbetween.

What I really need is one blog that pulls it all together each day.

So I made one. Its called The Planetarium.

Posted by dannycoward ( Sep 10 2008, 12:01:25 PM PDT ) Permalink

Friday September 05, 2008

Java Podcastapalooza !
Filed under: javafx javame javase

Staying on top of what's going on in the Java world is a part of my job I really enjoy. I have a big list of feeds for my favorite bloggers, news sites, and forums. But I tend to skim so I can rush to the next thing. And my emails, IM buddies, everyone's I know's tweets and facebook statuses are just a click away, ready to distract me at any moment.

Sound familiar ?

So I enjoy the times when I am restricted from this skittish behavior: in the car, at the airport, walking to the coffee shop. I enjoy them because I can focus in, without interruption, on some of my favorite technology podcasts.

For those of you who are interested and are looking for something new to tune into in the area of Java and client technologies, I put together a little survey of the ones I subscribe to. And if you feel like it, let me know if you have a top podcast in a comment below.

Podcast	Format	Topics	Length & Frequency	My likes	Subscribe
The Java Posse	A quartet of hosts collectively dissect Java news, new products and get in group conversation with movers and shakers from the Java universe.	Java SE, Java EE product and technology developments.	Anywhere between 45 and 90 mins, most weeks.	Tor, Dick, Carl and Joe's expert and merry banter Great supporting website
Java Mobility Podcast	Double act covering Java news and products around the mobile and embedded community, plus a featured expert guest each cast.	Java ME, mobile and embedded technologies.	15-30 mins, two to 4 times a month,	On site (e.g. from conference floor) interviews. Focus on adoption of technology in products, not just technology alone
JavaWorld Technology Insider	One on one interviews with technology leaders and creators in the Java community and beyond.	Java SE, Java EE, Web Services, tools.	30-45 mins, two or three times a month.	Expert guests Interviews that dig deep - e.g. Ted Neward on Scala
This Ain't Your Dad's Java	Click and Clack style news and interviews from the product marketing team for Java with some stellar technical guests.	JavaFX, Java SE, Java ME	30 to 75 mins, weekly.	Ubergeeks turned product marketeers go wild and occasionally say a few things they shouldn't.
Swampcast	In depth interviews with software luminaries, webmasters and CTOs of popular services. And the occasional actress.	General software, programming languages but often Java of various SE and EE flavors.	Anywhere between 20 and 75 mins, frequency highly variable	Quality guests who roll up their sleeves during the day Sheer variety of topics

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Posted by dannycoward ( Sep 05 2008, 04:50:13 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [3]

Thursday August 21, 2008

Numbers that Count
Filed under: javame

For those of you who know me, I can still get a little freakish about numbers. So, from a really interesting article about mobile devices and Java ME I saw over the last week, two numbers stood out for me. For developers trying to figure out how to reach a wide audience for their application, those numbers are: 2.7 million and zero.

2.7 million is the number of mobile phones that were sold, on average, every single day in 2007 around the world. Now, I *heart* my iPhone, its a wonderful device, but the iPhone reached the million mark 74 days after its launch. That's 74 days to sell as many iPhones as it took just 9 hours to sell as many mobile devices.

Zero is the cost of entry to develop an application for Java ME, which is deployed today on many of that staggering number of devices (for a complete list, see here). No complicated agreements to get the Java ME SDK, the development of the platform is out in the open, so everyone sees it unfold at the same time. Better still, the free visual development environment for Java ME has been pretty great for some time now.

Two numbers that add up to a great way to reach a lot of people.


Posted by dannycoward ( Aug 21 2008, 05:52:02 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [3]

Friday August 15, 2008

Makeovers for Java ME applications
Filed under: javame opensource

One of my Top 10 Rich Client things from JavaOne this year was the Java ME Lightweight UI Toolkit (LWUIT). And the team just open sourced it yesterday.

If you're looking for a quick and easy way to add some fit and finish to a Java ME mobile application for use on the version of Java ME that is deployed today on billions of devices, you need to check it out.

It takes some of the familiar core ideas of Swing - some of the widgets, layouts, themes - and shrinkwraps them into something good looking, powerful, small and easy to get started with.

See it in action for yourself.


Posted by dannycoward ( Aug 15 2008, 12:17:59 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [4]

Friday May 16, 2008

Top 10 JavaOne 2008 Rich Client things
Filed under: consumerjre javafx javame javaone javase7

Here's my top 10 list from Java on the client at JavaOne this year. Enjoy x 10 !

Top 10	What is it ?	Know more...
JavaFX SDK	The JavaFX SDK is (almost) here !	Hot demos (there were quite a few) and a cool new website are all good, but signing up for the SDK to get it next month or so is going to be awesome. Its built with Java, built on Java. Its built in Java. JavaFX can run parleys.com. Did I mention its fast ?
JDK 6 is everywhere	JDK bundled with Linux, JDK 6 for Mac	On stage, I mentioned that the JDK, from the OpenJDK JDK6 project, is bundled with the latest release of the Ubuntu distro. Since then, its started shipping inside Red Hat's Fedora 9, and Red Hat's Enterprise Lunix too. Who's next ? And, have you tried the JDK 6 release for OS-X yet ?
The Consumer JRE	Get the latest beta of JRE 6u10, its quick, quick, quick.	Quick to download, quick to install, quick to start applets. Applets that you can pull out of the web page. Applets that can live beyond the browser and drop onto the desktop. Applets that developers can write in Java or designers can write in JavaFX Script. See and believe that applets are back.
VisualVM	Get the release candidate of THE single cockpit for watching, diagnosing and tuning Java applications.	If you thought JConsole was cool, you need to check VisualVM out. It integrates all the management and profiling tools for Sun's JDK into a graphical environment. See it for yourself.
On2 Media and JavaFX	Cross screen video, cross device sound.	Finally, one rich media format you can depend on that spans all the devices you own. Because it'll be built into JavaFX.
JavaFX Tools	First views of new tooling.	You've had the NetBeans support for nearly a year for JavaFX Script - and Eclipse support for that matter - but we previewed a new tool called JavaFX Distiller (see here: jump to minute 14). If you've ever written a GUI, and needed a little artistic help from a visual designer, this is one you need to know about.
Java ME LWUIT	Making better looking applications easier on today's Java ME devices.	This is a new open source community project in early access to add some portable fit and finish to your MIDP 2.0 applications. Shrinking some of the familar core pieces of the Swing framework, all you need is the NetBean Mobility pack to get started with it.
Java SE 7 sightings	Modularity, OSGi and turbo charging multiple languages	I talked with Bob about some of the pieces we'd like to include in Java SE 7 that are progressing well. Here also are my session slides with more detail. In particular, the Java Module System, and its support for OSGi in JDK 7 (which is gaining some encouraging support) and the DaVinci project for accelerating multiple language support which has started producing prototypes.
BluRay, Java and Neil Young	Java as foundation for HD content.	In January, BluRay emerged as the winner of the biggest format war for a generation. So just in case you didn't know BD-J, the programming model for interactive BluRay content (so its on all the BluRay players), is based on Java ME (Personal Basis Profile, to be precise), and Neil Young announced he's releasing his full catalog on BluRay, using BD-J to provide all the interactivity.
Java SE Performance	Latest high performance release of Java SE	Its tuned for the racetrack and breaking records !

Posted by dannycoward ( May 16 2008, 03:23:28 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [15]