Tuesday May 31, 2005 The sweet smell of J2ME technology success
Ojom which is owned by Verisign (wonder if they have problems with hackers ;-)) has been doing well figuring out the mobile J2ME/Java technology game industry in Europe. See: Ojom has J2ME games figured out Here's a quote: The problem can be summed up by simply understanding that most companies developing games for cell phones are trying to copy the console... and are failing in huge ways. The issues here stretch beyond the wonky hardware interfaces... (which, surprisingly, are designed to be used as phones and not game controllers). There are issues of technology as well as audience (most people tricking out their mobiles are full-blown adults with a credit card and free time on the commute). Aiming for a Game Boy audience... is not going to move cell phone based games.Lots of mobile game programmers like to whine: "Wah, J2ME is implemented differently on every phone!" "Wah, J2ME is too slow!" "Wah, J2ME doesn't give me framebuffer access!". Developers who don't whine and instead make lemonade out of lemons are the ones who do well in the J2ME game industry. Especially ones who know that they shouldn't try to copy a console game to a phone, they shouldn't target kids but instead target adults with money, and they should integrate phone functionality directly into the games. These are critical lessons in creating J2ME game successes. But, as with all things in life, it's easier to whine than to put in the effort required to succeed. |
Friday May 27, 2005
Here's a story from the Pentagon which is using new technology to connect soldiers and weapons together in a single combat network. See: Java technology lifts the fog of war Here's a quote: The digital radios will be based in every element of FCS, from soldiers to fighter jets, transferring voice, data and video between man and machine. ... Version 1.0 had its share of bugs, and elements of the Java and C++ software used had pass rates of 69 percent and 67 percent, respectively, according to the Army's qualification test. Muilenburg said most of the problems have been corrected.Well, at least Java scored 2 points higher than C++. :-} Shhh... Usually, 69 is a failing score, but we won't tell the Pentagon that. ;-) This is the Army's qualification test anyway, so they probably have a different scale. Hopefully it was graded on a bell curve--then, actually we kicked butt! :-) Hope they used J2ME technology. |
Put a teensy red blurry thing on top this itty-bitty black blurry thing
Gosub 60 has Solitaire card games for Java ME cell phones, but boy those graphics are cluttered and microscropic! See: Gosub 60 itty bitty Solitaire for Java ME They talk about their "Easy to Read" cards for playing on your cell phone. Ha! I'm no young chippy, but still I'd have to break out the Edmund Scientific zoom stereomicroscope to see these graphics properly. I guess I'll have to wait for VGA resolutions to finally shrink down to cell phone technology... or, for future add-on heads-up/virtual reality goggle displays attached to your screen. :-) |
Thursday May 26, 2005
MoSoSo is the new term coined to mean "mobile social software" -- another way to use J2ME/Java technology on your cell phone to keep in touch with your friends. See: MoSoSo is molto boffo on your J2ME cell phone Here's a quote: A system called Pantopic, for example, is a Java application that runs on Bluetooth phones and lets you create a kind of mobile web page with information about yourself... It will then let you scan your immediate area and find other users that have similar interests...And stay far-far away from them! I'd get pretty darn bored. Hey, you like Java? I like Java too... Hey, you like the new Star Wars movie? I like the new Star Wars movie too? Hey, you from Jersey? I'm from Jersey too... Yeah... Which exit? :-) |
Wednesday May 25, 2005 Cool beans! NetBeans 4.1 new support for mobile developers
This might be old news by now, but I ran across this interview with James Gosling and Tim Cramer talking about the new release of NetBeans 4.1 and they mention how the new cool IDE applies to Mobile (J2ME technology) Programming also. See: James Gosling and Tim Cramer talk about NetBeans 4.1 Quote from interview about NetBeans 4.1 support of J2ME technology
...for mobile projects using J2ME,
NetBeans 4.1 lets devs...
# Visually lay out your MIDlet's
workflow, and design and code
the GUI using drag and drop
elements (available in
NetBeans Mobility Pack), and
provides
# Wizard support for creating
J2ME-J2EE applications. Enables
you to quickly create J2ME
client/server applications
(available in NetBeans Mobility
Pack).
I've seen both the NetBeans MIDlet workflow designer and J2ME to J2EE wizard demos. Both are very nice new features in NetBeans 4.1.
The last question in the interview asks James about a killer JavaOne mobile demo. He says, "After I’m done flinging T-shirts I’m hoping to have some cool demos, and there are some I would kill to have. As whether they’re mobile depends on your definition of mobile. I better leave it at that." A J2ME technology-enabled light saber? A J2ME technology-enabled deathray gun? Something James would kill to have... Hmmm... I would suggest keeping low to the ground after the T-shirt give-away at this year's JavaOne. :-) |
Tuesday May 24, 2005 National Phipps Radio - NPR show has on Sun Blogger Simon Phipps
I'm driving to lunch today (In N Out Burger, great milkshakes! Yum! :-)) listening to Talk of the Nation on NPR and they have a story on about corporate blogging: Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Blah, blah, blah-blah, blah... All of the sudden, Simon Phipps comes on and talks with the host about blogging at Sun Microsystems! See: NPR Talk of the Nation with Sun's Simon Phipps (click on "listen") Hey! That's us! :-) Simon, I liked how you snuck in our URL (blogs.sun.com) in right quick while you were still on-the-air. Sly! ;-) |
Monday May 23, 2005 A thousand lashes with a wet noodle
Here is a report on Sun Microsystems "lashing out at open source" by having "serious doubts" about the usefulness of the Apache open source implementation of the Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE). See: Sun lashes out at Apache's closed-minded open source plans Here's a quote from the article showing the short-sightness of Apache
"This is about producing a J2SE implementation
that can be taken and ported and used in more
places," he said.
"If I am building a device that uses Java and
I could get a complete J2SE implementation from
Apache, then we would have a new place for Java."
Well, duh, Java has been ported to the over 350 million existing Java enabled cell phones world-wide. If I build a device that uses Java, I want J2ME not J2SE. There's already a new place for Java: on cell phones, TV set-top boxes, PDAs, home gateways, printers, auto dashboards, game consoles, etc. It's called J2ME technology! Having open source J2SE only muddies the waters, not clear them up for Java on devices. Apache needs to submit an RFP for a clue... :-)
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Friday May 20, 2005 Yow! Impending Doom for J2ME/Java Technology
Jamdat announced at this year's E3 Expo conference that they are releasing Doom on J2ME technology-enabled cell phones to coincide with the upcoming release of the Doom movie. Cool! See: Jamdat will release Doom for Java cell phones I can't wait to chop up some pink demons with a gas-powered chainsaw... just like it happens in real life! ;-) |
Thursday May 19, 2005 De ja vu all over again: Star Wars nerds are linin' up!
Cingular Wireless and Lucasfilm Ltd. partnered to create special edition Sony Ericsson S710a cell phone, with a collection of wireless content from Star Wars: Episode III including a preloaded J2ME/Java game called "Revenge of the Sith". See: Sony Ericsson S710a special Star Wars: Episode III edition I remembered when Star Wars: Attack of the Clones came out. Conan O'Brien had his Late Night Triumph the Insult Comic Dog go interview the Star Wars nerds standing in line for the movie. Now, with Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith out, it's like de ja vu, all over again! Play the movie below to see what I mean... (Sorry, only works with a Window$ Media Player) -:) |
[Java ME and J2ME] ( May 19, 2005 12:50 PM )
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Wednesday May 18, 2005 Now blow time reading Weblogs on your J2ME phone!
FreeRange Communications announced a new product called FreeNews which can read RSS news and weblogs on mobile devices, phones and PDAs using a J2ME technology-enabled MIDlet. More productivity down the tubes, but now while you are mobile and away from your desk! ;-) See: Java phone app to read Weblogs From the article: FreeNews is a Java application and runs on most cell phones... It uses the data connection (GPRS, 3G, UMTS, etc.) on a cellphone or PDA to receive data.Good stuff for the tiny screen. But, I'm not sure how my blog will look with the images I always embed... I gotta choose smaller images I guess. |
Tuesday May 17, 2005
Nextel and Trimble have teamed up to deliver a combo GPS, cell phone, walkie talkie all-in-one Java technology-enabled device. See: J2ME enabled GPS/cell phone/walkie talkie It's called Trimble(R) Outdoors, the first outdoor recreation solution that uses Nextel's GPS- and Java-enabled cell phones for navigation and trip planning. Whether hiking, biking, boating, hunting, fishing or other off-road activity, your phone can guide the way.So, picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, a girl with kaleidoscope eyes. Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain, where rocking horse people eat marshmellow pies, Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers... because... because... Because you've got a Nextel Trimble Java-enabled device that can tell you how to get the HECK back to where you started from! ;-) (Was it a left at the tangerine trees or a right?) :-) |
Monday May 16, 2005
MSNBC reports on Sun Microsystems (now that Micro$oft and Sun are all buddy-buddy ;-) Kiss-kiss-kissy, kiss, kiss). Our Java logo on cell phones is described as being like the Dolby logo on stereos. See: J2ME technology logo like Dolby logo Here's a quote: As vice president of brand experience and community marketing, Ms. Van Den Hoogen in 2003 developed a new brand campaign for Sun's Java software platform. Sun partnered with cell phone makers to show a newly-designed Java logo for a moment when consumers turned on their Java-equipped wireless phones. The idea was to convince them that Java was as essential on a cell phone as "Dolby" is on a stereo system.So, I know Thomas Dolby (Robertson) has nothing to do with the Dolby sound system, and he moved on from his 1980s hit "She Blinded Me with Science" to bigger and better things, like heading the Java-based sound company called Headspace. But, boy that's a catching tune!
The elements in harmony
-- Thomas Dolby, She Blinded Me with Science |
Friday May 13, 2005 Doing Coke with Java/J2ME Technology
Not that kind of Coke. Touchlink Mobile has a mobile quiz written in Java technology for cell phones. They call it Coca Cola Trivia Master. See: The quiz is in Greek for now. As long as the prize can translate, that's no problem! ;-) |
Thursday May 12, 2005 Ah, push it. Push it real good. Ah, push it.
Boonty announced the launch of the Web-2-Mobile game store which allows customers to purchase and download J2ME games from a Web site using a PC Web browser and then have the games delivered to their Java technology-enabled cell phone using WAP push. See: Boonty pushes Java games for you That's a helluva lot easier than using a cell phone browser to hunt down a game on a tiny 2" screen. ;-) This sounds somewhat like the Sun Java System Content Delivery System... Hm... |
Wednesday May 11, 2005 Boom-boom-boom! 800 pound gorilla comes in with J2ME games
EA (the 800 lbs. gorilla in the gaming industry) introduced their new line-up today including new Mobile Phone Java games. See: EA adds to their Mobile Games (J2ME Games) line-up (scroll to bottom)
EA E3 MOBILE PHONES GAME LINE UP
Nice stuff from the heavyweight game company. Hope they do well! |
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