WWE Raw and WWE Smackdown pro westling games are coming to your Java ME technology-enabled cell phone. Lots of smelly, sweaty guys in tights flinging folding chairs and testosterone will show up for your mobile devices in September and October of this year.

See:

Java ME delivers Pro Wrestling

Whatcha gonna do, when Java ME technologimania (eh, I know, but it should be a word) runs wild on YOU!!!

Hinkmond

The whole provisioning downloadable apps on cell phones debate is still going on. Meanwhile, Moto is going ahead with plans to pre-install Java ME apps from Yahoo directly onto their new cell phones for the consumers to use right out of the box.

See:

It's in there already! Java ME apps.

Here's a quote:

  All of those moves are predicated 
  on the notion that consumers will 
  expand how they use mobile phones, 
  making them mobile-commerce and 
  entertainment devices rather than 
  the utilitarian communications 
  tools they have long been seen as.

The whole provisioning/downloading Java ME apps model is a bore and misses the mark. Pre-loaded phones with Java ME apps are an overlooked channel for delivering compelling software to phones. Pre-installed apps are a much nicer user experience than poking around tiny menus, having to find an app you want, and then watching a spinning hourglass as your app downloads. Fries should come with your burger. Java ME apps should come with your cell phone. Hot and delicious.

Hinkmond

What goes together, like ra-ma la-ma la-ma ka dinga kading-a-dong? No, not Olivia Newton John and John Travolta. Linux and Java technology for cell phones, silly! Here are the new Linux and Java technology phones from Motorola.

See:

Motorola Linux and Java technology, together forever

Personally, I like the Moto A910. It's got the clamshell form factor but it has UMA technology to let you have access to GSM/GPRS over 802.11b/g WiFi. That's cool to go back-and-forth from regular GSM to 802.11 WiFi wireless access points.

Chang-chang changity-chang shoo-bop that`s the way it should be wahoo yeah!

Hinkmond

Here's the new Motorola Q Razr-berry (on the left in the picture). Hmmm... smaller screen but bigger case than the Blackberry, and Microsoft Windows Smartphone operating system? Feh!

See:

Moto Q Razr-berry

At least it's got Java technology on it. But, there's too many negatives. The Q needs to be sent back to the drawing board. Maybe Moto should have stopped with the P... or jumped ahead to the R. (What a silly name for a product!)

Hinkmond

Here's an egg-cellent, egg-strodinary, egg-istential use of Java ME technology for cell phones: A game where you have to herd eggs around a farm infested with minefields and bombs to get them into a frying pan at an omlette cookoff... Oh, just like in real-life! :-)

See:

Egg Fry Java ME game for your cell phone

Well, at least it's non-violent... sort of... if you're non-vegan, Ovo-Lacto Java ME gamer. ;-)

Hinkmond

There's a new eBay mobile client from Bonfire Media, called Pocket Auctions, that is supposedly more user friendly than accessing eBay via WAP from your cell phone.

See:

New Java ME eBay mobile client app

Great. Now I can buy that painting of the poker playing dogs that I always wanted. ;-)

Hinkmond

Here's an article from India talking about how wireless carriers see growth of 100% in downloadable Java ME apps and want more non-gaming lifestyle apps to drive demand.

See:

Lifestyle Java ME apps coming your way

Here's a quote:

  Gaming has been dominating the 
  applications market so far, but 
  cell operators are now pushing 
  content providers to generate 
  relevant non-gaming lifestyle 
  content... with various killer 
  applications like mobile karaoke 
  in the pipeline.

  Love.  Love will keep us together
  Think of meeee baaaabe whenever...
  La, la, la, la-la, la-la-laaaaaaa...

Ack!

Hinkmond

Here's a new game coming this summer for the Vodafone Live! wireless network over in the UK. It's a cricket game endorsed by the famous English cricket player, Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff.

See:

Freddie Flintoff Blast 'Em Cricket Java ME game

Here's a quote:

  Through his hard-hitting and fast 
  bowling, Freddie Flintoff has 
  quickly established himself as 
  a firm favourite with the crowds. 
  His aggressive and exhilarating 
  style of play strikes fear into 
  the opposition...

Hinkmond

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 whippersnapper, 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. :-)

Hinkmond

SecurityPark.net talks about an upcoming downloadable Java ME mobile banking app that accesses your bank account, called MobileATM.

See:

Banking on Java ME technology.

Here are some bullet-items from the article, for banks to adhere to for security:

 * Stringent security testing.
 * Obfuscated source(sic) [My note: this 
   should say class files, not source].
 * Two-step authentication.
 * Don’t trust any input received. 

The article fails to see that mobile apps on your cell phone are no different than the wide open Internet and using a Web browser to access your bank account from a Web site. It's the same level of security risks if you don't follow strict guidelines for protecting your apps and data (with authentication, code signing, encryption, and obfuscation).

Everyone thinks the mobile platform is less secure than Web browsers for some reason, but millions of Internet users access their bank accounts everyday. I claim if you are following proper security procedures the mobile network is safer since it is harder to snoop and send data back to rogue servers using a proprietary network (Cingular, Sprint, Vodafone, T-Mobile, etc.) than the open Internet and a Web browser. Of course it's not impossible, but a Web site that calls itself SecurityPark.net should at least give a more balanced perspective on security risks on one platform vs. another.

Hinkmond

CNET has an article that the Write Once Run Anywhere (WORA) concept is not working for Java ME on cell phones.

See:

Java ME WORA not working on cell phones

There's a definite bias to the article concentrating on the Java ME technology as the cause of WORA not working, with just a small mention of the cause being due to the disparate hardware of all cell phones in the world. However, the problems are really mainly caused by the differences in hardware. That's one thing CNET doesn't get right.

If you look at the PC world, you see just one hardware architecture: Intel based x86 with Microsoft based Windows operating system (from this other single H/W standards spawn out such as XVGA, PCI, ISA, ATA, USB, Firewire etc., etc.). For cell phones you have different CPUs, different screen resolutions, different operating systems, different keypad softkeys, different everything). Any software, not just Java ME technology would have problems with that mess.

The key is to unify (and commoditize the hardware) of a cell phone into 3 standard H/W profiles: high volume, smartphone, and enterprise phone. Only then will you get Java ME technology able to give the developer WORA. You'll notice that Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, etc. will blame the Java ME technology, though.

Get Taiwan or China to churn out billions of cheap commodity standard clone cell phones, and you'll see Java ME really give software developers an awesome homogenous programming environment that kicks butt. This is the dirty secret cell phone industrusty doesn't want you to know. They instead want hardware lock-in to their specific (profitable for them) hardware.

Don't let them fool you.

Recipe for success: Clone it cheap, slap on standard embedded Linux and Java ME software, make millions in cell phones.

Hinkmond

Here's how beta testers get to try out the upcoming Motorola iRadio (Moto Java ME cell phone plus iPOD Podcast-like capabilities).

See:

Gizmodo tries out the beta Moto iRadio

Here's a quote:

  Correction on the Java issue. Apparently 
  it’s been an issue that a lot of testers 
  have had, so they’re planning a release 
  to bring it up to version 5.

Hinkmond

Here's an article about BuddyBuzz which allows Java ME technology-enabled phones to display text such as that from blogs, news articles, short messages, etc. to show up word by word across your cell phone display and allow you to read more efficiently. Or so they claim...

See:

BuddyBuzz Java ME reader

Here's a quote:

  The idea behind BuddyBuzz isn't new. 
  The concept of Rapid Serial Visual 
  Presentation dates back to the 1970s, 
  although it was not until later that 
  it emerged as a means of improving 
  reading efficiency. 

Hinkmond

Nice new Java ME app from WeatherBug called WeatherBug Mobile lets you stream neighborhood weather to Java-enabled mobile handsets.

See:

Just thinking about the weather

I can hear Dorothy now, "Hey, Auntie Em. I got this new cell phone and it's got a great new mobile Java app called WeatherBug on it. Wait a minute... Auntie Em, Auntie Em, Auntie Em! It's a twister! Run for your life! Ahhhh!"

Hinkmond

Here's a review of Gameloft's Java ME mobile version of "War of the Worlds" where you can be one of the "bad guy" Polycom phones with legs, and go around shooting at stuff.

See:

Polycom with legs Java ME game

The fun part is to pretend that one of the humans running around the screen is Tom Cruise and blast his sorry butt off the face of the Earth. ;-)

The review gives the game 6 out of 10 and has some nice comments about the 2D graphics. Looks like a good game for today's generation of Java ME phones.

Hinkmond