SMS Tech in Australia has added a touchscreen to their Java ME watch which is also a GSM cell phone. I guess you can use a toothpick as a stylus for this cool device.

See:

Watching Java ME technology

Here's a quote:

 Inside the watch there's 128 MB 
 of storage which will have to 
 hold your contacts as well as 
 favourite tunes. Plus, if you 
 can fit one in, the watch can 
 run J2ME applications.

Hinkmond

Here's a MIDlet that lets you find the cheapest gas in your area on your Java ME tech-enabled cell phone.

See:

It gives you gas

Here's a quote:

 Mobio’s rich media client requires 
 a Java phone. The product 
 announcement will be Tuesday, 
 but we’re told the service should 
 be available tomorrow (Monday).

Hinkmond

Here's an article on Near Field Communications (NFC) still coming "real soon now" to your Java ME technology-enabled cell phone. Yeah, you'll be able to wave your wireless mobile in front of a subway turnstyle or a cash register and get charged automatically. That would be nice to have.

See:

NFC on your mobile

Here's a quote:

 The prime application was voice 
 but there has been a huge 
 evolution with texting, SMS, Web 
 browsers, then the introduction 
 of Java on mobile phones.  From 
 Nokia’s point of view, the phone 
 is now a mini computer...

Anyway, I never had a mini computer in my pocket... till there was Java ME...

Hinkmond

What better way to utilize that fat pipe to your cell phone over the EV-DO wireless data network than to stream tunes? Pandora is a Java ME MIDlet downloaded to your phone that lets you do that now on EV-DO phones (unlike the iPhone which is still saying they will launch "real soon" now... no really... Why are you laughing..? ;-)).

See:

Pandora Java ME app streams music

Here's a quote:

 ...a new reason to use that wireless 
 data for music, so if you've got an 
 EV-DO handset, get that phone browser 
 up and hit Pandora's site.  What 
 you'll get in return is a Java applet
 that gives you access to Pandora's 
 streaming content catalog

Hinkmond

PDAs have morphed into Mobile Digital Assistants (MDAs) by the addition of cell phone radio technology to enable wireless voice and data networking while keeping PDA features like a 240x320 touch-screen and slider keyboard. An example of a Java ME tech-enabled MDA is this T-Mobile Wing (HTC HERA110) which operates on the GSM network.

See:

Wing it with the T-Mobile Java ME Wing

Here's a quote:

 Other apps include Instant Messaging 
 (for use with AOL, ICQ, and Yahoo), 
 Java applications, a T-Mobile HotSpot 
 log-in shortcut, and a voice recorder.

Hinkmond

Radedas asked in a blog comment about the RAZR 2, wondering if the Motorola RAZR 2 had an open or closed Linux distro. In news announcements, the new RAZR 2 is said to have JUIX on it, which from what I've read, is a smaller version of Motorola's Linux/Java software. That should be fine to run a phoneME Advanced stack on top of, even if it is the more restricted closed form of the Moto Linux distro. Without having to rebuild a new kernel, phoneME Advanced can be built using the OpenEZX header files to link to the EZX or JUIX libs. This is the same as what other Linux apps do. Layering Java ME on the Linux kernel is a good approach for these types of Moto Linux phones (more in future posts).

For now, here are some more comments in the news about iPhone vs. these new type of Linux/Java cell phones from Moto.

See:

Comparison of iPhone vs. RAZR 2

Here's a quote:

 The handset even goes beyond  
 sight and sound with springy 
 haptic feedback when using 
 its touch-sensitive media 
 playback controls.  Unfortunately, 
 while at least some RAZR 2s will 
 include Motorola's Linux / Java 
 platform (JUIX), the basic 
 navigation and text entry 
 paradigms share most of the 
 limitations of their 
 predecessors.

Hinkmond

Just like Ralph Kramden would say on the Honeymooners, Engadget spent yesterday saying, "Homina, homina, homina, ...uh maybe we got that wrong." Ya think?

See:

Engadget falls hook line and sinker for fake iPhone e-mail

Here's a quote:

 At 9:09am CDT yesterday a number of 
 Apple employees received an email 
 that appeared to be from Apple 
 corporate reporting that the iPhone 
 and the next version of OS X had 
 been delayed. An Apple employee who 
 we trust then forwarded this email 
 to us.

Hinkmond

Some of the new Java ME technology-enabled RAZR 2 cell phones just launched from Motorola will have Linux as the OS. Finally! If you've been following along, the work I've done with JavaFX Script (F3) running on a Motorola e680 (also a Moto Linux/Java phone) will be directly transferable to some of the new RAZR 2 phones (along with other cool new phones from Moto this year, like the RIZR z6 and ROKR z6). Lots of new places to run Java ME CDC (aka phoneME Advanced)!

See:

Java ME CDC will work on new Moto RAZR 2

Here's a quote:

 Some versions of the Razr 2, 
 for example, will run Linux 
 and Java software for a 
 better user experience. 
 Motorola's upcoming Rokr Z6 
 music phone will also use 
 Linux/Java, making "your MP3 
 player obsolete,"

Hinkmond

Here's an article in InformationWeek that talks about Sun targeting consumers to eventually have our JavaFX Mobile runtimes (based on Java ME core technology) reach businesses.

See:

First get kids to use it, then get adults (in the Enterprise)

Here's a quote:

 To the enterprise, these consumer-first 
 marketing ploys may seem immaterial, but 
 they aren't.  ...they're simply shifting 
 their route of ingress from the 
 boardroom to the coffee shop.

Hinkmond

Bundles containing the current development release, build b21, of phoneME Advanced MR2 are now available on the downloads page at:

https://phoneme.dev.java.net/downloads_page.html#advanced

The downloadable source bundle and pre-built binary for Linux/x86 are available. Active development on phoneME Advanced MR2 such as this is continuing with periodic snapshots to the downloads area.

For more information about the latest enhancements of phoneME Advanced MR2, see:

https://phoneme.dev.java.net/content/mr2/pmAdv-release.html

See:

phoneME Advanced MR2 b21 now available

For the Getting Started Guide of phoneME Advanced MR2, see:

https://phoneme.dev.java.net/content/mr2/phoneme_advanced_guide.html

The code in the repository and in the development builds is not a finished product but a work-in-progress. If you find problems, please submit entries to Issue Tracker:

https://phoneme.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectIssues

As always, we welcome your contributions to this effort. Please see http://mobileandembedded.org for more information on how to contribute.

Hinkmond, project owner phoneME Advanced

I'm a rocker, I'm roller. I'm a Linux Java ME technology-enabled rocker and roller. (That doesn't make much sense, does it?)

See:

Motorola's new Linux/Java ROKR z6

Here's a quote:

 Inside the clean lines of the 
 ROKR Z6 is a Linux/Java(TM) music \
 phone...

Hinkmond

I've been swamped with JavaOne activities and see there are already potshots being taken at JavaFX. And, it wasn't even out for more than a week yet! Sheesh... we must've hit a nerve.

See:

Potshots at JavaFX

Here's a quote:

 You see the JRE, the actual runtime, 
 is horrendously bloated, ill managed, 
 a pain to install and even more of a 
 pain to integrate with all the 
 different browsers on your desktop. 
 It also has this wonderful feature of 
 pausing your whole machine while it 
 starts up. Booting up a platform that 
 is over 40MB in size, does take a wee 
 while...

Java ME CDC/AGUI (which also can run on the Windows/x86 desktop by the way) is a subset of the Java SE JRE (including Swing). It is nicely slimmed down to about 4.6MB, well-managed with native thread integration, very easy to integrate as a standalone platform for cell phones (I helped port JavaFX Script to the Motorola Linux/Java e680 phone in about 1.5 weeks), TV set-top boxes, and even the desktop. There are no pauses with Java ME CDC running JavaFX Script and boot-up time is pretty good for a proof-of-concept.

Java is not just Java SE. Java ME CDC is small, light-weight, and fast enough to be the answer to running new ways of using Java (like JavaFX). Just some people, like Alan Williamson, can't see that we can do the same for desktops (using Java ME CDC technology) as we've done on high-end smartphones (getting that junk out of the trunk). ;-) Java is getting back to its roots as a slim, fast-booting embedded platform with Java ME CDC.

Hinkmond

As the mobile industry gets tighter and tighter with market saturation, cell phone companies are now targeting the only demographic still not carrying Java ME technology-enabled mobile devices. No, not the dead (it only seems like dead people are the only ones without cell phones glued to their ears). It's kids 12 and under, silly! ;-)

See:

Tweens targeted for Java ME

Here's a quote:

 "Tweens want a phone that looks 
 like the one their older brother 
 or sister uses," says Julie Ask, 
 a senior analyst with Jupiter 
 Research. "They think they're 
 more sophisticated than a 
 five-button phone."

Hinkmond

Microsoft loves Java ME technology so much, they decided to buy a Paris-based company that pipes interstitial ads to mobile phones.

See:

Microsoft into online Java ME advertising

Here's a quote:

 ScreenTonic's STAMP advertising 
 platform includes an ad server 
 to pipe banners and text ads 
 over portals, interstitials in 
 Java... for all mobile 
 platforms.

Hinkmond

In creating demos for the JavaOne conference, the Java ME group often partners Usability Engineering (UE) with Development Engineering. This is important especially in getting everyday end-users to take notice, not just other techies. In this demo, you see art work from Tim Dunn, one of the talented graphic artists in the Java ME group. Adding a fun and colorful wallpaper with atypically shaped selection widgets (unlike your average boring rectangle buttons), and utilizing Java 2D graphics techniques like alpha-blending (transparency/see-through) and rounded corners on widgets, makes this demo phonetop more appealing than most.

See:

Java ME demos helped by UE

Java ME technology lets you do this all now on the existing billions of Java ME handsets. Going to JavaOne helps explore all the possibilities that exist on cell phones without waiting for who-knows-how-long for that hypothetical phone that starts with the letter "i". ;-)

Hinkmond