You can now play an American Gangster on your Java ME technology-enabled cell phone keeping up with the American Gangster movie that just came out.

See:

Be an American Gangster with Java ME

Here's a quote:

 No matter which path players take, 
 Gameloft’s American Gangster: The 
 Mobile Game promises the same 
 high-paced action and thrills 
 that will be the hallmarks of this 
 film. Across 40 missions, players 
 are able to play both crime lord, 
 Lucas, and good cop, Roberts.

Hinkmond

Well, they did it. They squeezed the Guitar Hero game down to be playable on a Java ME tech-enabled cell phone, without a mock guitar as the controller.

See:

Guitar Hero coming to Mobile Phones

Here's a quote:

 If you bone a note, you can 
 hear the guitar audio channel 
 skip out while the rest of the 
 track, such as vocals and 
 drums, continues. It remains 
 to be seen how the audio in 
 Java versions of the game will 
 fare when Guitar Hero is 
 eventually released on AT&T 
 and Sprint.

Hinkmond

Sniff. Buh-bye, Greenphone. We hardly got to know ye. You ran our Java ME technology valiantly, though.

See:

Buh-bye to Greenphone

Here's a quote:

 The third form is what the 
 Greenphone and the Neo 1973 
 provide: a completely open 
 platform where users - i.e. 
 hackers - are expected to 
 change the operating system, 
 and fiddle with the platform 
 from its icons to its ADPUs. 
 The completely open platform 
 that many hackers think is 
 the ultimate destination for 
 mobile technology.

Hinkmond

Here's another article about Java ME technology still being alive. "Bring out yer dead!" "I'm not dead yet!"

See:

Plenty of Life in Java ME

Here's a quote:

 "If Java ME could speak, it would 
 quote Mark Twain and state the 
 rumors of my death are greatly 
 exaggerated," Laurie Tolson, vice 
 president of the client software 
 group at Sun told InternetNews.com 
 "As we look further out, the core 
 set of ME APIs will be used in 
 devices that can use them. But 
 there will be a mix of others as 
 well."

Hinkmond

Fast Eddie over at Motorola is still racing to get Linux and Java ME technology as the operating system of his high-end phones.

See:

Java ME as the Moto cell phone OS

Here's a quote:

 It's not that Motorola doesn't have 
 those phones, but simply that they 
 still don't measure up to elite 
 models on the market, analysts say. 
 Zander, along with Chief Operating 
 Officer Greg Brown and new Mobile 
 Devices President Stu Reed, are 
 racing to get multifunction 
 operating systems such as Sun 
 Microsystems' Java and the 
 open-source Linux into high-end 
 phones. 

Hinkmond

The good thing about blogs is it allows everyone to set the record straight. Here's a blog post from James Gosling setting the record that Java ME technology is not actually dead. Phew!

See:

James Gosling says Java ME is not dead
(Read all the comments in the above link. Some good suggestions and feedback. Good thing about blogs: Able to gather feedback right away)

Here's a quote:

 JavaME is *not* dead!  It's growing up. 
 Sheesh. Some folks are far too eager 
 to misinterpret statements and put 
 words in my mouth.

Reminds me of Dr. McCoy from Star Trek, "He's dead Jim!". Not exactly. Java ME is alive, but it's life, not as we know it. ;-)

Hinkmond

Toot-toot, ah, beep-beep. Here's a Java ME app from traffic.com and Skyward Mobile that lets you see the traffic from your cell phone.

See:

Traffic spotting from a Java ME phone

Here's a quote:

 The premium downloadable subscription-
 based J2ME solution provides an 
 intuitive, quick-to-respond, rich 
 graphic interface for user selection 
 of cities and roads. Real-time traffic 
 conditions are delivered by text and 
 graphics and by JamCast dynamically 
 generated traffic news, with fully 
 automated audio and video of live 
 traffic conditions for roadways.

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

Hinkmond

Here's possibly the strangest use of Java ME that I have seen so far. Using Java ME technology and Bluetooth, you can encode a physical hug and then send it long distance to someone you know (with an actuator-enabled "hug shirt") to receive the same hug decoded by Java ME.

See:

Send a hug with Java ME

Here's a quote:

 The shirt is equipped with 
 “hugging actuators” at each 
 of these areas that supposedly 
 duplicate things like the 
 warmth, pressure, duration, 
 and even the heartbeat of the 
 hugger. Here’s where it gets a 
 bit creepy, though teen girls 
 are sure to love this: If you 
 have two Hug Shirts and a Java 
 and Bluetooth enabled cell 
 phone, you can hug yourself 
 and your exact hug will be 
 measured and sent by SMS to the 
 second Hug Shirt, creating… You 
 guessed it. A long distance hug.

Hinkmond

I saw this site listed at http://pocketgamer.co.uk where there are dozens of free Java ME games for download--free as in beer.

See:

Get your Free Java ME Games Here

Here's a quote from pocketgamer.co.uk:

 Mobile Playground has an enormous 
 collection of free Java games for 
 a broad selection of handsets.
 
 The titles aren't all shovelware 
 variations on sudoku and Jewel 
 Quest either, with some higher 
 grade titles included, such as a 
 port of Doom and some 3D titles 
 for the old N-Gage. All are free 
 to download and there are a 
 variety of options available for 
 transferring games to different 
 handsets.

Hmmm... That's kind of gay (not that there's anything wrong with that), isn't it? How about this instead?

Cause I'm as free as a bird, yeah...

Hinkmond

It won't be long now that Stevie-boy has opened up the iPhone for development, for Java ME technology to be ported to the device. The GPL'd phoneME Advanced stack will be a cinch to put on the iPhone once the SDK goes out. I see people on slashdot have already figured that out.

See:

How easy it will be to put Java ME on the iPhone

Here's a quote:

 Either way, looks to me like once 
 there's a general dev kit, a JVM 
 isn't going to be too far off. 
 Anyone want to make predictions 
 about how long it'll take or what 
 form it'll come in?

Hinkmond

The Mobiola Web Camera Lite app for your Java ME technology-enabled cell phone allows you to turn your phone into a spy camera, potentially broadcasting camera shots to everyone on the Web.

See:

Somebody's Watching me with Java ME

Here's a quote:

 Turn your J2ME phone into a 
 wireless (Bluetooth) web camera. 
 Transforms your J2ME phone into 
 high-quality PC webcam.

Hinkmond

The Web site linuxdevices.com reports on the Set Top Box 2.0 conference (did I miss the Set Top Box 1.0 conference???) which takes place in San Jose, Calif. on Dec. 6. Ooo-wee! Sounds like a real hootenanny. Or something... :-)

Anyway, there's a talk at the conference on Java ME technology as the "killer middleware" for IPTV. Of course.

See:

Java ME will be Killer Middleware

Here's a quote:

 "Java ME -- The Killer Middleware?" 
 will examine Java ME "as an 
 alternative to the complex and 
 technically-limited middlewares on 
 the market today for IPTV."

Hinkmond

The rumors are flying whether Sun and Sumsung are in cahoots creating a new iPhone killer.

See:

IPhone Killer, Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Here's a quote:

 Sun Microsystems Chairman Scott 
 McNealy said he was misquoted 
 in a South Korean newspaper 
 earlier this week as saying Sun 
 and cell phone maker Samsung 
 Electronics are working on an 
 iPhone-killer.

IPhone Killer? Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Hinkmond

Here's an article on how Zingy is changing its name to Vindigo (the company it merged with), since ringtones and wallpapers are going downhill, while downloadable Java ME applications are on the rise.

See:

Get out of ringtones, get into Java ME

Here's a quote:

 Zingy was formed in 2005 through 
 the Merger of Zingy... and Vindigo, 
 a mobile applications and 
 advertising company. The merger 
 created a global developer and 
 distributor of leading mobile 
 applications, games and advertising, 
 and personalization products such 
 as ringtones and graphics. Today, 
 the ringtone and mobile 
 personalization services market is 
 in decline.

Hinkmond

Motorola released the ROKR Z6 in Pakistan recently. As you probably recall, it's a Linux and Java ME technology-enabled cell phone that packs a punch as a music player.

See:

Java ME ROKR Z6 released in Pakistan

Here's a quote:

 ROKR Z6 is perfect for music 
 lovers and trendsetters in 
 Pakistan, fusing phone, music 
 player and fashion accessory 
 in one device

Hinkmond