This is an amusing use of Java ME tech for your cell phone. Use the mobGAS MIDlet on your mobile device to track your personal gas emissions. No, not that type of personal gas emissions, you sick freak-- :-) your greenhouse gas emissions. Ohhh... That makes sense.

See:

mobGAS Java ME app tracks your emissions

Here's a quote:

 The Java-based application, 
 called mobGAS, uses 
 information provided by the 
 phone's user to measure their 
 emissions of carbon dioxide, 
 methane and nitrous oxide

Hinkmond

When Google wants to run their latest Google Maps with My Location technology on the most number of cell phones, what mobile platform do they turn to first?

I'll wait for you to mull this over a bit...

The answer is Java ME technology, which is on over 2 billion phones. How many phones does Android run on? Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Goose egg. There are no shipping devices where you can run Android apps on currently and not for some time to come. You can only run on an "emulator" (fingers making air-quotes) and will be true for the near future.

So, why, as a prudent for-profit mobile programmer, would you program to a vapor platform, that Google promises to be on phones later in 2008 (what at best could be a couple thousand, maybe a hundred thousand???), when you can program to over 2 billion phones today and for some time to come? Google picks Java ME, not Android because the reality is that if you want to reach billions of handsets today, you program in Java ME technology.

See:

Google chooses Java ME to reach most cell phones

Here's a quote:

 Where am I?  New!  Google Maps 
 with My Location. Learn More.
 ...
 Available for most web-enabled 
 mobile phones, including 
 Java...

Hinkmond

Reuters reports that 50 percent of all people on Earth have a cell phone. And, more importantly, if you extrapolate and take the estimate that 8 out 10 of all cell phones are Java ME technology-enabled, that makes the number at about 2.6 billion Java ME tech-enabled cell phones on Earth.

See:

Lots of Java ME tech-enabled cell phones

Here's a quote:

 Worldwide mobile telephone 
 subscriptions reached 3.3 
 billion -- equivalent to 
 half the global population 
 -- on Thursday, 26 years 
 after the first cellular 
 network was launched, 
 research firm Informa 
 said.

Hinkmond

There was this kids show on TV around 30 years ago about an animated claymation boy named Davey and his talking dog Goliath. Davey would ask his big dog Goliath something like, "Gee, Goliath, I don't know if I should download these pirated MP3 files or not."

And, Goliath would say something like, "Gee, Davey. God wouldn't want you to do that. He'll make you burn in hell if you do!" Something along those lines... :-)

Well, ChristianMobile now brings us a wide variety of Java ME technology-enabled Christian books for your cell phone. Maybe not exactly the same message as Davey and Goliath, but at least they use Java ME technology.

See:

Gee, Davey, ChristianMobile loves Java ME

Here's a quote:

 ChristianMobile has been at the 
 forefront of developing books in
 [J]ava format and is in the process 
 of developing a wide variety of 
 books for some of the world's 
 largest book publishers for mobile 
 phones reading.

Hinkmond

Magnum P.I. was recently launched as a Java ME technology-enabled game for your cell phone. Oh, joy. Now you can tell Higgins what you really think of him... Zeus, Apollo, kill! >8-o D'oh!!!

See:

Magnum P.I. for your Java ME cell phone

Here's a quote:

 Magnum P.I. is available now 
 on all Java-enabled mobile 
 phones from major network 
 operators in Europe.

Hinkmond

In India they have all kinds of spices. They now have Mobile Spice which just launched the S-7 Java technology-enabled handset.

See:

Ziggy-zig Ha! It's Java ME Spice!

Here's a quote:

 The S-7's handset manager makes 
 it easy to connect without a 
 separate software installation. 
 Once connected, the handset can 
 be used as a modem.  Besides, 
 it is Java-enabled to power and 
 run Java games and applications. 

Hinkmond

Australia's Telstra is launching a way to use a Java technology-enabled cell phone to scan in bar codes from billboards, signs, and any object by taking a photo of them from a mobile phone.

See:

Bar code scanning using Java ME

Here's a quote:

 The trial will let Next G 
 customers download tickets, 
 vouchers and maps as well 
 as go directly to websites 
 or view streaming video. 
 All they need do is 
 photograph a barcode, which 
 can be on any surface - 
 from billboards and computer 
 screens to bottles and 
 T-shirts.  I-nigma is 
 compatible with a range of 
 mobiles and runs on Java...

Hinkmond

Someday in the future, mutant Android Java ME cell phones might be wandering around the network. Watch out! They won't be what you think since they will be from outside the lovely "walled garden"...

See:

Mutant Android Cell Phones from Beyond

Here's a quote:

 In Google's vision, consumers 
 would be able to download 
 Android applications from 
 sources other than a carrier's 
 over-the-air download store, 
 breaking down the "walled-
 garden" strategy that many 
 carriers have adopted.

Hinkmond

Here's a good eWeek interview with Terrence Barr, our Java Mobile & Embedded evangelist here at Sun. Lots of good stuff happening in our phoneME Advanced community highlighted in this article.

See:

Shiny Happy People using Java ME

Here's a quote:

 In general, people get drawn 
 to the community through 
 community member blogs and/or 
 through links to our community 
 home page.  Once people learn 
 more about what is going on in 
 the community and what is there, 
 they should start looking at 
 the code and try to run it.  
 From that point on, people can 
 start making code contributions 
 or leverage the code for their 
 own ideas and projects.

Hinkmond

Bango is a cool technology that easily pushes content (like Java ME apps) to your mobile phone from one-click of a button on a Web page. See my old blog post about it when it first appeared. Debbie Dunbar recently pointed out there is news that Bango has updated their model to also grab content from your social networking Web sites, like MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, and YouTube with a one-click button that converts the Web format content to fit and be displayed on your cell phone.

See:

Bango Button Your Content

Here's a quote:

 The user will decide what 
 content they want to mobilize, 
 with the Bango Button serving 
 as a conduit for social 
 networks and wireless 
 operators to cash-in through 
 increased mind-share and data 
 revenue.

Hinkmond

ZenZui is now an equally silly-named Mobile Start-Up, called Zumobi. Ah, that name's much better. Riiiight...

Anyway, they use Java ME technology to serve up tiles of content instead of using the traditional WAP Web browser to go looking for content on the cell phone.

See:

ZenZui now Zumobi

Here's a quote:

 Zumobi takes accessing, retrieving, 
 and sharing Web-based content 
 beyond traditional mobile 
 browsers... [t]hrough... "Tiles".

Hinkmond

Here's a CNET article wondering if Google's Android is helping or hurting the effort to unify mobile Linuxes (or is that supposed to be Lini?).

See:

Fracturing mobile Linux

Here's a quote:

 OHA has by far the highest 
 profile, it's got the most 
 persuasive list of members, 
 and its timing is the best. 
 What's not yet clear is 
 whether the "Android" work 
 of Google and its allies 
 will unify or further 
 fragment work in the area.

Hinkmond

I work with Terrence Barr in our Java ME Mobile and Embedded Community group, so I can kid around with him. ;-) NEWSFLASH: This just in... "Terrence goes on the line and promises Java ME running on all iPhones by next year..." Or, so the headline would read if we wanted to twist around his quote on Internet blog posts. ;-)

See:

Terrence to provide Java on iPhones!
Apple is silently stunned by comment!

Here's a quote:

 ...next year, you could be 
 playing regular Java mobile 
 games on your iPhone.  At 
 least, that's what Terrence 
 Barr says.  He's the technical 
 evangelist for the Java mobile 
 and embedded community at Sun, 
 the company behind Java.

Hinkmond

Opera Mini has released their version 4 of their Java ME technology-enabled Web browser for cell phones. The new improvements include zooming and landscape mode, like you get on the iPhone browser.

See:

Me, mi, ma, mo, muuuu... Opera Mini 4

Here's a quote:

 If you're craving for a close to 
 desktop web browsing experience 
 many iPhone users enjoy with 
 Safari, welcome Opera Mini 4.

Hinkmond

Boopsie is not just the pet-name Mr. Howell uses for Mrs. Howell (or was that Lovey?). It's the name of a Java ME technology-enabled Web search engine based on texting-like prefix abbreviations. R U serious? 2 kewl!

See:

Boopsie Java ME quick searches

Here's a quote:

 Boopsie's smart prefix search 
 means instead of typing out 
 the whole word, all you need 
 is the first few letters. 
 Example: "Harry Potter." 
 In Boopsie, that's "ha po." 
 Easy!

Hinkmond