Nokia is also planning something big on December 2

It looks like Nokia is planning something big.

Check out the countdown timer here, this new countdown timer has also shown up on Nokia Europe home pages.
This is cool !, the timer will expire this Tuesday at 09:15 CET, I suppose there will be a big release at Nokia World on Tuesday at 09:15 CET.

The cool thing it that Sun has also announced that JavaFX desktop version 1.0 will be released on December 2!!!

Something big?
Could it be:

• a Nokia S60-phone with a big screen, a 4-inch screen?

or

• a Nokia's Internet tablet with a big screen, a 11-inch screen, a Maemo-based laptop?
  

What do you think?

A beta release of Livescribe Desktop for Mac

At last JavaOne I bought me the JavaOne2008 show device: Livescribe Pulse (smartpen) with JavaME support and I have waiting for Mac support for it and now have Livescribe released a public beta of the Livescribe Desktop for Mac, and they are inviting Mac-users to participate in a public beta for free. The official version will be released in Q1 2009.

I will now start to use my livescribe Pulse again!
:-)

Read more:

• Livescribe Now Mac Compatible, Public Beta Announced, by GottaBeMobile.com
  

ØREDEV 2008; Recap JavaME/Mobile 2.0

I thought I ought to sum up this year’s ØREDEV conference. It has been an intense three days with lots of new interesting stuff. This was my first time I’ve gone to ØREDEV.

Overall the conference was a good one, with lots of good mobility speakers and what I really thought was great was to get a more wider view of the Java mobility area (JavaME, Android, JavaFX Mobile, OSGI, eSWT...and more ). Left it full of new energy and compelled to try out numerous new technologies. Update the address book with those new contacts and new friends.

Some of the hot mobility topics at this ØREDEV:

• Terrence Barr, SUN had a interesting session about JavaFX Mobile, for me it was a surprise that Sun have now redesign JavaFX Mobile, it will now also work on the old JavaME platform (JavaME/CLDC1.1/MIDP2.0), this was very good I think. There was a cool demo of JavaFX with netbeans, the same code and you were able to deploy it as a normal JavaSE application, a web application and a mobile application, really cool!!. JavaFX will be release soon (December 2008) and then later JavaFX Mobile will be released, planned for spring 2009 and JavaFX TV for 2010.
• Joshua Marinacci, SUN hold a GREAT session about JavaFX script (the new declarative scripting lanuage), only 3 slides and then a lot of code, very nice, well done, I like it!!!!!!!
• Jon Bostrom, MobiNoir Consulting had a interesting session about the new Sprint Titan platform with OSGI Technology in the Mobile, it will be released very soon (some weeks), with support first for eRCP (IBM/j9) on windows Mobile devices.
• Terrence Barr, SUN demonstrated what you could build with the Open Source Lightweight UI Toolkit (LWUIT) that was released at last JavaOne 2008. The think the best thing with it, it works with the old JavaME stack (JavaME/CLDC1.1/MIDP2.0). According to SUN LWUIT bridges the gap between today (MIDP) and tomorrow (JavaFX Mobile). It also look like Sun plan to add support for JavaME/CDC and JavaSE in the future, that's also great. Netbeans Matisse will soon (?) add support for LWUIT. There was two nice demo, SVG GUI Makeover (SVG + Mobile Ajax) and also a LWUIT GUI Makeover (avaible soon here)
  
• MIDP3.0 specification was planned to be finished Q3-2008, at this conference they didn't talked so much about it and no answers about the status of it. Motorala is the specification lead for JSR-271 have recently decide to move to the Android platform, what this mean for the work on MIDP3.0 specification is not clear for me?
  
• The last day of the ØREDEV conference, the Public Review Draft Specification for MSA2 (Mobile Service Architecture 2) was released, they would like to get developer comments on it.
  
• Sten Minör from SonyEricsson talks about some important trends for mobility like: WebServices, Open Source, WebKit (standard browser engine in mobile devices).
• It was also interesting to hear more about the new JavaME plattform SDK 3.0, a beta release is planned early next year, it will support MSA 1.1. Support for Mac OS X is coming but when? (no answers). Tomas Brandalik and David Pulkrabek, SUN made a cool demo with with the sensor API!!
• Gorkem Ercan, Nokia had a great presentation about eSWT, Nokia support it's heavily (eSWT1.1 is in all Nokia S60 devices from version S60v3.2). In the future it will also be possible to update eSWT, the eRCP project are now working on eSWT 1.3. I think eSWT look very nice, it is nice to be able to access to native UI functionality. I plan to test it more in the near future.
• Mike Jennings from Google Uk had a great presentation about Android, I didn't know so much about it. I think it was great to learn more about it. Later when I am able to buy a Android phone here in Sweden, I perhaps will have a closer look on it. It look like it is not so hard to get started, only download the android sdk and the Eclipse plugin. The best part it works also on Max OS X!!. It is also easy to deploy you applications, use your usb cabel and install it or you could also register and deploy your application at the Google's Market (cost you 25 USD dollar), your application will then be available to all android phone in the phone, it looks great to me!!
• Fredik Olsson, Jaywy had a great presentation about developing for the Iphone platform. I am surprised about the 100 million application downloads in 60 days that have give back 70 million dollars for developers. The cocoa touch frameworks looks nice, but for developing you are forced to use Objective C, the tool to use is Xcode, every Mac OS X owner have it already pre installed, you only have to download the plugin for Iphone. My first feeling is, I am a Java developer, I really don't wont use Objective C, but Apple don't allow Sun to give JavaME support on this device, it is pity. The Iphone is a great device, I am still waiting for Nokia's Iphone killer device, I haven't seen it yet.
• Ken Walker, IBM had a interesting presentation about How eRCP and MIDP Application models stack up against Android and Web 2.0 Development, more information here.
  

Conclusions:

• For me as a JavaME developer/architect, it is not easy to understand the future for JavaME, Sun now talks a lot about JavaFX Mobile, Google about Android, Sprint/IBM about the Titan platform (using OSGI Technology in the Mobile (eRCP), Nokia about eSWT and JavaME/CLDC1.1/MIDP2.0, Motorola about MIDP 3.0 (but I don't know any longer, perhaps it is Android?).'
• It is funny, it look like the best JavaME platform is MS Windows Mobile, everyone supports it, it was not like that before, I think now companies like Nokia & SonyEricsson must be careful about that, I suppose they would like to support JavaME developer more in the future, it is not bad now but I think it could be better. I also would like to use OSGi technology and JavaME/CDC on a Nokia/SonyEricsson devices and to able to easily deploy my application on great Nokia Market place and become a rich Java developer. :-)
  
• Today we have JavaME/MIDP2.0, with stagnant JavaME innovation and licensing issues (tech &TCK), it is also expensive for phone companies (like Nokia, SonyEricsson) they have to pay every different company for each JSR support. It has leads to alternatives such as Android and eRCP.
  
• It look like no one care so much about JCP any longer. Sun pushes LWUIT, JavaFX Mobile, Nokia, IBM eSWT/eRCP, Google Android. All of them are Open Souce but it is not a standard by JCP, this is pity because believe in standards.
  
• Every year I have a feeling it will be The Year of the Mobile, I have had this feeling "every year" since 2003, but no. But I am now think 2009 will be The Year of the Mobile for Java, it look great!

I am now looking forward to the Java Mobile, Media & eMbedded Developer Days, Sun Santa Clara Campus Auditorium, California, USA January 21-22, 2009. There are a lots of interesting sessions at this conference. I think it is great to be able to live view it. Of course, the best way to take part is to attend the conference in person, but for me this a good solution (I don't have to travel from Sweden for only two days, it is a long journey), I think it is really cool to be able view it live!

A Mobile Web Server on my Nokia E71 phone

On the train to Øredev conference in Malmö, Sweden I read a blog post about a new release of Nokia's Mobile Web Server 1.5 beta, it was a lot of fun to play with it on the train. Here is my web site on my Nokia E71 phone

The future for Java on mobile devices?

I read a very interesting blog post by Gorkem Ercan, Will Java have a place in the future of mobile devices?
It has for a long time been very hard to understand the future for Java in Mobile devices.
We have now have JavaME/MIDP2.0, Android, eRCP and soon also JavaFX Mobile & JavaME/MIDP 3.0. Different companies all the time make new decisions about the future, like Google & Motorola did with Android and Nokia some years ago talk a lot about eRCP, but nothing have happen so far, no support for eRCP on Nokia's S60 platform.

For me as a architect/developer in the mobility area it is now very hard to decide what I should learn more about. I can't learn all different technique/language, I also have to help my customers to make good choises for the future (I work as Java Consultant)

I really hope that all different important companies in the mobility Java area (Sun, Nokia, SonyEricsson, Motorola ) understand that they have to do something about this mess in the mobility area.

I now would like to see more agreements between companies about the future for Java on mobile devices!! I would like to see a plan for the future, like next year Nokia release devices with support for.....

I have now arrive to Malmö, Sweden and tomorrow the Øredev conference will start here in Malmö, Sweden. I look forward to hear more about mobility and Java in mobile devices, it was also nice with short journey as a change, it was only 5 hours with train from Stockholm (were I live).
If anyone wants to meet there, feel free to contact me.
emails: ove@ojn.se