5 Mobile Development Headaches

I completely agree!!!

5 Mobile Development Headaches by Mike Riley Dr.Dobb's Portal

Update:
Perhaps something good for mobile developers :

• Eclipse Announces Pulsar Initiative to Define a Tools Platform for Mobile Development

"As part of the roadmap, Pulsar will support major mobile development environments such as JavaME, mobile Web technologies, and native mobile platforms. "

"Pulsar will define a common set of Eclipse-based tools in a packaged distribution that will interoperate with the various handset SDKs. This will enable developers to stay within one familiar development environment while creating mobile applications that target multiple device families."

"The first release of Pulsar Platform is expected to be available at the end of June 2009 and will be part of the Eclipse Galileo annual release."

I am going to Nokia Developer Summit

Time for something new, I have now decided to go to the first Nokia Developer Summit on 28 – 29 April in Monaco. I will be able to get the latest technical information on Nokia technologies and development platforms, including Ovi, Flash Lite, Web Runtime, Qt, maemo™, and the S60 touch-screen interface

Should be a lot of fun!
See you all there!

Sony Ericsson will support JavaFX™ Mobile

I like when mobile phone companies tell us developers what we could expect in the future about JavaME in there platform!!!

Now SonyErcisson tell us: Sony Ericsson will support JavaFX™ Mobile

I have to make decisions about what I believe is interesting technology for the future in the mobility area!
What should I learn, it is perhaps impossible to learn all?
What different devices will support it?
We have a lot of new JavaME technology like:
eRCP, eSWT, MIDP 3.0, JavaFX Mobile, LWUIT, Java ODP ...and a lot more

When companies tell us about there plans it is much easier to make decisions!
I would like more companies to tell us about there plans!
Sun have told us about the Java Mobility roadmap!!
I like it!!
Now also SonyEricsson have told us about there plans for JavaFX Mobile.

Java Mobility Roadmap

Nice a Java mobility roadmap from Sun at the Mobile Media and eMbedded Developer Days !
(see slide 13), It is also very nice with a Free, live broadcast / Thanks for that !!!!

PhoneME Feature:

• Q1-2009 MR4 (MSA1.1)
• Q4-2009 MR5
  

PhoneME Advanced:

• Q3-2009 MR3
  

JavaME SDK 3.0:

• Q1-2009

JavaFX Mobile:

• Q1-2009

MIDP 3.0 (project home):

• Q1/Q2-2009

MSA2.0 (read more here):

• Q3-2009

Mobile browser API for JavaME (JSR-290):

• Q2-2009

JavaCard 3.0 (from JavaCard 3.0 session)

• Q2-2009 Reference Implementation
  

Maemo Wordpy 1.0 beta4

My favourite Blogger blog client for my Nokia N810 is Maemo Wordpy has now come to version 1.0 beta4. It is now also very nice to be able to edit posts already published, read more about it here.

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

the JavaME mobility future look very nice

A lot of interesting Java Mobility thing is happen right now in mobilty area, I was thinking about:

• JavaME SDK 3.0 Early Access has been released. What I am really like with this is the upcoming support for Mac OS X (but when?). Read more here and here.
• Eclipse MTJ 0,9 has been released, EclipseME has grown into the the Eclipse Foundation Mobile Tools for Java (MTJ) project. Read more here and here.
• Netbeans 6.5RC1 is out, with a lot of interesting new mobility features as always, for example The Visual databinding, look very nice :-)
• A upgrade for Netbeans Mobility Microemulator Plugin - Solaris, Mac OS, Linux. It is very nice to be able to develop JavaME applications in Mac OS X instead of using Vmware and windows XP. Karol Harezlak, Thanks for that!!
  

Waiting for JavaOne2009..., I go to Øredev

Finally I decided to go to Øredev, a Swedish developer conference taking place in Malmö November 17-21. This year they put together a pretty impressive program across a wide range of developer topics including Java and Mobile 2.0. I'm looking forward to hear more about the new JavaME SDK 3.0, Java FX Mobile, eSWT, Sprint Titan, LWUIT and lot more things.

Should be a lot of fun!
See you all there!

New release of Nokia Email Service

I really love using Nokia Email Service and now Nokia have release a new version, read about it here.

What I really think is very nice with this product:

• I am able to push Email using my gmail/IMAP account!
• There is now also full support for international characters!!
  

If you earlier have used the Nokia Intellisync client 9.0, you understand what the Nokia Email client is based on.

Some weeks ago there was a very surprising (for me at least) press release from Nokia about that Nokia renews its business mobility strategy, as a result of that Nokia will discontinue sales Nokia Intellisync Mobile Suite 9.0 and Nokia Intellisync Device Management through Nokia for Business distribution partners.

So it is very nice that Nokia Email Service will continue to live !!
Companies have to found other products and it could be very painful!

Maemo 5, the future for Nokia's Internet tablet

The future for Nokia's internet tablet devices is called Maemo 5!
Read more about Maemo 5, the next generation of the OS used on Nokia's internet tablet devices:

• OSims News- what's up with Maemo?, by Dr Ari Jaaksi, Nokia
• Technical overview: Maemo 5, the next-gen Nokia Tablet OS, by Ryan Paul
• Nokia unveils Maemo roadmap, plans for 3G Internet Tablet, by Ryan Paul

and listen to:

• Dr Ari Jaaksi's keynote speech from OSiM 2008
• Maemo Developer Session - Part 1
• Maemo OSim Developer Session - Part 2
• What can we get out of Fremantle - Peter Schneider
  

What are you waiting for in the mobility area?

It is funny, I think I always waiting for new devices to show up and also support for new JavaME APIs. I think it is because I have dream...I would like work more mobile and to be able to create cooler Java applications for these new cool devices.

But what is the problem? times go and new devices show up on the market, I think it is opportunity for a JavaME developer with all these new cool devices. The problem is not with all new devices.
But what is the problem?

I think it is still hard to develop cool JavaME applications, I started to develop JavaME applications 2003, at that time I was very pleased with JavaME/CLDC1.0/MIDP1.0 and then later we got JavaME/CLDC1.1/MIDP2.0 and later more and more JavaME APIs.
I have one example, last week I got a new device, a Nokia E71, it is a really nice device!
I love it, but I can say "it is not for the JavaME support", the core JavME support is the same as years ago. I get so bored about that.

I think it is because the JCP process is very slow and that is the main problem, it takes to long time to release new JavaME support and sometimes there is no JavaME support at all in some devices. Read more about this at Daniel Rocha's blog Is the Java Community Process hindering innovation in JavaME.

I wondering how long will it take to get new devices with support for MIDP 3.0?
2-3 years? I get so bored about this, this it is not ok!!

But back to my question, what are you waiting for in the mobility area?

Devices I am waiting for:

• Next Nokia internet tablet, I love my Nokia N810, it is time for a new one, I would like to buy, but I can't, release a new one!
  
• Asus Eee PC 910 Linux Edition, it is close now, only some weeks more.
• DELL Inspiron Mini 9 , Ubuntu version
• the first Android device, before end of this year.
  
• HP iPaq 914 with support for Sun Wireless Client (SJWC), read more here. SJWC is phoneME Feature++ (optimizations and commercial value-added components are added in SJWC above and beyond phoneME Feature, such as optional JSRs, platform tuned optimizations, etc.).
• a Apple tablet, when will Apple release a tablet?
  
• a Ericsson new turbo 3g module for Intels Centrino processor in new laptop from Lenovo, Dell and Toshiba
• the first Nokia device with support for S60 touch interface
  

JSR's I am waiting for:

• JSR-271, MIDP 3.0 to be final
• JSR-249, MSA2 to be final

Java support I am waiting for:

• Netbeans to support LWUIT
• support for JavaME/CLDC1.1/MIDP2.0 in Nokia N810
• a new version of JavaME CDC, read more here
• Netbeans to support eSWT, eSWT is cool, but we need tool support
• Mac support for Sun Wireless Toolkit (WTK), read more here
• Next release of phoneME Advanced, MR3, it will be interesting to see what it is, phoneME Feature MR3 was released during this summer.
• Support for JavaCard 3.0 in Netbeans.
• the release of JavaFX Mobile, it look very interesting

I am of course waiting for next JavaOne 2009 (too long, 264 days to next JavaOne) and next Java Mobile, Media and Embedded Deverloper Days Conference !!
I wondering will it also be a Java Mobile, Media and Embedded Deverloper Days Conference in Europe? (there was plans for that before)

Stroke of lightning, hard to be mobile

At least vacation, time for 5 weeks holiday!
Me and my family are now at a little island called Åland (placed between Sweden and Finland). We rent a little nice house at Eckerö.

I always try to test new devices on the road. This time I bring with me: a SonyEricsson G900, a Nokia N810, a Nokia E61 and also my Macbook Air. Perhaps you wondering why I have to bring two mobile phones? My G900 is my small always used mobile phone, my E61 is my perfect Email device, thats thanks to Nokia Email (push out Email from my Google's Gmail account). My N810 I use for writing in my Google blog (thanks to the perfect software called MaemoWordPy) and I also use it for gps navigation in my car. My Macbook air I use for transfer pictures from my Camera, but I think it is to big for this type of travel, I plan to perhaps buy me a Asus EEE PC 901 instead.

But bad times happen (why now?), yesterday at home a stroke of lightning destoy my router and also my ADSL modem, now I don't get any Email any more and my web site www.ojn.se don't work any longer.
Also today my wayfinder software at my N810 suddently became corrupt and navigation don't work any longer either. I had to go back to manually navigation, a paper map and my wife, she always does a good work. :-)

Blog with my Nokia N810 - Maemo Wordpy

My favourite Blogger blog client for my Nokia N810 is Maemo wordpy!
It is very nice to be able to write a blog entries off line and later publishing it when I have Internet connection available.
There is now a new release, version: 0.6.1-2, that work with Diablo. That is very nice, thanks very much for this new release!

Push Email from gmail/IMAP - Nokia Email Service

Nice to be able to push Email using my gmail/IMAP account!

It works really nice with this new free Nokia Email Service, I have try it on a Nokia E90 and Nokia E61!

Read more:

Nokia Offers Native Push Email With New Service by Darla Mack

time to flash my Nokia N810

Christmas time (in June)!

Nokia have released a OS2008 Feature upgrade called Diablo for the N800 and N810 Internet Tablets.

Read more:

• It's time to start flashing again
• OS2008 Feature Upgrade available: Fire up those firmware updaters!
  

One Symbian - Symbian Foundation

Now we have seen Nokia's response to Google's Android, it is Symbian Foundation!!

I think it is a good thing for us (consumers), we now have three open platforms for mobile devices: Android, LiMo and Symbian

The only bad thing is that Sweden’s UIQ Mulls More Than Halving Staff On Symbian News

Read more:

• Mobile leaders to unify the Symbian software platform and set the future of mobile free, press release by Nokia
• Symbian Foundation, Simon Judge, Freelance Mobile Developer
• Symbian is getting open sourced under EPL, by Gorkem Ercan
• Foundations and principles, by Ari Jaaksi