Next Generation Java for Mobile devices

I think it will be a very interesting Java mobility year 2008, now when Google also have introduced Android. It look like Android is Java-based but not based on JavaME, I wonder why and what will Sun do about this?

What is Next Generation Java for Mobile devices?
For the moment we have different answers and more confusions for all of us.

We have:

• eRCP, based on JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1
• Android, Java-based but not based on JavaME
• JavaFX Mobile, based on JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1
• JSR 249: Mobile Service Architecture 2, based on JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1
• JSR 271: Mobile Information Device Profile 3 (MIDP 3.0) , based on on JavaME/??
  

For me as a JavaME developer it is important to understand different companies Java support in near future (2008)!
so Please Nokia, SonyEricsson and Motorola tell us!!!

I also think it would be great to have more information about the work going on in JSR-249 and JSR- 271, please tell us!!

Read more here:

• Google Android: Initial Impressions and Criticism by Jilles van Gurp
• Will Google fracture or unify mobile Linux?
• how Google routed around Sun's IP-based licensing restrictions on Java ME
• The Android SDK, Demo Video and Contest by Carlos Enrique Ortiz
• What is Android vs JavaFX Mobile? by Evan Summer
• Sooo, what about Google Android and phoneME? by Terrence Barr
• Android Developers Blog
• On the Android announcement - a bullet list by Sean Sheedy
• Google's Android revealed: Component software for the mobile world

Sun and Samsung developing a Java mobile phone

I read that Sun and Samsung are joinly developing a Java phone!
This is interesting because Sun bought the SavaJe company earlier this year and now we could see some result of that.

Read more here:

• Sun/Samsung (Dean Collins)
  

Google phone runs SaveJe SW?

A interesting rumors about that the Google phone will be using a Java based OS (SavaJe??).

JavaOne 2006 I bought the first (and last) SavaJe phone. The phone was nothing special, it was a basic low end phone, but it was a Java phone!
It was ok for me, because I am a JavaME developer.

But this time, if this rumors is true I hope they release a phone with something "extra", something that normal people (not only Java developer) find useful. I believe this is really important to have a business success!

Read more about it here and here.

JavaOne 2007; Recap JavaME

It’s time to go home after a week of conferencing. I am sitting at the airport waiting for my flight back home. It has been an intense week with a lot of new interesting stuff. I thought I ought to sum up this year’s JavaOne conference.

This was the seventh time I’ve gone to JavaOne, so I thought of comparing this year’s with previous ones, but I will be in a separated blog post later.

Some of the hot mobility topics at this JavaOne:

• Netbeans 6.0 preview (M9) and all new features for mobility, it look really good.
• The SavaJe has resurrected as JavaFX Mobile (Read more about JavaFX Mobile here) and it also look like SUN will Open Source the SavaJe SW
• Many sessions were about the SVG API, with SVG you are able to create high-quality UI. Tools like Netbeans and Hyperion Mobile Designer integrate very well together for creating SVG applications
• Blu-ray and the use of JavaME/CDC/Foundation Profile is pretty cool
• Sun-Spot, I’ve gotta get me one of those kits! The kit includes two SPOTs and an SDK – unfortunately not ready for Europe yet
• Netbeans support for development of Sun Spot applications, really nice
• Thanks to the Open Sourcing JavaME there are now ports on other platforms, e.g. that Nokia N800. The phoneME project has made success in very short time, great work done!!
• Developers will soon be able to develop applications that comply with the Mobile Operational Management JSR 232 standard (OSGi) and use SNAP Mobile in less-than-optimum networks, according to two announcements made by Nokia at JavaOne 2007.
• Nokia and IBM gave a demo at JavaOne for developers looking to extend the value of devices to remote desktops and mobile clients across networks that may not be always connected. They showed a service called IBM Lotus Expeditor. It is an end-to-end solution based on Nokia devices enabled by eRCP (embedded rich client platform) and OSGi.
• Web services to Go, JSR-279 and JSR-280 soon finish (~ June 2007 final approved and devices supporting it 6 month later). With these two RSR’s it will be easier for developer to working with Web Services in the mobility area and it will also add better support for parsing XML data.
• Ericsson's Mobile JSF kit, which implements a reference solution about mobile-device-specific rendering for mobile applications based on Java EE
• WidSets, look very cool and soon a new big release.
• Project Orbit, the Sun Java ME viewer of Laszlo content. It is a Java ME CDC/Personal Basis application that uses the Rhino engine to run LZX programming language Web 2.0 (AJAX style) applications. Very cool!
• Data binding and JavaME, Netbeans support data binding.
• Sprint releasing a beta version of Sprint next set of developer tools, the Sprint WTK 3.2 and Mobility IDE. It is a modify Netbeans with added functions e.g. file browser
• MIDP 3.0 will perhaps come; how long it will take I don’t understand??
  Read more at open.source.motorola
• Perst Lite – a Open Source database for javaME
• Advanced Mobile Service Architecture based on JSR-232. This is really hot!

What I would like to hear more about at this JavaOne, but it was missing at this JavaOne:

• The progress of JSR-249, Mobile Service Architecture Advanced
• The progress of the Eclipse project embedded Rich Client Platform (eRCP)

Conclusions:

• JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1 is next generation Java that could compete very well with .Net but companies like Sony Ericsson, Sun and Motorola talk more about JavaME/CLDC1.1/MIDP2.0. This must change very fast I believe!!
• Web Services for JavaME will perhaps be useful at the end of this year
• Advanced Mobile Service Architecture based on JSR-232 is really hot and soon there will be devices supporting it
• JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1 for linux is really hot
• I hope companies like Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson soon will release JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1 devices, it will put some healthy pressure on the JavaME community. The funny thing now is that MS windows devices support JavaME/CDC.1.1/FP1.1 better because of the Eclispe project eRCP and the phoneME project.
• I am very excited about that Sun has bought SavaJe and let all hope that Sun will be able to release newer versions before too long so. I hope will be able to upgrade my SavaJe Jasper S20 I bought at JavaOne 2006. Meanwhile there is now a site with SaveJe Jasper Developer S20 files
• I have also met some old Java friends from the Java community and also made some new friends. This is one of the major advantages going to JavaOne!

After Javaone a good resource is the JavaOne Online Technical Sessions and Labs, there you will find:

• The static PDF versions of the technical session slides are open for viewing and download to all users
• The multimedia version, which includes the speaker's audio track and text transcription synchronized with the slide deck, is available to anyone who is a Sun Developer Network member.

The above comments where compiled from the notes of myself, Ove, and Robert Varttinen. The same text, more or less, will appear soon on his blog.

JavaOne had now started

First day of JavaOne.
Some interesting things:

• The SavaJe software will be OpenSource
• Ericsson have a new partnership with Sun about Open Source IMS
• Open Source JDK is now finished, new site launched: http://openjdk.java.net
• JavaFX Mobile announced, http://java.sun.com/javafx/
  
• Sun had a demo on the SavaJe phone and Nokia N800 running JavaME/CDC
• JRE gets bigger and bigger, because of that there will be a consumer release of JRE in Q1 2008
• JMaki (http://ajax.dev.java.net) and Phobos (http://phobos.java.net) for scripting, fully supported in Netbeans

It is funny device manufactures didn't know about JavaFX when I asked about it in the JavaOne Pavilion?!
To me it look like SUN invent things like JavaFX Mobile without talking with device manufactures like Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola. It could end up with devices not supporting all these new things Sun talks about at JavaOne

Sun buys SavaJe, SUN please Open Source SavaJe SW!

This is great news!!
Sun buys mobile phone software maker SavaJe
Sun promised more details about its plans for SavaJe at the JavaOne Conference scheduled for May 8-11 in San Francisco.
Sun said it expects to close the SavaJe asset acquisition by the end of June.

I wrote earlier in my blog Sun, please work for OpenSource the SW in the SaveJe phone! this because SavaJe is out of business.

Now it will also be possible for SUN to Open Source SavaJe SW!
I think a lot of developers would be happy about that!

OneJava or NoJava or TwoJava for JavaME/CDC1.1?

I waiting and waiting for devices supporting JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1/PP1.1 and AGUI!

Last year at JavaOne something happen, the Java based phone "Jasper" from Savaje was released and I suddenly was able to buy me phone that support JavaME/CDC1.1!! But last year in November the company SavaJe was out of buissness and again no phone on the market was supporting JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1/PP1.1 and AGUI!

I think that this sort of problem (with badly support of JavaME/CDC in devices) we perhaps can avoid because JavaME is Open Source, this really something great that have happen during 2007!!

There is also a other interesting JavaME/CDC1.1 solution from a Eclipse project called eRCP. eRCP is installed on top of JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1 and using eSWT instead of AGUI. eRCP 1.0.1 is already released and the release plan (I think I don't know) for eRCP look like this: Release 1.0.2 April 2007, Release 1.1 July 2007.
Today the eRCP project is supporting following platforms:

• OS: Windows, CPU: x86
• OS: Windows Mobile 2003 & 2005,CPU: ARM,x86(?)
• OS: Nokia Series 80,CPU: ARM

Other platforms that work is going on to add support for eRCP:

• OS: Nokia Series 60, CPU: ARM
  
• OS: Linux Qte, CPU: ??
• OS: Windows CE v5.0, CPU: ARM

Anyone know more about future plans for devices supporting JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1/PP1.1 or eRCP?
Please tell me!!
I hope they release something during JavaOne!
It is now only 39 days left to JavaOne!!

Netbeans Mobility Pack for CDC 5.5 RC1 is released but where are devices supporting AGUI?

Now Netbeans Mobility Pack for CDC 5.5 RC1 is released!
Really good news!
Great also that the Sun Java Toolkit for CDC is bundled in the Mobility Pack, but there is only support for AGUI (no support for AWT)

I wondering, is there any phone/PDA out there supporting AGUI?
Anyone know anything about this?
(After that SavaJe is out of business I don't know any phone supporting AGUI)

I will be waiting for something to happen about this, before I start using Netbeans Mobility Pack for CDC 5.5 RC1.
It is really sad but I need a real device that support AGUI before I start doing any developing on that platform!

Sun, please work for OpenSource the SW in the SaveJe phone!

What will happen with the SW in the Jasper phone?
Now when it looks like the company SavaJe is out of business.
I think this is really sad because the SavaJe phone (Jasper), AGUI (JSR-209) was planned to be implementation complete in Q406.

I have a message to Sun!
If that's the case, maybe there will be some effort from Sun to Open Source the SavaJe SW?
Please work for Open Source SavaJe SW!
(I understand it could be hard for SUN to do something in this situation, it is perhaps impossible)
In any case, Sun, “please make that happen!!”
I think a lot of developers would be happy about that!

A lot of people bought the SavaJe “Jasper”phone in JavaOne believing it is “the future”. It would be terrible if the device is discontinued with no chance to upgrade the SW”

We also really need more real devices that run JavaME/CDC1.1/PP1.1!
(I only know one device; it is this SavaJe phone Jasper)
We need it to have success for Java at PDA’s!

SavaJe - bye bye????

At last JavaOne I bought me the first SavaJe phone called Jasper(a Java-based mobile phone) and perhaps also the last SavaJe phone.

Have a look on this very disappointing news;
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/25/bye_bye_savaje/
http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/2977

SavaJe Java Developer Community Forums, Savaje - Out of Business or Not?:
http://java.savaje.com/bb/showthread.php?t=168

:-(

Debugging on the SavaJe phone with Netbeans 5.5 beta 2 Mobility Pack for CDC works now

I followed the steps in http://java.savaje.com/wiki/index.php/Using_JDWP_to_debug_bundles
I was using Netbeans 5.5 beta 2 Mobility Pack for CDC.
On the phone I had installed the Early Access Update 2 for the JavaOne Jasper Edition

But I was not able to debug on the phone. I got:
Attaching to 192.168.254.2:9462
Connection refused.
I was not able to ping the phone from my PC:
ping 192.168.254.1

I have installed my Xlet on the phone by placing the bundle files on the SD card under a folder entitled /savaJe/bundles/.
Then it is not possible to start the application when the USB cable is connected. HowTo do that?

I got an answer from SavaJe:
I'm assuming that you are mounting the SD card to the PC via the USB mass storage driver. The SD card can only be seen by one device at a time (either the phone or the PC).

After you've copied the bundle files to the SD card, right click the drive letter of the SD card on the PC, and select Eject. The phone should remount the SD card, and the Xlet should show up in the My Applications
group. To dismount from the phone (and remount to the PC), pop the SD card out and then reinsert it. Any Xlets on the SD card should disappear from My Applications, and the SD drive should reappear on the PC.

If you're using an SD adapter that plugs into the PC, you don't need to worry about this (but you have to do a lot more SD card swapping)

Now it works to debugging on the SavaJe phone using Netbeans 5.5 beta 2 Mobility pack for CDC!!

:-)

GUI toolkit for Java ME/ CDC devices

During 2007 there will come more devices supporting Java ME/CDC1.1
My question is, what will new devices support, eSWT or/and AGUI?
(IBM:s j9 will of course support eSWT, but AGUI?)

Sun and Netbeans will only support AGUI because eSWT is not a JCP standard or?
But if there will not be so many devices supporting AGUI (today only SavaJe phones support AGUI).
Nokia have talked about it for a long time that they will support next generation Java platform with eSWT
Remember Nokia is the biggest Mobile phone company!!
I also wondering what SonyEricsson and Motorola will support in the future , eSWT or AGUI?
I know SavaJe support AGUI (I bought a phone at last JavaOne).

I think we will have devices during 2007 supporting Java ME/CDC1.1/Personal Basis Profile 1.1 profile with eSWT and other devices supporting Java ME/CDC1.1/Personal Profile 1.1 with AGUI (like the SavaJe phone).But of course I would like companies (with eSWT support) like Nokia to support also Java ME/CDC1.1/Personal Profile 1.1 with AGUI.

I am a little worried about if there will be a success for Java ME/CDC1.1 platform.
So far with Java ME/CDC1.0 there have not been so many devices to buy on the market.
I hope this will change with Java ME/CDC1.1!

JSR-249 does not include any GUI functions other than what’s in MIDP. I think that if it doesn't include a GUI (that is suitable for the hi-end device the JSR is targeted for) the whole JSR will miss its purpose. Personal Profile or at least Personal Basis Profile should be the obvious choice.
What do you think?

My experience with the SavaJe phone I bought at JavaOne 2006

I bought the phone at JavaOne. I thought it would be nice to have a cell phone that supports Java ME CDC and JSR-209 and of course because it was the first Java phone.

I was surprised I was able to make phone call at JavaOne (what could you expect with a developer edition).

The performance is not so good, I sync my addresses from outlook (560 addresses) and it takes a while when you try to open Phonebook in the phone now.

I haven’t stopped using my Nokia phone yet (Nokia 3230), I wait till the SavaJe phone is more stable. For me as a developer it is an ok phone, I have waiting years for JavaME/CDC phones.

I think the challenge for SavaJe now is to have good support for this phone and support the developer with new builds of the SavaJe platform.

Well I have started to develop a application using JSR-209 and works well in the developer environment (NetBeans Mobility Pack for CDC) but not so good in SavaJe phone….yet

Look also here in John O'Conner's blog posting about what people are saying about the SavaJe cell phone.

Continue report from the NetBeans Software and JavaOne2006 conference in San Francisco

I join the NetBeans Software Day at the 2006 JavaOne Conference and JavaOne conference.

Some more interesting things from those events:

- The JavaOne conference of course had lot of session about Java EE 5.0 that was finishing some days before the conference. It is funny it was not a big happing during JavaOne that they released this huge improved version of Java EE. I think it was because developers have waiting so long for this release and most of us know a lot about this release already. Anyway I went for some EJB 3 sessions and I must say it look really nice, include in EJB 3.0 is also a new Java Persistence API (JPA). There was not so much talk about Hibernate, look to me EJB 3.0 have been accepted as a good alternative instead of using Hibernate.
- Java ME/CDC1.1 is now really hot, must of us developer working in the Java Mobility area has waiting for that a long time. At JavaOne it was showed clearly with:
1) This the first release of a SavaJe based phone called Jasper S20, the first commercial handset to run all applications in Java technology
2) Netbeans support Java ME/CDC with this new NetBeans Mobility Pack 5.5 for CDC Preview
3) Sun released the Sun Java Wireless toolkit is for CLDC
4) Company like Nokia and Motorala will soon release more devices supporting the Java ME/CDC platform. I believe there will come many Java ME/CDC devices during 2007.
- Interesting is also there will soon come some new GUI toolkit, that will replace AWT for the Java ME/CDC platform: AGUI toolkit (JSR-209) and eswt (Nokia and IBM promote it a lot). Nokia talk about eSWT for Next Generation Java in Nokia platforms, but eSWT is not a JCP standard.
- Sun promoted the Netbeans platform very hard during JavaOne, in keynotes and in technical session and in the JavaOne Pavilion. Sun strategy is to move all there products into the Netbeans platform and I think they will have success with this.
- I became interested in the Open Source database Apache Derby after I went to a technical session about Derby. I realize Derby also supports the Java ME/CDC platform and for me it is really interesting. Later I got information from a developer that have using Derby with J9 on a Pocket PC 2003, he told me:
“I have really given up on Derby as the memory footprint is just too big. You need to 8-16 Mb to really operate properly. Derby will not load a 20,000 row table with one index in 8 meg including your app, that's just doing the inserts, never mind starting to do queries!.
However, I have just the other day discovered db4o... wow this is something else! the best bit of software I have seen since google earth.
It's not an SQL database it's an Object database. Rather than me harping on about it here, take a look for yourself, it's simply amazing.
I now have my application working great, it's faster, easier and handles even bigger tables... and currently all in under 3 meg. It does take a bit of getting used to, as they is no joins. But once you do, there is no going back!
- They talked about Project Tango, SUN engineers have working with Microsoft (WCF) engineers to ensure interoperability of enterprise features in Webservices. They have now Open Source the work they have done in Tango and they called it WSIT.
- I went to a technical session about Mobile Operational Management (JSR-232), just to JavaOne they released a Public Review about it. I think this JSR will be very important for us developer in the future.
- I also went to technical session about Java Card Next generation, it was really interesting, they plan to have a webserver on the JavaCard and support access to the JavaCard with normal IP, to simplify it for developer. Really cool but this JSR will come out during 2007 and products 2008, with normal delays….2009
- AJAX was hot during JavaOne, but not for me!!I think it is time for SWING applications, with Matisse it has really get easier to develop GUI application both for Java SE and Java ME/CDC1.1 platforms.
- It look like companies supporting Open Source have easier to get attention in the JavaOne pavilion, lots of people visit sun and Jboss’s booths, but not so many people in BEA, Borland booths. Of course these company will say they support Open Source, but the main different is that they sell there products.

to be continued …..

Report from the NetBeans Software and JavaOne2006 conference in San Francisco

I join the NetBeans Software Day at the 2006 JavaOne Conference and JavaOne conference.
Some interesting things from those events:
- I got one SavaJe phone!!, now I can start using Java ME/CDC1.1 and the new AGUI toolkit (JSR-209).
- There is also a new releases of Netbeans that support the SavaJe phone called NetBeans Mobility Pack 5.5 for CDC Preview.
- Sun announced that Jboss now have also join Netbeans
- Netbeans 5.5 beta with support for Java EE 5.0 is released.
- Netbeans subversion beta is released, it look very nice in the demo.
- There was a demo of the Jackpot module, the module adds the capability to reengineer Java source code. You are also able to add new rules easy and share with others.
- Sun promote everyone to join JCP, I thought I should join JCP, but you couldn’t do that in the JavaOne pavilion, you have to download a pdf-file and sign it and then send it as a fax. Perhaps time to fix an easier solution and using Java for that?
- There was a demo of the NetBeans Enterprise Pack, you are then able to write SOA applications using XML, BPEL, and Java web services.
- Sun also continue to open source more things like: Sun Java Studio Creator, Sun Java System Portal Server, the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) Engine and the NetBeans Enterprise Pack, as well as Sun's Java Message System (JMS)-based message queue and Web Services Interoperability Technology (WSIT). Everything moves into the Netbeans platform, I think it is a good strategy and the Netbeans platform getting stronger!!
- MSA for CLDC (JSR-248) became in Proposed Final Draft during JavaOne, they planned to have it final in august, we will see devices with support for that during 2006Q4/2007Q1. One change was support to run on top of Java ME/CDC1.1, the reason for that was to make it easier to migrate to MSA for CDC JSR-249 when it is ready. JSR-249 first public release plans to be released 2006Q4. MSA plans in the future to be upgrade every 18 months. One other change in JSR-248 was that there will be a will two versions of the MSA, one with a subset and one with whole MSA , read more about it here at C. Enrique Ortiz' Mobility Weblog.
- The new AGUI toolkit (JSR-209) planned to be final in august.
- Sun also released a Sun Java Toolkit for CDC, Early Access, it is like what Sun Java Wireless toolkit is for CLDC, the toolkit includes the emulation environments, documentation.
- In Nokia booth they demo next release of Carbide.j, version 1.5 that will support remote debugging on the phones. It look nice and it is very good to have.

to be continued …..

Free database for Java ME/CDC1.1 platform?

Now when it look like there will lots of devices for the for Java ME/CDC1.1 platform in the future.

What about a free database that you could bundle with your Java ME/CDC application?
Is there anyone with support for the following platforms: Symbian 9, Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 (for Pocket PC) and SavaJe?

How do you bundle the application (Java App and database)?
Will it be support for that in tools like NetBeans Mobility Pack for CDC?

At JavaOne you are able to Purchase your SavaJe-based Jasper S20 phone

Read this on 2006 JavaOne Conference Homepage: JavaOne Conference Show Device--SavaJe-Based Jasper S20

Conference attendees have the opportunity to purchase the GSPDA Jasper--the first commercial handset to run all applications in Java technology. Purchase your SavaJe-based Jasper S20 phone and stop by the SavaJe booth to get your NetBeans CDC SDK. Get your hands on a SavaJe phone now, and be one of the first to develop advanced mobile graphic applications!

I wrote earlier about savaJe in my blog: Another Next Generation Java phone solution, SavaJe

I hope it work in Sweden, a very interesting solution!!

update:
More information in a blog: http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/javaone.html

Another Next Generation Java phone solution, SavaJe

At SavaJe’s faq you can read:
The kernel, device drivers, JVM, graphics, media framework and other low-level code is written in C or C++. The rest of the platform code is written in Java.

SavaJe OS is a complete operating system and applications platform. It includes a kernel and an integrated JVM, but it differs from other mobile Java solutions in that the JVM is an integral part of the platform, which allows efficient execution of Java code. Because Java is the application language for SavaJe OS, the JVM is less virtual than on other mobile platforms. In addition to the kernel and the JVM, SavaJe OS includes a complete set of applications and a reference UE (user experience) implementation.

SavaJe is not only a JVM!
SavaJe is an OS based on Java!

I found that SavaJe is in the conference Pavilion at this year JavaOne 2006, perhaps they have any device to show, I hope so!, a very interesting solution!