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!

Sprint Titan

Sprint Nextel have just released Sprint Titan, a developer SDK incl. OSGi and eRCP
They'll release post- and pre-installed commercial phones in 2008.
Read more about it here.

Changes have to happen in JavaME area

I read a VERY GOOD BLOG called Possibly the last MIDP specification, you will ever review. The writer Gorkem Ercan gave us the information that the public review for the JSR 271(MIDP 3 ) has started and what he thought about the future for Java in mobile devices.

I totally agree with Gorkem Ercan about that we in the mobility area have some problems with the JCP process, as it works today.

Sorry, I don't get excited about that JSR 271, (MIDP 3) is now in public review or that JSR 232 has published (some days ago) an updated Final Maintenance Release. This because it usually takes years before we have new devices with support for a new JSR.

But I think there are many good things in JavaME area:

• We have a Java standard in mobility area, JavaME/CLDC1.1/MIDP2.0
  
• There are a lot of devices with support for JavaME/CLDC1.1/MIDP2.0
• JavaME is OpenSource
  
• The PhoneME project, an excellent piece of work is done in that project.
  
• The eRCP project is also VERY GOOD for us!
  

I think this is not so good:

• The JCP process is very very slow and not open for everyone. Then when a JSR is finished, it take a very long time when we actually have devices that support it and the worse thing is that sometimes no support comes at all (like AGUI).
• For me as a JavaME developer/architect, it is not easy to understand the future for JavaME and I also don't think it help if you join the JCP (I have join JCP) to get a better understanding about it.
• There are no devices with support for JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1.
• There are delays for JSR 249: Mobile Service Architecture 2, based on JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1 and no public information from JCP about this delay. I can't understand why JCP don't update the schedule for each JSR.
  

But I think it is always nice with competition so I am positive that we now also have eRCP and soon the Google Android. I think this will help us in the future to get better Java support i mobile devices!!

I think something has to happen now in the JavaME JCP process!!
I don't think it is ok to release a JSR some years later and with no information about delays during the process, JavaME is OpenSource but it is NOT OPEN!

But don't understand me wrong, I am very pleased we have the JCP process in Java, I believe we need Java standards. But innovation I would like to see it in a more rapid way and done open to anyone.

I plan to go to next JavaOne, but I will be very disappointed if I can't find sessions about all kind of Java in Mobility area like: Android, eRCP...

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

SonyEricsson investigating/implementing eSWT

Great news, now also SonyEricsson investigating/implementing eSWT
Read more about this at Gorkem ERCAN blog

JSR-232, JSR-249 and Nokia E90

At this JavaOne I went on a session called Advanced Mobile Service Architecture Based on JSR 232 (TS-50695), I think this session was very interesting, perhaps the most interesting session at JavaOne 2007!

This session is about next generation JavaME, based on JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1 and JSR 232 Mobile Operational Management.

Now there is also a article based on this session:
Is OSGi the Solution for Mobile Java?

I like this:

• On a device with JSR 232 Mobile Java developers will have a much more powerful CDC/FP runtime and class libraries to work with, making AGUI and Swing GUIs a possibility, a well as the embedded versions of SWT and the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (eRCP).

• Most importantly, the developer doesn't need to wait for the Java Community Process or device manufacturers to bring these components to the handset: once wrapped into an OSGi bundle they can be installed to the device over the air and registered as a service, much like an Eclipse plugin is installed via Update Manager.

I cant wait until I get this upcoming Nokia E90 handset and little later also this post-installed add-on software with OSGi and eRCP.

I think JSR-249, Advanced Mobile Service Architecture will be a very important JSR, perhaps also more important than the upcoming JSR-271, MIDP 3.0 I believe.
I hope it don't take to long time before JSR-249 is finish.

Midlet with eSWT?

Read Midlet with eSWT, Gorkem ERCAN wants to get your opinions about:

• If eSWT should be available for midlets? !

For more info about eSWT read also Better UIs with eSWT , Hartti Suomela's at Nokia.

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.

eRCP 1.0.02 Released

I read that eRCP 1.0.02 Released, now also with support for WinCE 5!!
More information about this Eclipse project at the eRCP project home

I am waiting for next release, eRCP 1.1 which will add support for Nokia's S60 platform.
It is close, the release plan (I think I don't know) for eRCP1.1 is July 2007.

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!!

eRCP and Nokia E90

I found some interesting things in this presentation eRCP - Ready for prime time! by Gorkem Ercan (Nokia), Mark Rogalski (IBM) from the conference EclipseCon 2007:

• eRCP as a post-installed add-on software
  component to Nokia E90!!!!
• Release plan for eRCP: Release 1.0.2 April 2007, Release 1.1 July 2007
• eRCP Release 1.1: Nokia S60, WinCE

Download the presentation here.

I already thought the Nokia E90 was great but now I also understand that Nokia E90 will also support JavaME/CDC1.1/FP1.1 & eRCP1.1 but as a post-installed add-on software!!!!

Read more about eRCP 1.1 draft project plan at the eRCP project site.

Anyone know more about this?
Please tell me!!

Anyway I think I will get more information about this at JavaOne 2007!!
(Nokia is Gold Cosponsors, but IBM???)
It is now only 45 days left to JavaOne!!

But there is no technical session or BOF about eRCP at this JavaOne??
Strange? why?
Here is the whole content catalog for JavaME at JavaOne2007

Develop eRCP applications with Eclipse

There is a new interesting article about Develop eRCP applications with Eclipse.

This article shows how to use Eclipse to develop embedded Rich Client Platform (eRCP) applications. Detailed steps guide you through setup, development style, deployment, and debugging of an eRCP application programming cycle.

eRCP/eSWT - A platform support nightmare for Eclipse?

I found this interesting post: eRCP/eSWT - A platform support nightmare for Eclipse? at EclipseZone, the writer is worried about possible JavaME/CDC1.1 fragmentation.

The writer says:
"As I am entirely convinced of the concepts of RCP and SWT, I welcome any idea that helps eRCP to unfold its potential to the broad and diverse embedded market. The seeds of eRCP have been sowed, what needs to be done to let it become a solid tree?"

I am also entirely convinced of the concepts of RCP and SWT!
My answer is JCP!
I now think the big problem with eRCP/eSWT is: "it is not a Java standard", this issue could only be solved by go through JCP. I think companies like Nokia, IBM and SUN must accept responsibility for this issue with eRCP/eSWT!

But I also think it is not enough with a JCP standard. The standard must also be accepted by companies who makes all theses devices. I wrote earlier about this problem with AGUI(JSR-209) is finished, but don’t believe AGUI will have any success!!.

JavaME and Eclipse

There is a Eclipse project for JavaME called Device Software Development Platform Project, yesterday they announces Three Milestone Releases.

• Target Management (TM), release version 1.0
• Embedded Rich Client Platform (eRCP), release version 1.0
• Mobile Tools for the Java Platform (MTJ), release version 0.7

See:
Eclipse unifying enterprise SOA and mobile development
Eclipse Releases Platforms for Mobiles, Target Management, Java

I think a lot good stuff coming out from this Eclipse project!
But I am little worried about the possible fragmentation of the JavaME platform.
(it is great with eSWT but I prefer if it was a JCP standard)

I think we really need a new GUI toolkit for JavaME/CDC1.1 platform and soon new devices supporting eSWT will be released, so I will go for eSWT!
(I perhaps will change my mind when there are more devices on market that supports AGUI, but for the moment I only know about the SavaJe phone Jasper)

I hope Netbeans in the future will support eSWT, but I have no hope in the short term!

I also think it great when companies like Nokia and Motorala want to support developers, but please support booth the Netbeans and the Eclipse platforms.