The JavaOne 2010 Call For Papers closes Sunday at 11:59 PDT. Roger describes in his blog the Mobility Track Session and BOF themes for this year.

Wow, we are less than a week away from SXSW Interactive and Music Festivals. And I’m very excited.

The Interactive Festival runs from March 12 – 16 and this year is looking solid!

One of the new additions to the Interactive Festival is the Future15 series on Convergence, Greater Good, Emerging, and Business. These are 15 minutes talks by experts on the aforementioned topics.

 

Under Emerging is the Wireless Future15, which I helped curate and will be hosting on March 13 (Saturday) on the Hilton Room K. The agenda is as follows (starts at 11 AM):

• 11:00 AM | Mobile, the Great Channel Equalizer | David Gill
• 11:20 AM | The Real Mobile Scoop | Agency, Manufacturer, and Carrier | David Hewitt
• 11:40 AM | Web Evolution: The Rise of Mobile, APIs and Runtimes | Daniel Appelquist
• [BREAK]
• 12:30 PM | iPhone Application Development: Myths and Facts | PJ Tanzillo
• 12:50 PM | Augmenting Your Brain With Android | Steve Brown
• 01:10 PM | Mobile Technology: What’s New, What’s Out, What’s Next? | Anup Murarka

For more information about the Wireless Future15 speakers and topics see the Future15 Emerging schedule.

So I hope to see you at SXSW Interactive and the Wireless Future15!

Oh, and don’t forget the BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW — with my good friend Dean McCall as Emcee.

ceo

 

 

Sad news for the Brazilian and International Java community

Yesterday, March 5, 2010, our friend Felipe Gaúcho has passed away due to a severe heart attack. His last role at CEJUG was as a principal advisor, after several years as coordinator.

Felipe was one of the CEJUG’s founders and he has become one of the greatest Java evangelists in Brazil and worldwide. Creator of the Java University Prize (PUJ), Felipe worked hard to motivate Brazilian students to give their very best on their student career.

We are mourning the loss of our JUG Leader Felipe Gaúcho.

Jeet Kaul, Vice President of Development at Oracle, resurrected the old Java paradigm of “Write Once, Run Anywhere” during the Silicon Valley giant's 27th January webcast, where Oracle unveiled their plans for Java ME and Java SE. Oracle proposed the unification of the SE and ME APIs, which would make it possible to write applications once, and then run them on a variety of devices – from mobile phones, to flat-screen TVs, to desktop computers.

Join Kay Glahn as he shares his thoughts on Oracle and the road ahead.

Consumers apparently aren't exactly flocking to buy Palm's smartphones, and that's going to hit the company where it hurts.

Everybody knows that MWC is more than just the show itself. The networking events and parties are sometimes as important (not to mention quite fun...). But with almost anyone throwing a party, it is easy to lose track, especially when you're on the move looking for the evening's next adventure...

Well, no more! Meet the MWC 2010 Parties List Mobile Guide - A small JavaME mobile app with all the info you need in your fingertips, and best of all, it's free and all info is stored in the app itself offline so there's no need to go online while you're roaming!

It's been a few quite tumultuous days. Time to relax and close out the week with a smile. Check out this Official Oracle Corporation Web Video ...

Cheers,
-- Terrence

The Symbian Foundation has announced its completion of the open sourcing of the Symbian Platform with the release of Symbian 3. On February 4, Symbian Foundation officials said the organization had successfully completed the open source release of the source code for the Symbian Platform, which has has become the world’s most widely-used smartphone operating system.

Now that the Oracle acquisition of Sun Microsystems is complete, java.net is seeking new growth for our community: bloggers and article authors, along with people who want to participate in our java.net communities and projects.

Nokia, BlackBerry maker RIM and Apple all saw strong growth during the fourth quarter of 2009, in which the worldwide smartphone market grew by 30 percent. Strategy Analytics expects 2010 to be the year of smartphone wars which will be good for consumers but a challenge for vendors.

The nomination phase for the seat on the Java ME Executive Committee (EC) is complete.

The ballot is now posted on the JCP site. There are four candidates:

• Alticast (Do Hyung Kim)
• Cablelabs (Jon Courtney)
• Kay Glahn
• Marlon Luz

I highly encourage you to vote. For position statements, bios, and profiles of the candidates please see the JCP site.

Running ahead I often forget that not everyone monitors our SVN commits so you don't all follow the latest and greatest in LWUIT (BTW to do so just go to the project mailing lists and subscribe to the commits mailing list to receive detailed commit notifications).
Three cool new things made their way into LWUIT two of which relate to touch support ...

Restoring java.net has proved more involved than anticipated. Many parts of the Java Mobile & Embedded Community are back online again, including the front page, blogs, and top-level content pages (changes of the last two days still need to be reposted due to the delta with the backup).

However, wikis and forums are still unavailable and in the process of being restored.

Projects remain accessible via <projectname>.dev.java.net.

For the 2010 FRC competition Java Technology will be offered as an option for teams to use in developing their robot programs. Java for FRC is being made available as a prerelease to all FRC teams as an opportunity to learn more about the language and the tools that will be available.

Using this software you can create sample programs using your existing 2009 software, robot and controller. Many of the beta teams doing early testing have successfully ported their 2009 robot code to Java.

While Thorsten & myself wrote build instructions for the BlackBerry in the forum/mailing list in the past they are somewhat outdated by now and aren't as easy to find using Google. So here is a step by step guide on porting to the BlackBerry devices with some explanations of the Caveats ...

Software developers writing applications for Google Android are struggling to turn a profit from the mobile operating system.

New research published on Tuesday by positioning system firm Skyhook Wireless found that 57% of mobile application developers were not satisfied with their profits from Android. Only 4% of the respondents reported being very satisfied.

"Rather than creating opportunity, platform divergence has just created further problems; we simply can't afford to test across all Android phones," said Android app maker James Grafton, in a statement.

I truly believe there is the potential for some real synergies where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This is why I enthusiastically participated in the first ever Community Leadership Summit this past summer. It is also why I have taken the lead in organizing the West Coast Community Leadership Summit (CLS West) coming up on January 9th, 2010. It will be a one day unconference for community leaders/managers/evangelists at DeVry University in Daly City. The event will be free, but, we are asking people to register in advance ...

In a letter to the EC, OAUG President Raymond Payne wrote that Oracle's acquisition of Sun would simplify the integration process associated with merging several technologies, supporting all activities, from hardware to the operating system to middleware to the applications and the database. People continue to line up on both sides of the Oracle/Sun Microsystems-versus-European Commission dispute about the future of MySQL

Having opened 10 more markets across four states, WiMax broadband provider Clearwire is now operating in 27 U.S. markets covering more than 30 million people.

Clearwire said Dec. 2 its WiMax service is now available in 10 more markets across four states. The 4G broadband network is now available in 27 markets across the United States covering over 30 million people.

Excerpts from the JavaOne 2009 MIDP 3.0 session with Angus Huang, Roger Riggs, and Paul Su.

The JT Harness 4.2.1 milestone release contains a large number of bug fixes, including fixes in the following areas:

• Fixed update problems in the test tree
• Cleaned up potential NPEs and other exceptions
• Test Panel now displays test output streams during test run
• "Quick Pick" execution from test tree now includes a preference to control usage of the Tests to Run configuration setting
• Fixed memory leaks
• Added service management API
• Fixed handling of special characters in test result data
• Refined internal handling of template and configuration objects

JT Harness 4.2.1 is compatible with JT Harness 4.1. For more information, see the release notes on the download page.

Slightly off-topic, but very cool: Josh Marinacci just announced the first public version of Project MaiTai.

Josh describes MaiTai this way:

MaiTai is an open source tool for building interactive artwork. You create interesting sketches by wiring different blocks together with lines. There are blocks to produce graphics, process mouse and keyboard inputs, connect to webservices, and perform complex graphical transformations. The end result is limited only by your imagination.

There’s been an important and relatively sudden change taking place over the last couple of years in the way that we interact with the Web. While direct access or search activity has been (and still is) the most common way that we access the content and applications of the Web, new ways have been rapidly growing and competing with how we work online, both at home and at work.

CNET's Tom Krazit and Molly Wood sit down with Google CEO Eric Schmidt to discuss the future of Android, the Chrome OS, the problem of real-time search indexing, and more.

Microlog is a small, yet powerful logging library for mobile devices based on the Log4j API. Supports Java ME (J2ME) and Android. Logs to device, to PC or to servers online. Used in all phases from development on emulator/device to outdoor field-testing.

For several months now a subset of the JCP's Executive Committees has been meeting as the Java ME Working Group to address Java ME-specific matters. In this column Patrick Curren focuses on Java ME and on some of the issues that the Working Group has been discussing.

Last week, Lee Williams, executive director at Symbian, stopped by our office to brief me on a new version of the operating system that is going to be released soon. Toward the end of the video chat, Williams shared his unfiltered views of Google’s Android, including the unease it is causing with handset makers and carriers. “Android is building a perfect storm of fragmentation,” he said. “I don’t view Apple as evil, just greedy. Google…come on.” Watch the video ...

Have you see the monthly challenges over at JFXStudio ?

Here's a story from The Register about the Java Store. There's some good questions raised and interesting guessing by the reporter. The important part is that there will be an alternative to the Apple App Store. Thank G*d!

Verizon Wireless and Motorola announced they will begin selling the Andoird-based "Droid" phone starting Nov. 6 for $199.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

Click here for pictures and specs

Google's Eclair update for Android offers a host of changes including multitouch support.

Now that open source has gone mainstream, we no longer need to sell its raison d'etre, but rather how best to leverage it for business benefit.

Obama administration drops proprietary software driving WhiteHouse.gov for the Drupal open source content management platform.

It’s been a long time in the making … but it’s finally here. Native Java ME development is coming to Mac OS X!

Ready for download now. Check it out and let us know what you think!

After the open letter by former MySQL CEO Mårten Mickos a few days ago additional groups are now throwing their hat in the ring. Richard Stallman, together with Knowledge Ecology International and the Open Rights Group published an open letter of their own asking the EU to block the acquisition of MySQL by Oracle.

A week after announcing a partnership to collaborate on Android handsets, they issue a joint statement regarding the FCC's consideration of Net neutrality rules.

Research In Motion introduced a new version of its BlackBerry Bold smartphone, less than a week after announcing a successor to its Storm phone. The actions come as RIM and its rivals gear up for the critical fourth-quarter holiday shopping season.

The new Bold phone, called the BlackBerry Bold 9700, will be available through AT&T; Mobility and T-Mobile USA, among other carriers around the world. The upgrade replaces the original Bold's trackball with an optical track pad and also has a faster browser and a slimmer and lighter profile than the original. The device is meant to appeal to enterprise users and serve as a high-end smartphone for consumers.

A few days ago the former MySQL CEO Mårten Mickos sent an open letter to Neelie Kroes, the European Union’s competition commissioner, urging that the Sun-Oracle deal be approved.

Just wanted to send out a quick note for the German-speaking Java developers. W-JAX'09 will happen November 9 through 13 in Munich, Germany. Kay Glahn (Vodafone, MSA-248 spec lead) put together a nice program for Java Mobile Day on the 12th. Check it out!

Cheers,

-- Terrence

I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area this week for the Mobile 2.0 Conference (Thu, 10/15 and Fri, 10/16). Mobile 2.0 is a grass-roots conference that brings together experts and thought leaders from around the mobile ecosystem. It focuses on new mobile applications and services, mobile ecosystem issues, and disruptive mobile innovation.

Technically, both Maemo and Android run on Linux kernels. However, Maemo is a full Linux distro, based on Debian, while Android is a sole kernel with a few programs on top of it (namely, Dalvik virtual machine and Sqlite database). On Android all applications run within Dalvik virtual machine. I tried to analyze the benefits of each platform from the perspective of a software developer, as well as platforms' current "strategic position".

eWEEK Labs tested Microsoft's new Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system on the AT T Pure device and found that while Version 6.5 is definitely an improvement over previous iterations of Windows Mobile, it has too many vestiges of the past.
- My experience with Windows Mobile dates back about a decade, when I purchased my first Windows CE device a PDA, not a phone. Since then, Microsoft has evolved the Windows CE operating system into what would become Windows Mobile in its various versions.

AT&T; Mobility has changed its stance, and is now going to allow VoIP applications for Apple's iPhone to run over its 3G network. The carrier said that it had informed both Apple and the FCC of its decision.

The change in policy means that users of VoIP applications on the iPhone, such as Skype, will no longer be relegated to using the device's WiFi connection for VoIP calling. It is also a significant turnaround for AT&T;, which said earlier this year that allowing VoIP apps on the iPhone to run over its 3G network could cripple the network. Indeed, AT&T; has openly discussed the strain iPhone usage in general has placed on its network.

Amazon is offering mobile developers a new way to sell their wares. Their new mobile payment service means anyone with an Amazon account can make over-the-air purchases.

In the last two days, two forecasts informed us about the value of the mobile app market in – convenient as ever – the distant future that is 2013. US analyst firm Yankee Group predicts the US app mobile market to be worth $4.2bn by then. Today, British analyst Wireless Expertise (run by former Netsize exec Anuj Kanna) topped this easily by predicting the (global) app market size to be $16.6bn by that time (free copy of the report here).

I can hear your moans…

This is a community forum for developers in the San Francisco Bay Area to learn, discuss, and extend the JavaFX platform. We meet monthly in person with presentations on JavaFX tutorials, topics, and bleeding edge news. Our meetings are always free to attend or watch online.

Open source has become a critical component of virtually all software and will continue to be such.

This article is about App Stores/Markets. It is a personal view on the Google App Market and thus it is totally unscientific. It focuses on Google App Market but it applies to all app stores. In this article “App Market” and “App Store” are used interchangeably and refer to the application catalog on the Web that allows for the discovery, payment and download of mobile applications.

Here's yet another article about how the RealNetworks RealGames division is using their EMERGE platform and their new Federation of Studios (FoS) to lure all those disgruntled iPhone developers back to the Motherland: Java ME technology.

Here is my take after reading all the letters sent to the FCC.

We all know that there are positives and negatives to open and closed App Stores. And not everyone is happy with both models. For example, too open, such as the Android platform, we find lots of spam and light-p0rn. On the other side, too close, we have the Apple police, which results of lots of missing apps ...

LWUIT is now finally featured among other prominent Java ME technologies in its own page on java.sun.com. Its been a great ride taking LWUIT from a small project that Chen started on the side and seeing it materialize.

The discrepancy between claims by the two companies over Google Voice app for the iPhone is turning into a classic he said, she said conundrum.

...Java ME too has plenty to say.

There are rare times that I will actually tell you NOT to buy a Java ME tech-enabled cell phone. Here's one such case. It turns out the LG 150 does have Java ME technology (yay! :-)), but also exceeds the U.S. and Canadian government safety limits for radiation emission!!! Ahhhh!!! 38-O

I can’t comment on the Oracle-Sun acquisition but I’d like to direct your attention to the first-page ad in todays Wall Street Journal. I don’t think anyone should be doubting Oracles commitment. Personally, I’m looking forward to what’s to come.

The proliferation of application storefronts  has spawned thousands of mobile applications that are incredibly useful--as well as those that seem to serve little to no point. How to cut through the clutter? FierceMobileContent today introduces its list of the top 10 mobile applications of 2009.

Hoping to capitalize on the popularity of its Pre smartphone, Palm unveils a new smartphone called the Pixi.

HTC released its fourth phone based on Google's Android platform, the Tattoo, promising users a new level of customization. The news comes days after Sprint Nextel said it would launch the HTC Hero and right before Motorola is set to unveil its first Android offerings. 

Help drive the direction of JavaFX training and certification by taking the JavaFX developer survey.

You’ll need only 5 to 10 minutes. The JavaFX team is designing a comprehensive curriculum for Java developers. The primary objective of the curriculum is to enable developers to use JavaFX technologies to build rich internet applications. We’re looking for your input on the topics and tasks to include in the training.

Survey ends September 16.

After nearly three years with the java.net blogging system I am moving my blog to here on WordPress, starting today.

Here's a recent comparison of Larva Labs sales data for 8/2009 of their Android port of their app versus their iPhone port. The money they made on their Android port wasn't even enough to cover something basic like powering on their computers. See: Paltry Android app sales. Here's a quote:

On Android it has sold, to date,
less than 500 copies. That’s
$1,046 total earnings, max. How
psyched are those guys that they
ported a huge hit to Android and
can’t even cover a party sub for
the release dinner?

Microsoft has come up with a bright new concept: Use Java ME to unify to one programming platform for all the disparate cell phones out there. Duh. Now, why didn't we think of that at Sun Microsystems? Oh, wait... we did.

See:

Microsoft Java ME OneApp

Here's a quote: OneApp is a (small 150k) Java application which can run on any compatible Java phone... What a great idea! Using Java ME technology for what it was intended to do. Well, it shouldn't take a multi-billion dollar company to validate that idea. But, heck, we'll take it. Microsoft is an OK company in my book. ;-)

Hinkmond

Highlights from the JavaOne session TS-4506 with hints & tips on migrating your Java ME applications to JavaFX Mobile.

Here's something fun for your Java ME tech-enabled cell phone: Earthworm Jim. It's a game that's been around for years, but now Gameloft and Interplay re-introduce it for a variety of platforms including Java ME mobile phones.

See:

Earthworm Jim worming into your phone

Here's a quote:

"Earthworm Jim, a popular run and gun platform video game featuring an earthworm who dresses up in a Super Suit to fight evil. The game will make its way to mobile..."

Any earthworm who figures out how to put on an indestructible space suit while crawling around eating dirt and dodging birds is OK in my book--sorta like a worm version of Space Ghost.

- Hinkmon

An interesting video with Denis Magda (a far east Russian ambassador) presenting a way to "listen" for SunSpot events and forward them to JavaFX application.
- Andrei Dmitriev

An interview with Ph.D. candidate Valderi Leithardt in Brazil on using SunSpots for gesture recognition.

Here's an article about the latest Mobile version of Google Maps, version 3.2. Notice how Google caters to the big platforms for Mobile: BlackBerry, Java ME, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. And, as should be, Android is last in line when Google thinks about how it can monetize their Mobile Apps, such as Google Maps Mobile. The sheer volume of deployments for each platform means that proper prioritization puts Android last.
- hinkmond

The Amazon Kindle has spurred huge growth in the e-book market. Lots of people get Kindle-envy watching other people whip out their sleek devices and immerse themselves in an e-book, any time and anywhere, like at the airport or in a waiting room. So, instead of the Java ME-based Kindle, they go online and buy a Java ME-based e-reader app for their smartphone. Win-win.

See:

Java ME and e-books = Good Match

Here's a quote:

"I never really wanted something that was a single-function device. I just couldn't see spending ... $300 for a device where I'm sort of locked in to one retailer. Whereas my phone, that does everything."

Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said that while the Kindle has sparked interest in e-books, downloads of e-reading applications for smart phones have far outnumbered the Kindles sold.

Java ME technology is great at enabling whole industries to pop up, just like it has done for e-books.
- Hinkmond

• Microsoft's Linux Kernel Code Drop Result of GPL Violation
  There had to be a reason beyond goodwill, and it seems that reason was avoidance of a lawsuit.
  (tags: Microsoft Linux OpenSource FOSS)
  
• Open source goes to Washington
  Looks like the Pirates need some consulting on how copyright and Free software actually work as their stated policy take a populist but wrong approach.
  (tags: OSFA OSA Podcast SimonPhipps Clippings OpenSource FOSS America USA

-webmink

Submitting issues to LWUIT is pretty easy but we still get a flood of duplicates and questions in the mailing list so I would like to just clarify this "how to" to hopefully improve the signal to noise ration of LWUIT.
- Shai Almog

The Problem: Too many handsets, environments, and differences across platforms. The Solution: A single environment/platform for mobile apps. There you go, problem solved, no more fragmentation!
- ceo

The JavaOne 2009 Rock Stars were just published. Hinkmond Wong (phoneME Project Lead) and Eric Arsenau (Principal Investigator, SquawkVM) made the list. Congratulations!
- Terrence Barr

You know it will turn out poorly when a company becomes more technology-driven rather than customer-driven. There comes a time when every successful tech company gets too big and starts to design based on what can be done with technology rather than what should be done with technology.
Here's a San Jose Mercury News piece by Chris O'Brien talking about Google's identity crisis.
-hinkmond

Three years ago Roger Brinkley (Mobile & Embedded Community Leader) and Terrence Barr (Senior Technologist and Community Ambassador) realized that there wasn't really a conference focused on mobile and embedded Java topics. Though there were several Java conferences, they never provided a space where details relating to mobile and embedded devices could be discussed. So Roger and Terrence asked a few people: "What if we were to put together a conference specifically geared towards mobile and embedded Java topics?" ...
- Geertjan Wielenga

I attended a talk here at Sun, by Ilya L. and Chris D. from GetJar.com talking about their download rate of Java ME apps far outnumbering the actual download rate of the Apple App Store for the iPhone. There seems to be some controversy over whether the possibly cooked up 1.5 billion iPhone app download number contains just unique app downloads or includes the frequent updates that an already installed app requires. Jason D. O'Grady a blogger at ZDNet seems to agree and think the Apple number is bogus.

- hinkmond

Just a quick note: Many of the technical sessions and Hands-on-Labs for JavaOne 2009 have now been posted online - free to download. Find it all on SDN. Enjoy.

- Terrence Barr

The "Working with Bluetooth and GPS" series on the Bluetooth API (JSR 82) spawned a number of questions, which author Bruce Hopkins addresses in this follow-up tech tip.

If you have missed Java ONE, you can see a short screencast showing something that Tomas presented: Java Platform Micro Edition Software Development Kit Prototype running on Mac OS X. (direct link to a HD .mov video, 22.8 MB, 3 minutes)

FISL (the Free Software International Forum) in Porto Alegre (BRAZIL) is a 4 days events about open source in all different domains. This year will be the 10th edition and SOUJava+RSJug are working together to put another JAVALI (Java Open Source technologies)

- Mauricio Leal

Roger and Terrence have a conversation with the organizers of Mobile, Media, and eMbedded Developer Days/Latin America in Goiania, Brazil.

On June 20th, Brazil hosted the first edition of M3DD/LA (Java Mobile, Media and eMbedded Developer Days - Latin American Edition), in Goiania. The event was huge success (600 attendees) and organizers are considering a big event for next year.

- Mauricio Leal

Roger is speaking at Javali about the Mobile & Embedded Community. View the talk live here.

There's alsobeen a flurry of blogging and articles around the JDK 7 Preview, released at JavaOne, too.

- dannycoward