Paul Golding: Java

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 11:55:34 GMT

@ If you're still reading this....

...you shouldn't be. Your browser should have been redirected to my new blog

http://wirelesswonders.blogspot.com/

Sun, 22 Jun 2003 14:18:49 GMT

:: Very neat utility for XUL interfaces on mobile devices ::

Thinlet is a GUI toolkit, a single Java class, that parses the hierarchy and properties of the GUI, handles user interaction, and calls business logic. It separates the graphic presentation (described in an XML file) and the application methods (written as Java code).

The GUI description is XML User-interface Language, XUL (apparently prounced "zool", rhyming with "cool"). XULPlanet has a tutorial on XUL.

The really great part is that the Thinlet toolkit supports MIDP, so there is a chance to play around with some interesting mobile interface ideas, not that I've tried any yet, just played around with XUL via the fabulous Thinlet authoring tool Theodore. Playing around with the Theodore tool is a great way to learn, or at least appreciate, the power and potential benefits of XUL. You can give it whirl by trying the evaluation copy online (but note that you need to have Java Web Start installed to do this).

You can try out the Thinlet class via some interesting web demos on the Thinlet website, including one that uses the Amazon Web Services API.

Wed, 11 Jun 2003 22:33:44 GMT

:: Connecting MIDlets back to J2EE World - Made Easy by Sun ::

The Complexity of Developing Mobile Networked Data Services, J2ME Wireless Connection Wizard for Sun One Studio gives an overview of the J2ME Wireless Connection Wizard for Sun One Studio which facilitates the creation of networked wireless applications and services by automating significant parts of the development process.

Note that this is a proprietary network protocol, but that may not matter to you. If you want to go down the Web Services route, then you might want to look at JSR0172, which is a Web Services API for J2ME.

Fri, 04 Apr 2003 00:12:37 GMT

:: Operators "become handheld OS companies" ::

How timely that I should read this article today. I was just writing (in my new book) about the nascent shift in mindset that the operators are going through, some would say from telecoms mentality to IT mentality. The investment mentioned below by Vodafone and Orange would seem like a bid to get directly involved in the IT action to claw back some of the revenues that they would say they bring to handset OS licensors. On the one hand I'm glad they have gone to SaveJE (pronounced "savij"). I was an early adopter of SavaJE on my iPAQ, wiping Pocket PC clean from its memory only to find that this particular version of the SavaJE OS wasn't to be supported any longer by SavaJE - very savage indeed!

I just hope that this is not a bid by these operators to control the end-point of the network and tie-down all the value added services

Vodafone, Orange Invest in Wireless Java OS. Wireless carriers are increasingly getting into the software business as they look for more ways to differentiate their offerings and gain some leverage over Nokia, Microsoft and Symbian. As the market moves toward smartphones software becomes more important to carriers and handset makers. One way or the other we'll end up with a dominant OS that is used across carriers and handset makers. The question remains which one and when. Vodafone and Orange are doing their part by investing is Java start up SaveJe that is working on a full Java OS for handsets. A Java OS would allow Vodafone and Orange to commission completely custom handsets with their own unique interfaces (not necessarily a good thing) while still allowing the devices to run common java apps.

Source: [Techdirt Corporate Intelligence: Techdirt Wireless]

Thu, 27 Mar 2003 11:04:37 GMT

:: Value-based Billing for Wireless Java Applications ::

The current model for charging for Java games is a one-off charge for downloading the game, with the billing mechanism often a premium-charge text message. However, such a model is limited. For an application that involves repeated value-added events, then event-based charging becomes a possibility, just like users pay each time they send a text message. JSR190 is a Java Community initiative to develop a suitable API for event-based charging.

A useful introduction to the topic and the JSR can be found in this article on the DevX website, written by Allen Lau, CTO, Tira Wireless.

Thu, 13 Mar 2003 09:17:33 GMT

:: Wireless IM - Do it right now ::

If you're a Vodafone Live customer, then you can use Vodafone Messenger to chat with buddies. However, you will require their custom desktop client if you want to connect to the tethered world which is probably where most of your IM buddies hang out. However, the Vodafone offering is all set up out-of-the-box (with the appropriate phone) without requiring a PhD in wireless (except the strange twist that you have to register using the web and can't do it via WAP??).

Alternatively, you can download TipicME IM client (MIDP) and chat with anyone on the planet! Shame that the client is optimised for the P800 (as I don't have one).

Hooray for open standards and an open access world (note: remains to be seen if this service is allowable on mobile networks).

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 18:00:18 GMT

:: MIDlet portability ::

There are a number of issues concerning MIDlet portability from one device to another. Some of these issues are reminiscent of the compatibility problems faced by WAP designers. Testing remains a headache compounded by the problem of having to cope with a legacy of devices that cannot be updated in the field (at least not so easily that an average user would ever bother - or know about most likely).

I found some of the articles on Consultancy Penrillian's download site very informative on this issue. Managing Director Charles Weir has also written an intriguing book on patterns for low memory software design, though I have not read it myself, it seems to come highly recommended. I remember all too well the amount of research we did at Motorola into memory utilisation in GSM DSP devices. The irony was that much of the optimisation was done in the algorithms only to have clumsy control code hog all the memory. Perhaps this book would have been useful back then and is probably useful now to the MIDlet designers out there operating on low memory budgets.

Sat, 01 Mar 2003 23:15:08 GMT

:: New channels Announcement ::

Please note that I have added two new channels (nav links on left). One is "Hot Products" which I hope is fairly self-explanatory. I want readers to be able to easily check up on any mobile products I will review or make comments on.

The other channel is "Techno Vision". This is going to be about showing how emerging technologies can be used to deliver something useful in the near future, trying as often as possible to suggest how products from "Hot Products" could be used together to facilitate visionary services: like wouldn't it be great if we took product X and added service Y and technology Z - then we could do ABC. We often get lost in the froth of techo excitement and can't figure out what we are supposed to be doing with half of this stuff. The channel will be different from "My ideas/thoughts" channel which is a blog of unsequenced ideas that pop into my mind on wireless apps, devices and services, from the mundane to the crazy.

Happy reading!

Sat, 01 Mar 2003 16:43:01 GMT

:: Interesting pervasive portal solution [Propylon] ::

I just finished reviewing Propylon's website info for Mission Control and found it interesting. From first impressions I really like the product and approach.

Without going into any technical depth (as I don't have enough knowledge about the product), it seems a similar proposition to Volantis (praised earlier by me). However, its key strength seems to lie in its powerful data transformation capabilities on the input stream, taking any data format and converting to XML. Not surprising, as it leverages Propylon's PropelX solution for business data integration [PDF 283kb], XML being a key long-time strength of Propylon who forwarded the XPipe methodology for pipelined XML processing and transformation. When I last had a demo of Volantis, XML support was just being added, but that doesn't solve the problem of how to handle input streams that are not in XML (probably a large proportion of the content).

I am lacking any details about how Mission Control facilitates the guidelines for transformations from XML to the chosen presentation format. Volantis has a powerful templating design tool for device layouts. I'm also not sure how the transformation takes place, Volantis using their own tag set in the JSP pages.

Mission Control runs on J2EE of course and has been tested on BEA's WLS, which just about every operator seems to be using these days (sweeping statement based on anecdotal evidence).

Sun, 02 Feb 2003 15:52:34 GMT

Sun "takes back control" of J2ME [Sun's Java Website]

Those of us engaged in wireless services were beginning to wonder exactly where J2ME was headed, or more accurately MIDP, and why it didn't seem to be on the right track. Clearly MIDP 1.0 is woefully inadequate. It had many missing features just in terms of its basic capabilities, nevermind the higher system functions that a mobile environment must have - like a push mechanism, interactivity with the user's PIM functions and so on. Meanwhile, MMS and video phones have pushed the services capability of phones beyond what MIDP 1.0 is capable of. Hence we have ended up with a situation where Vodafone have released their own extensions (NOT open source) and the Java Community Process is hosting apparently unconnected efforts to usefully extend MIDP: such as the Wireless Messaging API (JSR 120) and Mobile Media API (JSR 135) that run on top of MIDP 1.0.

Clearly other extensions are needed, like location-based API capabilities, better authentication techniques, MMS handling and so on.

Thankfully, Sun has recently announced a new industry initiative and specification for the future of Java on the handheld devices. This is called JavaTM Technology for the Wireless Industry (JTWI) and is running within the Java Community Process, with good industry backing, as specification JSR-185.

In their roadmap, they seem spot on with considering the following questions:

Given the potential number of optional JSRs that might be associated with MIDP, how can we ensure that each is architecturally coherent with the other pieces in a handset?
How can content developers and operators know when new APIs will be available in real deployments, so they can take advantage of them?
When would a product manager be able to rely on those APIs to define them as features in new devices?

Any operators with a keen interest in generating revenue from MIDlets should probably be involved with this process.

Wed, 08 Jan 2003 14:19:13 GMT

Just like DoCoMo in Japan, Vodafone have decided to offer their own Java libraries for J2ME. Hopefully this will be made redundant by MIDP 2.0 and the Mobile Media extensions. I plan to look at this in more detail to see what Vodafone is offering that these new profiles and extensions will not.

From Vodafone VIA website - "With the all-new Sharp GX10 camera-phone, which is the Vodafone Live! flagship handset, Vodafone has for the first time launched its own state-of-the-art flavour of Java - VSCL - specifically designed to deliver and support breathtaking animated games with 16 chord polyphonic sound, vibration support, 2D & 3D graphics and other multimedia content....."

Wed, 23 Oct 2002 18:46:20 GMT

Viruses on Mobile Phones

There has been some concern about viruses attacking mobile phones, or wreaking havoc from the phone, such as making unwanted calls, firing off errant text messages or sending lots of useless packets over the GPRS network. With current phones this is difficult to envisage, and most stories that circulate seem to have no substance to them. There have been attempts to deny service by bombarding network users with text messages - one guy was fined for this in the US, but that was not a phone-based virus.

The main concern comes from the new breed of phones that are able to run Java programs called MIDlets, named after their adherence to the MIDP (Mobile Internet Device Profile) Java specification. The MIDP 1.0 specification does not allow for MIDlets to access resources on the phone, apart from the screen of course displaying the user interface. Most MIDlets are games. However, handset manufacturers can release custom extensions (Java APIs) to MIDP that allow access to phone resources, such as text messaging, like the Nokia SMS API for the 3410. These could pose problems depending on their implementation.

The MIDP 2.0 specification, recently released, brings several key technologies to the aid of operators hoping to avoid rogue MIDlets:

Trusted MIDlet verification using code signing with X.509 certificates
Ability to for operator to set permissions policies for which low-level APIs can be access by a MIDlet
Default prompting of user to positively acknowledge that MIDlet is allowed to send a message or initiate a call

These measures seem to provide a very secure safety net to prevent the spreading of harmful MIDlets or other obnoxious effects from untrusted programmers.

The idea of operators controlling who gets to do what on a phone may seem irritating to some. It certainly seems the antithesis of an open system of the likes being promoted by Kevin Werbach with his views on open spectrum. But we have to consider that we are not introducing games and applications into an elastic computing environment - we are introducing them into a previously sterile and largely consumer-orientated environment where users are familiar with placing calls and sending text messages in a predictable and highly robust manner. In that context, it is understandable why operators are concerned about rocking the boat with anything unpredictable or hitherto unusual to the users - a virus attack would certainly cause a major shockwave across any operator's stable customer base. This context needs to be understood before we advocate throwing out control, licensing and sanitation as much as that might be upsetting to net "anarchists".

Fri, 18 Oct 2002 08:48:20 GMT

O No! Java on my iPAQ takes the biscuit

I finally crumbled this morning and couldn't bear the site of my expensive iPAQ sitting idle as a useless bookend having loaded SaveJE OS eval. edition which has since expired. It was a case of either re-loading Pocket PC - and I am too scared that I mess that up and ruin my iPAQ forever, or buying a license. So this morning I bravely purchased a license. Might work out fine as my original intent was to play with Java on my PDA and SavaJE's full J2SE support appealed to me - I'll tell you why later, but it's to do with accessing Exchange remotely (will post the idea later on my ideas category, as doubt I will ever do it).

Anyhow, I just got the license key that I now have to enter manually into the PDA and hope I get it right. Here it is (I scramble a few digits so you can't have a freebie! - this is not a crack site):

9e0976e5d1591r9c7b25bcaf8ea3ce7e
3de97f692551ea0785152ccab4d43a3e
e592116f0a615f4827751434aab5de8d
b6ac84f52dfd72c751132debb230a9c7

Can you hear my crying?

Sat, 12 Oct 2002 12:09:24 GMT

See you at Source O2's next event for developers

O2's developer program has come on leaps and bounds and seems to have distinct advantages over their competitors - well, at least there is some meaty(ish) technical blurb to get your teeth into and some real stuff to play with (apparently) like the location API. Contrast this with Vodafone's Via program which is a work-in-progress with nothing at all useful to glean from their website.

Operators still have a long way to go to sort out their developer programs. In my view, by and large they just don't "get it". I mean, put any one of their develop meetings alongside one of the programs running out of IT shops, O'Reilly, Microsoft, Sun etc. and you'll see what I mean. I'm sure most of you already know what I mean. I remember being at an Orange ODF event the same day that Sun were running their event for JXTA (peer-to-peer) stuff. Whilst we were politely sipping hotel coffee (over-brewed as usual) they were playing with Sharp Taurus/WiFi bundles, developing on-the-fly at the show and hunting for "treasure" via pseudo-LBS zoning cast over the different conference rooms. I know where I would rather have been. [Talking of LBS via WiFi, a friend just emailed me about Application Media who are doing interesting stuff with portals based on your biz travel plans - just like we did with Zingo at Lucent back in 1998.]

Glancing Source O2's site, they are pushing a couple of interesting 3rd party solutions. One is Broadbeam, basically a software messaging backbone for wireless. This should be contrasted with SoftWired's Wireless JMS solution I posted earlier. The other is Glue, a service-delivery platform that supposedly accelerates web service deployments. O2 are using it for their location platform. The Mind Electric, makers of Glue, market it as delivering ''the Power of Java, the Simplicity of .NET'' to Enterprise Software Development.

Thu, 10 Oct 2002 15:56:21 GMT

Wireless Java Messaging [Micro Java Network]

The guys at Softwired AG have some interesting technology to enable JMS to extend to mobile devices. Makes a lot of sense as it abstracts the mobile device to just another destination on the messaging bus and provides a more integrated programming model for server applications.

Things going through my mind are where could this fit in a peer-to-peer model and I would just love to play with this in the Groove space: but I don't have time :(

I haven't come across any of the UK mobile operators looking at this technology but I bet that RIM and Palm are working on it right now. Might it fit into their plans to work with BEA Weblogic Server?