Mobiles still ringing in New Year

Oh my God, thanks a lot for letting me read this article.

I am so tired that during insane nights of work this week I thought of burning all my mobiles and going to live as a fisherman in Porto de Galinhas or the like, whatever, I don't know...

Well, I finished the application today (I hope so :) and now it's almost Christmas, but this article is an eye drop to my tired eyes. Great :)

The 12-key numeric keypad

Interesting article by ARCchart - Keypad makes way for control surfaces.

Sorry for this short post but I've read it quickly and maybe I will do so once again tomorrow (oops, today). I am swamped this week working too hard in a mobile application project - MTrack, a logistics application...

I blogged a lot last November but now I am really busy, Christmas is getting closer and I need to finish that baby...so let me rest a little now...

Microsoft Vista released for sale

Be ready, you will need new hardware to enjoy its full capabilities. So, I am now asking myself, how is Microsoft going to have it deployed in volumes? There's more to it than I can imagine...

Anyway, you will ask me: What the f...does it have to do with mobile stuff?

Well, I've heard that Windows Mobile 6 (a.k.a Crossbow) will have some features inherited from Vista, is it true??? Hope it will require fewer resources, though :)

Microsoft Vista released for sale

YouTube goes mobile

As I am a fan of YouTube and also a mobile software application developer, I just wanted to have it registered here.

YouTube moves to the small screen

The so-called 21st century network (21CN) - have you heard about it?

It's news for me as well, so let me just include a text excerpt...

"The so-called 21st century network (21CN) is being built in the UK using Internet Protocol technology. The massive upgrade, the first of its kind, will cost British Telecom £10bn and take until 2010 to complete."

Interested? Go read the article - First call on new phone network.

OFF-TOPIC - Smart homes a reality in South Korea (includes OSGi, though)

Home automation will grow in the coming years, so this article tells the status of it in South Korea.
I have some really cool ideas involving home automation and OSGi, so I think I need to start a new company, if you're a VC investor please contact me, ha, ha, ha. Just kidding (not sure in fact) but...

I know that OSGi (another technology for the future) is involved and Philips has some interesting implementations like the iPronto (not sure if still being marketed, though) product line. Worth checking anyway!

Smart homes a reality in South Korea

Mobiles hope to be 'smart wallet'

NFC again, so if you're interested go there and read the article. Just to mention some "smal" players involved, they are: Bouygues Telecom, China Mobile, Cingular Wireless, KPN, Mobilkom Austria, Orange, SFR, SK Telecom, Telefonica Móviles España, Telenor, TeliaSonera, TIM, Vodafone and 3. Do you need more? ;)

Mobiles hope to be 'smart wallet'

Monday's release of Java ME, known as Project Mobile and Embedded

Now it is official, Java ME is Open-Source!

Is it an evolution or will it mess everything and destroy the platform? Opinions may vary and abound...

Duke Open-sourced

Duke is now free as well, so visit his home :)

"On Nov. 13th 2006, Sun announced that Duke would become Free Graphics, just as the implementations of Java ME and SE became Free Software."

https://duke.dev.java.net/

More about Open-Source Java

It's a hype, even people who do not know exactly what Java is are talking about it.

Sun 'releases' Java to the world

The most interesting thing is that when I started developing Java applications one of my previous employers tried to persuade me that Java would not succeed, it would die as it seemed to be just that fancy Applets running within a web browser (the security-holed Internet Explorer). A Microsoft Solution Provider at that time with tons of VB coders, ones that use Visual Studio to drag and drop a component and think they are real software developers...poor guys.

Ha, ha, ha, it sounds like joke for me nowadays, I replied: "there are a dozen of companies using it so I will invest too". One of the smartert choices I've made in my career so far.

And now in 2006 I am one of the JUG Leaders (and founder) of MGJUG and believe me, I have received a message from one guy who works for that same company, and now they are using JEE there.

So let me summarize: Java will dominate the world as of today and all other technologies (including RoR, Microsoft .NotYET and C#, it's pronounced Sharope in Brazilian Portuguese) will die.

Luckily, I have a lot of Java certifications and I am working with the three Java platforms for a long time now, so I will not be affected by this invasion. Actually, the opposite :)

So, if you're lucky like me you can sleep in peace and wake up in the morning with your Java phone ringing around...mine with loots of cool JME apps on it.

So stay tuned the next time and think out of the box my dear ;)

Gee, I don't want to be so mean :)

LBS in Brazil

A cool article by Estadão, a major online newspaper in Brazil. Unfortunately it is in Brazilian Portuguese but worth posting here anyway...

Celular vira auxiliar digital do automóvel

Biometric systems - welcome to the future!

Biometric systems will become pervasive in the next 5 to 10 years I guessed, then I came across an interesting article by BBC News.

Worth checking if you don't know what those systems are, there's a very cool Guide to Biometric Technology on it. Let's see how that all will interplay with mobile devices, I can imagine some use cases and I must admit that I have expectations considering that...

Train firm to issue phone tickets

Yes, this is all about NFC - Near Field Communication.

The Helsinki, Finland scheme in this article is very interesting as now we Java ME developers have JSR-257 Final Release. So it's time to start looking at it, I can see a lot of killer solutions steeming from NFC. Great ;)

More on that soon.

Heavy mobile use 'damages sperm'

Gee!

Heavy mobile use 'damages sperm'

I have just a little daughter but I do plan to have more kids, so I think I need to discard all my 5 mobiles as of today...or maybe I can use a cool shielding solution, let's see...I will find a good solution, maybe I can use a SAR shield under my pants, is it going to work out?

And I thought it was all about brain damage...but the problem seems to be more complicated (deeper) than I had anticipated, ha, ha, ha :)

FireFox 2 is out!

FireFox is so amazing that even my wife is now using it, and she's not a techie! I cannot imagine working without FireFox as it helps me perform a lot of tasks: find a lot of resources I use during my daily activities as a software developer, use it for debugging web pages, RSS and a lot of other cool features I cannot mention in a single blog post, a real tool and not just another web browser.

So, if you're not using it yet, read the articles below and give it a try ;)

Firefox browser for web 2.0 age

What's New in Firefox 2

The Game On exhibition at the Science Museum in London

That exhibition is simply amazing, it makes me feel as playing my old Odyssey console back in the 80's, when I started getting interested in electronics and then computing. Then I bought an Atari 2600, a Sinclair Spectrum afterwards and started programming some simple games using BASIC and only 48KB of memory. Good times :)

Unfortunately I live in Brazil and I cannot afford to go there just to visit Game On, just nostalgia then...

From BBC's In Pictures section:

"The Game On exhibition at the Science Museum in London brings together more than 120 different videogames, spanning the entire history of gaming – from the first videogame, SpaceWar in 1962, to the Xbox 360.

"This is about the history and culture and development of computer gaming," said the exhibition's co-ordinator Gaetan Lee.

Visitors can play on classic arcade games such as Space Invaders, Donkey Kong and Centipede and chart the growth of games over the last 40 years."

Check it out:

In pictures: Game On at the Science Museum

Mobile Game Development - what's next?

An interesting article by Vishnu Sankar published at NewLC.com discusses innovations in Mobile Game Development. While it's superficial and doesn't get to the details of each trend, it's worth reading, so enjoy :)

Mobile Game Development In Future

Book Review - PRO Java ME MMAPI by Vikram Goyal

Well, as I had promised, here it goes.



Pro Java ME MMAPI: Mobile Media API for Java Micro Edition has amazed me. The book is unique as it covers and desmytifies one of the most fragmented and confuse Optional Packages for JME. I've read more than a dozen books about JME but this is the first book that has really cleared some doubts I had regarding Mobile Media in JME.

I strongly recommend this book if you are developing Multimedia Applications using JME.

Vikram Goyal has done an outstanding job by clarifying and detailing every aspect of MMAPI, discussing the way it has been specified, emphasizing the differences that may occur from one implementation to another and also providing clear, detailed and error free examples that illustrate the aspects being discussed. Also, the text is very well written and I've found only 3 typos. Very impressive! Apress is also doing a wonderful job.

Chapter 1 introduces MMAPI and presents its features and requirements as defined by the JCP - Java Community Process, compares MMAPI and the MIDP 2.0 Media subset, where it fits regarding the JME Software stack and at last it lists the manufactures and market players supporting MMAPI. Nice introduction!

Chapter 2 explains the MMAPI Architecture, the main high-level interfaces, delivers an introduction to the supported protocols and content types, presents the relevant feature sets and the security issues one must take into consideration. It also details the MIDP 2.0 Media subset so that one can understand what's left out on devices implementing it.

Chapter 3 introduces the reader to MMAPI hands-on programming by explaining two simple MIDlets. It also builds the foundation regarding the overall development process and environment.

Chapter 4 is unique, it details the Media Player lifecycle, its possible states and transitions. It explains each state very thoroughly as well as Player events and how to work with them, even the limitations and issues regarding custom events. I've never read a book covering MMAPI with such a detailed explanation.

Chapter 5 covers all the issues regarding the access of media over networks. It starts with a very clear explanation of Threads in JME as well as the security permissions for media acess over networks. Then it puts it all together in a very clear and easy to follow example.

Chapters 6 and 7 are the best ones in my opinion. Those two chapters do pay the book, definitely.Vikram has been brilliant and desmystified Synthetic Tones and the MIDI protocol. He has remembered me of my of childhood, when I've had musical theory classes as it explains everything music and shows you how that all fits into programming with MMAPI. Those chapters are so complete that they have a lot of tips on how to convert from RTTTL to MMAPI format, the MIDI specification and message format and how to work with MIDI in MMAPI, how to create JTS files and other niceties. Thanks Vikram :)

Chapter 8 explains how to work with Audio and Video, playback, capturing, storing, controlling, mixing, it's everything there. It also describes the details of Media Encodings and Sampled Audio as well as the GUI options for dealing with Video.

Chapter 9 has a very cool Device Blogging application that builds upon all the subjects presented so far and also gives a good example of MVC pattern in JME.

Well, the only criticism I have is regarding the section about Streaming Media and also the Appendix about the JSR 234 - Advanced Multimedia Supplements. Considering that Vikram has proved he's really a subject matter expert He could have provided better sections about them. In fact, He has already written an article about Streaming in JME and it's available on his web site (see below - so I forgive him) but AMMS is still to be covered. What about on the second edition of his book? Let's wait and see!

Experiments in Streaming Content in Java ME

A must have book, 5 stars, absolutely!

Wibree unveiled by Nokia Research Center

Nokia unveiled a new technology (and protocol) that's really impressive, Wibree, a short-range, wireless technology that is more energy-efficient than Bluetooth as per Nokia announcement.

It's being conducted by Nokia Research Center. The most interesting issue is that Nokia is partnering with some other companies and is planning to set Wibree as a standard.

Watches, health monitors, sport sensors and other "really constrained devices" are among the target devices for this new protocol. I bet it will be a success in the coming years mainly because it extends the reach of mobile solutions to a lot of other types of devices.

Check the links below for more details about Wibree.

Wibree

BBC Article - Wibree

NewLC Article - Wibree

Nokia Research Center

Java is Everywhere Video

Amazing Video! Can you notice it? Sun's Java technology is connecting everyone to everything - from the datacenter to the edge. Are you ready for what's next?

Java is Everywhere Video by Sun Microsystems