Posts filed under Java Apps

Everyone and his dog seems to be showing off GPS phones at CES this year. Now iRiver has jumped on the bandwagon by showing off a prototype of a new iRiver GPS phone that they expect to release by the end of 2008.

This will be the first mobile phone that iRiver have released, and they’re an unexpected entrant in what must be the most competitive of all hi-tech markets. However, having had great success in the MP3 and Personal Media Player markets, they clearly know what they’re doing, both from a technological perspective, and, just as importantly, a design and marketing perspective.

They’ve got a tough fight on their hands, but they should be able to build a niche for themselves.

More details of the iRiver GPS phone after the jump.

It wasn’t just the big 5 mobile phone makers who were showing off their wares at CES this year. Completely unheard of Much smaller companies were also showing off their technology. Companies such as dMedia, or as they’re better known: “who?!”

OK, so you may not have heard of them, but what they had to show was pretty nifty: not just the world’s fastest GPS phone, but the world’s fastest GPS phone with dual screens!

Apple have missed the boat in releasing the much-hyped Apple iPhone. They’ve been beaten to the market by AppleIIGo, which turns any mobile phone supporting Java’s MIDP 2.0 into an Apple iPhone. Well, an old 1977 Apple II anyway, as the AppleIIGo is an Apple II emulator for mobile phones. But still, if you want to claim bragging rights over all the Apple fan boys, download the AppleIIGo now and show off your very own (and very old) Apple iPhone.

Download AppleIIGo, the Apple II emulator here.

Ah Java – a once massively hyped future-of-the-web-technology, now a ubiquitous, its-everywhere-but-you-never-see-it kind of thing. Everything these days seems to be ‘Java-enabled’ – in fact, if you have a device that seems to have at least some computational ability, you no doubt simply assume that it has Java, and don’t even bother to look.

That’s certainly the case with mobile phones. If you look at the long list of features of the new mobile phones, you’ll probably not even bother looking at whether it’s Java-enabled or not, in the same way you never bother to look whether it’s SMS-enabled – you’ll just assume that it is. But it wasn’t always thus. I remember back in the heady days of 2001, attending an Orange Wireless Developer’s seminar, when the talk was on how “every new mobile would have Java installed by Christmas 2001″, which would be a major advance for mobile phones. And it was – but do you ever use it? Really? Apart from the preinstalled Java apps? Be honest now! Do you want find out how to use it?…

So now we have the situation where everyone has Java on their phones, but very few people actually make any real use of it. This HowTo should solve that by telling you how ridiculously easy Java midlets are to install, and how to make the most out of the Java features on your phone.

If it’s Java downloads you’re after for your mobile, then you might want to spend some time at the www.getjar.com web site. Be warned though – you could very easily find yourself spending hours here, as the site makes it so easy to pick from an endless variety of mostly free Java J2ME midlets. These apps will run on most phones, but just to be sure, you can even filter the huge list according to your phone.

I tried some of these gems out on my SonyEricsson S700i, and most worked without a hitch (though some didn’t, principally those that needed to connect to a server. This may be because a specific server was down, though, as most of the midlets needing Internet connection worked fine). Downloading onto the phone was simplicity itself, as the site provides the Java .JAR and .JAD files for downloading onto your PC (and then, of course, subsequent uploading onto your mobile), or lets you download directly onto your handset via WAP.