February 28, 2004
more on palm MIDP 2.0
the second beta of the palm/ibm MIDP 2.0 implementation is looking pretty good. i mentioned the release the other day and now i finally had a few minutes to try it out on a real device. These screenshots are from the T-Mobile version of the Handspring Treo 600.
platformRequest() worked out of the box, and is probably the best implementation i've seen. on this device, MIDP smoothly launches the blazer browser and quckly loads the reference. very smooth.
the application that performs the plaformRequest() seems to exit however.
the other bugs that are apparent in this pre-release developer version are some selection focus bugs in the List implementation. a few times i had one item selected, but the actual selectedIndex() seemed to be set to a previous selection.
performance of this application anyway, was better than on the nokia 6600, probably about the same as the SE P900. this implemenation uses the IBM J9 VM.
also, i don't know if this will change - it doesn't appear that the application can run in the background on the palm os. switching focus of the application seems to require a restart - so the J2ME app has to save its state.
good to see MIDP 2.0 will soon have another home.
February 26, 2004
nokia releases midp2.0 SDK for series 80
nokia recently announced that it would be following up the release of it's first symbian series 80 device, the nokia communicator with the nokia 9500. it's planned for Q4 04 and could be the first device to feature EDGE, wi-fi, and bluetooth all on the same device. the specs look great except for using an MMC card instead of SDIO. hello? 128 MB limit? still time to change that? please?
the first commuinicator was a huge brick, yet still a cool device. unfortunately it was useless because it hit the market TOO soon, and lacked GPRS, so all connectivity was through CSD dialup at about 9kbps. I had one of these back in the day, but coudn't really use it because of that limitation. the one time i visited nokia to do an MMSC interoperability test, everyone in their GSM group in dallas seemed to have one of these, so if you ever see sales numbers for the communicator, make sure to subtract the number of people working in las colinas. an interesting place. half the people in that office are texans, half the people are finns. talk about culture clash. i wonder if many sauna deals go down there. i digress.
the series 80 MIDP SDK supports the MIDP 2.0 spec, and is more than just a new skin on the old nokia java SDK. the setup supports some pretty complex networking, testing of the messaging (WMA 1.1, JSR-120) and bluetooth APIs (JSR-81), the mobile media APIs (JSR-135), the FileConnection APIs (JSR-75), the Nokia UI extension API, and of course running the core MIDP 2.0 class libraries as well.
running our MIDP 2.0 RSS Feed Reader unmodified seemed to work fine in the emulator, although I could see re-working some of the presentation for this class of device. for one, this device just begs for color. gotta put that on the list.
the implementation does a good job of automatically mapping your commands to the two extra softkeys in the middle on the right hand side, the rest are available via the menu button as on many other devices. keyboard navigation seems to work as one might expect. looks promising. let's hope platformRequest() works in the first release.
February 25, 2004
more new feeds; new service!
i haven't had a chance to redirect my old feed URLs yet -but if you get a chance, please adjust the URL in your feed reader to be one of the new feeds in the lower right that have been lit on fire thanks to FeedBurner.com.
FeedBurner is a side venture my Burning Door partners and I have started that allows you the publisher to control the content of your syndicated feeds, get detailed statistics on who is reading your feeds, save on bandwidth costs by having us cache and manage your feeds, and lots of other interesting services to be coming down the pike.
you give us your feed URL, and we hand you back a new URL to put on your site. you can apply services to the feed in the middle and get statistics on what's happening. you can create as many variations as you'd like for your readers.
so if you're reading this and you publish RSS or Atom for people to read, give it a try. heck, if you're not a publisher give it a try.
one of the services we're offering is a "Mobile Filter" which will be tuned to save mobile bandwidth and work well with wireless RSS clients including the BD3 Feed Reader.
as an added incentive for publishers to try this out. I'll be picking an assortment of feeds syndicated through FeedBurner using the MobileFilter to be the "default" feeds in the upcoming releases of the BD3 Feed Reader.
feel free to shoot me an email with a URL where i can see the feed on your site in case i miss it.
February 24, 2004
P900 to get RIM capabilities
if i were to list out the top 5 ways to get and respond to email while on the go (and the respond part is important) , the list would look something like:
1. RIM Blackberry
2. Sony Ericsson P900/P900
3. Palm OS over CDMA/GPRS (various phones Treo 600, Samsung i500)
4. Microsoft Smartphone
5. Nokia Series 60
so the announcement from SE and RIM at 3GSM that the P900 will get a RIM email client only makes both those platforms stronger in my opinion. very cool. The RIM is a great email solution without many applications, and the P900 has plenty of applications without the full email experience of the RIM so seems like a good move to me as it will get licensing revenue for RIM and a better platform for SE. i really hope they go forward and bring this to market and this is more than just one of those press releases to get the competitive juices going and stock prices to move (and trust me, there's a lot of those).
nokia and RIM made a similar announcement last june to provide this capability on the Nokia 6800 a while ago for att Wireless, but i'm not sure anything ever materialized. Nokia seems to be placing their chits on getting to market first with EDGE and 3G/WiFi combo devices. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
new release of palm midp 2.0 sdk
palm has released a new version of their MIDP 2 implementation, available at their PluggedIn website.
new features include:
The toolkit also includes a packaging utility to convert JAD and JAR files into the Palm OS PRC format, developer documentation, and a readme with the latest fixes and known issues. Some new highlights of this release include support for platformRequest() for opening web pages (http://,https://) and sending emails (mailto:), OTA/AMS/JAM support, and Comm serial port connections over IrDA and Bluetooth. The OTA supports means you can now install JAD/JAR natively over-the-air without conversion to PRC. Game API performance is also significantly improved.
OTA support is key. Explicit support for platformRequest() is also of note.
I'll run the BD3 FeedReader source through the conversion and let you know how it works. We plan to support this on the Tungsten C and Treo 600 when this kit is released.
February 18, 2004
the stills logic will break your heart
it's hard to describe music without relating it to other music. luckily, everything is so damn derivative these days it's not that difficult. one of these days i want to describe the music scene in UML - it think that would be cool. geeky, but cool.
the stills implement the 80's revival band interface that uses Echo and the Bunnymen, the Smiths, the psychedelic furs not to mention bands derived from them such as the Railway Children and Gene.
this montreal outfit fits a bit into the tracks layed by interpol, but their influences are way easier to pin down. eitherway, it's stuck in the turntable.
the shins chutes too narrow
i stole this album from eric, well not really from eric, but from the artist, not to be confused with the Artist, fka Prince. i'm glad i did, because it's a damn good album with sparks of some originality. it's hard to pin down a consistent influence here - but it's a bit indie, a bit Yes, and other general folk pop - neil young even. oh, right, i got this from eric. this is all big star. "turn a square" could easily be a big star song. does alex chilton play on this track? i dunno, i don't have liner notes, i stole the mp3s, remember?
the guitars are either acoustic or straight through and undistorted, with quite a few pop hooks layered in on top. a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, but definitely sweet as candy.
February 15, 2004
bluetooth GPS for smartphones
even if the misspell "Sony Ericsson" on their home page, this service from gpware looks pretty cool. it's a GPS navigation module that communicates via bluetooth with your smartphone and looks similar to many on-board navigation systems.
I'd love to try this out and see how it worked.
February 13, 2004
quick cameraphone shootout #2
in quick cameraphone shootout #1 we took a bunch of outdoor pictures. this time around, i did a series of indoor pictures, in full incandescent light. you might use this to take pictures destined for your ebay auction for instance.
click on each image for a full size image. they've been compressed on this page to save space. i didn't rotate any of the pics to maintain the original quality that came out of the camera, but i had to rotate some of the cameras to fit this wonderful lego table in the shot. every camera was set on the max quality i could figure out, and all these pictures were taken in the exact same lighting within seconds of each other.
no, no plans to sell my son's lego table.
nokia 3650 640 x 480 full size
nokia 6600 640 x 480 full size
nokia 7250 352 x 288 full size
Sony Ericsson P800 640 x 480 full size
Sony Ericsson P900 640 x 480 full size
Samsung V200 352 x 288 full size
Sony Ericsson T610 288 x 352 full size
LG VX6000 640 x 480 full size
Panasonic X11 (same as Panasonic X70) 132 x 176 full size
i'll let you readers declare a winner...please comment. use "user@host.com" for your email address if you don't want to enter one.
February 11, 2004
back in business with JBuilder and OS X
(click to see larger image)
actually, i have mixed feelings about this, but last week, while i was sleeping, my powerbook downloaded a new version of java which upgraded from 1.4.1 to 1.4.2. in installed it blindly, having known in the past, this seemed to cause many problems with various Java based apps, particulary JBuilder. Borland gave up supporting JBuilder with version 7, and they are now on 10 (X). I had managed to cobble together some scripts to run the linux version of JBuilder 9, and had a feeling upgrading might cause problems, and indeed it did. after the install, i read the release notes at
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/ReleaseNotes/Java/Java142RN/OutstandingIssues/chapter_4_section_2.html which if you don't feel like clicking, say to :
Radar #3522195
Older versions of JBuilder may not work with Java 1.4.2.
Description:
Versions of JBuilder earlier than JBuilder X may not launch with Java 1.4.2 installed.
Workaround:
There is no known workaround other than upgrading to JBuilder X. You might also want to contact Borland technical support.
okay down the path of cobbling together scripts for the linux version of JBuilder X....but wait, i notice on the borland site OS X is now supported! okay, well i've somehow skated by without really buying a borland product for years as i migrated from company to company (meaning someone else bought it) and i remebered when i was in high school learning to program and (who i thought was) Phillipe Khan himself sent me a $1000 version of Borland C 1.0 just because i said i was a poor kid and i asked...whew, run on sentence...so long story short, i decided it was time to pay them back.
one problem, you couldn't actually buy the version for OS X that was listed on the product data sheet. so i emailed support....and they actually got back to me:
You will need to purchase JBuilder X Developer and fax proof of purchase of that product to customer service at 831-431-4361 and request the JBuilder for Mac CD.
Best Regards,
Borland E-Store
steve olechowski wrote:
hi -
i am trying to figure out which version of JBuilder X to purchase online for Mac OS X. the product data sheet PDF says it is available in Jbuilder X Developer as "CD available separately" - can you please tell me what that means, and which product to order?
thanks
steve
so i bought, i faxed. and surprisingly, someone from borland called me immediately confirmed my address and two days later i received the installer for JBuilder X.
I've been using it for a day now, and it's great. It's good to be back in business with a great IDE on my mac, and great that borland has started to support OS X again. It seems to have great CVS support built in, and is really the most productive IDE out there, imho.
I haven't tried any mobile dev on it yet, but i was able to install both the SUN WTK and the Nokia Developers kit as addional JDKs...you can then choose a JDK to compile against just by selecting a radio button in your project. Perverification might be a problem, but i'll report back if i can figure that out.
February 05, 2004
RSS Feed Reader for P900 and Nokia 6600 (beta5)
note: please download latest co-branded release here: FeedBurner Mobile Feed Reader
Here's the latest beta version of a feed reader for the Sony Ericsson P900 and the Nokia 6600 that uses the internal browser to actually read the feed items. It's written using the J2ME MIDP 2.0/CLDC1.0 platforms so I'm not sure as to the stability as of yet but so far so good. I really wrote this as a tool for myself, but i'll keep developing it into something real if there is demand.
It's almost time for a first release.
This release of BD3 Feed Reader 0.90 supports:
* (new) HTML scraped descriptions up to 1K
* (new) Added preference for default action on the item screen (Browse or View Description)
* (new) Pressing the Joystick or Scrollwheel launches default action on lists
* feeds persisted across sessions
* updating feeds manually
* updating feeds automatically at a specified time period
* bold titles of updated feeds
* launching the platform browser on feed items
* browsing item descriptions (summaries) in the tool
* fetches optimized for if-modified-since (saves bandwidth)
* support for the extended latin encoding
* reader now reports itself as a user agent
* preferences for small, medium, or large fonts
* preferences for how many recent items to fetch. for instance, you can choose to fetch only the 5 most recent items to save memory and time
For now, click on a text ad if you like it.
you can find the latest version here:
FAQ
How do I install this?
Either enter the .jad link above into the browser on your P900 or download the .jar file and install it to your P900 via the syncstation, bluetooth, or infrared. It's highly recommended to install this on your memory card, because the database will be created wherever you install it.
if you are upgrading and you want to keep your current feed database, make sure and click 'yes' when prompted if you would like to save your user data. go ahead and install it right over the previous version.
What phones does this work on?
As far as I know, it only works on the P900 with firmware CDA162003/5
If it's written in J2ME, why won't it work on any Java enabled phone?
This is built using MIDP2.0, which as of today is implemented on the P900 and the Nokia 6600, the Motorola V300, V400, V500, V600, and the samsung P400. I chose MIDP2.0 as both a learning experience and to implement things such as using the platform browser and OTA setup via SMS (in the future). I have not had the occaision to try it on the moto or samsung phones.
Does it work on the Nokia 6600?
yes it does, however see below - there is a known bug in the J2ME implementation on the nokia 6600 that prevents this from working. bummer!
if you have a newer version of firmware for the 6600 or the 6620, this will probably work. anyone? bueller? anyone know how to get that newer version of firmware?
the newest version supports reading descriptions up to 1K and the HTML gets stripped out. some people have said that this is enough to make it useful for them, so great!
Does it work on the Sony Ericsson P800?
the P800 version is here
How come the umlaut and the å show up as boxes?
if they are encoded as escapes in the XML, they will, otherwise, i am working on figuring out why these characters don't make it into Java intact.
What's the roadmap?
nearer term:
* persistence of feed items across sessions
* ATOM support
* sms of links to self for browser launch (?)
* usability improvements
* more error handling
* optimized memory usage
longer term:
* loading from an OPML file
* More UIQ-like controls, like double clickable lists
* OTA setup via SMS of OPML
Got any screen shots?
Sure:
February 04, 2004
more on the moon...
the other day i wrote about servers on the moon. well if you go to this link...check out the google ads. what?! you can really buy property on the moon? and again, how does one claim that land? that's governed under whose law? because the US was there first, do we have squatters' rights on the whole sattelite?
seems a little like buying the brooklyn bridge.
i hope the chinese land on the moon soon. they got a lot more people to move up there and claim property.
starsailor silence is easy
starsailor apparently takes their name from a tim buckley album of the same name. i never listened to tim, as he was a little before my time, but on their last album, love is here i thought their obvious influence was suede who probably borrowed more from the smiths, than tim buckley.
on silence is easy starsailor starts to define a little more of their own sound - which is good - meaning, they don't sound like anyone else. they sound like starsailor. "four to the floor" is the standout track, but otherwise this is an entire album of polished, mellow, melodic brit-pop in the same vein as coldplay. okay, so maybe they do sound like someone else.
February 03, 2004
servers on the moon
i can see the VC pitch now... "servers on the moon. that's it. servers on the moon." sure why not. want your data archived in a safe place free from natural disasters and terrorism? what could be safer than the moon?
well, apparently, that's what la jolla based transorbital has in their business plan, and they are licensed by the US Government to do commerce on the moon. ( for now, let's let it slip how presumptious of the us government to think the US owns the moon.)
also apparently, high bandwidth laser communication exists that will allow transorbital to put servers on the moon over successive flights and communicate with these servers wirelessly (duh) from earth. pretty cool.
for now, you can pay them to put a time capsule on the moon, as well as text messages of your thoughts and dreams so that they "live forever". ah, selling eternity. all a little too vanilla sky for me.
bone conduction phones
while browsing about, i've seen quite a few people lambasting bone conduction phone technology - and i'm not sure they get it. i actually think this is an important technology that will find some popular uses, especially with the hearing impaired.
in a nutshell, normal hearing works as soundwaves pass through the airwaves and are picked up by your eardrum which vibrates, and through some amazing analog to digital conversion, your brain is able to interpret these signals.
bone conduction works by passing these waves though the bones in your skull directly to the inner ear, and is able to bypass the normal process of amplifying the soundwaves for you to hear, thus taking away the interference of all other soundwaves coming in, and making it possible for those who can't hear as well the normal way to hear.
this works both ways. in fact Jabra headsets for some time have used a similar technology to transmit when you speak by detecting the bone vibrations from your jaw instead of the soundwaves coming out of your mouth.
at any rate, i can easily see this technology being used to create a bluetooth headset that is nothing more than an earplug, as well as a special class of cell phone to be marketed toward those with hearing problems, especially the elderly.
some links:
couple new feeds
just a quick note that i added 2 new feeds from the index page - an atom feed, and a feed for comments. if you want to follow a discussion, add the comments feed to your reader. thanks to eric for his work on the comments microfeed.
atom: //www.burningdoor.com/steve/atom.xml
comments: //www.burningdoor.com/steve/comments.xml
February 01, 2004
travis 12 memories
okay, i promised a new genre, here it is: post-beatles brit-pop. got a piano, an acoustic guitar, and a minor key or two? you can do this. it helps if you are british. travis do it better than most, and they're scottish. if you're british, that's the same thing. if you're scottish, wars have been started over this subject.
bottom line: if you like radiohead, and you like coldplay, you'll love travis. no collaborative filtering sofware needed.