The (Java) MIDlet Bible - Part II
By Menneisyys. Friday, 9. May 2008, 14:53:03
Posts tagged with "generic MIDlets"
The (Java) MIDlet Bible - Part I
By Menneisyys. Friday, 9. May 2008, 14:50:18
Opera Mini users on Windows Mobile / Symbian / BlackBerry, attention: you will NOT need this all-in-one Bible in order to “just” make your Opera Mini work. Your best bet is following my Opera Mini 4.1 review HERE. However, if you want to learn all the secrets of running MIDlets on your handset (for example, to reassign buttons to make scrolling much-much easier) or you also plan to run other MIDlets and want to know everything about the compliance, speed etc. issues, this Bible may turn out to be REALLY useful.
Also note that this Bible does NOT discuss Java applets or applications. For more info on running applets under Windows Mobile, see the Web Browsing Bible; for application-related info, see my generic Java articles.
You may have already heard at least of Java games (more precisely, MIDlets) running on almost all current “dumb” phones. These games are all the rage today, especially with teenagers, which also means there are thousands of sometimes really high-quality games for ordinary phones, all written using the portable Java language, ready to be played on (almost) any kind of mobile phone. Just an example: in THIS HowardForums thread, the topic starter post lists some (but not all!) games available for the Samsung QVGA 240x320 phones (d600, d900, e900 etc – not only Windows Mobile ones!). Quite an impressive list, isn’t it? And it’s just the tip of the iceberg – there are a lot more games, all waiting for you to purchase, download and run!
No, don’t think MIDlets are only for gamers and are absolutely useless otherwise. You can make a good use of them in the enterprise too. There are several solutions already for, for example, mobile payment, reservations etc. done using a MIDlet as opposed to the Web, which is, in a lot of cases, is much harder to access / operate on a small-screen device. Controlling for example your bank transfers via SMS can also be less intuitive and/or require a lot more work / data entry than using a GUI to do this. Other, known enterprise-related MIDlets are Jupiter, which is basically a financial data streaming program (also see THIS) and Betfair (also see THIS). Should you be interested in these “MIDlets in the Enterprise” questions, I really recommend Michael Juntao Yuan’s excellent book “Enterprise J2ME: Developing Mobile Java Applications” – I’ve learnt a LOT from it. Highly recommended!
Also note that this Bible does NOT discuss Java applets or applications. For more info on running applets under Windows Mobile, see the Web Browsing Bible; for application-related info, see my generic Java articles.
You may have already heard at least of Java games (more precisely, MIDlets) running on almost all current “dumb” phones. These games are all the rage today, especially with teenagers, which also means there are thousands of sometimes really high-quality games for ordinary phones, all written using the portable Java language, ready to be played on (almost) any kind of mobile phone. Just an example: in THIS HowardForums thread, the topic starter post lists some (but not all!) games available for the Samsung QVGA 240x320 phones (d600, d900, e900 etc – not only Windows Mobile ones!). Quite an impressive list, isn’t it? And it’s just the tip of the iceberg – there are a lot more games, all waiting for you to purchase, download and run!
No, don’t think MIDlets are only for gamers and are absolutely useless otherwise. You can make a good use of them in the enterprise too. There are several solutions already for, for example, mobile payment, reservations etc. done using a MIDlet as opposed to the Web, which is, in a lot of cases, is much harder to access / operate on a small-screen device. Controlling for example your bank transfers via SMS can also be less intuitive and/or require a lot more work / data entry than using a GUI to do this. Other, known enterprise-related MIDlets are Jupiter, which is basically a financial data streaming program (also see THIS) and Betfair (also see THIS). Should you be interested in these “MIDlets in the Enterprise” questions, I really recommend Michael Juntao Yuan’s excellent book “Enterprise J2ME: Developing Mobile Java Applications” – I’ve learnt a LOT from it. Highly recommended!
Opera Mini 4.1: FULL multiplatform tutorial & review & tips
By Menneisyys. Friday, 9. May 2008, 14:09:50
I don’t need to introduce Opera Mini for any serious mobile device user – it’s been one of the best browsers ever since the release of version 4.0 with all its goodies like favorite synchronization and full layout mode, the latter being excellent on (W)VGA Pocket PC’s and high-resolution Symbian devices like the Nokia E90. Note that I’ve written a review & full comparison to other browsers HERE – please DO read it if you don’t know what Opera Mini is or how it compares to other browsers, in which cases you might want to prefer it to native, fully-fledged browsers like Opera Mobile. Also, make sure you read my two Web Browsing Bibles, linked from the OM4 article, for additional info & comparisons. Finally, note that the linked article only discusses version 4.0; 4.1 is even better and more featureful.
The just-released 4.1 beta takes things even further and implements a lot of long asked-for functionalities. It’s REALLY worth upgrading; note that it can coexist with older versions (including 4.0) on the same handset. That is, if you, for some reason, find it useless, you can easily switch back to the older version without having to reinstall / reconfigure anything.
The just-released 4.1 beta takes things even further and implements a lot of long asked-for functionalities. It’s REALLY worth upgrading; note that it can coexist with older versions (including 4.0) on the same handset. That is, if you, for some reason, find it useless, you can easily switch back to the older version without having to reinstall / reconfigure anything.
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Getting started
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Opera Mini™
Surf the entire Internet with Opera Mini - the revolutionary browser for nearly any mobile phone.
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Opera Link
Linking Opera Mini 4 with Opera 10
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Opera 10
For exporting more bookmarks to Opera Mini 4 via Opera Link
Getting serious
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Expert: Werner "Menneisyys" Ruotsalainen
Bibles by Menneisyys at Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Expert Blog
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WapReview
Useful and topical articles for mobilists.
Find some specs
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TastePhone
TastePhone is a midlet which allows users to test the performance of their phone.
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FPC Bench
FPC Bench is a java benchmark to test and compare the performance of a phone with others phones.
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Java Verified™
Table of APIs and other specifications supported by devices using manufacturer's settings.
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