Wrapping Up Content Awards 2008

 

I am happy to bring to a close another successful Sony Ericsson Content Awards.

I think this year has been one the strongest in terms of number of submissions and the interest we have received.

I have been really excited by the innovation and quality that I have seen when going through the submissions. Unfortunately we can't make everyone winners but my congratulations to all who submitted - the entries we have received show the passion and innovation that is within the mobile developer community.

The trend that I have seen emerging is how new technologies, such as Flash Lite Wallpapers, are starting to enable consumers to become developers. In essence, with tools such as Themes Creator, creativity and innovation can start to be fuelling the next generation of content. This is an indication of a very vibrant new generation of mobile development.

I would like to highlight EcoMate by Instituo Atlantico & UFC which won the special recognition award. It is a great balance of entertainment and environmentally friendly living which is important to us all.

Thanks to you all for taking part in the Sony Ericsson Content Awards. I hope both me and my team get the opportunity to catch up with you personally during this year at various events!

Jens Greve

Head of Sony Ericsson Developer Program

 

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Benefits of application Testing & Signing.

 

Hi, My name is Oscar Vivall and I’m working with testing and signing services for Sony Ericsson Developer World. Among other things I’m involved in the Java Verified and Symbian Signed programs.

I enjoy talking to developers around the world but I must admit, when talking to Java ME developers, most of the discussions are about the difficulties regarding signing and testing of applications.

– Which certificates can be used, which certificates are in the phones, how can the application be signed with an Operator or Manufacturer certificate, how can the system prompts be removed, testing is expensive and takes time.

 

And so it goes on…

I’d like to say that I have the perfect solution for you, but until that arrives, I can at least give you some useful tips.

First of all, by signing the application the code is secure in such way that the integrity of the signing is broken if some one changes the application.

So, which certificate to use?

Common certificates in the phones for Java ME applications are Thawte, Verisign and the UTI but the only one that we can be sure does exists in all phones (including operator variants) is the UTI certificate used by the Java Verified program. The UTI certificate is not only included in the Sony Ericsson phones but also in all Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and LG phones.

The UTI certificate is not only the most spread certificate it also has other benefits like a life span of 10 years compared to other certificates that has a life span of 1-3 years.

About system prompt?
So, how can the system prompts be removed - must the application be Operator or Manufacturer signed?
The answer is no, although it might depend on which phones is used. Thirt-party signed applications can commonly have “no question asked” rights to all APIs. In some phones the security setting must be changed in an application specific menu but in many of the new phones the setting can actually be changed when prompted by the phone. Note that the user is prompted unless the setting has been changed. It is also possible to check the API permission from the application in the code by using midlet.checkPermission(String permission).

Application testing?
I bet most developers think application testing just cost costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time. And you might be right but I still like to outline the benefits of the testing done by the Java Verified program. There are about sixty test cases in the Java Verified test criteria. Almost all developers claim to do much more extensive testing that what is specified in the test criteria but it is surprising to see how many applications which actually fail the testing. The tests are generic test cases and the test document is available for free on the Java Verified home page so I would recommend all developers to download the test criteria document and see how your application would actually manage the testing.

I’d like to inform you that there is currently a lot of work going on in the Java Verified program to make it much better for you developers - so stay tuned.

Finally I’d like to do draw attention to my Sony Ericsson Developer World wiki article about Java ME application signing so here it is >>> “Java™ ME Signing Guidelines”

 

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Turning Good Application Ideas into Great Opportunities

How do you define a good mobile application? There is no one straightforward answer to that and it depends on which side of the fence you are.

As consumers, we do have different preferences to what a mobile application should do. It can be based on the need for instant information, instant communication, safety & security, lifestyle, cost, entertainment etc. In other words, a mobile application should provide some kind of gratification to the consumers, and this gratification can be instant (e.g. entertainment applications) or long term (e.g. lifestyle or security applications)

On the other hand, if you are a professional mobile software developer, your preference for developing an application is not only to understand and cater for these needs, but to also evaluate the business potential and a healthy Return on Investment (ROI) for that application including a sustainable business growth derived from your application.

Equally important for both consumers and developers is the User Experience of an application. The User Experience can make or break the success of the mobile application.

But then, how do you quantify User Experience of an application on a mobile phone? Is it

a) Providing a good graphical user interface (GUI)?
b) Enabling consumer to easily understand and use the application?
c) Providing good customer /online help and support?
d) Using mobile network resources in an optimal way including cost awareness for the user?
e) Co-working seamlessly with other applications and resources in the mobile phone?
f)  All of the above?

With that said, welcome to the Sony Ericsson Content Award competition!
My name is Abbas Sumar and I am Application Acquisition Manager within the Content & Services unit at Sony Ericsson.

If you are a passionate application developer, submit your applications for this competition. We would like to see mobile applications in the following areas

 

• Productivity applications that intelligently organizes your personal information management

including collaboration with other people's personal information management
• Travel/location aware applications
• Applications to generate multimedia content that can be consumed and shared by you and your social networks peers
• Lifestyle and personal activity application that helps you manage and simplify your personal life

• Mobile backup/restore applications that saves your day
• Safety and security related applications for residential and/or in-car environments
• Environmental related applications that is both fun and educational
• Social networking applications that help you to organize communicate and manage your communities
• Last, but not least, applications that brings out the best in you and your creativity J

I am looking forward to your applications. You never know, they might turn into Great Opportunities!

Good luck

Abbas Sumar

 

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Hello - My name is Jonas Petterson and I manage the development of internal and external developer tools and documentation for Sony Ericsson Developer World. One of many areas that I work on is to ensure that third-party developers have what they need to be able to build content and applications for Sony Ericsson’s Adobe® Flash Lite™ enabled phones.

I will during the next few weeks provide information on how Adobe Flash Lite is used in our products, what developer resources we provide as well as how to optimize your Flash Lite content or applications for Sony Ericsson phones.

As a starter, what’s the difference between regular Flash and Flash Lite?

The difference between the two versions is that the “Lite version” has the runtime specifically optimized for mobile phones and consumer electronic devices. "Lite" means that it has a light footprint in all ways: file size, memory usage and CPU requirements.

Today we have two main implementations of Flash Lite on Sony Ericsson phones called 1.1 and 2.1. The 1.1 version follows the standard feature set from Adobe and is based on the regular Flash 4 structure from the desktop world. Flash Lite 2.1 follows the Flash 7 structure (plus some extra features such as parts of the AcrionScript 2.0 command set). Further technical details on these two versions can be found on the following Adobe web site here

Also keep in mind that we don’t fully support Flash Lite 2.1 and we therefore refer to it as Flash Lite 2.0 in Sony Ericsson’s documentation. The following areas are not supported in the Sony Ericsson implementation of Flash Lite 2.1

• Device video playback
• Streaming sound (MP3, AAC, and so on)
• Right to left languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew (supported in some phone models)
• Host decoded gif and png images with transparency

The easiest and probably most efficient way of finding information on which Flash Lite version a particular Sony Ericsson phone supports and how its implemented is to find the specific phone in Adobe Device Central that comes bundled with the CS3 package. We work closely with Adobe to ensure that all our announced (announcement date is usually 2-6 months before the product hits the store) phones are available in Adobe Device Central.

Other good sources of information would be the following:

• Sony Ericsson Developer World Phone Gallery with searchable phone specifications - here

• Sony Ericsson Developer World Flash Lite documents - here

Today Sony Ericsson and third-party content and application developers use Flash Lite in a number of different parts on our phones. In this Blog, I will focus on the areas that are today open and available for third-party developers.

This video presentation will give you a really nice example of how we have used Flash Lite in the S500i phone - here

This product is using Flash Lite for the Desktop screen (including icons) which is closed for third-party developers but also in the theme that comes preloaded with the phone. The standby screen, stand alone or as part of a theme is today available to be built using Flash Lite and as you can see in the video we also allow developers to connect the animation with the APIs for time, date, signal strength, battery power and charger which enables you to create some really nice Flash Lite based content using data from the phone. In the example that you see on the video one of our developers have created a theme that changes its appearance depending on time and date.

One of the most popular content types for Sony Ericsson phones today is in fact themes and to be able to build that content type you would need the Sony Ericsson Themes Creator tool that is available for download from the Sony Ericsson Developer World website at no cost - here

The Themes Creator tool has the Flash Lite 1.1 and 2.1 built in for exact emulation and also include a feature that will inform you on how much “heap size” the included Flash Lite file is using. Using the tools from Adobe and the Sony Ericsson Themes Creator you can today create the type of themes that are shown in the above video (except for the Flash Lite based desktop)

So how is Flash Lite implemented in Sony Ericsson devices today?

There are two main implementations of Flash Lite in Sony Ericsson phones:

• The “stand alone” model. Flash Lite exists as a separate media application in the phone. In some Sony Ericsson phones, this model is used for wallpaper, themes or screensaver applications.

• The “browser based” model. Flash Lite essentially runs as a plugin within the resident browser of the phone. This model allows a user to access Flash Lite content via an Internet connection without needing to open a separate application for viewing. It is also the default way of viewing Flash content via the phone file manager. This model is implemented in all Flash-enabled Sony Ericsson phones.

Another really exciting technology that we have recently launched is “Project Capuchin” which I will only mention briefly.

Project Capuchin is an API set that enables a Flash Lite animation or application to retrieve data through the JSRs available in our Java platforms which enables our Flash Lite developers to accomplish all the things that our Java developer can do today but without using any Java.  The Sony Ericsson Project Capuchin SDK is available for download here

 

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Delivering a better mobile experience with Xperia Panels

Hello there!

My name is Vildan Hasanbegović and I’m driving the Sony Ericsson SDK for Windows Mobile 6.1 product, amongst others.

Finally, the 2008 Sony Ericsson Content Awards are here. This year we hope to build on the success of last years event, and make the Content Awards 2008 even bigger and better.

One of the key goals of the 2008 Content Awards is to reward innovative and useful Panels for the X1 that make use of Xperia’s capabilities to deliver a better mobile experience. Our growing developer community will be an absolutely key part of creating better mobile experiences that attract mobile users around the world.

Developers can open up a world of possibilities for people to interact with the Xperia X1 and we want to recognize and support developers who build great Panels for it.

Here are some suggested areas of focus to get you started:

• Location based services
• Social networking
• New and exciting, intuitive and innovative user interfaces
• Productivity and collaboration such as email, instant messaging, etc.

• Use of widget functionality
• News and information aggregation

You can download the SDK here and jump start your Panel development.

Best Regards,

Vildan

 

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The Sony Ericsson Content Awards are a great opportunity for you to get inside Sony Ericsson and show us your ideas and creations. We want to use third-party developers as much as possible to provide the next generation of content and services to our customers and the Sony Ericsson Content Awards are an important part of that process. We are going to bring the 2008 winners to Sweden where we will have a two day workshop and give you the opportunity to meet decision makers in Sony Ericsson. Last year RealNetworks, BitCycle, Opera, Gracenote, Metronize/Clavitones and Vringo won awards.