Developer impressions from JavaOne 2008

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May 16, 2008

Developer impressions from JavaOne 2008

JavaOne is over for another year and Sony Ericsson played a prominent role in this year's conference.

Before the event Sony Ericsson announced the new bridging technology Project Capuchin and Sony Ericsson experts took to the stage to explain how Java ME is becoming increasingly important in creating an energized user experience for Sony Ericsson end-users.

Developers were very keen to learn more about Sony Ericsson's Java ME implementation and our new Project Capuchin technology. The fact that they could actually play with phones supporting Mobile Services Architecture (MSA) was very popular, especially driving mini Bluetooth-enabled cars using the phone’s accelerometer functionality.

Below is a summary of Sony Ericsson's JavaOne activities including answers to frequently asked questions from developers who visited our booth.

Announcements: Project Capuchin
On April 30, 2008, Sony Ericsson announced its new Project Capuchin technology which is a Java ME API that defines a bridge between the Java ME and Adobe Flash Lite programming environments. This new technology created a lot of interest and prompted many discussions at our booth. "When?" was the most frequently asked question and the answer is that this technology will be available during the second half of 2008.

To summarize, Project Capuchin allows developers to combine the richness of both Java ME and Flash Lite by encapsulating Flash Lite content in Java ME applications making content created by Adobe Flash technology appear as Java ME applications. Read more>>

The Sony Ericsson booth at JavaOne 2008.

Videos of keynotes and interviews
Rikko Sakaguchi, Head of Portfolio and Propositions at Sony Ericsson, took the main stage with Rich Green (Sun Microsystems Executive Vice President, Software) at the opening general session and highlighted how Sony Ericsson is increasingly using Java ME to build the next generation user experience.

View Sun Microsystem’s video of this keynote>>

Delegates watching Rikko Sakaguchi joining Rich Green's Java + You keynote.

Christopher David, Director of Long term Platform Planning for Java at Sony Ericsson, joined Jeet Kaul (Sun Microsystems Vice President, Client Software Group) on stage and looked at how developers can now start to enhance the Sony Ericsson experience by integrating with the phone in entirely new ways.

View Sun Microsystem's video of this keynote>>

Christopher David was interviewed by Chris Melissinos, Sun Microsystems Chief Gaming Officer, where he explains the relationship between applications and Sony Ericsson's brands. He also demonstrates a driving game where the car’s direction is controlled by the phone's motion sensor.

View this video (hosted on YouTube)>>

Christopher David was also interviewed by the Sun Developer Network (SDN) where he discusses the role of Java ME in Sony Ericsson's phones, including MSA.

View this SDN video>>

Answers to developers' questions
Delegates visiting Sony Ericsson's booth found out that there is more to Java ME than gaming. They had the opportunity to play with a wide range of Sony Ericsson phones and this prompted lots questions. Curiosity over phone features, design and functionality lead to discussions on the following topics:

Mobile Services Architecture (MSA)
The majority of the phones on display supported Sony Ericsson's Java Platform 8 (JP-8) which has MSA as its foundation. This broad set of APIs gives developers lots of possibilities for applications and games.
Multi-tasking
Multi-tasking was introduced with JP-7 and it allows multiple MIDlets to run concurrently within the same virtual machine (MVM). Developers learned that this implementation is backwards compatible with previous Java Platforms allowing all existing MIDlets to work on a new platform without adjustment.
Accelerometer
Many JP-8 phones include an accelerometer. We demonstrated how to combine the phone's accelerometer with Bluetooth to drive and race mini Bluetooth-enabled cars. The car racing attracted a lot of attention with developers wanting to know how it was done – use the Mobile Sensor API (JSR 256) and Bluetooth (JSR 82). You can see the cars in action in SDN's interview with Christopher David (link at end of page).