Java Kecil 2x

I would like to call upon the many Java desktop developers out there, the guys in the trenches who produce such cool apps as the audio player jlGUI and many other awesome Java desktop apps.

Is it time for you to consider migrating your apps to the brand new, and fast-growing field of Java ME and CDC (Personal Profile) devices?

Sun was right. It pushed the somewhat limited MIDP (CLDC) and conquered the cellphone landscape, so much so that even Windows mobile websites have Java ME guides and how-tos, so much so that forums are filled with requests from people frantically trying to get Java ME apps running on their Palms or Windows devices.

But I believe the time has come to start looking at higher-level devices, Symbian and Windows smartphones. Although MIDP has established a strong beachhead on these landscapes, simply by virtue of the sheer number of Java ME apps available in this profile, the more powerful processors and greater capabilties of these devices cry out for more capable Java applications.

I’ve been playing with my new Nokia 9300 smartphone for the last few days and I must say that the number of available non-MIDP Java apps is astonishingly small, pretty much negligible, and I believe that the landcape of this mobile ecology is diverse enough that Java will again prove to be the unifying platform - just as it did in smartcards, just as it did in phones, just as it is doing in many other small devices such as set-top cable boxes, etc, etc.

But the developers need to start providing new CDC apps to fill this broad, blank canvas. We need innovative dudes and dudettes who know that true coolness lies not in the creation of “Just Another WebFramework” (or even in the exploration of alternative scripts or technologies that are ho-hum, and still for the oh-so 1990s web development market), but in expanding the frontiers of the computing landscape - to go where no Duke has gone before!

There are a slew of very new developments which will help developers enter this arena.

Sun has added some cool CDC capabilities to Netbeans, and there are tons of documentation from Nokia and Sony (who would like YOU to target their smartphones).

Check it out! The Netbeans Mobility Pack for CDC.

And though Swing is currently not supported in the Personal Profile (but supported in Savage), you can create cool apps using Thinlets, which will provides a GUI toolkit that can run on CDC. I’ve run several Thinlets (like the webstart-enabled ThinFeeder) on the desktop, and these are fast, cool-looking apps indeed!

Finally, I’ll start a simple new website with a directory of CDC apps (personal profile and others). I may not actually CODE in CDC, but I sure as heck will try to do my part

If the industry does start developing 100 or 200 GB Blu-ray discs, and the competing HD-DVD companies cannot up their disc beyond 30 GB, then this “format war” might be over before it’s began.

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that the next generation DVD players are involved in a format war, with Java ME right smack dab in the middle. Java ME will be used to provide interactivity to Blu-ray players, which is supported by Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, and most studios except Universal. The competing platform, Toshiba’s HD-DVD, will use HTML and Javascript and is supported by Microsoft.

TDK this week confirmed its plan to develop a Blu-ray Disc with a storage capacity of 200GB. If successful, the company’s R&D effort will yield a disc with four times the capacity of today’s biggest BDs and double the size of protoype next-generation BD-Rs TDK has already demo’d.

TDK showed off a 100GB BD prototype in May 2005. The 100GB disc contains four data-storage layers, is recordable and supports a write speed of up to 216Mbps, double that of 50GB BD-Rs.

Admit it, you’ve always dreamed of being the first Java dude in Hollywood. Well, now some lucky Java dudes (or dudette) will get the chance to do just that. If you’re into CDC big-time, and the term JavaTV makes you tingle, then why not apply for this job in La-La Land?

Click here to read more about Blu-ray Java development.

I admit it. I’ll be buying the brick that’s called the Nokia 9300 from Cingular not because it has an awesome 640 x 200 pixel screen when opened up, but because I’m curious about messing around with the Personal Profile packaged with this luscious telepono muy bueno.

In fact, my interest in Java ME’s long-neglected CDC has started again after it waned when I realized Sun’s last documentation for it was written in 2002, and that the only reference implementation was for Linux!

It seems this year may finally see the light dawning on this configuration. Not only are there several enterprise-capable smartphones showing up that boasts the Personal Profile like the Sony Ericsson P990 and Sony Ericsson M600 (both of which unfortunately, unlike the Nokia 9300, do not seem to be headed for US shores), but Blu-Ray devices will be shipping this year with the new BDJ specs that use the Personal Basis Profile (Xlets)!

So, for those people who’d like to play around with this big brother of Midlets, first stop is the NetBeans Mobility Pack 5.0 For CDC, which also has some getting started guides and other nifty documentation. Go get it before it gets really hot people!

There have been some arguments lately that the newer, more interactive DVD formats (Blu-ray) would not survive, and that customer resistance to using DVDs as more than just a player would be a big factor.

I believe this might be incorrect, and I’ll summarize my argument below.

A lot of money has already been spent on this by the Blu-ray group, and they know this is a long-running war and a struggle, especially as customers are so used to buying DVD players at bargain basement prices. They will be prepared (just like the HDDVD group) to sustain losses for some time because they know the profits in the end far outnumber the relatively small losses at the beginning.

How do i know this? Because the cellphone industry went through the same timeline. At the beginning the cellphone was used mainly for voice calls. When the cellphone manufacturers started adding Java games, and ringtones, and other Java apps to their cellphones, they had to invest much more money on the product and service infrastructure that supported the new devices. More importantly, they also had to contend with a public that AT FIRST was very resistant to using phones for anything but voice calls.

But the cellphone companies and carriers knew that small losses and investments at the beginning were acceptable because the possibilities at the end were so promising. Data services were the way to go - AND THEY WERE RIGHT.

After 5 years, almost all cellphones today come with Java capabilties, and data usage and revenues from data use has soared. Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU), which measures the average monthly revenue generated for each customer has increased significantly because of the new capabilties of devices.

I believe in the long run, home entertainment systems will go through
the same cycle and we will all be the better for it. Certainly, Java ME will be

Oh, I am almost tingling with excitement!

Look out people, the next big battleground between Java and another contender (in this case, Microsoft and a bunch of manufacturers like Toshiba) is starting to shape up for later this spring, when the first next generation DVD players start coming out.

In one corner, you have Blu-Ray DVD, which uses Java ME (CDC) to create interactive menus and download apps, among other things. This group is headed by Sony, but represents (according to Blu-Ray) about 90% of the players in this new game.

In the other corner, you have Microsoft, Toshiba, and some other minor players, who are pushing a format called HD-DVD.

HD-DVD initially had very wide backing, but as it stands now, of the six largest Hollywood studios, only Universal Studios supports just HD DVD exclusively - the others either support both formats or Blu-Ray Disc.

So who’s gonna win? Well, we all know what happened when Java steamrolled the Microsoft alternatives in most small devices markets, but will Java triumph again in this new frontier?

There are already some opinions circulating in the hard-core DVD circles, and it looks like baring some unforeseen meltdown that Java will again thwart the ambitions of the Redmond giant.

DVD talk Forum

Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD: Which format will you buy?

It sucks to be Microsoft when Java ME comes rolling in, doesn’t it?

Addendum:

After researching the topic some more, I realized it’s more complicated situation than that.

The problem is that, although the Blu-Ray specs promise significantly better quality than HD-DVD, there might also be a significant price difference between the two, in that most Blu-Ray tech will be more expensive.

This is a problem, since we all know people are chepaskates when they cannot see any tangible difference between two products - and quality is a very intangible thing sometimes.

So I expect a fiercer battle here than I thought, part of a long battle between Java and Microsoft to control the living room. Sun’s Java won the initial rounds, handily in the cellphone market, and just recently it won when the 6 largest cable operators endorsed the Open Cable Application Platform, which is based on java, and will be up by 2009.

I’m almost always a skeptic when it comes to claims that Java is suited for almost everything, but we all know what happened when the mobile carriers and manufacturers got together and solidified support for Java on small devices in the early part of this century.

Fast forward to 2005, when a similar consortium of players are starting to solidify around a new standard for DVD players called Blu-Ray. Now, millions of Java technology-based set-top boxes have been shipped since 2004, but this new technology introduces a new Java ME CDC technology loosely called BD-J.

From: Java to appear in next-gen DVD players

Here’s a detailed read on Blu-Ray and Java’s place in it.

From: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At first, there seemed to be an opposition forming in the form of something called HD DVD, which was backed by Microsoft (perennial loser to Java in the small devices market), but as of late last year, it looks like Blu-Ray will be the new standard.

From: Blu-ray Disc considered The New Higher Definition Format

MIcrosoft is sulky about all this and says that Windows Vista (the disappearing OS so far) will only support their format, although third parties can add in Blu-Ray support.

From: Vista to directly support HD DVD; Blu-ray to come from 3rd parties

Since Sony is one of the major backers of Blu-Ray, the company plans on implementing Java ME on the Playstation 3 coming later this year. Granted, Sony did this thing before where they reneged on Java in earlier version of PSP, but it seems they are serious about it this time, especially given Java ME’s astounding success in the cellphone arena.