Java on the Phones - Please Help

[dranonymous]

I'm thinking of getting a cell phone for occasional use here in the US.  I thought I might try and get a better phone, if I could eventually write some java apps for it.

I know the terms MIDP1.0 / 2.0  and CLDC, but have no real clue what that means to me.  So here's my questions -

- How do I know for sure I can write a java app using j2me and have it run on my cell phone?

- How do you get the apps to the phone?  Cable, network, other?

I don't want to get a java enabled phone, only to find out I have to pay to download games and content from my phone provider only.

Can anyone help please?

Thanks,
Dr. A>

[Matzon]

I know the terms MIDP1.0 / 2.0  and CLDC, but have no real clue what that means to me.

MIDP 1.0, MIDP 2.0, CLDC (and other terms) just define what classes are available to the java program. You can find the listing on http://java.sun.com/j2me/index.jsp

- How do I know for sure I can write a java app using j2me and have it run on my cell phone?

You check with the phone specs. You can also verify with http://jbenchmark.com/

- How do you get the apps to the phone?  Cable, network, other?

Typically using data cable, IR port, Bluetooth or OTA (Over The Air, basically upload to webserver and download).

I don't want to get a java enabled phone, only to find out I have to pay to download games and content from my phone provider only.

Well, you have to pay for others games - you're free to do what you want with your own stuff

[dranonymous]

Yee haw!  The jbenchmark site is perfect!  It actually gives specs.

I went to several phone manufacturers sites and the best they usually give was 'Java Enabled'.  Yeah, I had already figured that out.    They are so silly.

With the webserver download, how would you set that up?  The phone service would have to provide the webservice.  I've setup and ran tomcat before as well as apache.  How would downloading content from my webserver differ from getting something from their website?

How cross platform are the Java apps in the phone world?  Would a simple 'Hello World' app always work?  My guess is that things such as full-screen and transparency support would be more platform specific.  Would you agree?

Regards,
Dr. A>

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[shmoove]

OTA (Over The Air) Application Provisioning.

As far as cross-platform-ness. A "Hello World" app really should work on any phone, but the huge range of devices with varying capabilities and who-knows-how-many implementation bugs makes portability mostly theoretical for anything slightly more complicated. But the platform does make porting a lot easier than it could be.

shmoove