RIM now part of Java Executive Committee for Java ME

RIM and Samsung are now having a seat for Java ME in Executive Committees (EC) of Java Community Process (JCP).

As both are having better platforms (RIM has a lot of extensions to ME and Android for Samsung).
That's a hopefully a good sign in renewing Java ME.


Source: heise.de

setBackground does nothing?

Every time I am using to beautify my BlackBerry screens with a background I trap into the same pitfall. Over and over again.

Her it is:

Simply trying to set the background colorr for a Screen instance:

myScreen = new MainScreen();
myScreen.setBackground(BackgroundFactory.createLinearGradientBackground(Color.BLACK, Color.BLACK, Color.ORANGE, Color.ORANGE));

But when you push this screen to the display stack there will be nothing but a white screen.

Remember to do this like this:

myScreen = new MainScreen();
myScreen.getMainManager().setBackground(BackgroundFactory.createLinearGradientBackground(Color.BLACK, Color.BLACK, Color.ORANGE, Color.ORANGE));

Review: Android Netbook Toshiba AC100

I just had the chance to test one of the 1st netbooks with Android.
Today so called netbooks ship with Windows XP or 7 installed nd have big hard drives. Actually they are just smaller notebooks.
The Toshiba AC100 goes back to the original idea of netbooks. It only comes with 5GB of hard drive (probably flash) uses smartphone hardware to be ultra small and have good battery life. And what could be better then putting Android as operating system?
Toshiba used version 2.1 and it works surprisingly well. The device is a normal netbook, Android was designed for touch devices. For navigation you have a normal mouse cursor, the normal touch is mapped to left mouse key, the menu-key as right mouse key (comparably to Windows context menus) and the Windows-key is replaced by the home-screen buttong. A typical Microsoft user has to forget about double clicking and the long click is sometimes a pain. But most of the time the device is a lot of fun.


The device ships with email app, browsers (Opera Mini or Google) an office suite (Docs2Go), a file explorer what do you need more?
Sadly it does not have a marketplace yet, it uses an own appstore called Camangi which is still very limited. But you simply can download any apk file via the browser.


The device itself feels pretty good for cheap plastic and looks much nicer as some of the more expensive variants.
It supports 3G via any SIMCard (inserted behind the battery) or any wifi network. The battery should work for 8 hours, thats at least what the manufacturer is telling. It needs some seconds to get out of sleep mode but it's still acceptable and you normally don't have to shut it down.

With 379€ it's still a little expensive, I could by a Windows netbooks for nearly this price but.
But I would recommend it and maybe I'll use it on my next trip instead of carrying my Windows convertable.

Import your BlackBerry Contacts on Android

I did it! I moved to Android!
I am owning a Google Nexus One now!

But I wanted to have all my contacts on my new phone as well.
Therefore I wrote a small little app that exports all contacts to SDCard, because Android can search your SDCard for contact files (VCards: *.VCF)

I published the app for free: http://www.jodamob.de/vcardexport.html

Missing AppWorld icon?

I just lost my AppWorld app on my Storm 9550. No icon anymore.

I tried to reinstall it but it showed I have the newest version installed:



So I tried to write an app that finds and starts:

The code module name is "net_rim_bb_appworld". Then you can get the descriptor
CodeModuleManager.getApplicationDescriptors(...)
which you can use to run AppWorld:
ApplicationManager.getApplicationManager().runApplication(...)

But there is something really wrong. AppWorld is running but does not do anything. When attaching it shows:

[AppWorld - Debug(INFO) ] - Version mismatch ( old: 1.1.0.33 new: 1.1.0.35) Clearing Caches!
[AppWorld - Debug(INFO) ] - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=READING DB-=-=-==--=-=-=-=--=-=

and then for decaded continues "READING DB".

So it seems AppWorld has a really bad update problem. But what gives me a really bad feeling is that RIM know about this and the only chance is "backup and wipe".
http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB22944
Sorry RIM this is not an option for your users!

It shows again that RIM does not care much about apps and app stores. AppWprld 1.1.035 is still the latest version, there is no hotfix which I would expect on such a big issue.
Just another nail to their casket?

Nokia starts fighting back. Where is RIM?

The new Nokia boss for mobile solutions want's to "fightback" to get Nokia back to the top.
It seems they have realized their position their loosing ground, which was lately very well described by the guys from symbian-guru.

When I read those last words from symbian guru I had to think about BlackBerry. A lot of it reminded me about RIM:

• software that had a higher quality in the past;
• their inability to build a good app store;
  
• the ignorance about their own position.
  This was perfectly documented with this year's poor WES statements (a Bold in white color, a emberrassing study about BlackBerry users beeing happier then iPhone users and a tiny UI polish called OS 6 which they called "the biggest step they ever took" and everyone's afraid that RIM really believe's that)
  

I really like my BlackBerry but as the Symbian gurus my next phone will be an Android.
I really like developing for BlackBerry and I hope at some point RIM will start their own "fightback".

1st Meeting of Berlin Group

Read about it at: http://berlinblackberrydevelopers.blogspot.com/