Sun Bringing Java to iPhone
Sun announced that they are developing a Java Virtual Machine for Apple's iPhone with the newly released Software Development Kit (SDK).
The specific version of Java will be based on the Java Micro Edition (ME) and will open the iPhone to a large library of existing Java applications. Sun's announcement comes after reviewing the iPhone SDK since its release just on Thursday. Sun expects to release this version of Java "some time after June".
Sun maintains a sample library of Java ME games and applications. This list includes EA Sims Bowling, Scrabble, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Libris eBook reader, and more.
Sun adds its name to a list of other developers who have already announced support for the iPhone. Others include Gameloft, Omnigroup, Freeverse, SixApart, reQall, EA, and Epocrates.
"We're going to make sure that the JVM offers the Java applications as much access to the native functionality of the iPhone as possible," he said.
The specific version of Java will be based on the Java Micro Edition (ME) and will open the iPhone to a large library of existing Java applications. Sun's announcement comes after reviewing the iPhone SDK since its release just on Thursday. Sun expects to release this version of Java "some time after June".
Sun maintains a sample library of Java ME games and applications. This list includes EA Sims Bowling, Scrabble, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Libris eBook reader, and more.
Sun adds its name to a list of other developers who have already announced support for the iPhone. Others include Gameloft, Omnigroup, Freeverse, SixApart, reQall, EA, and Epocrates.
Top Rated Comments
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51 months ago
will there ever be windows media player support?
thats the big thing i miss on my iphone, is the ability to listent to window streams
thats the big thing i miss on my iphone, is the ability to listent to window streams
51 months ago
will there ever be windows media player support?
thats the big thing i miss on my iphone, is the ability to listent to window streams
Yeah, it's called Windows Mobile. Sell your iPhone to someone more worthy.
*sheesh* Whiner-alert!
51 months ago
Yes, it is great that some random portion of crappy JavaME games will suddenly run poorly or incorrectly on the iPhone. I really had hoped we could avoid this. The idea is to revolutionize the expectations and capabilities of mobile devices, not keep churning the same wretched crap. JavaME is one of the most poorly thought out development platforms ever created.
If we must tolerate Java on a device that clearly doesn't need it, let us at least have a complete API, or as close to complete as possible, such as the CDC profile.
For the record, I'm a career Java developer and have written JavaME apps myself. With the capabilities of the iPhone, there is absolutely no good reason to use Java to target it. Objective C is easily a thousand times better language, and the tools provided in Xcode are more advanced than most any Java development toolkit. I understand the draw of compatibility with existing JavaME apps but the fact is, compatibility is the last thing you expect with a midlet, unless you stick to the absolute core, and even then, you rarely hit more than 20% of handsets. That gives whatever implementation they toss together about a 1 in 5 compatibility range, and that excludes apps that decided to rely on screen sizes and render their own interfaces.
That said, one of my favorite mobile apps is a Java ME app, it's simple and adapts well to random devices, so I guess if this does come to fruition, at least I'll get my JABPlite back!
If we must tolerate Java on a device that clearly doesn't need it, let us at least have a complete API, or as close to complete as possible, such as the CDC profile.
For the record, I'm a career Java developer and have written JavaME apps myself. With the capabilities of the iPhone, there is absolutely no good reason to use Java to target it. Objective C is easily a thousand times better language, and the tools provided in Xcode are more advanced than most any Java development toolkit. I understand the draw of compatibility with existing JavaME apps but the fact is, compatibility is the last thing you expect with a midlet, unless you stick to the absolute core, and even then, you rarely hit more than 20% of handsets. That gives whatever implementation they toss together about a 1 in 5 compatibility range, and that excludes apps that decided to rely on screen sizes and render their own interfaces.
That said, one of my favorite mobile apps is a Java ME app, it's simple and adapts well to random devices, so I guess if this does come to fruition, at least I'll get my JABPlite back!
51 months ago
will there ever be windows media player support?
thats the big thing i miss on my iphone, is the ability to listent to window streams
Probably, but through QT using add-on codecs. It'll be a while, but it'll get there.
51 months ago
will there ever be windows media player support?
thats the big thing i miss on my iphone, is the ability to listent to window streams
This is actually a reasonable question, however unfortunately the answer is no, as a) Apple won't licence it, b) Microsoft won't port it, as it isn't running Windows.
51 months ago
will there ever be windows media player support?
thats the big thing i miss on my iphone, is the ability to listent to window streams
Exchange support is about as far as the deal with Satan will go, methinks.
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