Java Reference
In-Depth Information
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start-on-boot services that stay in the background, unseen
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application icons placed on the phone's idle screen during installation
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screen savers
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read access to the phone state - battery level, profile, power sta-
tus, etc.
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the ability to open connections to remote locations while suppressing
all user confirmation prompts
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a custom full-screen UI including cascading menus and input widgets
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a service that takes over the whole screen and can't be turned off (in
order to create a kind of kiosk mode).
Software is usually targeted at mass-market feature phones. While
most smartphone platforms natively expose some of these abilities to
developers there is no general solution for Java ME. Clients don't care
about published UI style guides, the operator or manufacturer's built-in
protection domains, certificates or signing. Quite rightly, they just want
their product to work. Clearly there's a large difference between what
technophiles believe is reasonable and what the market demands.
Not all of the things mentioned in the above list will be included in
MSA 2.0 and MIDP 3.0, and nor should they be. However, when the
mass market is saturated with phones that use MSA 2.0 and MIDP 3.0,
Java ME will enter a golden age and we'll be well down the road to
a market-wide solutions framework. Such a powerful Java ME platform
will raise the bar much higher and enrich the Java ME platform with
more advanced JSRs. Applications will be able to do a lot more, given
wider support for emerging technologies and updated APIs to extend the
existing JSRs. Some of the expected highlights are:
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additional MSA 2.0 standardized JSRs
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MIDP 3.0 API enhancements
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LIBlets - class libraries that exist outside MIDlet suites and are the Java
ME equivalent of a dynamically linked library; this has far-reaching
consequences for code centralization and management, managing
upgrades and patches and the security model
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exposure to system events and properties including changes to power
status, system idle states, screen-saver events, incoming calls, back-
light status, and the battery level
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inter-MIDlet communication (IMC)
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idle-screen MIDlets
