Mark Arteaga

Looks like Sybase is going to acquire Extended Systems  for $73million and rolling it into their iAnywhere subsidiary.  The main product OneBridge (see here for my involvement in the product) will be rolled into the iAnywhere group of products adding to the mobile products arsenal.  I think this is a big addition to the group of products and will help solidify iAnywhere's position in the mobile software market.

http://www.mobilepipeline.com/166403676

Marcus Perryman writes about the new Motorola Q Smartphone.  Expected release is Q1 of 2006.  The device used to be called 'RAZORberry' which I think is obvious what market they are going after.  They also may be trying to grab some market share from the treo.  Below are some pictures of the Q, the BlackBerry 7100g and the Treo 650 (obviously not to scale).  Don't forget with the Windows Mobile 5 Messaging and Security Feature Pack the Q can have push email with device management with no third-party servers.  With the recent BlackBerry outages why not look at having your email pushed straight from your corporate servers using Exchange SP2 instead of through a third-party proprietary server/network your enterprise has no control over.

Daniel Moth clears up some confusion about the new Microsoft.WindowsMobile namespace. 

Also, check out the class diagram he made for the Microsoft.WindowsMobile.Forms namespace.

Katie Blanch of the .NETCF team has posted three articles on interop and NETCFv2.  All really useful if you are doing a lot interop in your application.

Interop Log File Information
Interop: Common Issues & Debugging Techniques
Interop: Extending GUI Functionality

MSN Virtual Earth Beta has been released.  A lot more features the http://maps.google.com but i'm sure google will catch up on this.  The only thing i don't like is there is no arial photos for canada when zoomed in close.  It's still beta so hopefully this will be updated when released!

I really don't do much work in Java (specifically J2ME) but like to keep up with new things happening.  Keeping up to date on the competition helps me answer some customer questions like “What about Java or J2ME instead of Microsoft“ or “Java is open source“ etc etc.   BTW (here is my company plug)...if your company is looking at deploying some mobile solutions check out Neoteric Software specializing in custom mobile software and mobile solutions.  Enough plugging my company...here's what's happened in the mobile space where J2ME is concerned.

At the JavaOne show there have been a few announcements.  First Nokia is set on Java and J2ME on mobile devices.  They estimate by December they will have 300mill Java enabled devices world wide.  They are looking at standardizing the platform on all mobile devices because currently there are Java implementations on devices causing developers to re-write code for different devices.  To address this Nokia and Vodafone team together to create Mobile Service Architecture which will focus on issues as remote manageability, upgrading software and a consistent framework across all devices. The group consists of BEA Systems, Cingular Wireless, Motorola, Nokia Corp., NTT DoCoMo, Orange France SA, Research in Motion, Ltd., Samsung Electronics, Siemens, Sony Ericsson Mobile, Sun Microsystems, T-Mobile, and Vodafone Group Services
(Side Note:  On the Microsoft side we have .NET Compact Framework, Systems Management Server and Exchange SP2 with MSFP for WM5.0 which address many of these items.)  All we need is a standardized way to “Push“ data to devices without the use of SMS or custom hacks for every project.  The Eclipse IDE will be a big part of the next mobile Java toolset.  IBM is even getting in on it by bringing Websphere to phones for field services employees and will most likely add to their Websphere Everyplace suite of products.  Some of the more interesting APIs available are the Location APIs and the 3D APIs.  I won't get into much of this but check this article for J2ME Mobile 3D Graphics API (M3G).  Sun has also released a new version of Java System RFID software which will run on either J2SE or J2ME. For more information checkout this article.  Microsoft is also ramping up efforts on the RFID side and integrating with their server products.

I think this solidifies my views of mobility being the next big wave in both the enterprise and consumer markets. RFID is also bound to take off and seems that all major players are starting to take notice of this.  There are still a lot of obstacles and very over hyped, but  I see many uses not only in the enterprise side but also in the consumer side, but this can only happen once prices come down for tags. With the new highspeed cellular networks coming (and yes they are already in major Canadian cities) I believe there will be plenty of opportunities available to capitalize on....just look at how big ringtones have become!