In a sit down with Jonathan Schwartz, the CEO of Sun Microsystems, Engadget Mobile’s Ryan Block discussed the process of porting the Java platform to the iPhone. Overall, Schwartz seems very confident that Java is going to be in the future for the iPhone. He says they are having no problems on the technical side of things, but may face a few on the legal side.
“Well I think the only difficulty will be what Apple presents through its EULA. But I think that I think EULA is a bit of an oxymoron to me. They’re end users, they have the freedom to choose what they’d like to do, so I think we are going to leave it up to users to decide how they want to use the technology.” -Jonathan Schwartz, CEO Sun Microsystems
While bringing Java to the iPhone is obviously a huge ambition for Sun, they do not know when they will be able to deliver. Schwartz did emphasize they they have “redoubled the focus and activity”, that this is not “simple stuff”, and that it takes companies time to get these kind of things to the public. He touched on the fact that there are countless Java applications out there, and that bringing them to the iPhone presents developers with more opportunity. Really, the whole interview conveyed a very deep concern for the interest of developers by Schwartz.
Schwartz became an iPhone owner himself recently, and says that he is liking it. Maybe with an iPhone himself he will have the process of getting Java to the iPhone expedited. It will take as long as it takes I guess, but hey you never know.
[Via Engadget Mobile]
Written by Chase Higgins on May 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
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McAfee’s anti virus solution for the iPhone, called Stinger, would be the first of the of it’s kind. A version of it was leaked to the public recently, and the official statement from McAfee is that the software is a proof of concept and is not ready for the public to use yet. This is very clear when you consider the application was not built with the SDK, and would have to be written over again for use on iPhones using the SDK.
Though McAfee has not announced any plans to follow through and actually get this software out the door, they are pleased with the reaction they have gotten from the iPhone community. All this means that contrary to earlier reports that said this software could be malicious, it seems that is not the case. Either way, be careful, as leaked software has a tendency to become infested with malware.
To some, it may seem that it is not necessary to have anti virus on the iPhone, or mobile phones in general for that matter. This is not true, the iPhone firmware 1.1.1 was jailbroken and subsequently unlocked thanks to an exploit, that with anti virus software may not have worked. While that was a case where the exploit was good, it could have just the same been used to execute malicious code. With mobile phones becoming more and more advanced, you will surely be seeing more of this type of software.
[Via WinAndMac]
Written by Chase Higgins on May 2nd, 2008 with no comments.
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It was just not enough to be able to use custom images as the background to your iPhone’s home screen. Well, not for the iPhone developers over at Skrew at least. They have just released an alpha version of their new application, vWallpaper. Just as the ‘v’ before ‘Wallpaper’ would have you expect, it allows you to use videos as the background to your home screen.
Ignoring the fact that your battery will most likely suffer from such an application, it looks pretty cool. It is a very early release of the application as of now, on the settings page of the application, there is a warning of it being a release for preview and and testing only. There are a few bugs that will need to be ironed out, but with a little patience, it is said to be working.
As of now, there are only two wallpapers that can be used for the background. One, is a explosion with fire balls. The other, is drops of water rippling outwards. There are some who have figured out what files and properties need to be changed to load your own video as the background. vWallpaper can be downloaded on Installer now. You will need to add the source http://i.danstaface.net to your sources list.
[Via Just Another iPhone Blog]
Written by Chase Higgins on April 28th, 2008 with no comments.
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Sun is not going to end their tireless pursuit of getting Java to the iPhone. Sun is still in talks with Apple over the goal. Sun has been very vigorous in their attempts at getting Java to run on the iPhone via a JVM, or Java Virtual Machine. Java is a functionality that Apple would have to approve, as it is very unlikely that Sun could get Java to the iPhone without Apple’s blessing.
“We’ve expressed our intent to do this and our desire, really, to work with Apple to build a JVM (Java Virtual Machine) for the iPhone and we’re sort of moving forward with that” -Eric Klein, Vice President of Java marketing
Although Java functionality would be a very big hit for the iPhone, especially if the many current Java applications could run on it, Apple has not said too much about it. They have had not clear approval or disapproval over bringing Java to the iPhone. The benefit of Java for the iPhone is not only the end user, but for the developer as well. The more phones your application can run on, the more successful it will be.
A Java Virtual Machine is not the only approach to Java for the iPhone. Innaworks is looking to provide a solution to bring Java to the iPhone as well. The Innaworks Java solution would create an application to translate Java application to the native iPhone programming environment. In conjunction with an actual JVM, this solution could provide an easy way for developers to bring their applications to the iPhone.
[Via Info World]
Written by Chase Higgins on April 28th, 2008 with no comments.
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I can not count the times I have been half way across the room sprawled out on a bean bag chair, wishing I could change the song playing on my computer. Thankfully, there is finally a solution out there. A new piece of software called iRemote has been made available. iRemote enables you to take control of your iTunes list from a far. It does not use a local network connection to your computer, so there is no hassle to set things up.
iRemote works by allowing users to use wkLive authentication to gain access to their computer. The application requires no configuration on the users end. This means no messing with your router, as the request goes out externally to the internet. Another plus, no VNC client or configuration is needed. This application is meant to give no headaches.
The steps to install are very easy. As of now, it appears to be a PC only affair. The application for the computer is marked with the ominous .exe extension, most likely there is or will be a Mac version later. The instructions can be found here. Also there are all the files you will need to get started.
Written by Chase Higgins on April 26th, 2008 with no comments.
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