Opera 8.5 beta 2 is out! - JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General

Even the first beta version of Opera was a real relevation for the Pocket PC community. Much as it had several bugs (particularly on pre-Windows Mobile 5 devices), it has quickly become the browser of choice for many Pocket PC users (including me), at least on Windows Mobile 5.
The new version is, speed-wise, clearly the best browser I've ever seen for the Pocket PC. It's much-much faster than the alternatives. You'll certainly love it!
The good
* The WM2003(SE) version seems to be working great: I haven't encountered the infamous Opera-is-stalled bug under pre-WM5 operating system any more. I've tested the new version of Opera with all the test pages (the search facility at http://www.europe.com/en/ - screenshot here; RedHotPawn) that make the previous version stall at once. No problems encountered so far.
This may be related to the fact that now Opera senses some Web servers' not answering – see this and this message.
A iPAQ 2210 screenshot can be seen here and here (the latter taken at 25% zoom level so that the entire chessboard is visible) – as can be seen, as opposed to b1, I could log in and play on my iPAQ 2210 as well.
* It feels much faster than beta1, which is a feat in itself because beta 1 was already much faster than any alternative browser.
* There's tab support! (See the screenshots provided for examples.)
* The bug related to not being able to display loooooong pages is fixed. It worked great with all the pages I've thrown it at; an example screenshot of Tero Lehto's blog is here.
* Much as the new version is still using custom (non-native) GUI components, one of the biggest problems, that is, the text areas hiding the last characters in each row behind the scrollbar, is fixed as can be seen in here.
* The "You have XX days left of your trial period" dialog is no longer displayed at startup.
(There must be tons of other bugfixes, as far as previous beta1 bugs are concerned; these were the ones I've explicitly tested and compared to beta1.)
The bad
* After scrolling a page with any amount (or going to a new page), you will not be able to directly tap-and-hold a link to bring up the context menu (so that you can open the link in a new tab) without the need for at least partially highlight it (or the text that contains it). Fortunately, this is a minor annoyance and you'll quickly learn how to highlight (part) the link without clicking it.
* The new version is still using custom GUI components, which makes it impossible to use any kind of common Windows keyboard shortcuts. This is a mayor annoyance to anybody using an external keyboard to enter a lot of texts and wanting to use the traditional Windows shortcuts to quickly navigate through / highlight / copy/cut/paste text in the text input components.
* On some Pocket PC's (for example, the Pocket Loox 720) the new version still uses non-proportional Courier New fonts in the address bar / in the tab titles. This is a minor annoyance, though.
* Unfortunately, the settings dialogs (screenshot 1 and 2) are as simple as in beta1. The latter, however, now has a new checkbox, " Set Opera as default browser", which makes it unnecessary to manually import a registry file (please see the articles in the Recommended links section for the registry import file I've created for beta1 to revert the default browser assignments) in order to revert back to using Pocket Internet Explorer (if you make Opera the default Web browser on your Pocket PC).
Nevertheless, the lack of detailed settings dialogs are not a problem – with manually editing (or, downloading my sample configuration files) the main configuration files of Opera, you can fine-tune it (scrollbar visibility, proxy usage, scroll behaviour etc).
* Under WM2003, Menu/Display/Landscape still doesn't rotate the viewport. Again, this would be pretty easy to implement because Opera, unlike for example the Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) plug-ins or almost all ( uBook and Mobipocket Reader being the most important exceptions) e-book readers, doesn't need to rely on the Portrait-only, underlying PIE engine. This is a minor problem though and "only" affecting WM2003 users – screen rotation works great in post-WM2003 operating systems.
* Still no advanced context menus (copy link, save image), no in-page searching etc. These are, however, only minor annoyances, which don't have a negative effect on the browsing experience itself.
* Still no " One Column" view mode like that of PIE starting with WM2003SE or the PIE plug-in PIEPlus (see this review on the latest version of latter, including a detailed comparison of the "one column" modes offered by PIE and PIEPlus). This would be very useful to maximize the usage of the available screen estate on many pages; for example, the XDA-Dev forums (example screenshot of Opera 8.5b2 rendering the latter here – as can be seen, the useful contents of the page only occupies about 65-70% of the available horizontal screen estate. With a real "One Column" mode, it'd be close to 100%).
* Still no support for system-level favourites. This would also be really easy to implement as there's nothing particular about the .url files in \Windows\Favorites – they're really-really easy to process. (I'd say a hour's work for an average C++ programmer.)
Verdict
I can only use superlatives when speaking of this application. Despite its (still) missing functionalities, its speed and compatibility is just phenomenal.
Recommended links
The following articles/tips all discuss/are all related to the previous, beta 1 version. Note that some of their contents is now that they are fixed are outdated. They may still be worth checking out - particularly the ones on manually editing the Opera configuration files. You'll find a lot of information in these articles never published by anyone else.
ESSENTIAL (NEW, UNIQUE BUGFIXES!!!) to know about the great Web browser, Opera beta! - I haven't run into the same problem with the new Opera version – yet. This doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't exist any more – therefore, if the address bar auto-completion crashes your Pocket PC with beta2 too, make sure you read this article.
Modify the default scrolling behaviour of Pocket PC Web browsers. Note that even the beta 2 of Opera uses jump-by-link by default (on all operating systems, not just WM5), as far as its D-pad navigation is concerned; you will most probably want to override this and switch to the 'scroll a page at a time' behaviour. Note that the new scroll a page feature (invokable via the Space key) only works on devices with a built-in keyboard; for example, on the HTC Wizard (screenshot of Opera running on my HTC Wizard here).
Opera 8.5 beta on WM5 - it is certainly different from the WM2003(SE) version and is working GREAT!
WM5 compliance report: the bandwidth reduction service OnSpeed works pretty good; additional Toonel information – this article will be useful for everyone that wants to configure his or her Opera to access the Web sites through a HTTP proxy.
Pocket PC version of Famous Web Browser, Opera 8.5 beta Officially Released!

Related

Opera 8.5 ppc beta2 is out

Take a look here:
info: http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=127518
Dload: http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/winmobileppc/
New features in this build
- tabs
- support for http upload
- keyboard shortcuts:
tab (next form element)
space (scroll down one page)
Have fun
MaX
A review:
Even the first beta version of Opera was a real relevation for the Pocket PC community. Much as it had several bugs (particularly on pre-Windows Mobile 5 devices), it has quickly become the browser of choice for many Pocket PC users (including me), at least on Windows Mobile 5.
The new version is, speed-wise, clearly the best browser I've ever seen for the Pocket PC. It's much-much faster than the alternatives. You'll certainly love it!
The good
* The WM2003(SE) version seems to be working great: I haven't encountered the infamous Opera-is-stalled bug under pre-WM5 operating system any more. I've tested the new version of Opera with all the test pages (the search facility at http://www.europe.com/en/ - screenshot here; RedHotPawn) that make the previous version stall at once. No problems encountered so far.
This may be related to the fact that now Opera senses some Web servers' not answering – see this and this message.
A iPAQ 2210 screenshot can be seen here and here (the latter taken at 25% zoom level so that the entire chessboard is visible) – as can be seen, as opposed to b1, I could log in and play on my iPAQ 2210 as well.
* It feels much faster than beta1, which is a feat in itself because beta 1 was already much faster than any alternative browser.
* There's tab support! (See the screenshots provided for examples.)
* The bug related to not being able to display loooooong pages is fixed. It worked great with all the pages I've thrown it at; an example screenshot of Tero Lehto's blog is here.
* Much as the new version is still using custom (non-native) GUI components, one of the biggest problems, that is, the text areas hiding the last characters in each row behind the scrollbar, is fixed as can be seen in here.
* The "You have XX days left of your trial period" dialog is no longer displayed at startup.
(There must be tons of other bugfixes, as far as previous beta1 bugs are concerned; these were the ones I've explicitly tested and compared to beta1.)
The bad
* After scrolling a page with any amount (or going to a new page), you will not be able to directly tap-and-hold a link to bring up the context menu (so that you can open the link in a new tab) without the need for at least partially highlight it (or the text that contains it). Fortunately, this is a minor annoyance and you'll quickly learn how to highlight (part) the link without clicking it.
* The new version is still using custom GUI components, which makes it impossible to use any kind of common Windows keyboard shortcuts. This is a mayor annoyance to anybody using an external keyboard to enter a lot of texts and wanting to use the traditional Windows shortcuts to quickly navigate through / highlight / copy/cut/paste text in the text input components.
* On some Pocket PC's (for example, the Pocket Loox 720) the new version still uses non-proportional Courier New fonts in the address bar / in the tab titles. This is a minor annoyance, though.
* Unfortunately, the settings dialogs (screenshot 1 and 2) are as simple as in beta1. The latter, however, now has a new checkbox, " Set Opera as default browser", which makes it unnecessary to manually import a registry file (please see the articles in the Recommended links section for the registry import file I've created for beta1 to revert the default browser assignments) in order to revert back to using Pocket Internet Explorer (if you make Opera the default Web browser on your Pocket PC).
Nevertheless, the lack of detailed settings dialogs are not a problem – with manually editing (or, downloading my sample configuration files) the main configuration files of Opera, you can fine-tune it (scrollbar visibility, proxy usage, scroll behaviour etc).
* Under WM2003, Menu/Display/Landscape still doesn't rotate the viewport. Again, this would be pretty easy to implement because Opera, unlike for example the Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) plug-ins or almost all ( uBook and Mobipocket Reader being the most important exceptions) e-book readers, doesn't need to rely on the Portrait-only, underlying PIE engine. This is a minor problem though and "only" affecting WM2003 users – screen rotation works great in post-WM2003 operating systems.
* Still no advanced context menus (copy link, save image), no in-page searching etc. These are, however, only minor annoyances, which don't have a negative effect on the browsing experience itself.
* Still no " One Column" view mode like that of PIE starting with WM2003SE or the PIE plug-in PIEPlus (see this review on the latest version of latter, including a detailed comparison of the "one column" modes offered by PIE and PIEPlus). This would be very useful to maximize the usage of the available screen estate on many pages; for example, the XDA-Dev forums (example screenshot of Opera 8.5b2 rendering the latter here – as can be seen, the useful contents of the page only occupies about 65-70% of the available horizontal screen estate. With a real "One Column" mode, it'd be close to 100%).
* Still no support for system-level favourites. This would also be really easy to implement as there's nothing particular about the .url files in \Windows\Favorites – they're really-really easy to process. (I'd say a hour's work for an average C++ programmer.)
Verdict
I can only use superlatives when speaking of this application. Despite its (still) missing functionalities, its speed and compatibility is just phenomenal.
Recommended links
The following articles/tips all discuss/are all related to the previous, beta 1 version. Note that some of their contents is now that they are fixed are outdated. They may still be worth checking out - particularly the ones on manually editing the Opera configuration files. You'll find a lot of information in these articles never published by anyone else.
ESSENTIAL (NEW, UNIQUE BUGFIXES!!!) to know about the great Web browser, Opera beta! - I haven't run into the same problem with the new Opera version – yet. This doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't exist any more – therefore, if the address bar auto-completion crashes your Pocket PC with beta2 too, make sure you read this article.
Modify the default scrolling behaviour of Pocket PC Web browsers. Note that even the beta 2 of Opera uses jump-by-link by default (on all operating systems, not just WM5), as far as its D-pad navigation is concerned; you will most probably want to override this and switch to the 'scroll a page at a time' behaviour. Note that the new scroll a page feature (invokable via the Space key) only works on devices with a built-in keyboard; for example, on the HTC Wizard (screenshot of Opera running on my HTC Wizard here).
Opera 8.5 beta on WM5 - it is certainly different from the WM2003(SE) version and is working GREAT!
WM5 compliance report: the bandwidth reduction service OnSpeed works pretty good; additional Toonel information – this article will be useful for everyone that wants to configure his or her Opera to access the Web sites through a HTTP proxy.
Pocket PC version of Famous Web Browser, Opera 8.5 beta Officially Released!
link is broken. Could you upload it. Thanks
Do you mean this one? http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/winmobileppc/
It's working OK with me.

looking for a good web browser

basically im looking for a browser that is responsive and allows you to save/download files, for some reason PIE doesnt do this
tried opera mobile, its great but its not free and my trial ran out, figure id look for a free alternative before shelling out money for a web browser
minimo seems good too, but its still beta (i think) either way it takes an excrutiatingly long time to load and uses ungodly amounts of ram (20mb+)
tried picsel too and didnt care for it
is there anything else i should look at?
I use the PIEplus addon for PIE, it really adds functionality (And my PIE downloads files nicely):
* Optimize the web content to fit for PIE
* Multiple Tabbed Browsing
* Screen drag with sensitivity setting
* Fullscreen mode
* Hardware button mappings with press-and-hold support
* Save a file, image or page with all the elements <new>
* New Toolbar UI <new>
* Toolbar on WM5 <new>
* Multi-step Back/Forward <new>
* URL Alias <new>
* URL Service with URL builder <new>
* Open URL from closed <new>
* Open link in new tab or new background tab <new>
* Navigate link with D-Pad on WM2003 or above
* Scroll by line or page with D-Pad on PPC2002 or above
* Scroll by line or page with Jog Dial
* Extended context menu
* Custom user agent setting as IE5.5 or IE6.0 or anything <new>
* Enable/disable script and script warning
* Enable/disable ClearType
* Screen Rotation above WM2003SE <new>
* View HTML source
http://www.reensoft.com/PIEPlus/
I just wish PIE would allow text searching for keywords on a web page....
^^Nice! I didn't know about that add on, good post!
Another great browser is Opera Mini Beta. It has a function built in that lets you scroll down a page at a time by hitting right on the d-pad...it also can zoom automatically, fit the paget to width, and it can compress the images it loads to cut down on load time.
Here's the link:
www.operamini.com/beta
"Looking for a good web browser"... me too. I've got PIE with PIE+, Picsel, Minimo, Opera Mobile 8.65, and Opera Mini 4 Beta 2. They all suck. Well, not really, but I can't use any one browser for everything I need to do... and that sucks.
Opera Mini gets the most use mainly because it's fairly good for reading newspapers, forums, and similar text-heavy sites. The page preview and zoom works pretty good although it lacks the on-screen gestures of Picsel. I also like the ability to control image quality for faster/slower loading of pages. However, the UI is terrible for some of the most basic browser functions (like bookmarking, back, forward, editing the URL, etc). And maybe my biggest hangup... it has the look and feel of a cheap phone browser.
Picsel has a lot of promise in terms of on-screen gestures for zoom and pan, but it's just not stable enough to use as an everyday web browser. I get memory errors plus it just randomly closes or hangs on certain sites. Proper rendering is hit or miss. Plus, like Opera Mini, the UI seems very clumsy for some pretty basic browser functionality. I use it as a document reader from time to time, but I almost never use it as a web browser any more.
Minimo is a complete joke.
I mainly use PIE for sites that require logon, data entry, or where I have problems with Opera Mini for whatever reason. PIE+ does add some very useful functionality, but I really want the pan/zoom functionality of Picsel or Opera Mini. It does seem to be more stable than all the others.
Opera Mobile 8.65 seems a lot like PIE with PIE+ to me. However, like PIE, it's still built around the concept of reformatting the webpage rather than giving me a "preview" of the real webpage and the ability to zoom and pan, like Picsel and Opera Mini. I might use this more than PIE if I took more time to learn it, but I still like the mini beta a little better.
What I would love to see is something with the stability and familiarity of PIE, but with tabs, and some basic preview/zoom/pan capability. I've read about Deepfish, but that appears to be vaporware right now. If I've overlooked such an animal, please advise.
Have a look at Jataayu Mobile browser at this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=335625. And here is a comparison of browser for smartphones, pretty useful for pocket pc too. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=323651
Yeah I'm having the same issue. I use the Opera Mini browser but it's not stable enough (freezes on me from time to time), and the PIE to me just blows. What ever happened to Microsoft's Deepfish? They had a beta and then it feel off the planet.
MeGa
im gonan goive PIE+ and jataayu a try, thanks for all the replies
Opera Mobile 8.65 seems a lot like PIE with PIE+ to me. However, like PIE, it's still built around the concept of reformatting the webpage rather than giving me a "preview" of the real webpage and the ability to zoom and pan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
opera 8.65 does have the ability to display the website in "desktop mode" and scroll across (rather than reformatting to a single column) doesnt seem to haver preview or zoom though
defaultdotxbe said:
opera 8.65 does have the ability to display the website in "desktop mode" and scroll across (rather than reformatting to a single column) doesnt seem to haver preview or zoom though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I really like the idea of a thumbnail-type preview rather than having to scroll around to get my bearings. But the desktop mode is slightly better than the single column thing, which works fine on a few sites, but for most it just creates a cluttered, unrecognizable mess.

The (Java) MIDlet Bible

(Note that this Bible does NOT discuss Java applets or applications. For more info on running applets under Windows Mobile, see the Web Browsing Bible; for application-related info, see my generic Java articles.)
You may have already heard at least of Java games (more precisely, MIDlets) running on almost all current “dumb” phones. These games are all the rage today, especially with teenagers, which also means there are thousands of sometimes really high-quality games for ordinary phones, all written using the portable Java language, ready to be played on (almost) any kind of mobile phone. Just an example: in THIS HowardForums thread, the topic starter post lists some (but not all!) games available for the Samsung QVGA 240x320 phones (d600, d900, e900 etc – not only Windows Mobile ones!). Quite an impressive list, isn’t it? And it’s just the tip of the iceberg – there are a lot more games, all waiting for you to purchase, download and run!
No, don’t think MIDlets are only for gamers and are absolutely useless otherwise. You can make a good use of them in the enterprise too. There are several solutions already for, for example, mobile payment, reservations etc. done using a MIDlet as opposed to the Web, which is, in a lot of cases, is much harder to access / operate on a small-screen device. Controlling for example your bank transfers via SMS can also be less intuitive and/or require a lot more work / data entry than using a GUI to do this. Other, known enterprise-related MIDlets are Jupiter, which is basically a financial data streaming program (also see THIS) and Betfair (also see THIS). Should you be interested in these “MIDlets in the Enterprise” questions, I really recommend Michael Juntao Yuan’s excellent book “Enterprise J2ME: Developing Mobile Java Applications” – I’ve learnt a LOT from it. Highly recommended!
1.1 Microsoft and third party MIDlet manager developers
Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t support Java (and its, in this Bible discussed subset, MIDlets) at all. The sole reason for this is the fact that Java is a direct competitor to the .NET (Compact) Framework, and is (also) supported by almost all major competitors of Microsoft; in the telco area, most importantly, Nokia and Sony-Ericsson (S-E), the two major players in producing “consumer”, “entertainment”, “not-strictly-enterprise” handsets.
This, unfortunately, means that, under Windows Mobile, MIDlets are not as widely supported as on competing mobile platforms; most importantly, Symbian. Nokia, S-E and the rest have spent a lot of $$$ on implementing really usable and top-notch MIDlet runner environments (MIDlet managers or KVM’s) in the last few years. Microsoft didn’t do the same, only third-party developers, who, because they considered Windows Mobile not to be a gaming platform, didn’t pay much attention to implementing a very good MIDlet manager on the platform (back then, there were far fewer enterprise / productivity MIDlets than today). Just an example: while the mid-2003 Nokia N-Gage certainly lacked at the MIDlet department (very few current games run on it and if they run – for example, the River Storm chopper simulator -, they are almost unplayably slow, as opposed to current Nokia handsets like the N95), the year 2005 Nokia 6680 already had almost flawless MIDlet support. For example, it even supports Bluetooth, which still (as of late 2007) hasn’t made it to the Windows Mobile MIDlet managers, “thanks” for the third-party, uninterested, unmotivated software developers’ neglecting the platform.
1.2 Is it worth it for gaming?
The lack of Microsoft’s commitment to the decent support of MIDlets, unfortunately, means Windows Mobile users are, generally, in a far direr situation than owners of phones from manufacturers involved in developing Java further and spending a lot of $$$ on making their Java support as good as possible. A perfect example of this is, as has already been stated, Nokia. Nokia’s latest, gaming-enabled, top-of-the-line smartphones (most importantly, the PowerVR 3D-accelerated N95 (-3 / 8GB ), the N93(i) (the jBenchmark page is HERE) and E90; the complete list of current phones, based on their 3D benchmark results, can be found HERE) run truly three-dimensional (and, therefore, hardware accelerated) MIDlets considerably faster and FAR better than anything on Windows Mobile. S-E, with its 3D accelerated, touchscreen Symbian UIQ 3 models like the W950, the P990 and the M600, shouldn’t be forgotten either.
1.2.1 3D support
Currently, I don’t know of any Windows Mobile devices with 3D hardware accelerated Java (MIDlet) graphics. The Aplix folks (developers of Jblend) told me their KVM does support the underlying 3D hardware accelerator. Unfortunately, the (very few) models available outside Japan that it comes with preinstalled do not have 3D acceleration and the (comparatively old) Jblend version available for installing on any device don’t show any kind of 3D acceleration support (I’ve tested this on my 3D accelerated, 2700G-based Dell Axim x51v). Therefore, I’m not really sure it will indeed work with, say, future GoForce 5500 (currently, the O2 XDA Flame and the Toshi G900 has the CPU (neither of them come with Jblend)) and/or the new Qualcomm 7200 chipset, which is to be found in several last-generation HTC and just-announced I-Mate handsets. I don’t think they’ll come with Jblend (why would HTC change their MIDlet manager OEM again, only about a year after switching to Esmertec from the dying TAO?) either. Let’s hope for the best (for example, Esmertec’s (re-)introducing M3G support with support for hardware acceleration into Jbed), though.
The situation, now that – unlike with the 2700G and the GoForce 5500 – the Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset will be a de facto standard in many current- and most next-generation WM phones, will surely change in the future. I’m, however, pretty much sure you won’t see a 3D accelerated MIDlet manager any time soon under Windows Mobile. Again, software developers still consider Windows Mobile a non-gaming platform not really deserving 3D MIDlet acceleration.
What does this all mean? If you’ve got used to the quality of game MIDlets on your favorite Nokia N93(i)/N95/E90 or Sony-Ericsson handsets, you’ll be pretty much disappointed; particularly if you want to run 3D and/or Bluetooth (multiplayer)-based games.
1.2.2 Bluetooth support
Yes, the lack of Bluetooth is another major problem with all current Windows Mobile MIDlet managers. Don’t think of only multiplayer games – there are other uses of Bluetooth used from MIDlets; an example of them is Blooover (a great Bluetooth Sniffer), data exchange over Bluetooth and so on. You can find more information on the latter for example HERE.
Note that, as opposed to what the 4pda.ru folks stated, few games refuse to deploy / run because of the lack of the Bluetooth support. (See the main games compatibility chart for more info on these titles.)
1.2.3 Sound issues
There will be other problems too if you plan to play the HUGE library of MIDlet games available today. The most important of them is the bad sound emulation, which is quite big a problem with some MIDlet managers severely affecting the gaming experience. Actually, currently, it’s only Esmertec’s Jbed that didn’t have any problems playing back ALL the midi music I’ve thrown it at (and, of course, that of Nokia on Symbian); all the other (Windows Mobile) MIDlet managers had a much worse sound. In many cases, the music they produced was very hard to even recognize – in a way, they sounded like for example an SNES emulator running on a not-fast-enough Windows Mobile or Symbian phone.
1.2.4 Control issues
Furthermore, you’ll surely be faced control problems. Depending on the MIDlet manager you use AND the game you’re trying to run, you will face sometimes severe control problems. Either the two softkeys won’t work (not even on Pocket PC’s, where you can also try to use the stylus to “press” them) or the D-pad / Action button, or both. Note that there are some solutions to this problem (particularly if you have a Smartphone (or an, in this regard, similar Pocket PC phone like the Asus A525) with a hardware phonepad). I’ve elaborated on these questions in a separate article HERE (cross-posted to PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, XDA-Developers - 2, XDA-Developers - 3, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo, PocketGamer.org, PocketGaming.de).
1.2.5 Screen size issues
The question of the screen size and MIDlets displayed in full screen mode should also be mentioned. As MIDlets are, generally, written for a multitude of different devices (to maximize revenue and minimize developing costs), they, generally, support three screen resolutions: 176*208 (the traditional Nokia screen size), 176*220 (the traditional Sony-Ericsson screen size which is, incidentally, the same as that of the traditional Windows Mobile Smartphone) and, finally, QVGA (240*320) – the screen size of the latest Nokia / Ericsson handsets and, of course, higher-end MS Smartphones. And, naturally, Pocket PC’s as well, which, in addition, may also have VGA (640*480) or even WVGA (800*480) screens.
MIDlet games come in two flawors: either dynamically stretching themselves to fill in the entire screen estate of the device they run on in-game (while, in most cases, using the least common denominator, that is, 176*208, to display menus), or fixed to a given resolution. Of course, using the former is preferable (when possible) because you will have a great chance of being able to run it on your even WVGA Pocket PC full-screen. Interestingly, the game speed will, in many cases, remain acceptable even at such high resolutions. This was one of the best surprises I’ve encountered during my thorough tests.
As opposed to the, technically, much more superior and mature Nokia MIDlet Manager, Windows Mobile KVM’s aren’t, generally, full-screen, which, unfortunately, mean some 20-25 or even 40-50 pixels at the bottom of MIDlets hard-coded to the QVGA resolution will be not shown on QVGA screens, depending on whether the actual MIDlet manager shows both (top and bottom) screen bars (TAO, IBM J9 or Jeodek M3G on the Smartphone platform) or “only” the top bar (Jeodek M3G on the PPC platform; non- M3G-capable Jeodek on both WM platforms, Jblend). Nevertheless, there will be missing information; in most cases, the softkey labels, but, with many games, also status messages, speedometers and the like. You can find a lot of comparative screenshots in both the previous 3D MIDlet article and the main game compatibility chart. In all these cases (when the missing information does get into your nerves), you will want to try very hard to, first, find a KVM that does full screen (Jbed or, if you can live with the bad or non-existing audio support, the full screen version of Jblend) and if they turn out to be unable to run your title, switch to a MIDlet version written for a device with a smaller screen (for example, the 176*220 version instead of the QVGA one). In the latter case, however, a large part of your screen estate will remain unused.
As far as application programs (Opera Mini, Gmail, Google Maps etc.) are concerned, they all dynamically stretch themselves to make use of the available screen estate; therefore, you won’t have problems with them on any device, with any MIDlet manager.
1.2.6 (Free) alternatives to MIDlet gaming
As several MIDlets are just rewrites of old classics like Bonk, you may find it useful to look around any online console ROM or abandonware game repository for versions of the game you plan to play. In a top-notch emulator like SmartGear, they might run FAR better than ANY MIDlet manager on your particular handset. Make sure you read ALL my previous, emulation-related articles (the Emulator category of my blog is HERE) to see what gaming console platforms there are and how they are emulated by Windows Mobile.
Just an example. The recently released Bonk’s Return runs MUCH slower (and/or using MUCH more battery) on all my test Windows Mobile devices than the same title under a PC Engine emulator like SmartGear.
All in all, if you find a MIDlet that you find a bit on the slow side, make sure you look around on, say, WikiPedia to see whether the game (originally) had handheld / desktop console versions (or, for that matter, a home computer one – even many home computers of the eighties and the early nineties are better emulated than MIDlets, particularly if you can’t use Jbed because of the compatibility issues). If it did, make sure you check out the console version first, under an emulator. Again, it can’t be stressed enough how important it is for you to thoroughly read through my console/computer emulation-related articles so that you know what emulators there are, how the original titles are emulated under Windows Mobile, what platforms to prefer when there are ports to multiple platforms of a given title etc. Yeah, I know you’ll end up having to spend hours to read all those articles, but, if you’re a hardcore gamer, you’ll certainly find it useful.
1.3 Is it worth it for non-gaming?
It definitely is; most importantly, for Web browsing with the brand new Opera Mini 4 (current, recommended version: beta 2) reviewed HERE. Opera Mini 4 is a freaking good and, what is more, FREE Web browser – in many cases, it’s preferable over all the other Web browsing solutions available for Windows Mobile.
There are other productivity MIDlets meant for non-vertical markets too; the most important example of this is the Gmail MIDlet, which offers a very nice alternative to browsing, searching, answering etc. your Gmail mailbox from your handheld, including Windows Mobile ones. It’s WAY better than any Web-based solutions (see the Web Browsing Bible for the why’s) and, given that it allows for using some really advanced functionality (for example, searching) on the server side (this wasn’t available before; now, Gmail has just implemented IMAP access (another, related PPCT thread), which might let do this from a capable IMAP client as well – see my IMAP Bible for more info), it might still be preferable on a device that, otherwise, is properly configured to access Gmail via POP3. You may also want to take a look at THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS and THIS thread / article too.
Note that now that Google has released an excellent, native Windows Mobile version of the client, (as of the current, 1.2.0.13 version) the need for the MIDlet version of Google Maps is decreased. The native version works just great on both WM platforms and is accessible HERE for download as a directly installable CAB file. Note that there may still be cases you will want to prefer the MIDlet (that is, non-native) version of this program; see for example the comments HERE, where user “fixup” complains of the native version’s keeping the backlight and the connection on (as opposed to running the Java version under a MIDlet manager), which both may lead to (vastly) increased battery consumption.
Finally, as you most probably WILL want to run at least Opera Mini (or its modded version) on your device, the answer is YES.
2. Available MIDlet managers
In this chapter, I give you a thorough overview of what current (!) MIDlet environments there are, how they compare to each other and which one you should prefer. As you’ll see, particularly if you’re a power user and/or player, you will want to keep different KVM’s on your Windows Mobile handheld simultaneously so that you can make use of the functionality of each of them (there’s no “best” KVM – unfortunately, the otherwise best Jbed lacks some functionality only provided by other KVM’s).
Note that I don’t provide you download /purchase links here. You can find all of the download sources and / or accessibility remarks in the main chart, in the second, “Price / availability” row.
Also note that this is just a sketchy list of what KVM’s there are and what (dis)advantages they have. For a full list of tips, tricks, capability and problem lists, you MUST consult the above-mentioned main chart. Note that, in Chapter 4, I will also elaborate on the meaning of the rows in the chart.
2.1 Esmertec Jbed
This is by far the best and most recommended KVM for Windows Mobile, (QVGA; NOT 176*220 – on the latter, it refuses running deployed MIDlets) Smartphones and Pocket PC’s alike. Its only problems are the lack of M3G (3D gaming) support and the inability to run more than one MIDlet concurrently. As with the other products of Esmertec, it isn’t compatible with pre-WM5 operating systems and needs to be “hacked” in order to be able to run it on non-Phone Edition Pocket PC devices. (See the “Platform compatibility: non-phone PPC” row in the main chart to see how this hacking must be done.)
Note that the latest, currently available Jbed version has problems with the cookie handling of Opera Mini 4 beta 2. This means you can’t log in to many (but not all; for example, Yahoo Mail works) Web sites with OM4b2 running under Jbed. As this isn’t an issue with Opera Mini Mod 2.04/2.05, this seems to be a problem exclusively with the given Opera Mini version and not that of Jbed. If this is a problem, consider switching to another MIDlet manager (for example, Jeodek), where the cookies of Opera Mini 4 beta 2 do work.
2.2 Esmertec Jeodek
There are, basically, two versions of this KVM. The non-M3G-enabled, newer version isn’t really recommended (Jbed is definitely better in almost every respect, except for the Opera Mini 4 beta 2 cookie issues). There is, however, an older, M3G-enabled version out there, which allows for playing a wide variety of games. I’ve explained how the latter should be used HERE, in the 10/11/2007 update. That is, if you’re into gaming, you might want to go for the M3G version; otherwise, I recommend upgrading / switching to Jbed.
2.3 IBM J9
This is a well-known but, now that both Jblend and the two product lines of Esmertec are considerably better in most respects (except for some deliberate questions like the ability to run multiple MIDlets at the same time, in which it’s, together with TAO Intent, is clearly better than Esmertec’s products), not any more recommended KVM. You should prefer Jbed to it and only consider using it if you do need J9’s special capabilities or its compatibility with pre-WM5 operating systems.
Note that, lately, IBM has made much harder to download a trial version of J9 if you’re situated outside the States.
2.4 TAO Intent
This is the MIDlet manager having come with almost all HTC-manufactured WM5 Pocket PC’s and Smartphones. Now that the developer no longer exists, the HTC folks have switched to Esmertec Jeodek / Jbed instead (and independent MS Smartphone / PPC PE manufacturers like Sharp or Samsung prefer Aplix JBlend instead). However, this still means there’s a HUGE number of installed userbase of this MIDlet manager.
Currently, two major releases of these titles are widely used: the 10.1 series (also compatible with WM2003(SE) and the MS Smartphone platform) and the latest 11.1 series (the latter being only WM5+ & Pocket PC-compliant).
In general, you will want to prefer Jbed to this title. It has only few areas where it’s clearly better. Just like with IBM J9, in addition to WM2003(SE) support, it also supports running MIDlets concurrently.
If you have a (non-rebranded!) HTC WM6 Pocket PC device, go for the latest, .1036 version; otherwise (you have a rebranded and/or WM5 device), go for .1034. Should you have a plain (non-phone) Pocket PC, make sure you apply the SMS.dll / Phone.dll hacks already mentioned with Jbed.
Note that, at 4pda.ru, there is a separate “turbo” version. While I haven’t really measured remarkable speed increase with the jBenchmark tests, many users have reported generic speedup with at least starting / loading MIDlets. This is because many library files have been decompressed by the creator, meaning no decompression needed in runtime. This may indeed result in some speed increase. (Note that this trick doesn’t work the 10.1-series TAO Intent MIDlet managers (MM’s); this is why only the new series has a separate “turbo” version.) Note that this also means this version occupies about two times more storage than the non-turbo one; therefore, if you have little built-in storage, consider installing it on a storage card. Also, it’s a bit older (version 1023) than the – currently – latest, 1036 version.
2.5 Aplix JBlend
This OEM MIDlet manager comes with, compared to Esmertec’s KVM’s, very few Windows Mobile models. Compared to Jbed, it has both advantages and disadvantages; for example, it supports M3G (and, therefore, far more games) BUT it doesn’t support midi / MP3 playback (that is, you won’t really hear music anywhere) and has a messed-up security model making it pretty useless for Net access like Opera Mini or Gmail. This means you will only want to use it for gaming – if the other two, decent alternatives (the M3G-enabled Jeodek or Jbed) don’t work or work slower.
In THIS HowardForums thread, you’ll find many titles compatible with this MIDlet manager; and, of course, my main games compatibility chart will provide you with a lot of additional compatibility information with current MIDlets.
2.6. Not recommended KVM’s
Note that the charts (and this tutorial) don't elaborate on the following MIDlet managers:
2.6.1 NSICom CrE-ME
This manager is still (as of version 4.12) pretty weak (MIDP 1-only, really low resolution, problems with connecting to the Net, pretty complicated to install a MIDlet etc.). This means it, in most cases, should not be used. Strange the developers still call it "the world's most reliable J2ME/CDC Java Virtual Machine technology for Embedded platforms". While CrE-ME is without doubt the BEST JVM out there right now for running individual applications / applets (which are vastly different from MIDlets), its MIDlet support is really bad.
2.6.2 Coretek Delta Java Manager
This MIDlet manager is only slightly better than NSICom's above-mentioned CrE-ME. While it's compatible with quite a few games, it has severe problems; most importantly, its utilized screen estate is tied to 176*220 (fortunately, it’s pixel doubled on VGA devices). This means you won't be able to run your MIDlets using the real, full screen estate of your QVGA / VGA / WVGA Pocket PC's or QVGA Smartphones. Therefore, I only recommend it if you want to run MIDlets tied to 176*220 (or smaller) screen sizes and/or you have a 176*220 MS Smartphone.
A related (Russian) thread is HERE (BabelFish HERE)
2.6.3 Mitac JVM
This is an old (2003), pretty bad and not recommended MIDlet manager.
Related thread: MoDaCo Working midlets and non-working midlets.
3. Introduction to using MIDlets
Now, let’s see how you can install (deploy) MIDlets on your Windows Mobile device and how you can use them. Fortunately, doing this is very simple.
First, make sure you do have a KVM on your handheld. If you don’t, install one. If you have a non-phone Pocket PC and want to use any MIDlet manager (except for IBM J9), make sure you install the SMS.dll and Phone.dll hacks and / or if you have a pre-WM5 device, you’ll need to choose from either IBM J9 or old versions of TAO Intent.
After this, your life will be pretty easy.
3.1 Two ways of deployment (installation): online vs. offline
In general, there are a lot of MIDlets available online. In general, if you click them on the Web from your Windows Mobile device (preferably, using a built-in Web browser), they get downloaded to your handheld and automatically deployed in your device. The same happens with JAR files you copy to your handheld and, then, deploy them locally by either making your KVM explicitly search for it or clicking it / pressing the Action button from a local file manager. In the following two subsections, I elaborate on these questions.
Note that, generally, there are two kinds of files you’ll run into: JAD files and JAR files. When you download a MIDlet to your desktop PC so that you can, later, deploy it into your handheld’s KVM, only download JAR files, not the JAD ones.
If there’s no way of directly accessing JAR files, only JAD ones (as is, for example, the case with the Opera Mini 4 beta download page HERE - note that you should visit it from a Wap-capable desktop browser (Opera), that is, NOT from IE!), the “Download high memory version” download link will download you a JAD file, not a JAR one. You can directly copy this file to your handheld but, then, it’ll need to have Internet connection to be able to download the JAR file referenced by the small JAD file. If you can’t guarantee this or prefer collecting the JAR files offline, do the following: open the JAD file you downloaded with a text / file viewer (editor) and look for the attribute named “MIDlet-Jar-URL”. Copy the URL after the colon (for example, http://mini.opera.com/dl/1B8GM15aEP5uj-jE8A4AACMhDw8C/mini.jar) to your desktop Web browser. Now, you’ll have direct access to the JAR file – you can already safely save it.
Note that some KVM’s support separating MIDlets into different folders. Some allow for selecting the folder at deployment time (an additional step in the deployment process; this is what, initially, the “root” screen stands for when deploying into Esmertec products), the others after deployment. (And, on the Nokia, as it has no MIDlet manager interface at all but all deployed MIDlets are listed as regular applications, you can use the system file explorer tools to move them elsewhere, in another folder. This is slightly different from the way MIDlets were handled or early MIDlet-capable Nokia phones like the N-Gage, where there was a separate folder for them.) Also see the “Possible to use folders for better MIDlet separation?” row in the main chart for more info & screenshots.
Also note that, during the deployment process, you will also need to let the installation continue, particularly when the given MIDlet isn’t signed with a trusted certificate. (The vast majority of MIDlets are like this.) This, in general, only means you will need to press the left softkey some times on both Windows Mobile and Symbian.
3.1.1 Offline: originating the deployment from inside the manager vs. doing the same from the outside
There are two ways of deploying a local MIDlet JAR file to your MIDlet browser. The easiest is the default way of just clicking / pressing the Action key while viewing it from a local file explorer tool. This, as long as the file associations are correctly set (which may NOT be the case if you install more than one KVM’s on your handheld – more on this later), will automatically invoke the JVM and deploy the MIDlet.
Another way to select the related menu item inside the given KVM is to search for JAR files in the local file system (for example, Menu / Install / Local with TAO and Menu / Install / Local Files with Esmertec’s KVM’s). Unfortunately, it’s pretty flawed with most of the KVM’s; for example, the lack of alphabetical sorting, some of them can’t display all the files at once if there are more than 200-250 of them, some are only looking in a given directory or have no search capabilities at all, which is the case with IBM J9. The latter, as it doesn’t allow for browsing the file system for a given JAR file, forces you to enter the full (local, that is, Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. ) URL of the JAR file, which is really a pain in the back. Finally, Jblend doesn’t offer any local file browsing / deployment at all – with it, you must initiate the deployment from any file explorer tool. The latter is “only” highly recommended with other KVM’s because of the other annoyances and bugs they have.
3.1.2 Online
This is much easier: you just navigate to the given page with the MIDlets online and just click the JAD (or JAR) files. Note that some KVM’s may not allow for installing Web-based JAR’s directly; with them, you will need to click the JAD file instead. This is in stark contrast with the local install: all the tested (non-disqualified) browsers allow for the direct installation of JAR files and no local JAD’s are needed.
3.2 Running the already-deployed MIDlets
After your MIDlet is deployed, you will need to click it from inside the KVM if it’s not started automatically: most current, recommended KVM’s ask the user whether the MIDlet should be started right after the deployment.
Otherwise, you just start the KVM environment (it’s, in general, in the main Start Menu / Programs folder (except for the HTC Kaiser / Tilt, where it’s in the Tools subdirectory there) and is called “Jbed”, “Java”, “Jeodek” or “Esmertec Jbed/Jeodek” with the Esmertec products, “MIDlet Manager” with TAO Intent, “Midlet HQ” with IBM J9 (linking emulator.exe) and “Jblend” with Jblend) and simply double-click the given, already-deployed MIDlet. With IBM J9, you must select the uppermost “Launch” menu item in Actions instead, after highlighting your MIDlet.
Now that I’ve made it clear it’s only Nokia’s (Symbian) MIDlet manager that puts the deployed MIDlet icons in the traditional Applications folder, you may also want to know whether you can also hack the Windows Mobile KVM’s to do the same. This, as you may have already guessed, also greatly speeds up starting a given MIDlet: you don’t need to start an additional layer of managers. The answer is: yes, with most KVM’s (except for Jblend), you can. Then, you won’t need to separately start the KVM interface to gain access to the deployed MIDlets. See the “Direct, system-level links (shortcuts) to MIDlets” row in the main chart for more info on this. Note that, as opposed to Nokia’s system-level links (or, for that matter, the way the excellent Palm OS emulator, StyleTap, works on Windows Mobile), all these links will have the same icon, unlike under Symbian – not that of the icon of the MIDlet itself. This is a definite disadvantage if you prefer looking for a MIDlet based on its icon and not its name / position.
3.3 Security issues
Unlike with native Windows Mobile (or Symbian) applications, you’ll always run into security prompts. Therefore, it’s worth knowing a bit about what they are all about.
Java programs, in general, put a lot of weight on security measurements. This is why they continuously prompt the user when they try to access “sensitive” resources like the Net or the local file system.
Fortunately, you can, in general (except for Jblend), easily get rid of this problem:
- if you have any of the Esmertec KVM’s, use the MIDlets signed by the MXit LifeStyle-signed JAR’s available in THIS thread. Note that I’ve separately linked in the most common non-game (games, in general, aren’t affected by these issues, unless they want to use Bluetooth) MIDlets you may want signed. Then, you’ll be able to set their security model for “Blanket”, which means you’ll never be prompted for permission. It’ll certainly be easier for you than with the default “Session” (you’re asked once per session – that is, after starting the MIDlet) and the even more restrictive “One Shot” security model. Incidentally, Jblend employs exclusively the latter model with accessing the Net; this means it’s pretty much useless for applications like Opera Mini or the Gmail MIDlet. This is particularly true with the Gmail client, where it prompts the user to allow going on upon downloading every single mail (header). That is, never use Gmail under Jblend.
- if you have a KVM where you can “hack” the security descriptor files (all Esmertec KVM’s and IBM J9 belong to here; TAO Intent is also said to be but the opinions do differ on the latter and I haven’t tested this hack), do the hacking to get rid of the annoying security prompts. See the “Security: Allow permanent Net access without prompting ("Blanket" security model, as opposed to "Session" / "Oneshot")?” row in the main chart for more info / links.
3.4 Runtime issues: concurrent (parallel) and background execution
The KVM’s slightly differ in how they handle concurrent execution of MIDlets – or, simply running something in the background. Some (TAO and J9) allow for the concurrent execution of MIDlets, while the rest don’t. This means the, otherwise, excellent Esmertec KVM’s will only run one MIDlet at a time, while the certainly, in most respects, inferior J9 and TAO Intent will run any number of them. TAO, in addition, also supports the in-environment switch between running MIDlets, unlike J9.
Support for parallel MIDlet execution can be very useful; for example, the Gmail MIDlet could continuously check Gmail for incoming messages, while, in another MIDlet, you could browse the Web. You can find some other uses for example HERE, in the comment section (the comments HERE are also pretty instructive and shed light on related issues).
The ability to execute a MIDlet in the background is also very important. Just an example: you start downloading a Web page in Opera Mini but quickly realize the download will take ages. In order to save time and do something useful in the meantime, you decide to minimize the Opera Mini task, do something else in another program and only return later, expecting Opera Mini has already finished downloading and rendering. All the tested WM and Symbian KVM’s support this kind of operation; the only exception is Jblend, which immediately pauses when it loses the focus. Incidentally, Jblend’s behavior also has some other consequences; for example, in no way can you use external character injectors to it (unless they’re continuously running and, therefore, don’t result in executing a new process; PQzII is one of these) and you will even have problems uploading Jbenchmark results to the server (because it constantly thinks the MIDlet has been paused and prompts you for resuming).
I also recommend Solnyshok’s excellent article for more information on the advantages of parallel execution of some MIDlets. Also note that the article contains an excellent hacking tutorial on how multiple instances of the same MIDlet can be executed at the same time.
4. The main chart
Again, this is where you’ll find most information. It contains an order of magnitude more information than the article you’re just reading in a well-condensed, tabular, easy-to-compare form, packed with tons of screenshots helping in finding out how a given feature should be enabled / used.
I’ve already elaborated on several (for example, security-related) of the rows this chart has; now, let me elaborate on the rest.
In the “Price / availability” row, as has already been stated, you’ll find where to get / download the given KVM from.
In the “Platform compatibility” group, I’ve listed three rows: compatibility with non-phone Pocket PC’s, Pocket PC Phone Edition devices and, finally, touchscreen-less Smartphones (abbreviated as SP’s).
As has already been pointed out, you MUST apply the SMS/Phone DLL hack explained in the Jeodek column if you have a phone-less, “classic” Pocket PC. Also, if you have a MS Smartphone (as opposed to Pocket PC’s), pay special attention to the compatibility remarks here as, unfortunately, not all titles are Smartphone-compliant or, if they are, you may encounter some problems when trying to run them.
The “Generic compliance with standards” group is more for techies: people that would like to know everything about the standards support of the given KVM. As can clearly be seen, the Nokia N95 KVM blows all the other KVM’s out of the water (in this respect too); this is particularly true of, under Windows Mobile, never (except for some very old and long-discontinued IBM J9-specific add-on projects I’ve elaborated on HERE) implemented, for, for example, multiplayer gaming (give a try to the MIDlet version of 3D Constructo Combat in multiplayer mode on even slower / older Nokias like the 6680 – you’ll LOVE it! The same stands for for example the infamous Naval Battle: Mission Commander) Bluetooth support. The same stands for other goodies like support for camera: all WM KVM’s lack the support for it, as can clearly be seen in the “MMAPI Video-capture” cell of the “JVM Multimedia (JSR 135)” row. It could be VERY useful; see for example the posts HERE, seeking for support for barcode reader applications. Audio capture (which isn’t really supported by many apps either) is also pretty useful; see for example the TellMe MIDlet for a real-world usage example. Yeah, you can clearly see MIDlets are in no way for gaming only – there have a LOT of enterprise uses and are particularly useful when you have a lot of different platforms you need to quickly develop a business solution for!
In the “JVM Memory” row, I’ve listed the appropriate heap (free memory) size available for each KVM. The more, the better for running memory-hungry MIDlets – unless the given KVM uses dynamic (de)allocation of memory when the need arises. Then, it’ll be able to run even the most memory-hungry MIDlets (for example, a full JBenchmark category, in High Quality, packed into one JAR). Unfortunately, only Nokia’s KVM and Jbed support the latter. Also note that you can set the memory allocated for Jblend in the Registry.
Support for “JVM M3G”, that is, the Mobile 3D Graphics API is the dream of most Java MIDlet gamers. As can be seen, several KVM’s support it. (Speed, without hardware acceleration, is another question.)
The “JVM File Connection” group is also very important, particularly with applications like Opera Mini Mod, the unofficial (and, unfortunately, illegal; therefore, I cannot provide a link to it either) “hack” of Opera Mini, adding a lot of goodies like (pretty rude, but still working) page saving and IEM favorite import / export. These all require access to the file system, which, unlike with real Java, isn’t built-in or required by the basic standard. This is why so few WM KVM’s support it: IBM J9 with an additional hack (I’ve elaborated on the installation in the chart) and Jbed. Interestingly, some real-world tests were failed by Jbed, while IBM J9 passed all of them. The support for accessing the local file system is certainly a big plus with IBM J9 – one of the very few advantages of the environment, along with, for example, the ability to run several MIDlets at the same time.
The “Storage usage” group is very important because internal storage memory is doomed to fill up very quickly (especially with low-end WM devices only having 64M of Flash ROM – an example is the HTC s310/Oxygen WM5 Smartphone), particularly if you install sizable games (current games are 300-600 kbytes in size). In this group, I’ve explained the following:
Where can a given MIDlet manager KVM be installed to – that is, can it be installed to a storage card? All of them can (note that we’re, mostly, dealing with XDA-Dev-created installers and hacks in here!), except for Jbed, which MAY require some additional manual file copying (also explained in the chart).
Where the deployed MIDlets are kept: This is also highly important. Fortunately, it’s only IBM J9 that is doomed to store the deployed MIDlets in the internal storage (I’ve tried to hack it to a card very hard – see my related article – but in vain); other MIDlet managers, when installed to a storage card, don’t. Note that, should Jblend and TAO be an OEM-installed KVM on your handset, you can still easily “hack” them to store their MIDlets on a storage card with a simple Registry edit.
In the “Text input” group, first, I’ve listed the copy / cut / paste capabilities of the KVM’s. One of the biggest problems with TAO is the complete lack of copy / paste functionality in any of its textboxes. This is a real pain in the back. Note that some 4pda users have implemented an external, not very reliable way of pasting text to the TAO textboxes (via MortScript), it’s still far from perfect.
“Known text input-related bugs? Maximal editable pre-populated text area size?” elaborates on the text input-related bugs of the tested KVM’s. The most important of them (without any exception – not even Nokia’s implementation did fare well in this respect) is the text input areas’ limited size. This means the following: when you, for example, post an answer in a forum using the “QUOTE” button, you may end up not being able to enter anything and/or your answer getting completely deleted. In general, the threshold is between 1 and 8 kilobytes, depending on the actual KVM and the Web browser you use (Opera Mini fares far better in this respect than its modded version; I think because the latter uses 16-bit Unicode for input, which take up double the memory as the 8-bit input of Opera Mini.) Therefore, make sure you either quote VERY short answers and try to remain under the threshold or try not to quote anything.
In addition, TAO has a very bad, additional bug: if the quoted (and/or, original) text contains line breaks, you won’t be able to edit it at all.
I really recommend giving the test HTML page I’ve created for this test a thorough try to see what restrictions there are, whether your input is retained (after you exit the edit mode) etc so that you can be absolutely sure you don’t mess up anything when you do start filling in Web forms or post to forums with Opera Mini (Mod).
The “Display” category contains information on the usage of font smoothing technologies like ClearType (also see THIS request). As can clearly be seen, it’s only when using the smallest character size and only with some KVM’s that there is font smoothing (with OM4b2)
I’ve devoted two separate rows (and a lot of screenshots) to demonstrate the font sizes of Opera Mini 4 beta 2 in both VGA and QVGA because a great deal of misinformation is all around the Net on the different font sizes of each. For this test, I’ve also created a test page. As can be seen, the font sizes are roughly equal with all KVM’s, as opposed to what some people state. Also note that I’ve also published how you can increase the font size in TAO with a simple Registry edit (I’ve also attached the import file) – the ability to do this is clearly is a definite advantage of TAO.
As far as the “Keyboard, SIP, softkeys” group is concerned, please read THIS for a very thorough explanation.
I’ve already elaborated on most rows of the “MIDlet installation, separation, direct invocation, uninstall” group; therefore, I won’t go into this once more. It’s probably only “Registry import files to quickly reassociate JAR / JAD files” that still hasn’t been explained. Please see the “2.4 Co-existing on the same Windows Mobile devices” section in the Definitive Guide to Running 3D-enabled Java MIDlets on Windows Mobile to see why you might need these Registry import files if you plan to use more than one KVM’s on your Windows Mobile device and want to retain (or, quickly restore) the ability of a given KVM to deploy a MIDlet you click on in an external (Windows Mobile) Web browser or in the file system.
The “Security” group has already been explained above.
The “Misc (sound, compatibility with some popular apps, proxy, etc)” group contains some miscellaneous tests and rows like
support for full screen: as can clearly be seen, in this regard, Jbed is the best (it indeed offers full screen) and Jeodek is the second (it only displays the upper task bar but not the lower menu bar; Jeodek M3G being the only exception when run on the MS Smartphone platform). So does Jblend. TAO and IBM J9, unfortunately, both display the two bars at the top and bottom. Needless to say, Nokia’s KVM also makes use of the full screen estate.
Sound support: as has turned out during the tests, Jbed (along with Nokia’s KVM) is by far the best KVM when it comes to playing in-game music. Note that I’ve tested it being stereo by running Doom RPG, a very famous MIDlet (even PocketGamer.org’s infamous Sponge likes it). Strangely, while Jbed does support stereo, Nokia has failed the stereo test: it only plays music in mono. At last something that Nokia’s KVM gets beaten at
Proxy support is also very important and in high demand among Opera Mini users (as Opera Mini, by default, doesn’t support proxies, unlike Opera Mini Mod, where you can enter the proxy address right in the browser settings). In these tests, I’ve used my custom-written Web client MIDlet and Web server to easily find out which of the several possible ways Opera Mini (or, any other Web browser not supporting custom, local proxy settings) can be made use a proxy. As can clearly be seen, only Jbed and IBM J9 support this. (I haven’t tested Nokia’s KVM in this respect; I assume it works OK.)
the compliance test of three highly popular productivity (non-game) MIDlets: Gmail, Opera Mini and Opera Mini Mod.
5. jBenchmark Benchmark Results
I’ve also made some serious benchmarks with the well-known jBenchmark suite.
First, it’s worth pointing out that, while Esmertec Jbed does promise speedup by compiled code, in reality, it doesn’t mean THAT big a speed increase. That is, you won’t even see a twofold speed increase in everyday apps / games – if there will be any speed difference at all. In the charts, I’ve emphasized the tests where Jbed produced FAR better results than other MIDlet managers running on the same device. I’ve used plain bold to emphasize differences up to two; to emphasize even bigger differences (for example, the Chess test), I’ve additionally used Italic and <u>Underline</u>.
It’s also worth pointing out that while high-resolution (VGA) devices (in the test, the Dell Axim x51v and the HTC Universal) tend to run standard 2D graphics tests (at times a LOT) slower than standard-resolution (QVGA) models like the HTC Wizard or the HTC Vox / s710, with 3D (with the only currently available, 3D-capable MIDlet manager, the TAO Intent 11.x series), the differences aren’t that big.
As far as the 3D benchmarks are concerned, which show a clear, sometimes 20-fold speed difference in favor of the 3D hardware accelerated Nokia N95, don’t think Windows Mobile devices are THAT bad at playing the currently available 3D games. While M3G games indeed run pretty much flawlessly on the Nokia N93(i), N95 and E90 (the current Nokias with 3D hardware acceleration), the currently available, non-accelerated Windows Mobile KVM’s don’t produce MUCH worse results either – most 3D games still remain playable under WM too. In practice, the 20-fold difference in these synthetic tests reduce to two to three-fold difference with currently available, tested 3D MIDlets. Never ever believe anyone that states the opposite – he or she, then, hasn’t compared (unaccelerated) Windows Mobile and (accelerated) N95. I did and know the difference, which is certainly not even tenfold, no matter what the JBenchmark results suggest. Note that the reason the Nokia N95 scores so good in 3D is not because the built-in PowerVR 3D chip would be so much faster than, currently, the 2700G. It’s just because the former is supported by the built-in MIDlet manager and the latter isn’t supported by any Windows Mobile MIDlet managers.
Otherwise, speed-wise, there’s no clear winner. In general, all MIDlet managers have their strengths and weaknesses; there isn’t a single one with the best speed / efficiency (not even that of Nokia). Also note that, in general, the Nokia benchmarks don’t differ much from those of the WM KVM’s – of course, the M3G results are completely different. But, again, with real MIDlets, this difference is far less pronounced than one would think based on the synthetic JBenchmark 3D results.
Note that the columns are a bit different from the first chart; now, I’ve also listed the device I’ve run the given MIDlet manager on.
6. Game compatibility reports
I’ve also thoroughly tested some hundred (!) popular, well-known games; both 2D and 3D titles. (More on these games in THIS article – my previous and, now, slightly outdated article on 3D gaming.)
As has already been emphasized with the benchmarks, there’s no clear winner here either. As a rule of thumb, however, you should always try to run a given title under Jbed first. It’s the least compatible with existing games, but has three real advantages over both the M3G-compliant version of Jeodek and Jblend: if it does work then, generally, it’s the fastest; of the three, it has the best sound emulation and it supports full screen mode.
If you do encounter problems, give a try to alternative MIDlet managers: to IBM J9, TAO Intent, Jeodek M3G or Jblend (or, JblendFullScreen if you don’t need M3G and/or decent music but do need full screen because of, for example, the hard-coded screen size used by the MIDlet). Note that it’s pretty useless to try to run a title not running under Jbed under the non-M3G-capable Jeodek either. Doing the same under the M3G-capable Jeodek version, however, is a completely different issue.
As has already been emphasized, these MIDlet managers can co-exist on the same device and if you’re really into gaming as many MIDlets as possible, you will want to put at least three (Jbed, Jblend and Jeodek M3G) on your handset.
Note that there is an earlier version of this chart HERE. As the chart doesn’t contain for example the Nokia N95, the M3G-capable Jblend (only its full screen, old and pretty much incapable version) and lists far fewer titles than the main games compatibility chart, it’s in no way as important as the main compatibility chart listing the, for gaming, most recommended WM KVM’s (along with Nokia). However, it also contains some info on how different hardware (520 MHz XScale-based VGA HTC Universal vs. 195 MHz TI OMAP-based QVGA Wizard, for example) compare when it comes to running (graphics-intensive) games. As can be seen, the, otherwise, for gaming not really recommended Wizard behaves pretty OK even at the default 195 MHz CPU clock speed.
Highly recommended articles
TUTORIAL: Control issues of Java MIDlets – all secrets of button handling. Crossposts: PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, XDA-Developers - 2, XDA-Developers - 3, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo, PocketGamer.org, PocketGaming.de.
The Definitive Guide to Running 3D-enabled Java MIDlets on Windows Mobile (note that its discussion of some of the apps is a bit outdated; that is, consider the info in the current Bible of higher priority than in there. Also note that the comments (at the bottom) are really worth checking out, just like with the comments arrived at THIS article. Crossposts: PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers, XDA-Developers - 2, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo, PocketGamer.org, PocketGaming.de
The Button Enhancer Bible & great button config tips for Opera Mobile / Mini users – it has a LOT of MIDlet-related info. Crossposts: PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, XDA-Developers - 2, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo.
4PDA thread; translations HERE
5 things noobs should know about java mobile games
The MIDlet reviews at Mobile Critic and Midlet Review
The homepages of Fishlabs, Gameloft, Glu and Xendex
My old, outdated, related articles
What TAO Intent versions there are? - this article has been written before Risidoro’s releasing the 1034/1036 versions and the release of the generic SMS / phone.dll hacks. The latter means you don’t need to install the somewhat older version .1023 of the MIDlet manager on your phone-less PPC any more.
Running Motorola-specific Midlet games on the Pocket PC? YES!!
IBM releases new, 6.1.1 version of great Midlet runner J9; now, it’s fully compatible with Google Maps!
Great, Free Java/Midlet Environment IBM J9 New, 6.1 Version is Out – a Full Compliance & Bug Report & Never Before Published Tweaks that Help Using It Much Easier (in there, I’ve also reported on my effort of trying to relocate the IBM J9 deployed MIDlet repository from the main memory).
Java Midlets on the Pocket PC - the Complete Tutorial (outdated, but nice for some additional tips)
UPDATE (11/23/2007):
in the meantime, thanks to XDA-Devs user defcomg, a new, third-party, free Bluetooth (JSR-82) library, BlueCove has been found, which supports IBM J9.
In the second part of this article, I elaborate on how you can “hack” some Nokia classes into MIDlets so that they have a chance to run. I also explain how you can force the installation of MIDlets that, otherwise, are refused to be deployed because of missing library (for example, Bluetooth under Jbed) support.
1. BlueCove
Let’s start with the compatibility issues.
1.1 Real-world (!) compatibility
First, it’s only IBM J9-compliant (NO TAO, NO Jbed, NO Jblend). Even under J9, unfortunately, it’s (as of this writing) pretty much far away from REALLY working. While it correctly implements Bluetooth discovery, in general, it doesn’t go further and just crashes at actually connecting (not only discovering). I’ve tested this with both the Microsoft and the Widcomm Bluetooth stack, using version 6.1.1 (that is, the latest one) of IBM J9.
My compliance test results are as follows:
Super Bluetooth Hack 1.07 (note that the two (2nd/3rd) versions are exactly the same): doesn’t even start (IncompatibleClassChangeError with Vector)
Blooover discovering works; the actual connection doesn’t (IncompatibleClassChangeError with javax.microedition.io.Connection).
3D Constructo Combat: The same: it is able to discover other devices:
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but, upon actually connecting to them (or, when you start it in server mode), it immediately crashes and exits.
1.2 Downloading, installing
If you still want to give it a try (again, it’s pretty much useless as of now!):
Get bluecove-2.0.1.jar (version as of 11/23/2007) from HERE
if you have WinRAR on your desktop Windows machine, enter the WinRAR bluecove-2.0.1.jar command;
otherwise, rename bluecove-2.0.1.jar to bluecove-2.0.1.zip and click it so that its content is shown;
extract bluecove_ce.dll and intelbth_ce.dll from the root of the archive; transfer them to the \bin subdirectory of your IBM J9 installation.
Note that if you don’t want to hunt for / extract these files yourself, I’ve made them available HERE as a standard ZIP file. Just unZIP it and transfer the two DLL's.
copy bluecove.jar to the \lib\jclMidp20\ext directory of your IBM J9 installation. If “ext” doesn’t exist, create it.
you’ll need to use special link files to start your Bluetooth-enabled MIDlets. This also means you don’t need to deploy your MIDlets under J9 at all as direct links of this type don’t require the MIDlets to be deployed beforehand. A typical link file looks like this:
255#"\Storage Card\ibm\bin\j9.exe" -jcl:midp20 -Dmicroedition.connection.pkgs=com.intel.bluetooth -cp MIDletName.jar "-jxe:\Storage Card\ibm\lib\jclMidp20\jclMidp20.jxe" MIDletName.jad
(An example link file is HERE as a real file.)
In here, change MIDletName to the filename of the MIDlet and, of course, change \Storage Card\ibm to the actual path of your IBM J9 installation.
Note that you’ll also need the JAD files in this setup. Should you not have them, use the free JADMaker to create them from JAR files (see the link for more info). If you don’t provide any absolute directories in the link file to the JAR / JAD files, then, you’ll need to copy the JAR file to the \lib\jclMidp20\ext directory of your IBM J9 installation before invoking the MIDlet through the link file. This is the same directory where bluecove.jar should reside. Also, the JAD file must be in the same directory as the lnk file itself.
2. Some additional hacking
2.1 Nokia classes missing in the game
If you try to run 3D Constructo Combat under J9 (I’ll elaborate on other MIDlet managers later), you’ll notice at once it doesn’t run. The sole reason for this is the lack of some Nokia-specific libraries in the MIDlet manager. You can, however, easily “hack” these classes into the JAR file of the MIDlet itself.
To do this, first, download THIS archive and unZIP it. Second, get WinRAR and, after installing it, enter the WinRAR jarfilename command to open the JAR (the main MIDlet) file. Now, just drag-and-drop the com directory (with all its subdirectories, of course) to the opened JAR file – making sure you don’t drop it on a directory, but in the root.
That’s all; now, your MIDlet might start.
Note that this definitely works with 3D Constructo Combat and J9 but will NOT work with Jbed, not even with the permission hacking I’ll explain in the following section.
(also see THIS Russian-language post for more info if interested. It doesn't contain much additional info, though.)
2.2 Permission hacking
As has been explained in the MIDlet Bible, some (very few!) MIDlets can’t even be deployed under Jbed (and other, less recommended) MIDlet managers. The reason for this is the deployment-time permission checking.
An example of these MIDlets is 3D Constructo Combat, which is refused to be deployed because of the unavailability of a library (here, a Bluetooth one):
You can easily help this and make MIDlets at least deployable (being actually runnable is another question). To do this, enter the WinRAR MidletFileName.jar command and extract the META-INF\MANIFEST.MF file. In there, look for the MIDlet-Permissions: row. For example, with 3D Constructo Combat, it’ll be the following:
MIDlet-Permissions: javax.microedition.io.Connector.bluetooth.client,javax.microedition.io.Connector.bluetooth.server
Just delete it and overwrite the original META-INF\MANIFEST.MF file with the new version, all this in the JAR file. Again, the new file no longer contains the MIDlet-Permissions: row. Now, the MIDlet at least becomes deployable as can also be seen in THIS screenshot. (This, again, doesn’t mean Jbed will be able to run it as well. It won’t, not even with the above-explained Nokia class hack.)
UPDATE (11/24/2007): At last: an M3G-capable, much more gaming-friendly Jbed version is out!
As is stated in the Bible (as can also be seen in the main game compliance chart), the recommended, current version of Jbed has very limited game compatibility. If you do want to use it and do need to run for example M3G titles, so far, you needed to turn to alternative and, in many respects, inferior MIDlet managers. Now, this has changed: thanks to XDA-Devs forum members viperj and defcomg, a brand new and really great version has been posted.
This is version 070524.2.1 - that is, slightly older than the current, 070802.2.2 version. The major disadvantage of this version, compared to the 2.2 one, is the complete lack of sound emulation.
It runs all the games running under the old, M3G-capable Jeodek (see their list HERE) and is very fast. Furthermore, it isn’t affected by the locale bug of version 2.2 – that is, the inability to run under any locales using a language with a non-Western alphabet (for example, most East-European languages).
I’ve tested it with I-Play’s FIA World Rally Championship 3D, Namco’s Arcade Golf and High Speed 3D. All these worked flawlessly (except for, of course, the complete lack of sound), unlike under 2.2. Under 2.2, they didn't even start or crashed later.
If you really need sound emulation and it’s indeed able to run the given title, you will still want to version 2.2 of Jbed, though. For example, it runs Simcity Societies with great sound.
Installation
To install it, just grab THIS file, unRAR it to, preferably, the “J” subdirectory on your storage card (so that jbed.exe is right in the “J” subdirectory) and import THIS Registry import file (change all occurrences of "Storage Card" to the name of your card if it has another name). You might also want to copy a link to the main executable, jbed.exe, to \Windows\Start Menu\Programs (or, just \Windows\Start Menu\ on MS Smartphones). I’ve created the link file HERE.
UPDATE (01/16/2008): In the meantime, it has turned out that you can use the non-M3G-specific version of Jbed (that is, Cloudyfa's 20070802.2.1) with any localizaton setting if and only if you start your specific MIDlet directly; that is, via a system-level shortcut.
I've also been using Opera Mini 4 on the Blackberry 8800, using the default MIDlet manager coming with the device. Note that, unlike the built-in Web browser and the mailer, you MUST specify the APN of your operator for it to work. Otherwise, it'll just report being unable to connect to the Net after starting (and a lengthy installation process). To do this, go to Options / Advanced / TCP?IP and enter your APN (for example, "Internet" with T-Mobile.)
UPDATE (02/01/2008):
There are new builds of both Jbed and Jblend (two excellent MIDlet Managers – see the Java MIDlet Bible for more info). Due to lack of time, I haven’t tested them. Both has been done by Da_G (his projects’ homepage is HERE) and are accessible HERE. Note that you MUST register yourself (it’s free and is done quickly) in order to access the page above (along with the download).
I hope I’ll be able to test them some time – along with the default Blackberry MIDlet manager. (I might wait with testing the latter until version 4.5 of BB OS is released, though.)
UPDATE (02/06/2008): Another Jbed MIDlet Manager version has been released: JRebeiro_EsmertecJbed_20071119.3.1.
It’s available HERE (at the bottom of the first page).
As I don’t have the time to thoroughly test it, feedback is REALLY welcome!
Menneisyys said:
UPDATE (02/06/2008): Another Jbed MIDlet Manager version has been released: JRebeiro_EsmertecJbed_20071119.3.1.
It’s available HERE (at the bottom of the first page).
As I don’t have the time to thoroughly test it, feedback is REALLY welcome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a hacked version of 3.1 that:
- increases heap size
- disables all permission prompting
- enables midlet filesystem access
- installs anywhere cab
I only use Opera Mini so I don't see much of a difference with 3.1 compared to 2.1, but I like like not having do hex editing to disable the permission prompting for each new midlet installed. I guess the main thing that 3.1 has over 2.1 is 3d game support, but the 3.1 application size is much bigger and someone did mention that 2.1 may run faster than 3.1 in certain things. Does anyone have a link to how we can introduce the same hacks to 2.1 for those of us that just need a light-weight jvm?
I did a little write up on these hacked jvm's here:
http://www.modaco.com/content/HTC-J...-com/265919/A-few-JVMs-for-you-to-play-with-/
Downloaded the WM 6 version for my LG KS20 and finally it's showing fullscreen and games working that didn't work with the orig. embedded java
However, the 2 softkey-buttons are no more available. These 2 are important for most games/apps and the KS20 doesn't have a keypad. Is it possible to display the 2 softkey-buttons again?
Or a hack to map those keys to the Accept/Decline Hardware Buttons if Java is active?!
UPDATE (03/09/2008): Sun to develop MIDlet manager for Apple's iPhone?
NOTE: this isn't strictly a Windows Mobile news item (albeit it also contains Windows Mobile references; see for example the Sun MIDlet Manager on some new HP’s). However, now that I've spoken to the Sun reps at MWC (I'm a Java guru and have also worked for Sun as a lecturer for their Java programming courses) and also spotted their own MIDlet manager on the HP iPAQ 610 series, I found it necessary to report on this.
Finnish mag Tietokone has just reported on Sun's wanting to develop a JVM for iPhone so that it can run the vast number of MIDlets out there (including, for example, Opera Mini and thousands of games, some of them - like Simcity Societies - of very high quality).
Interestingly, Steve Jobs (of Apple), who still haven't commented on Sun's announcement, earlier stated in NYT "noone uses Java any more". Sour grapes? (It was, so far, impossible to run third-party apps on iPhone - except for some, just-released titles like CorePlayer.) I pretty much think he quickly changes his opinion - after all, a decent MIDlet Manager would be more than welcome on iPhone, which still lacks third-party apps / games.
It's nice to see Sun indeed plans to port their stuff to iPhone. While their Windows Mobile implementation, according to some Opera Mini users, has a lot to be desired (I haven't personally checked the validity of their claims so I may be entirely wrong), I really hope Sun starts to take mobile platforms more seriously.
UPDATE (03/13/2008): New MIDlet manager in development: PhoneME; Jbed for WM2003(SE) released!
There are two pieces of news for everyone interested in running Java MIDlets. The first will be having a pre-WM5 device and wanting to run Java MIDlets (for example, Opera Mini) on it. Yes, at last, some Russian hackers made Jbed, the industry-leading MIDlet manager work under WM2003(SE)! The second (and, for most people, not that important) piece of news concerns a brand new MIDlet manager port for Windows Mobile.
1. Some Russian hackers, including the 4pda.ru folks, have, at last, managed to make Jbed, the best MIDlet manager, work under WM2003 and WM2003SE. The importance of this just can’t be stressed enough: so far, you only had the really inferior IBM J9 and the 10-series TAO MIDlet Manager to run MIDlets on pre-WM5 operating systems. Now, this has dramatically changed. Now, nothing will stop you from using Opera Mini on your pre-WM5 Pocket PC.
The direct link to these WM2003(SE) MIDlet Managers are as follows. There are three versions: a modded one, a non-3D one and a 3D one; all with a heap size fix.
JBed3dMod_HeapSizeFix
Esmertec Jbed heapfix
Esmertec Jbed3d heapfix
They have also made a MAJOR update to their 4PDA.ru MIDlet article, linking to all the contemporary Esmertec, TAO etc. versions (including ones with heap fixes, with and without 3D support etc.); the above links can also be found in their article. You can see the translation of the new page HERE (Google) and HERE (Babelfish). Note that I’ve kept the original page HERE (Google) and HERE for historical reasons for people interested in the pre-Esmertec times.
2. Now, the other piece of news, which, again, won’t be of that much interest to non-WM2003 / non-Java hackers.
Java is a really viable programming platform. Not only several high-quality games make it worthwhile, but also probably the best and, if you’re lucky enough with your geographical location, fastest and most bandwidth usage-friendly mobile browser available for mobile phones (including Windows Mobile), Opera Mini 4.
I’ve already devoted an entire all-in-one Bible to running Java on Windows Mobile (and Symbian). Now, let me introduce the latest Windows Mobile KVM: PhoneME.
PhoneME is another "let’s bring Java to various platforms” projects (official homepage HERE), which has recently received Windows Mobile support.
The main homepage of the Windows Mobile port is HERE (do NOT get the ones at the official download page of the project - they’re outdated!) Should you want to download the MIDlet manager, get the file starting with "phoneME Feature – MIDP” from the download page.
Get the CAB file; install it. (I assume you install it in the main storage of your handset; my MIDlet manager main lnk file and registry import file will be tailored for this install location.) After this, you’ll need to associate JAR files with the app; to do this, you’ll need THIS file (import it into the Registry!). You might also want to invoke the MIDlet manager directly; for this, you’ll need THIS file.
Unfortunately, currently, the MIDlet manager is pretty much useless; for example, it seems to be impossible to deploy Opera Mini 4 under the current (8525) MIDlet manager version:
(Interestingly, the 4PDA.ru folks reported they managed to deploy an older version of OM; however, they didn’t particularly like the way it ran. That is, they also state the current version has a lot to be desired.)
All in all, you will NOT want to check it out in its present form. I’ll try to let you know when a considerably better, more advanced version is released.
Still speaking of the project, the Personal version (not to be mistaken for the MIDP MIDlet manager!) seems to run standalone (Personal profile) apps OK (it does NOT have an Internet Explorer Mobile applet plug-in, though). An example of running the Hello World application available on the homepage as a separate download:
(Should you want to give it a try, assuming you installed the MIDlet manager in the built-in storage of your handset, use an invocation .lnk file with the following contents:
254#"\phoneme\personal\bin\cvm.exe" -cp "\phoneme\hello" Hello
Also make sure you unZIP the contents of the archive to \phoneme\hello.)
That is, if you’re into running Personal Profile applications (and not MIDlets), you might want to give it a more thorough try.
(Thanks to my blog reader thevery for drawing my attention to the project!)
Additional info
A related forums.java.net discussion (not very interesting for anyone not interested in recompiling the sources)
4PDA.ru’s related discussion (translated) HERE (Google) and HERE (Babelfish).
UPDATE (03/14/2008):
a. unfortunately, the WM2003(SE) Jbed version has turned out to be only compatible with Pocket PC Phone Edition devices, NOT plain (phone-less) Pocket PC’s. There still aren’t WM2003(SE)-compliant SMS.dll and phone.dll files. These two files are needed on WM5+ standard (“classic”) Pocket PC’s to make Esmertec’s products / Jblend work. While the “hacked” DLL’s are compatible with WM5+, they aren’t with previous operating systems. That is, you’ll need to wait for a WM2003(SE)-compliant set of “hacked” DLL’s to be released.
Also note that there are some WM2003SE Phone Edition models that seem to be completely incompatible with; most importantly, the Qtek 2020i.
Also note that some? all? of the (again, currently, only WM2003(SE) Phone Edition-compliant – do NOT bother if you only have a phone-less PDA!) contain wired-in paths. For example, the one linked to from THIS page (see daemonpnz’s post at 10.02.08 10:22:56) must be extracted to “\Storage Card\jbed0524\”. Should you want to put it somewhere else (because, for example, your PPC PE device is a non-English one), you’ll need to hexedit Jbed.exe inside the RAR file and change the two occurrences of the above path to your liking. An example showing changing the space character to a B in "Storage Card".
(Incidentally, the reason for this was the following: I’ve tested it on my HP iPAQ 2210, which is a dual-slot machine, using the card names SD Card and CF Card. As you aren’t allowed to create a directory named “Storage Card” in the root of the file system, I had to hexedit the file so that it uses another name. “StorageBCard” can already be created. Note that, as the HP iPAQ 2210 is a no-phone device, this didn’t help much as it still refuses to run. Again, because of the still-missing, WM2003(SE)-compliant SMS.dll and phone.dll files.)
I let you know when Jbed becomes compatible with non-phone pre-WM5 devices.
b. I’ve also tested some of the versions linked from the 4PDA.ru thread on my HTC Vox (s710) to find out whether they’re any good compared to the old MIDlet managers; particularly Cloudyfa’s version - the version that, so far, I’ve recommended to all MIDlet users (unless in need for M3G (3D) support.). These two are both “fixed heap” versions; some of the less simple games (for example, DoomRPG) and benchmark apps with large memory requirements are stated to run much better / more reliably in the fixed heap versions than in the regular ones (for example, that of Cloudyfa) because of the much bigger available memory. I haven’t tested the effects of this myself.
1. JBed3dMod_HeapSizeFix (that is, 3D-capable Jbed version, based on 20070524.2.1, with fixed heap)
I was really interested in how this (and an additional, hacked file available for download HERE - just overwrite JBed.exe of the original, already-installed version with JBed3d_SreenFix.exe after renaming) worked because, at 4PDA.ru, there’s a version that promises flawless, screen problem-free functionality on MS Smartphones also compatible with the excellent Gmail client MIDlet.
(Also see THIS (original HERE) for more info; see freesunny's post at 10.01.08 10:56:06.)
So far, it seemed impossible to make the latter (the Gmail MIDlet) flawlessly work on MS Smartphones under any version of Jbed. An example of the display problems the non-hacked version (or any Jbed version) can be seen in the following screenshot:
Unfortunately, the hacked version (after overwriting the EXE file with the separately downloaded JBed3d_SreenFix.exe) doesn’t really work with Gmail: while indeed the entire screen estate is used, the three lowermost menu items (Search, Compose New, Exit) aren’t visible, just like with the non-hacked case:
Note that essentially the same results from the 4pda.ru folks can be HERE. The same problem also exists in Portrait mode, not only in Landscape.
All in all, while it’s certainly a step in the right direction, you will still have problems with (at least) the Gmail MIDlet. If you absolutely hate the missing display area in the MIDlet listing on MS Smartphones with the old Jbed versions, you might want to consider upgrading, though.
2. I’ve tested JBedModHeapFix (02.01.08) too – a somewhat extended and fixed Jbed version. While it does have certain advantages over Clodyfa’s version, it entirely lacks music support and is based on the 20070802.2.1 version – that is, the same “old” version as that of Clodyfa and not anything newer. I don’t really recommend it if you need sounds / music, which is excellent in the Cloudyfa version – again, unlike any other (earlier!) versions I’ve tested, including earlier Jeodek versions like the 20070425.1.1 version coming in the original (and just-updated) firmware of the HTC Vox / s710 and having very bad and distorted sound.
Note that the Jbed version lacks the the English jbed.exe.0409.mui file – it only has the Russian localization, that is, jbed.exe.0419.mui. This means, unless you copy the (standard) jbed.exe.0409.mui file from, say, the Cloudyfa version to the new one, it’ll have messed-up, invisible menus.
I’ve also tested whether these two versions, finally, fix the two biggest problems with the Cloudyfa version:
it’s not possible to install Cloudyfa’s version on the storage card: with the new Jbed version, it’s possible – without any manual hacking. In this regard, it’s much more recommended than Cloudyfa’s. (Haven’t tested the Jbed3D version in this regard.). That is, you can safely direct the CAB installers to install the managers onto a card: they WILL be installed there, not taking up any built-in storage.
with Cloudyfa’s version, it’s not possible to start MIDlets from inside the Jbed interface if you use a localization using not strictly Western characters:
Fortunately, both the non-3D and the 3D versions available at 4PDA.ru are compatible with non-Western regional settings, unlike Cloudyfa’s version.
(Note that, in the original Cloudyfa version, you can still execute MIDlets via a direct invocation link file if you have an otherwise incompatible regional setting, circumventing the standard interface listing all your MIDlets. This, however, needs some additional tinkering and, again, you won’t be able to select the MIDlet you’d like to run from the built-in list of the MIDlet manager. Also note that I’m speaking of the generic Regional settings, NOT the language of MS Smartphones (you can easily change the entire interface language of MS Smartphone devices.). Your MS Smartphone language may be, say, East-European; if you still use some non-Eastern regional setting, the apps started from inside Cloudyfa’s version will still run and you won’t need to use direct invocation link files.)
Also note that neither of these versions have any sound emulation. This, again, isn’t a change from the previous 3D (M3G)-compliant version but can be VERY bad news for plain non-M3G-compliant Jbed users, as, again, the Cloudyfa version has excellent music / sound emulation. That is, stick to the latter if you need music.
UPDATE (some 5 hours later): I’ve also tested the latest Jbed version, JRebeiro_EsmertecJbed_20071119.3.1. I’ve already mentioned it HERE but, then, I didn’t have the time to thoroughly test it.
The bad
- not possible to install it to a storage card by default
- display problems on MS Smartphones (as with all the other Esmertec Jbed versions – except for the M3G-specific, hacked 4pda.ru version). Note that, again, this doesn’t have any effect on how Opera Mini 4 or games work; only the main MIDlet manager MIDlet lists and, for example, the Gmail MIDlet are affected
The good
- the latest version; reported to be very fast
- M3G compliant
- has sound (as with Cloudyfa’s version)!!
All in all, highly recommended for gamers.
It’s available HERE (mirrored HERE so that you don’t need to search / register).
Also see THIS German language Pocket Players Reloaded article on the games it’s compatible with.
UPDATE (03/20/2008):
1. THIS and THIS posts in THIS thread (from an iPAQ 210 user) might be of interest to, for example, Opera Mini users.
2. I’ve published a review of SHAPE Services’ TSMobiles: Terminal Service Client for Mobiles (cross-posts: AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, BrightHand, HowardForums, MoDaCo), a Java-based remote desktop accessor, RDP-compliant client. It works pretty well on Windows Mobile, both Pocket PC’s and MS Smartphones, under (the latest, 3.1 version of) Jbed, the best MIDlet manager for Windows Mobile. (Incidentally, this also shows what’s Java is capable of – this MIDlet is REALLY nice and fast, even by Windows Mobile standards!)
3. Pinned (sticky) at the highly popular MoDaCo Smartphone General Discussion (screenshot of this HERE)

Pocket Wikipedia

Pocket Wikipedia, hand-checked selection from Wikipedia which is about the size of a fifteen volume encyclopaedia (24,000 images and 14 million words).
It includes the best of Wikipedia as well as many thousands of pages of extra material specifically selected to be of interest to children who follow the UK National Curriculum and similar curricula elsewhere in the world. The articles have been cleaned up and checked for suitability for children.
Works on PocketPC, Windows and Linux
Download from http://www.free-soft.ro
Fails on HTC Touch HD with Opera
On my HD, any menu item in Pocket Wikipedia launches the link in Opera, which is unable to process any further clicked links.
It seems PW launches the default browser, where it should really stick to embedding an IE control. Any PW links should trigger a decompression of the topic from the huge file, which doesn't happen with Opera.
Does anyone know of a workaround?
Same problem here. It starts Opera Mobile instead of IE.
I tried making Opera Mobile the NON-default browser (by unchecking the "set default browser" box in the setting menu). PW was able to launch IE but IE just got stuck with the screen helplessly blinking. No Wiki text! No messages whatsoever! Had to shut down IE manually.
Wonder if Anyone could get PW working.
There is big problems with special chars like é, à, î, etc...
I shifted to WikiPock, far better despite a little cost.. Works like a charm

Skyfire Beta Version 0.80 Available Now

From a Skyfire Employee at the Skyfire Forums
I am happy to announce that we have just released Skyfire 0.8 Beta.
We have been working hard on this release over the last few months, and we are happy that we were able to integrate many of your suggestions into this release.
This forum has been a amazing resource for us at Skyfire, and we are grateful for the effort that has been put into this forum by all members.
You can easily get the newest release by logging into your account at http://www.skyfire.com/users/login from your desktop. You will be able to download (SOON - making sure that the download link works first) the newest release via your PC or send yourself an SMS.
Thanks for all the support and the enthusiasm that you have brought to this product. We hope that you will enjoy this release.
Additionally I would like to introduce 'omahadave' (he is actually Dave from Omaha), who will be our new ears and eyes to help you in this forum. Feel free to say hello - you will see in the forum from today onwards.
Thanks, your Skyfire team.
(Robert Oberhofer, Product Management)
----- official release notes start here ----------
Skyfire 0.8 Beta Release Notes
Released: September 24, 2008
Skyfire is a new experience that brings the full internet to your mobile. Watch videos on YouTube or Hulu, connect with your friends on Myspace or Facebook, shop on Amazon or listen to music. Can you do it on your computer at home? Then you can do it on Skyfire on the go.
Skyfire is fast, easy to use and available for free on many smart phone models.
Skyfire 0.8 Beta is a new beta release of Skyfire for Windows Mobile (version 5 or 6). This release has been enhanced with both requests from our active community and new additions that we think will make Skyfire a better experience.
We greatly appreciate our beta community. Their support, active participation and feedback on the forums at http://support.skyfire.com/ helps us to constantly improve the product.
What’s new in Skyfire 0.8 Beta:
Skyfire 0.8 Beta has been under development for the past 4 months, integrating more than 1000 fixes and enhancements. The major focus of this release was to enhance usability, make the experience smoother, increase responsiveness, and improve audio and video quality.
* Contextual Zoom: Let’s you simply and quickly get to exactly where you want to be on the page. Skyfire’s zooming capability has been improved, and now the camera corners feature shows you a match with major screen elements within its view.
* Super Bar: Use our handy new SuperBar to perform a search or enter a URL from a single field – it’s a great time and space saver that is easily accessible.
* Content sharing: You can now share web content by SMS. We even make the URL short enough that it will fit easily into a SMS text message. Especially useful for the really long URL’s used by many sites. You can now also share Skyfire itself with friends by SMS or email.
* Faster application launch: Skyfire launches much more quickly so you to get your content quicker.
* Video and audio: We’ve improved the quality of both video and audio, so you can enjoy a smoother playback experience.
* Reconnect - Skyfire will automatically reconnect, so you don’t need to restart when your wireless connection is dropped.
* Default browser: Now you can set Skyfire as your default browser. Clicking Web links in SMS or Email messages will automatically start Skyfire.
* Enhanced text entry allows you to more easily complete web forms right within a page. First you can enter the text right on the page. Plus you automatically move to the next form element (text field, list, radio button, or checkbox) after you have made a form entry using the ‘OK’ or ‘Enter’ keys.
* Content download: Allows you to download images and other content from most web pages.
* Home screen integration: Allows you to add a Skyfire search and URL bar to your Windows Mobile Today screen, so you can enter what you are looking for right away without first starting Skyfire.
* Mobile site support: If a website also has a mobile version, Skyfire can optionally hint to you about the availability of a mobile alternative. With the new mobile site indicator, you’ll get a quick link to access the mobile version – then you can decide if you want the mobile or full website.
* Bookmarks have been significantly enhanced – giving you much better control.
* Additionally we enhanced the start page: have the top news items accessible immediately via a headline widget.
Downloading and Installing:
To be able to use Skyfire, you first need to sign up for a Skyfire account at http://www.skyfire.com/register. Additionally you need a supported phone, e.g. Windows Mobile 5 or 6 (for Skyfire Beta 0.8) or Symbian (S60 3’rd Edition, for Skyfire Beta 0.6). Please note: We currently only the US is supported.
If you are already registered then simply log into your existing account at http://www.skyfire.com/users/login and download the installation file, or request a SMS to be sent to your phone. Download the file and start the installer. There is no need to uninstall Skyfire first – simply overwrite the existing installation during the process. No worry: your cookies and bookmarks will be preserved.
If you are new to Skyfire and you need to register, provide at your Name, Email and Phone number on http://www.skyfire.com/register. You will be sent an Email and SMS with a URL to complete your registration. Follow this URL (on your phone or PC Browser), and complete the registration. Once registered, you can immediately download the correct installation file for your device. If you downloaded the installation file on your PC you must first transfer it to your phone. Start the installer on your phone and follow the instructions. Once you start Skyfire you will be prompted for your Email address and the password you provided during registration. This will be just once, and you will not have to enter it again (remember the password though to log into your account!)
Known Issues:
* Installation: When the client receives an upgrade notification after resuming from the background it might not successfully resume (Issue 2923). Please exit Skyfire and start again.
* Uninstall: Skyfire uninstall might not be successful or complete when Skyfire is active at the time of uninstall (Issue 1861). Please exit Skyfire first before uninstall.
* When leaving the phone idle for more than 5 minutes Skyfire will display the start page (Issue 2892)
* Downloading files with long filenames might truncate file extensions (Issue 2726)
* Myspace.com: Have to zoom in to 100% to be able to click the log-in button (Issue 2115)
* Mobile site hinting and support: some ‘mobile’ sites are rendering similar to a full web page (e.g. zoom and horizontal scroll). Often this is due to the web page not reporting itself as being mobile. We are looking for a solution.
* Playing video for a long time (> 5 min) might disconnect Skyfire (Issue 2827).
* Non standard SIP’s (Soft Input Panel, e.g. on-screen keyboard) might interfere with Skyfire operation and showing artifacts
* Very long web pages might get cut off at the bottom (Issue 2800)
* Back and Menu soft-key buttons might disappear from screen (Issue 2793). Please use the right soft-key, it usually will bring the on-screen keys back onto the screen.
* In some cases the page might scroll to a different location when entering text into a text entry field (Issue 2678, 2729)
* When Skyfire is in the background the toolbar may become visible on Windows Home screen when switching programs in windows, or locking the phone. (Issue 2732)
* Skyfire URL bar becomes unresponsive when device was in standby mode. (Issue 2892)
* Links to media files (MP3’s etc) currently only play back, and do not initiate download.
* Scrolling through very long list boxes has slow behavior (Issue 1202)
Not supported:
* VGA phones not supported yet (e.g. HTC Touch Diamond etc).
* DivX and XviD Video formats are not supported.
* Quicktime movies which require playback external of browser not supported (Quicktime clips embedded in page are supported).
* FTP browsing and access is not supported (e.g. URL’s with ftp:// )
* Anchors (In-page links) not supported
YOU MUST BE A BETA TESTER TO BE ABLE TO USE THIS SOFTWARE
currently there has been issues with loggin in with this new version...it has been mentioned and will be fixed soon
*yawn*
I'm not an impatient soul by nature but this experience has been one long frustration. It's been months since I registered, haven't heard one peep out of these people since the SMS message I received. Tried accessing their website today and many pages are just missing, and the titlebar says "Welcome to Skyfire!, Error"
Tried logging in to "my account" and was helpfully told that my email address had not been verified yet (!) - basically a polite way of saying "screw you."
I was really looking forward to trying this browser, and although I totally understand the idea of limited public beta testing, being in the software test field myself, the almost complete unresponsiveness of this group to "unverified" users is awfully irritating.
Meanwhile, Opera 9.5 is already a fantastic browser, and I just can't imagine what features Skyfire is going to have that is going to make me overlook my feelings of being ignored and forgotten by a company I wanted badly to support.
It's been a long time since a company has put me off quite this badly. Even MS communicates with the users once in awhile. I don't yet really hope this effort fails, but at this point it could hardly be said it deserves to succeed.
AJ
Finally INTERNATIONAL users can use this app???
Don't Like The Idea Of The Sms .. Login.... What Is Gold?
I Prefer Opera
I installed the new version and when i open Skyfire it ONLY shows the top Unibar, Back, and Menu. Nothing else, just a gray screen. I did manage to get the home page to come up once, but that was it. It's wierd. it thinks a page is loaded cause it will let me double tap and then if i get lucky and click on a link(i assume it's a link that i can't see) it will attempt to load the page...
Have already rebooted. Will try a reinstall...
joshrys said:
I installed the new version and when i open Skyfire it ONLY shows the top Unibar, Back, and Menu. Nothing else, just a gray screen. I did manage to get the home page to come up once, but that was it. It's wierd. it thinks a page is loaded cause it will let me double tap and then if i get lucky and click on a link(i assume it's a link that i can't see) it will attempt to load the page...
Have already rebooted. Will try a reinstall...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that they are having some issues with the authentication process, so be patient. You got further than I did though
opera is still more of a desktp browser. the text input for skyfire and loading speeds are still faster, but navigating the pages inskyfire is no where near as smooth as opera. good improvements.. but the major features skyfire were lacking are still missing:
still get the checkerboard when scrolling through a page
smartfit is not very smart.. columns are used in thumbnail view which doesn't really make sense
when you press up and down on dpad while typing text entry, it closes out of the box.. so how do you see wat you were typing before?
overall this versin is better.. but opera is still winning... especially since now it is supporting flash
good stuff though hope to see navigation improved!
htctoucher
Disregard post.
htctoucher said:
opera is still more of a desktp browser. the text input for skyfire and loading speeds are still faster, but navigating the pages inskyfire is no where near as smooth as opera. good improvements.. but the major features skyfire were lacking are still missing:
still get the checkerboard when scrolling through a page
smartfit is not very smart.. columns are used in thumbnail view which doesn't really make sense
when you press up and down on dpad while typing text entry, it closes out of the box.. so how do you see wat you were typing before?
overall this versin is better.. but opera is still winning... especially since now it is supporting flash
good stuff though hope to see navigation improved!
htctoucher
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn so you downloaded the .80 version?
I downloaded and installed .80 with no problem. I could log into the web site and download.
However, when my Skyfire tries to connect on the handheld it tells me that the username/password are not correct.
I don't get it.
balane said:
I downloaded and installed .80 with no problem. I could log into the web site and download.
However, when my Skyfire tries to connect on the handheld it tells me that the username/password are not correct.
I don't get it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its a server side error, they are working on it as we speak
new users that sign up should have no issues
mike21pr said:
its a server side error, they are working on it as we speak
new users that sign up should have no issues
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see. Thank you.
Please upload the cab.
IRREAL said:
Please upload the cab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It won't work outside of the US.
i cant login!
M2D users?
A newbie question...
Can anyone tell me how to make M2D internet widget run SkyFire rather than Opera?
The new 0.8 release is da*n quick, presents all websites great, and I like it more than Opera, however I don't want to lose the widget and put SkyFire in the launch area only...
Thanks
BigE
Can't login
Hi all,
What I want is to have the same Gmail interface than the iphone, and not the poor m.gmail.com interface ....
Opera does not do that, and Iris Browser not anymore (it worked but now it does not work anymore).
I live in France so Skyfire is not for me fr the moment....
How should I do then ?
Thanks for replies.
Regards
zlebandit said:
Hi all,
What I want is to have the same Gmail interface than the iphone, and not the poor m.gmail.com interface ....
Opera does not do that, and Iris Browser not anymore (it worked but now it does not work anymore).
I live in France so Skyfire is not for me fr the moment....
How should I do then ?
Thanks for replies.
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
look for GC's Java pack, it has a gmail java applet that i would bet is what you are looking for.

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