Nokia’s New Tool Set: Platform SDK’s for Java, Adobe Illustrator, Ikivo Animator and Sun’s NetBeans

Nokia and Ikivo bring designers and developers together to improve the productivity and creativity of mobile Java development, Today Nokia introduces complete development environment with Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) to reduce costs, time to market for graphic UI design in mobile application projects. See the release below for more information.

Nokia and Ikivo, a leading supplier of rich media application enabling solutions based on open standards, today announced the joint creation of a complete tool chain that simplifies and allows efficient collaboration between graphic designers and software engineers in the development of Java applications for mobile devices.

The new tool set integrates Nokia’s Platform SDKs for Java, Adobe Illustrator, Ikivo Animator and Sun’s NetBeans to enable user interface designers to add their GUI designs directly to an application project and avoid the time-consuming process of “translating” those designs into Java code. Utilizing Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) to capture visual designs for optimized integration into software development projects, the new solution dramatically improves the productivity of mobile Java development, and reinforces the attractiveness of Java as an environment for creating compelling mobile applications with rich graphics and interactivity.

The new tool set’s utilization of SVG, an open standard for describing 2D static and animated vector graphics developed through the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), makes it possible to define a clear division of labor between engineers and graphic designers working on software development projects.

Using the new SVG-enabled tool chain developed by Nokia and Ikivo, graphic designers are free to concentrate on creating useful and exciting user experiences, incorporating designs in the final product without the need to help engineers translate those designs into code. Software engineers can concentrate their skills on the application logic and other non-graphic components of a project, where they can be the most productive.

“Nokia is pleased to be working with Ikivo and Sun to enable coders and creative professionals to work together toward creation of best-of-breed mobile applications with advanced user interfaces,” said David Rivas, VP, Technology Management, Nokia. “This collaborative effort shows how focused initiatives can empower mobile application developers with different fields of knowledge and expertise to work more closely together in bringing the next-generation mobile experience to the global marketplace.”

“Ikivo has been very pleased to work with Nokia and we’re happy to be taking this initiative to the next level, sharing our knowledge with the broad developer audience through Forum Nokia, the largest mobile developer community in the world,” said Brad Sipes, Chief Technology Officer, Ikivo. “This initiative further validates the power of the SVG technology integration with Java and we’re confident that the easy-to-use workflow will attract more developers to improve the graphics and user experience of their applications.”

SVG offers a scalable, efficient textual representation of graphic and animation objects, allowing for complex designs to be specified with a small in-memory footprint. Nokia supports SVG for Java development through its implementation of JSR 226, which is supported in new S60 3rd Edition and Series 40 5th Edition based devices. Nokia and Sun Microsystems support for JSR226 will be discussed at JavaOne 2008 during a technical session titled, “Developing Flashy Mobile Applications, Using SVG and JSR 226 .”

“The SVG-T technology and JSR 226 are important user interface enhancements for Java ME with current MSA and JSR 248 standardization,” said Arseniy Kuznetsov, Director, NetBeans Engineering, Sun Microsystems. “Developers can use rich content created by designer tools such as Ikivo Animator along with the NetBeans Mobility to create and deploy compelling applications with complex interactions to Nokia’s portfolio of globally distributed devices.”

“Progress in this Java ME tool-chain is significant for developers and designers, because it speeds up entire development process by making it more efficient and convenient,” said Michael Samarin, Project Manager and Technology Specialist at Futurice Ltd, a provider of mobile and Internet software services that has worked with the Ikivo Animator tool for the last four months and has wide experience with Java development tools. “Our GUI experts can now create the actual user interface, not just design drafts. What is also very important, these tools help to attract new developers by being more intuitive, robust and lowering the entry barrier.”

Ikivo’s role in the collaborative effort with Nokia has been essential to the rapid deployment of the new SVG-enabled tool set for developers and designers. Ikivo’s depth of experience with SVG enabled Nokia to react quickly to the issues that developers and designers have been reporting with creating compelling applications with rich graphics and interactivity for the Java mobile environment.

More information on the tool set can be found at forum.nokia.com and in order to download Ikivo Animator tool go to ikivo.com.

C-Jump Boardgame: Learn C, C++ and Java in a fun yet educational way

When I first started in web design over 8 years ago it was simple HTML and then moved into using Java and PHP a lot more. Today using code is a daily thing and changes are always made, for children to learn programming in a world where just about everyone uses the Internet seems to make perfect sense. This means these children could code their own blog, sites and may even have a future in programming and site design just by playing a board game now.

C-Jump is a boardgame that helps children learn C, C++ and Java in a fun yet educational way. While they might not learn everything, it will set them on their way to wanting to learn more, as they get older.

This sums up what the game does:
“The child calculates the number of steps in the move, including addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication of small numbers. The game helps to develop understanding of a complete computer program, formed by logical sequences of commands.” C-Jump will cost $25 and will teach a lot more than what Halo 3 could.

Product Page | Via Geek Sugar

Apple no interest, Sun Microsystems say yes to Java on iPhone: Will it work?

We found via Phones Review some important information. The Java Virtual Machine for the Apple iPhone which is being developed by Sun Microsystems plan on releasing the JVM some time after June which will enable Java Apps to run on the popular much loved device.

The JVM will be based on the Java Micro Edition (ME) version and Eric Klein, vice president of Java marketing at Sun said that Apple has not shown any interest whatsoever in enabling Java to run on the Apple iPhone, well Sun has stepped in to do the job themselves after having thought about Thursday’s release of an SDK for the iPhone by Apple.

The thing is now that the Apple iPhone is open as a target platform the free JVM would be made available via Apple’s AppStore marketplace for third-party applications.

Sun Said that they will make sure that the JVM offers Java apps with much access to the native functionality of the iPhone as possible. By bringing the JVM to the iPhone, Java capabilities in area such as SSL security could be brought to Apple’s platform, said analyst Chris Silva of Forrester Research.

“I think going forward, with the SDK, it takes out of Apple’s control which applications are ‘right’ for the iPhone,” Silva said.

Will it work? And does the Apple iPhone need Java?