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Developing for the Motorola T720

Posted by michael on from the code-on-the-go dept.

r0.ini writes "Nice step-by-step introduction guide on how to make that cool app for your T720." Worth a read even if you never intend to write a program for your cell phone, for the comparison between BREW and J2ME (and implicitly between Verizon and AT&T).

7 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. BREW by Emrikol · · Score: 4, Interesting
    As a person who sells phones for an indirect Verizon Wireless agent, I think that this sucks. Verizon's just going to dig themselves into a hole. First they kill our commissions ($5.00 per phone I sell), then they team with Microsoft, and now they are leaving out some of the biggest buyers in the high end cell phone market: Geeks.

    Shame on you Verizon...shame shame shame!

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    You're all bastards!
  2. what about t-mobile? by r0b0t+b0y · · Score: 2, Interesting

    hmm..i just ordered the T720 from T-Mobile

    does anyone know if T-Mobile uses J2ME or BREW?

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    i do not use drugs, i AM drugs -- Dali
  3. T720 owner -- and Verizon subscriber by rjamestaylor · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I'm not happy after reading this article. Imagine! BREW isn't even free as in beer!

    Although I have not intention (at all) of developing or using programs on my phone knowing that my phone has been hamstrung is very annoying. AAMoF, I currently pay $100/mo for a family plan, thus a $175 fee to cancel my contract (which I just renewed for two years) is not very painful: if I cancel now I'll deprive VZN of at least $1100. . .

    This article has made me pissy. Maybe it's because I'm enjoying my new Zaurus which allows me great flexibility as a developer. I specifically didn't choose the PokeyPC because the open Zaurus is available (and Opera, esp. Opera 6 (in beta) far surpasses PokyIE). VZN blew it for me.

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    -- @rjamestaylor on Ello
  4. Play Chess online using your phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I just found this yesterday: http://www.chesseverywhere.com

    It allows you to connect to a chess server to play people.
    While using the phone to manipulate pieces is slow (don't try playing any blitz without a good amount of increments) it's pretty mindblowing that I can play chess in realtime with someone across the world on my phone.

  5. Re:Who CARES?? by wozster · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I care, I'm a tetris junkie and I dont want to lug around a GBA or PDA for that when I already have a very capable cell phone.

  6. Re:Full of inaccuracies by Schnapple · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Yeah, look at it this way - BREW guarantees that authors get compensated for their work and, in the case of Verizon, that nothing damaging gets uploaded to the phone.

    Of course I know the theory behind J2ME and Java in general is that everything runs in a sandbox, but someone can still in theory write malicious J2ME code and unleash it on others. BREW checks everything before it goes through.

    But with BREW the final author gets compensated. If you're Joe Hobbyist this is unimportant but if you're EA (they already have a version of Tiger Woods for the Verizon phones), this is important. No piracy, and people are more likely to buy something if it's just $5 or $6 on their monthly bill (games are a one-time download for a one-time fee).

    Plus, BREW development is done in C/C++, which is nice if you already know or prefer C/C++.

    This is a good article to point out something - that BREW isn't for hobbyists. However not everyone is interested in free-as-in-anything. Some people want to (and deserve to) get paid. And more people will buy BREW games from Get It Now through Verizon (especially now that they have an actual Two Towers game and an EverQuest game on the way) than will ever type in a URL on a web browser.

    So I disagree with BREW being "bad for consumers" - it's only bad in the same way that downloading ringtones for $2 a pop is bad. And if no one uses it it will go away. If it doesn't go away it might be a good way to get paid for your work in a world of piracy.

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    Schnapple

  7. Re:Balanced appraisal by markb · · Score: 2, Interesting
    This is a very intelligent post. There is one thing I disagree with:
    BREW is proprietary, controlled by Qualcomm. There are pluses and minuses to this, I'm not looking to start a religious war. Personally, I prefer open-source standards. Business-wise, it has been very helpful for companies that Qualcomm controls the BREW standard and the software infrastructure that supports the business model.


    Java is almost as proprietary as BREW. If you want to make you're own runtime environment for Java, you either have to pay a license fee, or jump through some hoops to keep you developers away from the click-through license on Sun's SDK. I believe that in order to be on the standards group for Java, you have to sign a non-compete agreement. Sun would like us to believe that Java is open, but I disagree.