Microsoft's Smartphone 2003 SDK Released

cd_Csc writes "Microsoft's long awaited Smartphone 2003 SDK was released today. This free download is critical milestone for the Smartphone platform. For the first time, developers are now able to use the .NET Compact Framework to write Smartphone applications using Visual Studio. At Smartphone Thoughts, we have listed the details of what's new in the 2003 SDK along with some screen shots of enhancements to the Inbox and Internet Explorer applications."

Comments

Chicken and egg situation

[Peter Cooper]

The XHTML support in these phones is great! As a bit of an XHTML/CSS advocate myself, however, I think browsing the Web from such space-limited devices could become a chicken and egg situation.

A LOT of pages out there are poorly coded FrontPage (or even MS Publisher) not-even-HTML 3.2-compliant junk. There are a lot of amazingly beautiful XHTML/CSS coded pages out there, and they all display well on the small screens.

How many people will buy these phones, surf to their favorite page, and then discover they can't get anywhere fast? Will devices like smartphones and portable computers, with and 3G's ability to access the Internet at speed, force more Web designers to follow the chosen path and design in a fully backwards, and forwards, compatable way with XHTML and CSS? Or will we have a chicken and egg situation where people are turned off from using the devices because the content and pages available to them are so poor.. just like with WAP.

Re:No VBScript?

[Anonymous Coward]

VBscript is gradually being phased out from MS's web applications portfolio (actually, I think it's already gone!). ASP.NET has moved over to using any of the core .NET languages and VBS doesn't really have a place on the client. As you rightly say, some sites that are IE-friendly do use it, but I'd guess that number is in decline. As for batch files, I'm sort of hoping that I'll never have to run them on a phone, least of all type them in using T9 predictive text...

Annoying not to see support for JavaScript though. When I got my first Pocket PC back in 2000 the lack of JavaScript really made browsing a pain.

Hmm J2ME owns SMartPhones

[linuxislandsucks]

with 90% of smartphones inclduing MS powered ones running J2ME and J2ME applications ..

is MS SamrtPhoneOS owned by J2ME and Sun?

Did you read the EULA?!?

[passthecrackpipe]

Don't worry, personally, I don't think this will succeed. Microsoft still does not allow, for all their rethoric, GPL'ed or other Open Source Software to be created with this software. The EULA states:

* No Identified Software. Your license rights to the SOFTWARE PRODUCT are conditioned upon you:

• (a) not incorporating Identified Software into, or combining Identified Software with, the SOFTWARE PRODUCT or a derivative work thereof;
• (b) not distributing Identified Software in conjunction with the SOFTWARE PRODUCT or a derivative work thereof;
• and (c) not using Identified Software in the development of a derivative work of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT.

"Identified Software" means software which is licensed pursuant to terms that directly or indirectly:

• (i) grant, or purport to grant, to any third party any rights or immunities under Microsoft's intellectual property or proprietary rights in the SOFTWARE PRODUCT or derivative work thereof, or
• (ii) create, or purport to create, obligations for Microsoft with respect to the SOFTWARE PRODUCT or derivative work thereof.

Identified Software includes, without limitation, any software licensed pursuant to terms that seek to require that other software incorporated into, derived from or distributed with such software be:

• (a) disclosed or distributed in source code form;
• (b) be licensed for the purpose of making derivative works; or
• (c) be redistributable at no charge.

With their Anti-Open Source software clauses still in place, the potential uptake for this platform is probably not going to be very high, especially among corporates that are increasingly looking for OSS.

Then there is the "Spyware" clause:

b. Consent to use of Data. You agree that Microsoft and its affiliates may collect and use technical information gathered in any manner as part of the product support services provided to you, if any, related to the SOFTWARE PRODUCT. Microsoft may use this information solely to improve our products or to provide customized services or technologies to you. Microsoft may disclose this information to others, but not in a form that personally identifies you.

These are just some of the EULA nasties. There is also, of course, the "can't use this to provide hosting or service" clause (because MS is seeking to corner that particular market). Good luck to all developers who agree to this. For those who do agree to this contract with MS, there is a large red man with cloven hoofs, horns and a funny tail that is mumbling something about "my contract is better".......

Equal time for Palm & Treo

[VikingBrad]

SDK for Palm

here

extra dev tools for Treo 600 needs a login from

here

Tools from here

Cheers

VikingBrad

Re:The sign of things to come

[glesga_kiss]

Not from where I'm sitting. I've got an Orange SPV and it's the dogs bollocks of phones. I know that's not what the zealots like to hear, but it's true.

They were a bit buggy at first. Like ALL software.

Re:The sign of things to come

[Anonymous Coward]

I know you can do similiar things in Java but with MS you will be talking about business applications being run on phones, not the games and utilities that are mainly found on the Java phones. I will add that I do like Java, but I am speaking from what I have seen here.

obvious you don't know jack about wireless apps. Back when WAP was the buzz, 90% of the companies tried to win the business world (common referred to as vertical market). 95% of them failed miserably. But now finally, wireless apps are starting to make in roads because of games. Repeat after me, wireless service aren't reliable enough for serious business applications. There are nitch players out there and all of them are using J2EE on the back end and either J2ME or BREW on the phone side. The limitations of the hardware means most of the hard work is done on the server side. But there's a serious problem with .NET. It scales to a limit and doesn't have built in clustering. Most people using IIS are still using database sessions, but those who write webservers know that only goes so far. It's possible to setup a dedicated server for load balancing sessions, but again that isn't as good as having a protocol level session replication. Most people working with IIS know the recommended mode is stateless, because IIS slows to a crawl if you try to make it a stateful app server. But it's not really the fault of IIS either. It's the threading model in windows, which make it inefficient at running multiple heavy weight threads like EJB style stateful apps.

For those who think business apps are easier than games, it's a myth. Unless you're writing a realtime trading platform for a phone, writing games for phones will be considerably more complicated. I know from personal experience many companies have tried to sell realtime trading applications for phones and failed, so the bottom line is the network isn't reliable enough for it and won't be for another 20 years.

Having had a Smartphone for over a year now...

[Osrin]

All I can say is that I totally love it.

I brought it back from Europe around a year ago and have not had a single problem with it, the interface is great, I have one or two apps that I've written for myself - one that tracks expenses and one that prevents me from buying the same DVDs over and over when I'm in Tower.

Everything that I used to be able to do with my PocketPC can now be done with a single device.