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

API Reference

[SamBeckett]

bool makeCall(long phoneNumber) - Calls phonenumber. Must be in (xxx)xxx-xxxx format. Returns true on success.

void hangUp() - Hang up the phone. Has no effect if phone is already hung up.

void blueScreen(double p) - Crash the phone with probability p, sampled every 100 cycles, or whenever the user is on phone with his boss. This is determined by the address book.

Re:API Reference

[TheOldFart]

void hangUp() { char* device = 0; printf(device); }

Re:API Reference

[Anonymous Coward]

you've never seen an API made my microsoft before have you?

that would be

__fastcall bool CMobileDevice::MakeCall (long lPhoneNumber, const CString *StrOptions)

void CCallerObject::PreformHangUp(void *objCaller)


the BSOD is actually a template that they include with every application they develop. Recoding it everytime would take far too much time.. At this time, it's the only known example of succesfull code-reuse in any C++ project outside academia.

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:Chicken and egg situation

[Talez]

Frankly I'd just like to see mobile phone standards converge for once. As if the marketplace wasn't fragmented enough already making a developer's life hell.

Sure its great having .NET tools to develop for mobile phones but its also another thing developers have to learn to code for just so they can get their product out to a market.

Re:Chicken and egg situation

[Troed]

Or you use Opera for Smartphones on your Symbian-based phone (Sony Ericsson P800, Nokia 7650 etc) and view each and every page there is without problems.

Yes, I use it. It works just fine.

DDOS

[chevelleSS]

I imagine it won't be too long before someone will figure out how to write a worm to DDOS a companies phone system!

Re:DDOS

[ultrabot]

I imagine it won't be too long before someone will figure out how to write a worm to DDOS a companies phone system!

And such a worm would be a boon for operators that charge for calls. Expect the operators' share prices to skyrocket whenever a worm alarm is given :-).

I think the phones should have a hardware "lock" that would require the user to explicitly allow doing an operation that will cost them money.

Re:DDOS

[glesga_kiss]

Microsoft or not, the complexity of the new phones that are around now means that some cracks are likely to happen. They have an IP address, so are suseptible to the usual risks, as well as phone based attacks. Buffer-overflow in the 160-char SMS limit? I wonder who will be the first to fall due to that one!?!

Some networks have choosen to only run signed code, unfortunatly this means you can't run your own code. Which defeats the point of having a smartphone!!

Re:DDOS

[Ryosen]

I could be wrong about this but here is my understanding, at least where Sprint is concerned. Yes, the phone has an IP address but they are on an internal subnet belonging to the carrier. All surfing is done through a proxy, thus the phone is not visible to the outside Internet for random attacks. On my Sanyo 4900, applications (the browser being on of them) do not have any access to the phone book, nor the dialing function. As long as the phone manufacturers continue to maintain this level of data separation, the worm scenario is not likely.

You may now proceed with the obligatory MS-bashing and speculating how Outlook for Smartphones(tm) will obliterate this protection level and allow VBScript full access to the address book and dialer. Cause you know it's coming! ;)

Re:despite what everyone say..

[Phekko]

Just how exactly is this more amazing than, say, the Palm OS SDK that has already been out for a while?

Smartphone lawsuit

[imnoteddy]

Ah, the Smartphone that Sendo is suing Microsoft over.

Fsck security? Yes/No?

[AndroidCat]

Smartphone 2003 can use a security prompt for unsigned applications

Smartphone 2003 can use a security policy that, when turned on, causes a prompt to appear that asks the user whether to accept the installation or execution of an unsigned application.

Considering Microsoft's record of allowing users to bogger themselves by running(!) unsafe email in Outlook, with only the protection of a yes/no prompt, I'm sure we can look forward to many phone phollies in the phuture.

Re:despite what everyone say..

[Michael Iatrou]

If MS is the one who brings developers tools to develop tomorrows world, I prefer to find another job...

No VBScript?

[goranb]

From Why Develop for Windows Mobile-based Devices?:
Pocket Internet Explorer is a full Internet browser with support for HTML, XML/XSL, WML, cHTML, Jscript & SSL.

What happened to VBScript? Not that I'm a fan of VBScript (I hate it for web pages, but it's great as a substitute for batch files...), but still... I have come across many web pages that give out VBScript code in pages when browsing with IE...

Phone Sex

[Anonymous Coward]

Between the security flaws of MS and the morals of the porn industry, I think it would be unwise to use one of these phones for phone sex.

Re:BSOD

[tolldog]

or they are protecting you from getting screwed...
or they are keeping you from getting screwed

all depends on how you look at it i guess

Long awaited

[ultrabot]

Microsoft's long awaited Smartphone 2003 SDK was released today.

Not a slashdot regular, are you?

Really, it is critical that Smartphone not be allowed to succeed. We don't want Microsoft gaining a significant market share there also. If they happen to get something like 20%, they will start "integrating" a lot of proprietary interop stuff to Windows and aggressively wrestle up the marketshare. MSFT Windows/Offics business is winding down, so Smartphones are an excellent migration route because people actually buy new phones all the time.

Symbian is not all that "open", but they have to support public standards, because they have no choice. Do the industry a favor and boycott handsets that run SmartPhone. I don't know how much it is going to help though, because MSFT has endless stash of money to throw to these "strategic" projects. They are not going to drop out even if they sold zero licenses in 10 year.

Obviously multiple platforms means competition, which brings a little bit energy to the market. Smartphones will be a huge thing in a few years, so platform developers can't really be sitting on their asses for long.

Re:Long awaited

[tealover]

Really, it is critical that Smartphone not be allowed to succeed.

Says who? I don't make my purchasing decisions based on whether the manufacturer holds a monopoly. I base it on whether the product gives me what I want.

Not all monopolies are bad. This type of knee-jerk reaction to anything Microsoft is juvenile and self-defeating.

I wonder...

[norite]

...Does the phone have Ctrl Alt Del Keys? Think it would be mandatory for a MS phone!

omg roflmao!!!!

[SubjunctiveSam]

Hurrr hurr hurrr.

Maybe teh XBOX should hav ctrl atl del also!!!!!!111

LOLLLOOOLLLOLOLORRRRZZZZ!!!!!!!!1111

Re:Why would anyone buy one?

[Chanc_Gorkon]

First, assuming Smartphone is like any other Microsoft os is stupid. Smartphone is of course based on the same os that runs Windows Mobile 2003. I have NEVER had a blue screen because there's no such thing on the platform. I have never had a crash take the whole device down either. It's much more robust and boots rather fast so a soft reset is bound to not annoy too much (although when your testing some unstable code to make things like a USB to Serial cable work on a Toshiba e740, it's kind of hairy! :) ). Smartphone has been reported to have problems. Non of these are verifiable to the US market because NOONE HAS THESE YET! By the time these are finally available, T-Mobile will end up being king of GPRS in the states because they have a 29.99 unlimited plan (or 19.99 with a voice plan). So your fear of having a several hundered dollar GPRS bill because of a worm is unfounded. BTW, Smartphone and WM 2003 are pretty locked down. No services run that are open all of the time. Sure, e-mail works so port 25 is open, but the e-mail program can't even understand html let alone the outlook virus code stuff. The e-mail client works best with straight text (e-mail should have never ventured into html or ActiveX code either).

The sign of things to come

[BFKrew]

As someone who earns his living off writing for the .Net framework (Linux at home though ;) I think this is really quite an impressive piece of kit which could have a lot of ramifications for how software is written for phones, web pages and on the desktop.

With the latest release of Visual Studio, they have really blurred the difference between how you put together a Windows Form, a ASP.NET form and a Mobile form. Just to have the ability to write a few classes and get good, working output on a Windows Form, ASP.NET form and a mobile form you start to realise just how impressive it is, and also how relatively easy it will be to, for example, take an existing Windows Form app and get it working on a WAP Page, ASP.Net page, Smartphone or anything else. This alone is a huge step forward and is going to make new development a whole lot easier as well as being able to leverage existing software onto the phones.

Sadly, most on here will totally dismiss it with the predictable BSOD 'gags' (again and again... dzz) but this is something which is very impressive. 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.

So, I say to you: take the time just to read about .Net and the SDK, what it can do. We all know that MS gets a lot of things wrong, but every so often they get something right - as all companies do.

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.

Finaly

[Biomechanoid]

"Microsoft's long awaited Smartphone 2003 SDK was released today.

For months I slept in a tent before a Microsoft office. I cant wait to pick up my smart phone and start using the SDK for days on end. I will be loosing sleep for whole weeks.

When my first pieces of code are ready I will walk across the street screeming, jumping up and down and showing it to people so they can share the experiences I feel with the Microsoft Smartphone 2003 SDK.

FREE (as in beer download) SDK Download

[Proudrooster]

I just tried it! The download is really FREE! I am glad to see Microsoft taking steps to joing the FREE Software Download revolution. Now, if we could just get them to include the source code.

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?

Re:Cut down on MS crap please, it's not interestin

[grug0]

I'm sorry but Slashdot is "News for Nerds" not "News for Fanatics". Microsoft, like it or not, controls a large amount of the market and their technologies should be reported on like any other companies.

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

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.

Re:BSOD

[Overly Critical Guy]

It's 2003. Blue screens haven't been commonplace since Clinton was in office.

Seriously, get with the times. BSOD jokes in this day and age make you look like a fanatic.

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