Author: Matt Croydon

NewLC links to a port of Frozen Bubble to Series 60. Frozen Bubble for Series 60 is released under the GPL. I’m currently installing it on my 3650. Frozen bubble is released for newer S60 phones as well as ancient S60 phones like my 3650. It’s addictive, go grab it.

Mini review: At a 463k SIS, it’s a pretty big app. I put it on my MMC so I’m not too worried. It could use some polish, it’s not that fast or responsive, but I’m impressed at the same time. Hardcore Puzzle Bobble addicts like Ewan will probably be dissapointed, but casual players should be at least satisfied.

• PMWiki 1.0.2, a major bugfix release is out. PMWiki rocks.
• I’m running Panther on PearPC 0.2.0, but if you’re adventerous, you can run PearPC nightly builds. If you run out of disk space on your 3 gig image like I have, check out these directions [pdf] on how to create a larger drive and copy data to it. Once I’m done with the move to a 6 gig image I can actually install Xcode.
• Ewan at All About Symbian reviews the Sendo X.
• CNet: Nokia expands developer tools for CDMA.
• J2SE 5.0 doesn’t really roll off the tongue. Neither does J5SE. Oh well, there are a ton of great things in there regardless of what you call it.
• Blojsom is to be included in the next OSX Server release.
• If you need guidance, check out the Java Studio Creator Field Guide.
• Engadget covers Engadget covers Flash Lite.
• Jabber Architecture handles the topic of instant messaging in the corporate environment of a company whose business is instant messaging. “If the phone rings, everyone on the developer side of the house jumps, since it’s certainly someone from outside, and probably not a spouse, since they all have Jabber accounts as well.”
• Matt Raible isn’t happy with Java Studio Creator on the Mac.
• eWeek has positive press for BlueGlue.
• NewLC brings news of a new book from Symbian: Programming Java 2 Micro Edition on Symbian OS. It covers developing MIDP 2.0 apps on Symbian OS.
• Apple hosed Konfabulator pretty badly.
• Via danbri, MobiQuitous (The First Annual International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Networking and Services) looks like it has a ton of potential. It is being held in Boston Aug 22-26. I can’t quite pull the cash to go, but the list of accepted papers makes my brain salivate. UMBC will have quite a presence at the conference. Harry Chen, an RDF geek working on his PHD keeps a weblog as his home page along with a juicy atom feed.

The Baltimore Sun wishes the Universal Product Code a happy 30th birthday.

• NewLC brings news that Nokia has updated some of their tools and SDKs to work with Eclipse. At the moment the new tools are only available to Forum Nokia PRO members. Those of us in steerage will have to wait a month or so.
• MacRumors has some live IRC coverage of WWDC, though there will be no stream of Steve Jobs’ keynote. Everybody is foaming at the mouth for new hardware, but sheesh, it’s a freaking developers conference.
• PocketPc Thoughts has news that Windows CE 5.0 is due out July 9. Move over Pocket PC 2003 Second Edition, hello Pocket PC 2004.
• SOAP Message Transmission Oprimization Mechanism. Blah blah blah.
• There will be some cool JXTA demos at JavaOne.
• /me wants Nano-ITX
• Another JavaOne announcemenet: somethingme.com
• Sun and Nokia are talking about Java and three gee.
• This gmail notifier looks slick.
• Via Nelson, there should be something for everybody in this collection of quick reference cards.
• Java3D is now open source.
• Light reading for later: Developing with Web Standards.
• This 9500 review makes me wish I could blow a grand on a phone. In 3-4 years when it’s obsolete, hopefully I can buy one inexpensively from craigslist. Just like my 9290.

A few days ago I noticed some 40 hour TiVo units at Best Buy for $119 after rebates.  Yesterday I saw the same unit for $129 at Circuit City.  Both prices are extremely impressive and seem to be mirroring DVD prices.  A few years ago it was unheard of to pick up a halfway decent DVD player for less than two hundred bucks or so.  Today you can buy one at Wal-Mart for $40.

Right now PVRs seem to be nearing just above that $100 or so range that VCRs spent so many years in and where a good solid (non-barebones) DVD player can still cost today.  Here’s the kicker: Tech Bargains has a link to a refurbed 40 hour TiVo direct from the source for $80 after rebates.  I’m sure that it won’t last long, but it’s a hell of a deal.

I wonder how long it will take GPX to put out a 15 hour PVR in a little translucent plastic box for $50 at my local big box store…

Sorry for the downtime.  Connectivity to one of my boxes has been spotty for a day or two.

• OSNews: Slackware 10.0 Released
• PocketPC Thoughts: HP Bluetooth Patch for h1900 and h2200 series iPaqs
• Chris Davies ponders XML on CLDC.
• Comdex 2004 is dead
• Daily Wireless links to a cool bolt-on powered antenna for your Wi-Fi device.
• Infoworld: Blackberry hooks up with Novell, Vodafone
• Daily Wireless also brings news of a Wi-Fi link from Spain to Morocco.
• MSDN sneaks a peek at VB2005.
• Ebay is hooked on web services.

The World had another interesting story about Iraq IT today during their Iraq domain report:

As the handover of power approaches, Iraqis are seeking their own domain name. The World’s Clark Boyd reports.

Hopefully ICANN will give control of .iq to the Iraqi people in a timely manner.

SaveWonderfalls brings good news this morning:

At the Knitting Factory screening in LA on Friday, show creators Bryan Fuller and Todd Holland announced a tentative DVD release date — December 7 of this year.

Excellent, I’ll be there!

I caught a great story on Kuro5hin this morning about Total Anihilation.  The game was way ahead of its time and over the years I have lost countless time to it.  A year or two ago Roger and I dusted TA off for a quick game.  Many hours later I decided that I was getting too old to stay up all night and I headed home to bed.

The evening reminded me of the days when TA first came out.  We would all discuss strategy at work during the day and try to kick each others butts at night.  Sometimes a Krogoth would be sent in to cause damage, other times it would be so many airborne units that the computer slowed to a crawl.  There was always something different to try.

Whenever someone mentions TA, a little geeky tear forms in the corner of my eye.  Thank you for all the years of entertainment.

The Nokia 6600 gets top billing in Cellular, a movie also starring Kim Basinger, Chris Evans, Jason Statham, and William H. Macy.  It opens in theaters September 17.  The plot seems a little thin, but there are lots of excuses for gratuitous car chases, gun battles, low battery warnings, and typical uses of mobiles with cameras.

The best line in the trailer is by far: “This is the single greatest phone ever made.  Hold on a second, I’m emailing this video to myself.”

Does it feel a bit like the mobile phone equivalent of a BMW Film?  The movie does look like a lot of fun and should be pretty entertaining.

I don’t know if they’ll honor my request, but I’ve asked that the Nokia 6600 be added to the credits:

There has been quite a bit of shuffling around in the latest edition of the Top 500 supercomputers in the world.  The full list has been published along with a press release covering the changes to the top 10.  For a play by play report, check the highlights.  Of note are the presence of two new IBM clusters in the top 10.

The Earth Simulator is still number one, though both IBM and HP have quite an impressive showing near the top.  California Digital has put together an impressive cluster at #2.  Missing from the list is the G5 cluster at Virginia Tech, which was offline during this survey for a hardware upgrade.  Hopefully it’ll pop back on the charts next time.

Rick Klau:

Well guess what? TiVo announced today that Home Media Option is now bundled with the service, at no additional cost. For either $12.95/month or $299 lifetime, you get all of the normal TiVo functionality, along with the ability to stream MP3s over your home network (stored on your computer, played through your stereo), display digital photos on your TV (my kids’ favorite thing to do), schedule recordings over the web, and watch recordings in different rooms (with multiple TiVos in the house).

Whoa!  Combine this with plummeting costs in hardware, and TiVo starts to look quite tempting to people who might otherwise not consider it.