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Ernandes Mourao Junior is cranking out good stuff. A while ago I blogged about his excellent Twitter API ME project – I’ve used it myself and it works very well.
Among other things he is working on, Ernandes now has released the Google Analytics ME API.
Quote:
Google Analytics ME is a compelling and well defined API for Java ME and Android developers who wish to integrate their apps into Google Analytics. With this API, developers will be able to prepare their apps to send out useful data, about how users are interacting with them. Those data will be valuable to identify, e.g., audience and improvement points.
The project page has a few introductory code snippets, the code itself, as well as links to further documentation on Google Analytics. Looks pretty straightforward – I hope to be able to give this a spin soon.
Thanks, Ernandes – and keep up the good work!
Cheers,
– Terrence
There is little surprise that Google, too, is tracking your location – after all, that’s key for a company which derives the vast majority of its revenue from targeted advertising.
At least Google is mostly upfront about it while Apple seemingly has decided to go incommunicado on the topic (see my blog: “Stranger than fiction: Apple’s iOS4 is tracking your moves”).
Now, with all that location data and other personal (email, friends, pictures, etc) information being constantly tracked, stored, and analyzed – why would you care?
As far as I am concerned, it boils down to overreaching lawmakers and overzealous law enforcement as well as criminal activity (Wired Magazine has a good article on the topic). Historically, for a number of different groups of people, this personalized data about you and your life has just been too tempting to leave alone.
Think it can’t happen to you? Check out these recent incidents.
Cheers,
– Terrence
A little while ago Computerworld published an interview with Adam Messinger, VP of Development for Fusion Middleware at Oracle, that I wanted to make sure you’re aware of.
In the interview, Adam talks about Java ME in the mobile space, upcoming JSRs and enhancements, Java on embedded devices, Java EE 7 coming this summer, and more.
Cheers,
– Terrence
Check this out: phoneME contributor and Java Mobile & Embedded Community Star Davy Preuveneers has ported the phoneME Advanced MIDP stack to Android. The picture shows Opera Mini running in the Android emulator. Awesome, Davy!
Cheers,
– Terrence
Seems like every decent mobile app these days needs to integrate with Twitter somehow. And until last week that was pretty easy to do for your mobile Java application – using the Mobile Ajax libraries and Twitter client sample code.
However, as of August 1st Twitter switched from Basic Authentication to OAuth – and that makes logging into Twitter a whole lot more tricky. Now, you need to deal with certificates, SSL, handshakes, signing, token requests, authorizations, and other messiness 
Well, really, OAuth makes a whole lot of sense, and that is why pretty much every web service out there is moving to OAuth. So once you know how to deal with OAuth you’ll be covered for all of them.
Luckily, Ernandes Mourao Junior rose to the task and has built a Java library called Twitter API ME which makes interfacing with Twitter extremely easy. It supports OAuth (more specifically, xAuth) and runs on Java ME and Android. The code is open source under GPLv2 and the binary library is licensed under LGPLv3.
I just built a little test app that logs into Twitter and posts a tweet – all with six lines of code! Awesome. I’ve posted a brief How-To on the Twitter API ME forum.
Thanks Ernandes for a great project!
Cheers,
– Terrence
This decision just in: The U.S. Library of Congress, which oversees the Copyright Office, has just announced new rules that effectively legitimize unlocking and jailbreaking of phones.
This is significant, because the ruling states that owners of phones actually do own the phone, rather than just being a licensee of the manufacturer, and thus are allowed to circumvent controls that the manufacturer put in place to limit what is considered fair use of the device.
This opens up, at least in the U.S., choice for phone users with respect to using different wireless carriers as well as installing 3rd party applications from alternate sources, and doing so legally.
More information:
Cheers,
– Terrence
Things are moving quickly with the Java Store and Java Warehouse. A couple of weeks ago payments were enabled and a number of countries added for the warehouse. Yesterday, another set of enhancements was made live:
- Users can now create accounts within the Java Store client
- The Java Store client has been improved with numerous small features, bug fixes, and performance enhancements
- Developers outside the U.S. can now use the store view feature to preview their apps
- And the Java Warehouse has been enabled for six new countries: Israel, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Taiwan, and South Korea. The Warehouse is now open in 14 countries.
Developers are really starting to discover the Java Store now – check out some of the new applications available.
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My personal favorite right now is Music Explorer FX – a slick and interactive way to check out your favorite artists, discover new music, and listen to it on-the-fly. |
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Or how about some geeky nostalgia? Check out the Commodore C64 emulator JSwing C64 in the Java Store – complete with original font & screen (blue on blue!), BASIC interpreter, and emulated joystick and floppy. Yeah, baby! |
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Want to know more? Check out the new, 5 minute introductory video on the Java Warehouse and Java Store. |
The Java Store Beta Program has reopened for U.S. residents – try it out if you haven’t done so yet. Or sign up for the Java Warehouse, now open in 14 countries.
Cheers,
– Terrence
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