Archive for the ‘Java’ Category
Oracle sues Google over Android
Oracle announced today that it has filed suit against Google for alleged patent and copyright infringement.
The business software giant headed by Larry Ellison (pictured) said that the suit concerns intellectual property related to the Java programming language, which Oracle purchased through its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. In a press release, Oracle spokeswoman Karen Tillman said, “In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property.”
I’ve embedded a copy of Oracle’s complaint below, which includes more details about the company’s allegations. From the complaint: “Google’s Android competes with Oracle America’s Java as an operating system software platform for cellular telephones and other mobile devices. … Google has been aware of Sun’s patent portfolio, including the patents at issue, since the middle of this decade, since Google hired certain former Sun Java engineers.”
A Google spokesman told me that the company hasn’t been served with the complaint yet, so it can’t comment. There’s a good chance that Oracle raised the issue with Google before filing suit, so it may be worth quoting the boilerplate language in Google’s latest earnings report about how Google is involved in legal claims “from time to time,” but that the company believes “the resolution of our current pending matters will not have a material adverse effect on our business.”
[via Business Insider]
Companies: Google, Oracle, Sun Microsystems
People: Larry Ellison
MobileBeat: Snaptu wants to make dumbphones smarter with apps
Snaptu is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition, and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.
Mobile app startup Snaptu has a simple goal: To bring the rich mobile app experience seen on the iPhone, Android, and other smartphones, to every cellphone — in particular, low-end phones (often referred to as “dumbphones”).
The company has developed an application that runs on any phone that supports Java apps — which at this point adds up to more than 2,000 devices. Once you download and launch the Snaptu app, it opens up a catalog of other applications, which at this point includes Twitter, Facebook, and a news reader.
With smartphones on the rise, lower-end cell phones are still prevalent, and the company’s software makes them even more compelling. Users will still have to contend with smaller screens and slower performance than smartphones, but at least now they can run some basic apps.
Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, Snaptu has recently surpassed 10 million users, and has landed $6 million in funding from Carmel Ventures and Sequoia Capital (which previously contributed an undisclosed amount of funding).
Companies: Snaptu
Want to make money off a mobile app? Build a free Java version
Smartphones get all the buzz, but mobile app warehouse GetJar claims that 90 percent of phones in use worldwide, and 72 percent of American phones, are still the non-smartphones that the mobile industry confusingly calls “feature phones.”
To make money from them, according to Patrick Mork, an executive at a leading app store for feature phones, app makers need to create Java-based apps that are free to download, and that make money from ads rather than through an upfront price.
“There’s been a perception out there that you have to be a fairly large brand, or you have to have very deep pockets, in order to succeed in an app store,” said Mork, GetJar’s vice president of marketing, told me in a phone interview. “But developers are realizing that if they want to grow internationally. they have to have a free app. It’s much easier to start with a Java app and then move to Android and iPhone than it is to go the other way around.”
Mork cites the example of Israeli startup Snaptu, whose eponymous suite of apps for Twitter, Facebook, news-reading (there’s a TechCrunch app), and other mobile services are one of GetJar’s top ten downloads. Snaptu apps make money by serving mobile ads through a collection of networks — BuzzCity, Millennial Media, Inmobi, AdMob, Amobee and others.
Java, more specifically the J2ME mobile version of Oracle’s software platform (it was developed by Sun, which Oracle now owns), works on most low-end phones worldwide. These phones are uncool among technophile Americans, but popular in other countries where people make less money and wireless carriers don’t subsidize the price of BlackBerrys, iPhones and Droids.
The biggest problem with Java is that it doesn’t really work on smartphones. Java’s creators envisioned it as a “run-anywhere” programming language, not restricted to specific hardware or operating systems. But years later, Android phones don’t support J2ME out of the box, and Apple demands that apps be written with Apple’s own non-Java software tools.
One reason is that apps written specifically for one type of phone, “native apps” in developer-speak, can take advantage of many software hooks not available to Java programs designed to work on a much wider array of phones. So, developers who start out in Java may still need to create separate versions of their apps for iPhones and Android phones. And BlackBerry phones, where Java apps frequently lock up my late-model BlackBerry Curve with error messages that require a reboot.
Still, Mork says that many GetJar customers — some of whom pay GetJar to place their free apps prominently, so they can make money off ads to those who download them — began as smartphone developers, then “realized that they needed to broaden to feature phones if they wanted to make a profit.”
Don’t miss MobileBeat 2010, VentureBeat’s conference on the future of mobile. The theme: “The year of the superphone and who will profit.” Now expanded to two days, MobileBeat 2010 will take place on July 12-13 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Early-bird pricing is available until May 15. For complete conference details, or to apply for the MobileBeat Startup Competition, click here.
People: Patrick Mork
Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition
Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) defines a standard in developing multitiered enterprise applications. Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition simplifies development by using standardized modular components and providing a full complex of services for them.
The J2EE platform was developed by Sun Microsystems. It consists of a set of services, APIs, and protocols that provide functionality for developing multitier applications.
J2EE abilities:
* JDBC API for database access;
* CORBA technology for interaction with existing resources of an enterprise;
* Security model for data safety of even web-applications;
* Support of such components, as Enterprise JavaBeans, Java Servlets API, JavaServer Pages and XML;
* Set of specifications and compatibility tests for application transferability in all existing enterprise systems supported by J2EE.
Java EE application server handles transactions, security, scalability, concurrency and management of the components used in it, i.e. developers can concentrate more on the business logic of the components rather than on infrastructure and integration tasks.
Application servers and development tools for J2EE-applications are released by different vendors, including BEA, Borland, IBM, Novell, Oracle, Sybase, Sun, and support a wide range of platforms and DBMS.
The ability of Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition to implement component-based enterprise applications on several tiers, independent of a platform can give a competitive advantage to active enterprises.