Google Maps now with Street View

Google announced the adding of new features to their Google Maps on Wednesday 17th. The most important is Street View coming with the same street-level imagery available on desktop. You can use the Street View feature clicking on the apposite command after a search or clicking on a map and selecting "Street View".

Another interesting feature is the introduction of the business reviews: now it is possible know in advance if visit a store worths or not.

Also the walking directions introduced recently in the desktop version are available in the mobile application.

The search speed and the accuracy of the location has been also improved. Users with J2ME phone and BlackBerry can now enjoy the new features!

 

Subbuteo on Nintendo DS

Also Subbuteo can't stay far away from the digital era. It is indeed available on the portable game station Nintendo DS. The game is published by Halifax and 505 Games.

The user might use the pen and the touchscreen to move the players and kick the ball. It is possible create leagues or join some of the official leagues. It is also available an editor to change the existent teams or create new ones with their own colours and shirt. It is possible play with other users using Wifi.

The game is sold in Italy for 39,99 euros.

I can't give an impression about the videogame because I don't have a Nintendo DS but I'm pretty sure that the realism of the old Subbuteo table won't be easily reacheable.

J2ME "on device debugging" with Sony Ericsson SDK

The Sony-Ericsson SDK provides you a tool to perform an on-device debugging of your J2ME applications.



After the SDK installation you can go to "Start" -> "Sony Ericsson" -> "Java ME SDK for CLDC"  and check the presence of two tools: "Connection Proxy" and "Device Explorer".



First of all you have to connect your Sony-Ericsson mobile phone to your pc. Launch "Connection Proxy" and press the "Settings" icon in the buttons bar. Select the COM port where your phone is connected to and press "Ok". Press "Connect" at the right top in the Connection Proxy software window. The "Status" frame below the device image should show the "Connected" status for your device.





Now launch the Device Explorer. It should start the synchronization with your phone. If it doesn't, start it manually clicking the "Reloading device information" in the buttons bar.

After a while in the left column you should see the list of application installed in your device. Now you can select the application you want to debug and start it.



The System.outy.print messages included in your code will be shown in the console window at the bottom of the "Device Explorer" software.





The tool can be used also to manage the application: install, delete, stop, pause, and resume it.

Coming back from Argentina

I'm sitting in the Santiago del Chile Airport waiting for the Air France flight which will take us back to Europe after a week spent in Argentina in Cordoba.

I had a really good time in Argentina, meeting really nice people and visiting nice places. I enjoyed  a lot eating, drinking and walking in Cordoba, looking at a different reality than Europe which makes you thinking about life.

Also flying over The Andes during the Cordoba to Santiago transfer has been great. It has been an experience I'll never forget.

Serializing an image with J2ME

Sometimes you need to transfer an image from your J2ME application to a server. In that case you need to serialize the image so you can write its bytes onto the connection opened with the server.

A good example to perform this task is in the Sony Ericsson Developer Site. Check out the article at developer.sonyericsson.com/site/global/techsupport/tipstrickscode/java/p_java_0502.jsp

Sony-Ericsson C905: first Capuchin phone

Sony-Ericsson has announced the new phone C905, the first phone supporting the project Capuchin (which define a bridge between J2ME and Flash). It is also equipped with an 8.1 megapixels camera and GPS. The screen resolution is 320x240.



It belongs to the JP-8 Sony-Ericsson family and it introduces a new subset called JP-8.4 which includes the phones of the JP-8 family supporting the project Capuchin.

It will be available on the selected markets during Q4 2008.

J2ME Google Maps API

I've found this interesting article from the wiki of Forum Nokia describing a library to query Google Maps to geocode addresses to their geographic coordinates and to retrieve static images with custom size, zoom and format.

The article is complete with source code and shows also an utility to scroll the map you get from Google

Go to the article clicking J2ME Google Maps API