More tools for JavaFX

If you are looking into JavaFX, you have probably seen the JavaFX Pad.

But other tools exist. Netbeans 6.0 M9 supports JavaFX (Script), after a quick update in the update center. And last week JFXBuilder appeared.
JFXBuilder seems interesting, not least because of it being brand new, but also because it claims to be "the first JavaFX graphical editor", which just might be right.

You boot it up simply using Java Web Start. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to run on Ubuntu using Java 6u1. But JFXBuilder is not surprisingly still a work in progress, so I hope it'll work soon.

Otherwise I'll try it from my Windows box, take a few screendumps, and let you know what I feel about it.

If any of you've tried it out, please comment.

JavaOne Presentations public!

All presentations from this years JavaOne is now available online, right here:
http://developers.sun.com/learning/javaoneonline/j1online.jsp?yr=2007

Enjoy!

technorati tags:javaone, java, presentations, session, pdf

Cool demo of JavaFX

For those of you that have yet to see a cool demo of what JavaFX is capable of, I found a very cool JavaFX clock widget today:

If you want to play around with the source code, it is very simple and contains very few lines, and is easily launched. Open JavaFX Pad (using Java Web Start) and put this link into the "location" textfield, and hit the "Go" button:
http://sellmic.com/lab/dev/jfx/clock/Clock.fx

This very cool clock is animated and very glossy, and only 83 lines!! Amazing..

Today the clock got updated, to support transparent window, to make it a real widget. The transparent window part needs JNA, but you can see it live without worrying about that, using this link:
http://sellmic.com/lab/dev/jfx/clock/webstart/JFXClock.jnlp

The two original posts are linked to below, just wanted you to be aware of it, so you too could have a look at how easy it is to do cool stuff in JavaFX:
http://sellmic.com/blog/2007/05/20/javafx-clock/
http://sellmic.com/blog/2007/05/22/javafx-clock-update-now-with-transparency/

technorati tags:javafx, java, animated, clock, widget

Danish review of N95

PC World Denmark has finally reviewed the Nokia N95:
http://www.pcworld.dk/art/8689?a=newsletter&i=313

To all you non-danish readers out there, the conclusion is, that N95 is "the perfect mobile phone, including everything in connectivity, camera, GPS and what ever you could want from a modern top level device".

It receives 4 out of 6 possible points, with the battery lifetime being the biggest down side. But the conclusion is that "the N95 is an impressive flagship, and a fascinating taste of what to expect from the mobile multimedia machines of the future."

technorati tags:nokia, nokia n95, n95, review, pc world, danish, denmark, anmeldelse, dansk, danmark

Gizmo for Nokia N95

Today Nokia announced Gizmo for N80 and N95, which is official software from Nokia a bit like Fring, to enable chatting and VOIP'ing (=performing internet based phone calls) directly from the phone.

I just installed it succesfully. But the first time the installation failed. The reason being that I installed the first of the two necessary installation packages on the microSD Flash instead of directly on the phone.

So; install both packages on the internal phone RAM!

The installation consist of two downloads:

1. Nokia Internet Services Support Pack (includes something called Phonebook Shutter v1.0)
2. Gizmo v1.21 for N95

After the installation has completed, Gizmo is available in the programs folder, just as any other third party application.

The first step is to go online, and logon using an existing account, or create a new one (which I did). You can sign up directly from the device, using the web browser. You apply a user name, password times 2, an email address, confirm the license (after reading it offcourse), and clicking a button.

After registration/login, a button let's you have Gizmo to automatically configure your phone for SIP use.

The really nice thing about Gizmo is, that it actually integrated directly into N95's normal contact application (as a new tab), so you don't have to start Gizmo manually, and use it instead of the ordinary dialer.

After installing Gizmo, when you enter a phone number as you normally do from the stand-by screen, you can now choose to dial using the internet instead of normal GSM, so that too is nicely integrated into S60.

The not-so-nice thing about Gizmo is, that it doesn't integrate with Skype, but from the Gizmo Project web site, it looks like it can integrate with Google Talk, Windows Live and Yahoo! Messenger. It's not clear from the installed application, but I'll have to dig into that.

I don't know anybody else using Gizmo, or VOIP, so I haven't tested it yet. And I suppose it's not possible to use Gizmo for calling to land lines or ordinary mobile phones, without some sort of VOIP account.

Until I found out more about Gizmo, I'll still use Fring for outgoing VOIP calls. But now Gizmo has been installed, so I'll definitely look more into it, and let you know when I know more.

If you know a lot about Gizmo, please comment on this post! ^_^

technorati tags:nokia n95, n95, gizmo, voip, skype, google talk

OpenJDK in Netbeans

If you - just as I - want to experiment with Netbeans while getting to know OpenJDK, then I just found this nice guide on how to use OpenJDK together with Netbeans:
http://nb-openjdk.netbeans.org/get-and-build.html

By the way, if you aren't aware of Netbeans Magazine, you can read/download it here (May issue is 84 pages - and with lots about the new features in version 6.0!):
http://www.netbeans.org/community/magazine/

technorati tags:netbeans, openjdk, netbeans magazine

Netbeans 6.0 Preview M9

The Netbeans IDE 6.0 is in it's preview state, and the team today announced their milestone 9 release.

Remember, Netbeans 6.0 is the Open Source Java IDE that Sun supports, with scripting support (hence Ruby/JRuby and Rails including graphical wizards!!).

Furthermore it has a better and smarter editor, a GUI Builder (Swing) with data binding (!!), Profiler, Web & Java EE, Mobility (MIDP/CLDC etc.), UML, SOA (Composite Application Builder) and embedded Glassfish V2 beta server (a.k.a. Sun Java System Application Server 9.1beta). That is, if you get the largest download at 116 MB.

The smallest download is at only 21 MB, but is "just" the Java SE IDE.

Hey, don't forget, that Sun already has JavaFX plugins ready for Netbeans, available from the integrated Netbeans Update Center. Further information can be found on the OpenJFX site and here:
http://www.netbeans.org/servlets/NewsItemView?newsItemID=1047

Don't hesitate, go get the new milestone build from here:
http://bits.netbeans.org/download/6.0/milestones/latest/

technorati tags:netbeans, javafx, openjfx, glassfish, netbeans 6.0, ruby, jruby, ruby on rails, java, ide

Hi, I'm not Ruby on Rails

I guess you probably all know the "Hi, I'm a Mac!", "And I'm a PC" commercials from Apple.

The guys from RailsEnvy.com have made 3 similar "commercials" for Ruby on Rails, which can be found here:

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQbuyKUaKFo

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1NVfDlU6yQ

Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5EIrSM8dCA

Check them out, if you're a developer geek.

technorati tags:ruby on rails, rails, commercials

Nokia N95 as a music player

Now I've been using my N95 for about 4 weeks or so.

The feature which I've been using the least, is possibly the music player function, the reason being the lack of music stored on the device ;)

But today - when developing - I put some of my favorite tunes onto it, and used the standard delivered headset.

I used the built-in equalizer, to boost the bass. After that, the device actually sounds really, really nice with a minimum of noise, smooth sound and clear, crispy tonal reproduction of voices, instruments, high-hats etc.

If N95 is only to be used as a music player (besides a phone that is), it is too bulky, and it seems a little bit silly that the output for the headphones is at the side of the device. But if you - as I - are using it as a "pocket size computer", the music player is about perfect.

It's way of organizing the tunes in playlists, albums, artists, genrers and composers works like a charm, and is quite fast as well.

Who needs an iPod? The ones without a N95? Or consider the N95 instead ;)

technorati tags:nokia n95, n95, music player, iphone, comparison, oppinion, sound quality

Anonymous inner classes in Swing with JRuby

Yesterday I was tampering with Java Swing using JRuby, and doing stuff where I used ActionListener (duhh, being Swing and all..).

I found it quite annoying, that I couldn't seem to find a nice and easy way with JRuby, to declare anonymous inner classes for ActionListener classes on Swing components, using JRuby.

Luckily my ADSL modem turned off at 1am, and I was forced to either go to sleep or turn on the modem.

Today I searched for a nice solution. And I found this blog post:
http://blogs.dzone.com/daniel/2007/02/18/jruby-event-proxy/

which gives a great hint on how to use Ruby's elegant reflection to create a proxy_method. This proxy_method makes it easy to instantiate an interface (or class for that matter) and define how a method should be defined (or overridden). The content of the class is - not surprisingly - defined as a block for the proxy_method.

Notice the comments of the blog, where an alternative solution is suggested. This is actually the best, in my oppinion. The reason being that it seems much easier to get the actual ActionEvent instance, and call methods on that to enable stuff like:

listener = JProxy::ActionListener.new {
  def actionPerformed(e)
    puts "Clicked (#{e.actionCommand})!!"
  end
}

Nice..

technorati tags:swing, jruby, ActionListener, ActionEvent, proxy method, java