Wireless devices & their development issues

• Different sizes
  • Screen sizes
  • Physical size

• Operating systems
  • Different apps
  • Different libraries & APIs
  • Different possibilities for apps development

• Communication capabilities
  • Support for different technologies

• User interfaces
• Storage space
• memory

• Computational power
• Power source & “uptime”

• Laptops
  • Notebooks, netbooks, mini-laptops (Eee PC)

• Tablet computers
  • Internet tablets, N770, N800, N810, N900

• PDAs
  • Palm Pilot, IPAQ, Zaurus

• Mobile phones
  • Nokia, Motorola, Ericson, Apple, Siemens, Samsung, …

• Gaming devices
  • Nintendo gameboy family, Sony PSP, Nokia N-gage

• Special devices
  • Active badge, IBM personal server, Wiimote, RFID readers, one task devices
• Others
  • Booklets, eBook readers, picture frames, etc

Laptops

• Not trully mobile
  • Normadic usage

• Various sizes 11“,1.3 Kg to 17”, 6Kgs
• Similar OS as in desktop computers
  • Windows, Linux, Solaris, OS X
  • Similar apps as in desktop computers
  • Porting software from desktop is simple

• Suppport most wireless comm techno through (PCMCIA, USB)
  • WLAN, Bluetooth, Infrared are commonly built into new models

Tablets

• 1992: PacrPad a precursor for tablet computers
  • Pen input
  • wireless connection
  • “Scrap computer” pick one, make notes & leave. Not intended to be carried around
  • User computing session stored in the network

• Tablet PCs
  • Laptops with ParcPad capabilities i.e. touch screens & wireless connections
  • Some OSs lack features for effective use on tablet PC

Nokia N810 Internet tablet

• High resolution (800×480 pixels) touch screen with up to 65,536 colours
• Stylus based UI

• RAM 128 MB (> 64 MB for user)
• Wireless connectivity - Bluetooth 1.2 & 802.11b/g

• Apps
  • Web browser, Flash Player version 6
  • Email client, Internet radio
  • News reader, PDF viewer
  • File manager, games

PDAs

• Vendors HP, Palm, Sharp, Toshiba, Samsung, …
• Smallish screens
  • Common resolutions 240×320 with 65k colours
• Mostly stylus based UI
  • Some might have small keyboards

• Memory capacities
  • 50MB - 150MB

• Wireless connectivity - 802.11, GPRS, IrDA
• OS
  • Palm OS, Windows Pockete PC, Linux

• Apps - most applications exist for the given OS

Mobile phones (dumb / smart)

• Vendors: Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, …
• Variety of screen sizes & resolutions

• UI - number pads, keyboards, stylus
• Various RAM & Storage capacities

• Low computation power - rapidly advancing
• Wireless connectivity: Bluetooth, 802.11, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, IrDA

• OS:
  • Symbian, Linux, Windows mobile, iOS, Android, proprietary.

• Apps - some apps available for some of the given OS
  • Depending on the devices capabilities

Other devices

• IBM personal server
• iPod

• Portable gaming devices
  • Nintendo, Nokia N-gage, Sony PSP, Wiimote
• Gaming consoles
  • PS3, xBox, Wii

• Wear computing
• RFID gadgets
• NFC
• Specific devices of specific use

Gartner research for 2Q 2010

Linux

• Laptops, notebooks, netbooks, minipc, PDAs, mobile phones
• Many other embedded devices also use Linux - APs, routers etc
• Plenty of projects porting linux in other environments
• Most desktop apps ported for ARM linux architectures
• Android software stack by google
• OpenMoko linux → hardware + OS

Windows

• Windows mobile for PDAs, mobile phones
• XP, Vista, W7 laptops, notebooks, netbooks, minipc
• Most apps for desktops have ports for windows mobile
• Window phone 7

Much more ..

• Palm OS
• PDAs & mobile phones
• iOS
• Symbian
• Propriety & specialised OSs
• Create you own

OS dependent development (native)

• Programs run only on the devices OS
  • Programs compile for the given OS on the give hardware e.g. ARM
• Lots of APIs
• Good access to hardware

• Symbian, windows, Linux, Palm
• Window & Linux development
  • Similar development as on desktop
  • Programs compiled to proper hardware architecture
  • Restrictions on available libraries
    • Special libraries e.g. UI (springs portability problems)

OS independent development (interpreted)

• Java, BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless)
• Extra layer engine runnong on the devices's OS → additionaly overhead
• Apps are compatible for many devices
• Not all interfaces are available
• Restricted / Limited access to hardware
• Still require plenty of work on porting

• Course on symbian programming
• OO design
  • C++ libraries
  • Good support for mobility
  • Plenty of middleware

• Good development tools
  • Different development platforms/libraries for different types of devices
    • Series 60, Series 80, UIQ
  • Emulators for different environments
  • Python support

• Formerly Windows Mobile, Windows Pocket PC, …
• .NET compact framework
• C, C++, C#, VB, IronPython, …
  • Numerous libraries available
  • APIs similar to desktop windows

• Windows developement tools are also an option
  • Getting started & tutorials

• Seldom “native” or pre-installed
• Decent hardware access
• Many different embedded Linux for different hardwares
  • ARM Linux for ARM based processors

• Most apps cross-compiled to different architectures
  • Scratchbox - cross-compilling environment / toolkit
    • Also includes an emulator for ARM

• APIs & libraries from desktop version can also be used
• Same tools can be used for desktop apps development too

• Familiar Linux home & wiki pages
• Linux distribution for iPAQ, PDAs
• A Windows CE alternative
• PDA optimised GUI
  • Supports OPIE (trolltech qtopia) & GPE (GTK+X) UIs
• Familiar v0.8.4 - iPAQ h3600 .., Siemens Simpad
• ipkg - package management for Apps distribution

• Virtual machine (VM) interpreted byte code
  • Different VMs for different device types
  • Extra layer between hardware & apps
  • Bigger apps requiring more memory

• Apps (may) have limited access to device resources
  • Sandbox based security

Sun Java 2 Wireless toolkit

• Formely J2ME
• Different configurations for different devices
• Configurations composed of
  • The 2 low-level APIs
  • Optimised VMs targeted at 2 broad categories of devices
    • Connected device configurations (CDC)
    • Connected limited device configuration (CLDC)

Different profiles for different cases

• Profile
  • Specification detailing the java technologies API
  • Built on top of & utilise underlying configurations

• Mobile information device profile (MIDP) for CLDC
• Foundation profile, personal profile, … for CDC

Issues

• VMs on handsets function differently e.g. timers
• Different profiles complicate porting apps

• Open handset alliance
• Software platform running over Linux OS
• Android A - Z

• Development done in Java
  • Do not follow java profiles

• Have own VM
• Own software development kit

• Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW)
• Software platform able to download & run small apps
  • E.g. games

• Originally supported by qualcomm chipset based on CDMA phones
  • BREW air interface supports GSM, GPRS, 3G, UMTS, CDMA
  • Main market is USA

• BREW code created using C, C++, Java

• End to end solution
  • Apps give to BREW operators
  • Apps traded between BREW operators at BREW markets
  • Customers buy BREW apps from operators

• BREW facilitates
  • Subscriber billing & settlement to publishers, developers & their partners via BREW delivery system

• Interpreted OO programming language
  • Compiles to interpreted byte code
    • implicit & automatic compilation
  • Same code works in most devices

• Extensible (add modules)
  • C, C++, Fortran, …
  • Java (Jython), C#/Mono (IronPython)

• Automatic memory management
  • Reference counting
  • GC added for cycle detection

• Safe
  • No core dumps due to bugs
  • Decent exception handling

• Extremly portable
  • Unix/Linux, Windows, Mac, RiscOS, PlayStation, VMS, …

• Supported in most new mobile platforms
  • Linux, PalmOS, Windows, Maemo, Symbian, S60

• Some module absent in some platforms

• Module have different APIs in different platforms
  • GUI - Maemo (gtk+hildon), Symbian (appuifgw)

• Some modules have been removed in maemo
  • E.g. dlelib, audiodev, curses, mutex, netrc, crypt, etc

• Performance
  • Slightly slower than java?
  • Requires less RAM than java

• Good for prototypying apps
  • Fast tp write & understand
  • No cross compiling problems

• What is the target group of our service / app?
  • What kind od devices does the group have
  • What are the capabilities of these devices
  • What is the environment for these services

• What device capabilities are required for our service
  • Does the device have required apps?
  • Can we create our own app to the device
  • How much computation is required

• What app types exist for the given OS
  • Thin client
  • Web browser
  • Messaging

• Possible to create own apps for the OS
  • Smart client
  • At what cost?
  • What interfaces are offered/exposed

• What development tools exists?