Just like their full-size desktop and laptop brethren, PDAs and other mobile devices must run useful applications to earn their keep. However, handheld application development presents different and often tougher challenges than standard PC development.
A new mobile operating system option from Savaje Technologies (its pronounced “savage”), called Savaje XE, enables mobile application developers to write full Java 2 platform applications and run them on a handheld or embedded device.
Although virtual machines for Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition and Personal Java have been available for Windows CE, Palm and Epoc devices for some time, poor performance on these platforms as well as the restrictions to slimmed-down versions of Java have hampered the popularity of these systems.
I took the beta release of Savaje XE for a spin on a Compaq iPaq, replacing Windows CE with the Java-optimized operating system in flash ROM. Although the beta was rough around the edges, I was impressed with the speed with which it ran the included Java apps.
For more information, check out www.savaje.com.