Saturday, July 08, 2006

Midlets - The Push Registry

The 2.0 release of MIDP includes a number of enhancements that help developers write Java applications for devices. One of the most intriguing new features is "push," which provides a way for a MIDlet to respond to network activity regardless of whether it is currently running. Among other things, push can be used to integrate wireless messaging into applications or proactively contact the user about something of interest to them. Applications can even run as a service by responding to an inbound network connection, performing a task and then shutting down. All of this can occur with little or no user interaction.

MIDlets, in a sense, can now run like a service on a device to handle certain tasks without the user explicitly needing to start the application. With the addition of push, MIDP applications gain prominence on the device, much like SMS and the phone call features of a cell phone, rather than being tucked off to the side under some obscure menu.

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