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UPDATE (03/13/2008): New MIDlet manager in development: PhoneME; Jbed for WM2003(SE) released!

There are two pieces of news for everyone interested in running Java MIDlets. The first will be having a pre-WM5 device and wanting to run Java MIDlets (for example, Opera Mini) on it. Yes, at last, some Russian hackers made Jbed, the industry-leading MIDlet manager work under WM2003(SE)! The second (and, for most people, not that important) piece of news concerns a brand new MIDlet manager port for Windows Mobile.

1.	Some Russian hackers, including the 4pda.ru folks, have, at last, managed to make Jbed, the best MIDlet manager, work under WM2003 and WM2003SE. The importance of this just can’t be stressed enough: so far, you only had the really inferior IBM J9 and the 10-series TAO MIDlet Manager to run MIDlets on pre-WM5 operating systems. Now, this has dramatically changed. Now, nothing will stop you from using Opera Mini on your pre-WM5 Pocket PC.

The direct link to these WM2003(SE) MIDlet Managers are as follows. There are three versions: a modded one, a non-3D one and a 3D one; all with a heap size fix.

JBed3dMod_HeapSizeFix

Esmertec Jbed heapfix

Esmertec Jbed3d heapfix

They have also made a MAJOR update to their 4PDA.ru MIDlet article, linking to all the contemporary Esmertec, TAO etc. versions (including ones with heap fixes, with and without 3D support etc.); the above links can also be found in their article. You can see the translation of the new page HERE (Google) and HERE (Babelfish). Note that I’ve kept the original page HERE (Google) and HERE for historical reasons for people interested in the pre-Esmertec times.

2. Now, the other piece of news, which, again, won’t be of that much interest to non-WM2003 / non-Java hackers.

Java is a really viable programming platform. Not only several high-quality games make it worthwhile, but also probably the best and, if you’re lucky enough with your geographical location, fastest and most bandwidth usage-friendly mobile browser available for mobile phones (including Windows Mobile), Opera Mini 4.

I’ve already devoted an entire all-in-one Bible to running Java on Windows Mobile (and Symbian). Now, let me introduce the latest Windows Mobile KVM: PhoneME.

PhoneME is another "let’s bring Java to various platforms” projects (official homepage HERE), which has recently received Windows Mobile support.

The main homepage of the Windows Mobile port is HERE (do NOT get the ones at the official download page of the project - they’re outdated!) Should you want to download the MIDlet manager, get the file starting with "phoneME Feature – MIDP” from the download page.

Get the CAB file; install it. (I assume you install it in the main storage of your handset; my MIDlet manager main lnk file and registry import file will be tailored for this install location.) After this, you’ll need to associate JAR files with the app; to do this, you’ll need THIS file (import it into the Registry!). You might also want to invoke the MIDlet manager directly; for this, you’ll need THIS file.

Unfortunately, currently, the MIDlet manager is pretty much useless; for example, it seems to be impossible to deploy Opera Mini 4 under the current (8525) MIDlet manager version:

(Interestingly, the 4PDA.ru folks reported they managed to deploy an older version of OM; however, they didn’t particularly like the way it ran. That is, they also state the current version has a lot to be desired.)

All in all, you will NOT want to check it out in its present form. I’ll try to let you know when a considerably better, more advanced version is released.

Still speaking of the project, the Personal version (not to be mistaken for the MIDP MIDlet manager!) seems to run standalone (Personal profile) apps OK (it does NOT have an Internet Explorer Mobile applet plug-in, though). An example of running the Hello World application available on the homepage as a separate download:

(Should you want to give it a try, assuming you installed the MIDlet manager in the built-in storage of your handset, use an invocation .lnk file with the following contents:

254#"\phoneme\personal\bin\cvm.exe" -cp "\phoneme\hello" Hello

Also make sure you unZIP the contents of the archive to \phoneme\hello.)

That is, if you’re into running Personal Profile applications (and not MIDlets), you might want to give it a more thorough try.

(Thanks to my blog reader thevery for drawing my attention to the project!)

Additional info

A related forums.java.net discussion (not very interesting for anyone not interested in recompiling the sources)

4PDA.ru’s related discussion (translated) HERE (Google) and HERE (Babelfish).