Sams Teach Yourself Wireless Java with J2ME in 21 Days begins by establishing the basic parameters of J2ME development and its uses in building wireless applications. The tutorial chapters introduce both text and graphical application development for typical wireless devices. Finally, the book presents the major types of applications that the wireless developer will build-information management, communications, games, etc. The book also introduces the basic concepts of networking wireless devices through Java.
Lately there has been much talk about how the world is moving toward a future without wires. At last check, wires still deliver power to my house, and entirely too many wires form a tangled mess behind my computer. We are destined to live with at least some wires for quite some time. However, the wires that are likely to disappear from our lives are the ones that enable us to communicate with each other. The rapid adoption of mobile phones is the most obvious sign that people prefer the freedom of carrying around wireless devices to communicate more freely. Mobile phones are now such a part of everyday life that many states have passed legislation to limit or ban their use when driving. When politicians are aware of a new technology, it isn’t very new any more!
The push from a wired world to a wireless one is steadily taking place, and will have a dramatic impact on how we access information and communicate with each other. Not surprisingly, wireless access to the Internet is getting the most attention when it comes to the benefits of going wireless. Wireless Internet access opens all kinds of opportunities for doing interesting things on mobile devices such as phones and pagers. Not only will you be able to browse specially formatted Web content, you will also be able to schedule flights, monitor auctions, and get stock quotes—tasks that are regularly performed on a wired desktop computer. A few mobile phones and pagers that enable you to do some of these things have been around for a little while, but they are somewhat limited in that there is no way to build entirely custom applications. The one thing missing from the wireless equation, until now, is a solid software platform on which to build compelling wireless applications.