What will the 'new enterprise features' of Apple's iPhone be, and does the use of the phrase by Apple in a recent invite mean that the next great enterprise smartphone battle will be between iPhone and RIM BlackBerry? This is the question raised by Apple-watchers in the wake of a report in a BusinessWeek blog on the daily doings of Apple and the many companies in its orbit that 'Apple has figured out how it wants to tap demand from all those corporate types that wish their employer would support the iPhone as well as other devices such as the Blackberry.'

As I recently spoke at the Java Mobile & Embedded Developer Days conference at Sun's Santa Clara campus, and the yearly Mobile World Congress conference was held in Barcelona in February, and the majority of the JSRs that have been active in the past few weeks are in the mobile space, I thought it would be opportune to focus on Java ME in this month's column.

SYWARE announced the Spring 2008 Visual CE and Associated Tools training courses. Visual CE is a rapid application development tool used to create database applications that run on Microsoft Windows Mobile Pocket PCs. SYWARE will offer this round of classes near its corporate headquarters in Cambridge, MA. The first class will be held on May 5, 2008 and will be a full day session covering basic database design and an introduction to mobile application development with Visual CE. An intermediate full day class will be held on May 6, 2008 covering Visual CE development specifics.

VantagePoint Staffing Solutions has selected hosted VoIP from Cypress Communications as its communications solution. VantagePoint selected the Cypress Communications solution because of the inherent remote office, mobility and business continuity features. Cypress Communications markets its hosted VoIP solution as C4 IP because of the product's ability to help users connect, communicate, collaborate and continue.

StarTech.com announced the launch of the Wi-Fi Detective. This product will save mobile Internet users, such as business travelers and students, time and effort by allowing them to locate accessible Wi-Fi networks, using a compact, portable device. The Wi-Fi Detective is battery powered and features an LCD display that can be used to locate available network hotspots, while identifying vital information such as security protocols, signal strength and more.

I am always being told off by i-technologists for quoting Picasso as having said that computers are useless. But I still love his reasoning: 'Because they can only give you answers.' Picasso, like AJAXWorld Magazine, liked questions. So we thought we would share with you what some of the world's leading rich Internet application pioneers are thinking may be the next questions that we need to see answered. From that, readers can themselves infer: where is AJAX headed next?

Telenity announced that it provided its Canvas SMSC, Short Message Service Center to Avea, the youngest and most innovative mobile operator in Turkey with over 10 million subscribers. As a dynamic GSM operator, Avea's goal is to create a difference with its innovative service approaches and leading applications while providing its subscribers with the best services for the most economic prices. In order to achieve this goal, Avea needed to lower its operating and capital expenditures as well as increase the capacity and overall performance of its value added services.

Being held for the first time on March 18, 2008 at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, AJAXWorld Security Bootcamp is a compelling, intensive, one-day, hands-on training program that will teach Web developers, Web designers, and other Web professionals how to build secure AJAX applications and demonstrate what the best practices are to mitigate security problems in AJAX apps. It is led by one of the world's foremost AJAX security experts and popular teachers, Billy Hoffman.

So is O'Reilly actually condoning the hacking of the phones? O'Reilly has had a long and prestigious history as being the ultimate source for *nix manuals, including many books that became so dogeared I actually bought multiple copies, including dozens of 'in a nutshell' books. Back in those good old days, 'hacks' which appeared in O'Reilly titles were actually just low-level down-and-dirty nuggets of pure gold that geeks and admins loved but were all perfectly legal.

Google and Apple's publicized emergence onto the scene of the mobile industry is the latest consequence of the mobile phone becoming a best-selling device and a driver of growth in the telecom industry. All the big PC and Internet players want a piece of the pie, and IT industry pundits announce that finally the mobile phone will become mini-PCs. But in fact, it is more likely that the PC and Internet players will have to adapt their thinking and practices in order for them to compete in the mobile phone industry. This article explores the reasons why.

4 of our 6 first quarter projects have major components in Java ME. These are new applications, from companies who understand the porting issues and the complexities. This quarter is not particularly different from other quarters: we get far more work designing applications than designing web sites. Java ME is going to keep on chugging, maybe even seeing a rebirth, for quite a while yet.

Calesco announced its new fashion guide service for mobile phones. Customers are encouraged to turn on Bluetooth while visiting the Calesco outlet in Dresden city. The visitor receives the new collections of haute couture bridal dresses La Sposa and W1 White One just by accepting the incoming file transfer. This service is meant to be a take away opportunity for undecided clients.

MontaVista Software and DataViz announced the availability of Documents To Go for the MontaVista Mobilinux 5.0 mobile operating system. As a result of the integration of the mobile office suite Documents To Go by DataViz with Mobilinux, mobile device users will be able to open and view Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint email attachments directly on their Linux-based mobile devices.

ACCESS and MontaVista Software reinforced their shared commitment to accelerate the development of smart mobile devices by releasing a pre-integrated software stack combining the ACCESS Linux Platform with the MontaVista Mobilinux operating system. ACCESS Linux Platform enables the creation of world-class mobile phones and wireless devices by providing a commercial-grade Linux platform designed for the worldwide mobile phone and converged device markets. MontaVista Mobilinux is the field-proven mobile operating system used in 90 percent of Linux-based smartphones.

Synchronica announced Mobile Gateway 3.5 with new back-end support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and Sun Java Communications Suite 5. Mobile Gateway 3.5 also introduces support for the Java Content Repository (JCR) standard, allowing it to be integrated with third-party personal information management (PIM) systems, reducing the development time. The new product incorporates a billing API (Application Programming Interface) to facilitate both prepaid billing, predominantly used in the consumer sector, and post-paid billing favored by corporate accounts.

'Music is the heart and soul of the mobile entertainment experience, and with Soundbuzz as a part of our family, Motorola has the biggest heart and the most soul in mobile music in Asia,' said Ian Chapman-Banks, Vice-President of Mobile Devices Marketing for Motorola Asia-Pacific, as Moto today completed its acquisition of Soundbuzz Pte., Ltd., a leading pan-Asian music provider. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Google's Android operating system for cellphones was on display in Barcelona, Spain, this week as manufacturers like Texas Instruments displayed prototypes running the open-source OS. 'We're excited to see that people are excited about Android,' said Google in a statement released to coincide with the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona.

Microsoft has bought the company that created the Sidekick smartphone, Danger Inc. 'The addition of Danger serves as a perfect complement to our existing software and services, and also strengthens our dedication to improving mobile experiences centered around individuals and what they like,' said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division.

Jamba's WAP portal delivered more than 20 percent higher conversion rate in its first month. The portal, evolved following six months of rigorous consumer testing, is based on direct feedback from customers who regularly use the portal and was built to the highest technological standards. It is a user friendly mobile portal. This new version is ten times faster than the previous version and houses Jamba's entire extensive content collection utilizing the same easy to use concept as the website. After an incredibly successful launch in Germany Jamba's new portal will this year be rolled out in over 25 countries around the globe.

Jentro Technologies GmbH announced the launch of its new Zenlet platform to facilitate the rapid development and delivery of unique, relevant and rich location-based, social networking and vertical content mini-applications, called 'Zenlets.' These Zenlets can be accessed easily within a single client application on the mobile device - thus enhancing the personalized mobile Internet experience. This combined mobile browser and location-aware plug-in technology platform goes far beyond other widget platforms and further supports Jentro's position as the leading provider of flexible mobility solutions.

Trolltech has integrated its Qt cross-platform development framework with WebKit, the web browser technology used in Apple's iPhone and millions of Nokia smartphones. The integration of Qt and WebKit will enable mobile operators and handset manufacturers to create a customer experience that enriches mobile phone applications with live web content. Google Earth and iTunes are examples of such services currently available on the desktop. With Trolltec's Qt WebKit Integration, these type of applications - along with services such as social networking, instant messaging and real-time financial updates - can also be delivered to mobile phones.

Telenity announced that K'cell deployed Telenity's next generation IP-based Short Message Service Center, Canvas SMSC and Multimedia Messaging Service Center, Canvas MMSC in its GSM network. Since its initial operation, K'cell has lead a key role in giving tone and direction to the rapid development and growth of the cellular market in Kazakhstan where mobile penetration is anticipated to grow 60% in the next three years.

Logotec Engineering Group announced its roadmap of mobile extensions allowing users to access their Microsoft Dynamics CRM information on Windows Mobile devices. The service - Mobile@Connector for Microsoft Dynamics CRM - enables fully automatic creation of mobile versions of customer-specific Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementations. A free beta version of the service will be available from February 12, 2008, to May 31, 2008.

Unicon Systems, developers and manufacturers of CCOTS mobile devices and scalable Systems-on-Display (SoD) technology for mobile and wireless applications, announced that embedded industry veteran Bill Weinberg would be joining their advisory board.

Movius Interactive announced its relationship with Action Engine, The On-Device Portal Company. Through a global distribution, technology and services agreement, the two companies will leverage their products to create intuitive and personalized mobile media applications and portals for mobile operators, cable operators and other service providers globally. Movius selected Action Engine's award-winning Mobile Application Platform technology as a part its strategy of enabling interactive, advertising-enabled mobile handset applications that deliver a compelling user experience.

Global enterprise software company Oracle said it has bagged an order from Idea Cellular to implement Siebel CRM applications, which will address problems arising of the telco's extensive channel and dealer network and meet its fast-expanding customer base. Idea's strategic outsourcing partner -- IBM -- would undertake the implementation process across all channels and customer facing departments in 11 existing and two new circles of operations, Oracle said in a statement here.

Key opinion-formers in the field of infrastructure and pioneers of virtualization technologies of all types have already begun submitting speaking proposals to Virtualization Conference & Expo 2008 East, being held in New York City, 23-24 June, 2008. Topics covered will range from Server Virtualization, Application Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, Network Virtualization, I/O Virtualization and Storage Virtualization, to Virtual Machine Automation, Physical to Virtual (P2V) Migration, Management Applications, Tools and Utilities, and Virtualization Scripts and Procedures.

HP announced two software solutions that help telecom operators harness customer information to deliver personalized services that promote customer loyalty and lead to increased revenue. The company also announced that rapidly growing European operator, Hutchison 3G Austria, has successfully deployed the HP OpenCall Home Location Register (HLR) to support all wireless users of its popular '3' brand of high-speed services. The implementation is expected to double customer capacity and cut costs.

SkyCross announced that it is providing antennas for three landmark Samsung handsets: BlackJack II, Juke, and SGH-F700. The BlackJack II tops smartphone sales at AT&T; the Juke is a bestselling music phone for Verizon; and the F700, a rival to the iPhone, is a new, award-winning addition to the Ultra portfolio offered by Vodafone. SkyCross has a long history of delivering superior antennas to Samsung for its most popular devices. SkyCross provides Samsung with design and manufacturing services from its three facilities in Korea.

For the tens of thousands who were in attendance at University of Phoenix stadium this Sunday, the first responders charged with maintaining public safety were employing an innovative technology solution from Incident Communication Solutions, LLC (ICS). The City of Glendale Fire Department had teamed up with ICS to deploy the Tactical Incident Communications Suite (TICS) platform to maintain continuity of operations (COOP) for communications in the event traditional terrestrial systems become overloaded or unavailable. The system provided telephone, video teleconferencing (VTC) and broadband data connectivity to logistics personnel operating from the Area Command Center located on the stadium grounds.

Sybase announced that its Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) and SQL Anywhere customers now have free use, through 2008, of the Sybase WorkSpace Database Development tool, which is specifically tailored for the ASE and SQL Anywhere platforms. WorkSpace Database Development simplifies and unifies the complete development life cycle for database applications --development, debugging, testing and deployment. A graphical Eclipse-based tool, Sybase WorkSpace Database Development enables visual SQL building, query analysis, and sophisticated editing and debugging. With WorkSpace Database Development, ASE and SQL Anywhere users can build the highest quality code faster and to help ensure their databases and applications run optimally.

Acme Packet announced its solutions for the fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) security gateway market with the introduction of its Net-Net Multiservice Security Gateway (MSG). The Net-Net MSG securely wires subscribers to their mobile voice and data services over untrusted hybrid wireline/wireless access networks using IPsec tunnels. It is configurable as a standalone product to fulfill the requirements of a 3GPP UMA Security Gateway (SeGW) and a 3GPP I-WLAN Tunnel Terminating Gateway (TTG). It is also available as a tightly integrated solution when combined with Acme Packet?s Net-Net session border controller (SBC). Additionally, Acme Packet introduced its third hardware platform, the Net-Net 4000 ATCA (Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture) blade, for integrating industry-leading SBC and MSG functionality in the ATCA chassis of wireless system vendors.

They're termed 'early adopters.' They're the early birds who snap up the latest wireless devices like Apple's breakthrough iPhone. These high-tech consumer electronics' enthusiasts are critical to a new product's success because their opinions can often make or break a new product based on their satisfaction with its reliability and its ability to live up to its claims. If you make and market these gadgets, you must ensure they don't fly the coop - and if they do, that they leave content.

HP is about to put out a novel 1GHz Celeron laptop it calls a mobile thin client, its first, apparently the result of its acquisition of Neoware. Wyse, the other remaining thin client maven, beat HP, now the market leader, to the punch a few months ago and added two more models the other day looking much like HP's. HP's thing, which starts at $725, has no drive or fan or any moving parts at all; it's thoroughly solid-state including the 1GB flash module.

Nokia is buying Trolltech, the publicly traded Norwegian open source ISV, for roughly $153 million cash. Gee, and Trolltech just joined the LiMo Foundation, the anti-Nokia/anti-Microsoft mobile consortium that's building a middleware-focused Linux handset platform that can be shared by its members with third-party access to the APIs, and not Google's flashier Linux-based Android effort. The acquisition is practically in the bag.

Sun is offering ten grants of US $11,500 - equivalent to several months of pay for developers in some countries - for the best NetBeans projects submitted by open source developers. Conceived as a means of increasing general awareness around the NetBeans project as well as rewarding good work done by the NetBeans Community, the 'Dreams of Reality' contest is described in detail by worldwide NetBeans Community Manager Bruno Souza, the charismatic Brazilian developer, in a special audio webcast currently playing on SYS-CON.TV.

'We are exploring ways in which our mobile devices business can accelerate its recovery and retain and attract talent while enabling our shareholders to realize the value of this great franchise,' announced Greg Brown, Motorola president and CEO, in a statement yesterday. Translation, according to industry insiders: Moto's cellphone business is basically up for sale - in the wake of Motorola Inc's significant losses for Q4 and full-year 2007.

Google, which does not give guidance, missed both Wall Street's top and bottom expectations for its December quarter by a hair and the punters turned vicious pounding it down around 50 bucks after-hours. Consensus demanded non-GAAP earnings of $4.44 on revenues of $3.45 billion. Google came in with $4.43 on revenues $3.39 billion. Those revenues figures are net of what's called TAC, Google's traffic acquisition costs, the money it pays its partners, which it this case amounted $1.44 billion or 30% of its ad revenues.

Sybase iAnywhere announced that Catalina Marketing Corporation has selected Information Anywhere suite technology to help power its targeted marketing capabilities at more than 35,000 retail locations worldwide. Information Anywhere's Afaria component was chosen for its ability to securely manage the information flow to Catalina's retail locations.

Motorola Thursday night confirmed rumors that it might pull out of cell phones, the now-ubiquitous device that it invented. It put out a statement saying it was 'exploring the structural and strategic realignment of its business' and that its alternatives include 'the separation of mobile devices from its other business.' Motorola's sales of mobiles were down 38% in Q4 and company profits down 84% from $523 million to $111 million.