The WURFL

If you thought working around the issues with different browsers was bad, try developing for the mobile internet. Thousands of devices with different capabilities and numerous markup languages make it a tough environment.

Thankfully some jolly nice people have invented the Wireless Universal Resource File or WURFL. In short this is a gynormous XML file that has information about all the wireless devices on earth..

Better still they have created tag library (WALL) that enables you to use the WURFL to create the correct mark up on the fly.

Their demo version was not available so I have installed my own here. If you have time open this URL: http://blog.spuggy.co.uk:8080/wurfl/wall/index.jsp on your phone and it will show all your phone's capabilities.

Alternatively you could see if the person sat next to you fancies a game of Rock Paper Scissors.

Ultimately it's your choice honey.

Get serious about mobile apps

It is getting serious ....

via Tom Hume

Nokia and IBM have teamed-up to persuade Java developers to get serious and write corporate applications and services for handsets, instead of games. The companies, appearing jointly at JavaOne 2005, said a recently completed Java API would "put the power of the server" into mobile client devices, allowing developers to quickly and easily update handsets with new services. more...

and more mobile stuff for Java - see: Java gets mobile at 10