What can Java inside cell phone do?

Question

hello,
i would like to know what can Java inside my cell phone do? can it:
1) run in a background
2) initiate a phone call
3) send an sms or receive an sms
4) can it control bluetooth and to what extend
what are things that java cannot do?
thank you very much!

Answer 1

Hi,
J2ME apps run in sandbox mode. Things can be done using various APIs. To
answer your specific questions:
1) depends on the host device implementation, this is not defined by JCP
2) AFAIK not (due to security). There might be an API however that allows you to
do this on certain devices.
3) Yeah, no problem. See http://java.sun.com/products/wma/
4) Depends on APIs provided by device manufacturer. JCP defined http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=82.
The things J2ME can not do are mostly features like accessing your phone
book, use built-in camera (unless APIs are provided), floating point math
operations, ...
Reading J2ME related JSRs from http://www.jcp.org/ will give you the overview
of what's defined and can be expected from all compliant phones. Other
features may or may not be implemented.
Hope this helps,
Peter