Rating: 
Summary: Good overview book
Review: This is a great book to help you get a handle on the Java2Micro Edition. Need to know the difference between a Profile & aConfiguration? Wondering where PersonalJava fits in with regards tothe J2ME?The weakness of this book is the 'code' aspect. Theauthor goes through various implementations with a Tic Tac Toe game,but fails to go through in any detail of the main API's that aren'texactly in the J2SE (Records, Connector, how to draw low-level, Highlevel GUIs, etc..). Also, after reading this book it failed to mentionwhich DataStructures are available. Also, the detail of theimplementations is either slightly out of date, very light orboth. Besides all that, it is a good book (hell it's the only J2MEbook that I know). For an overview book you couldn't ask for more.Easy writing style and helpfull diagrams, but not overdone. I wasinspired enough to write a J2ME game...
Rating:
Summary: Good overview book
Review: This is a great book to help you get a handle on the Java2Micro Edition. Need to know the difference between a Profile & aConfiguration? Wondering where PersonalJava fits in with regards tothe J2ME? The weakness of this book is the 'code' aspect. Theauthor goes through various implementations with a Tic Tac Toe game,but fails to go through in any detail of the main API's that aren'texactly in the J2SE (Records, Connector, how to draw low-level, Highlevel GUIs, etc..). Also, after reading this book it failed to mentionwhich DataStructures are available. Also, the detail of theimplementations is either slightly out of date, very light orboth. Besides all that, it is a good book (hell it's the only J2MEbook that I know). For an overview book you couldn't ask for more.Easy writing style and helpfull diagrams, but not overdone. I wasinspired enough to write a J2ME game...
Rating: 
Summary: The first J2ME book hits the shelves...
Review: This is the first book that wrestles with J2ME. Actually, the book is pretty good and readable and my opinion id that it will be interesting read for every Java programmer. The book assumes a solid knowledge of J2SE and doesn't assume any knowledge about embedded programming. PART ONE - Java and Small Devices explains what the "small" device means today and why the standard Java became fat and slow and had to diverge to three APIs (J2ME, J2SE, J2EE) in order to try to satisfy all developers' needs. PART TWO - J2ME Specifications explains fundamentals: profiles and configurations and briefly depicts an architecture of J2ME applications. Here we learn how Java team "implemented" the "write once, run anywhere" paradigm in small devices. Actually, the solution is a compromise of having a portable part of the application (which deals with configuration API) and "maybe portable" (probably not) part (which deals with profile API). Of course, there is still non-portable part which deals with JNI (native) api. This part was the most interesting theory part for me. PART THREE - Implementations explains several implementations of J2ME. The most notable contribution is in Palm area (the author also made a book about Palm programming recently). Several devices are introduced with their profiles and limitations. I have a solid background in J2SE and wanted a quick, not very formal introduction in J2ME. This book delivered for me. I also learned an important distinction and similarities among J2ME (future development platform), JavaCard (not related to J2ME, very small API, constraints are big...), EmbeddedJava (not related to J2ME, "black box" application philosophy) and PersonalJava (will be integrated into a J2ME). The CD which goes with the book has all development tools mentioned in the book altogehter with a source code to the main application from the book (Tic-Tac-Toe implementation for J2ME). The main drawback is that J2ME is not finished yet and author tried to compensate this with lots of resources (URLs) where final stuff should be in a couple of months. These resources are very valuable even now. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Very Nice Introduction to J2ME for Multiple Platforms
Review: This was a clean and simple introduction to J2ME and its flexibility across multiple lightweight platforms (PalmOS PDAs, mobile phones, RIM Blackberry). Though J2ME and its device profiles are still rather immature, this text does a nice job of presenting the existing capabilities, warning of the current shortcomings, and touching on future implementations and developments of J2ME. It also includes the hard to find compiler and preverification command syntax. This book even discusses the Java alternate Waba and its virtual machine as compared to J2ME. Included is a CD with demo code and additional documenation, with links to various resources, including the authors web site. For those wishing to port their existing Java skills to smaller devices or for anyone just curious about how J2ME compares to the rest of the Java standards, this is the place to start.
Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction to J2ME and small-device App dev
Review: Working on a tight time frame for a final year engineering project, I needed to find a book that gave me an overview of what J2ME is, how it differs from J2SE, and how to develop applications. This book did a great job in satisfying all the above. The book was an easy read and written well so that it was quick to read the entire book and understand the entire J2ME concept and what it means to a seasoned Java developer. Eric does a great job in helping new J2ME developers get familiar with the current J2ME SDKs out there on the market, however most of the information is based on an older version of the SDK. Perhaps in his next edition, he can talk about the Zucotto Wireless Whiteboard J2ME SDK. They also offer Java Bluetooth APIs. This is a must have book if you want to get up to speed quickly on the technology. I found that finding information on the web regarding J2ME was cumbersome and convoluted. The Sun website was confusing and does not contain the integration of resources necessary to fully explain J2ME clearly. One suggestion is that the next version include more examples of MIDP or CLDC applications, especially developing GUIs and methods to avoid the absence of Floating-point data types and functions. Either the book or the companion website should list more J2ME resources that can be found on the web. I personally find it restricting to program in J2ME without the vast selection of classes in J2SE. Would be nice to find J2ME compliant implementations of certain key J2SE classes.
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