Nokia Smartphone Hacks

Credits

About the Author

Michael Juntao Yuan (http://www.MichaelYuan.com/) is a mobile alpha geek and author of three mobile-technology-related books. Over the last couple of years, he has managed to accumulate more than a dozen smartphones—most of them are Nokia phones. But he is still waiting for the ultimate smartphone that converges the functionality of a mobile phone, iPod, PDA, PlayStation Portable, prosumer digital camera, GPS, XM radio, TV, key card, credit card, and Swiss army knife. Of course, that device must also fit into his back pocket and have more than 24 hours of battery life in continuous operation. OK, maybe he is dreaming. But isn’t mobile technology all about turning dreams into reality? In fact, with some hacking, a lot of this functionality can already be achieved on today’s smartphones. You just need to read this book. :-)

Professionally, Michael specializes in end-to-end software solutions for enterprises. He is the lead developer of Nokia’s Series 40 Java Blueprint Application and is actively involved in various standards committees helping to define the next-generation Java platform on mobile phones. Michael currently works for JBoss Inc., the Professional Open Source software company, focusing on next-generation Java enterprise middleware. He writes articles for leading journals and speaks at many conferences on subjects ranging from mobile application development to software development process management.

Michael has a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. When he is not working, writing, or playing with gadgets, he likes to travel and take pictures. Check out his picture albums at http://www.jjcafe.net/photography/.

Contributors

This book covers a diverse range of hacks, written by a diverse group of contributors. The following people contributed their hacks and knowledge to this book:

• Brian Jepson is an O’Reilly editor, programmer, and coauthor of Mac OS X Tiger for Unix Geeks and Linux Unwired. He’s also a volunteer systems administrator and all-around geek for AS220 (http://www.as220.org), a nonprofit arts center in Providence, Rhode Island. AS220 gives Rhode Island artists uncensored and unjuried forums for their work. These forums include galleries, performance space, and publications. Brian sees to it that technology, especially free software, supports that mission.

• R. Emory Lundberg lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife, Elizabeth, and a chubby calico cat named Echo(1). By day he applies ninja tactics to errant packets for VeriSign’s excellent Managed Security Services team, and by night he writes about mobile technology and tinkers with gadgets. He will one day be survived by his motor scooters and an exquisite collection of mobile phones.

• Schuyler Erle was born near 39.9 N 75.2 W, and later on earned a degree studying linguistics nearby at Temple University. Sometime afterward, he moved west in search of dot-com fame and fortune, but instead ended up near 38.4 N 123 W, writing software for several different departments within O’Reilly Media. During his stint at O’Reilly, Schuyler got into wireless networking and, in his spare time, cowrote the NoCat Authentication System, one of the earliest and still one of the most widely used open source captive portal packages. Schuyler’s interest in automating analysis of possible long-distance 802.11 links led to collaboration with Rich Gibson on the NoCat Maps project. Together with Schuyler’s wife and collaborator, Jo Walsh, the three of them wrote Mapping Hacks, which was published by O’Reilly in 2005. Today, Schuyler and Jo spend most of their time around 51.1 N 0.1 W, but tomorrow they might well be found somewhere else entirely. Schuyler is, among other things, chief engineer of Locative Technologies, a consultancy offering expertise in open source GIS, with an emphasis on populist design, grassroots political and humanitarian action, and sustainable economic development.

• Rael Dornfest is chief technology officer at O’Reilly Media. He assesses, experiments, programs, fiddles, fidgets, and writes for the O’Reilly Network and various O’Reilly publications. Rael is series editor of the O’Reilly Hacks series and has edited, contributed to, and coauthored various O’Reilly books, including Mac OS X Panther Hacks, Mac OS X Hacks, Google Hacks, Essential Blogging, and Peer to Peer: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies. He is also program chair for the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. In his copious free time, Rael develops bits and bobs of freeware, particularly the Blosxom weblog application (http://www.blosxom.com/), is editor in chief of MobileWhack (http://www.mobilewhack.com/), and (more often than not) maintains his Raelity Bytes weblog (http://www.raelity.org/).

• Edd Dumbill is a free software enthusiast, internet entrepreneur, and Englishman. He has a weblog at http://usefulinc.com/edd/blog.

• Haihao Wu grew up in Shanghai and lives in Austin, Texas with his wife. He works for Freescale Semiconductor.

• Ju Long is an assistant professor for Computer Information Systems at the McCoy School of Business at Texas State University. She has a Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She studies technology’s impact on business and how new software development methodologies are changing our world.

• Trent Fitzgibbon works as a senior software engineer for Nokia Finland. He graduated from Monash University and was named “Outstanding Student in the Bachelor of Computer Science” by the Australian Computer Society in 1999. Since moving to Finland three years ago, he has been developing advanced smartphone software for Nokia’s Series 60 platform. Previously, Trent worked in Australia and the U.S. as an embedded software engineer.

• Kamil Kapadia was born and raised in Concord, California. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego, with a bachelor of science degree in Computer Science. At a young age, he learned to program in BASIC and fell in love with programming. After Kamil was introduced to C++, he decided he wanted to become a programmer. Kamil currently resides in Northern California, where he spends his free time learning about new programming languages and technologies.

• Frank Koehntopp is an IT security professional and mobile geek. He’s 38, married with two kids, and lives in Germany. His alter ego, The GadgetGuy, writes a weblog on http://www.gadgetguy.de/. He can be reached through the #mobitopia IRC channel on irc.freenode.org, where he often hangs out with other mobile geeks.

• Ajay Kapur is Founder and President of Moov Software, a developer of smartphone applications. Previously, Ajay worked at Goldman Sachs, making venture capital investments in semiconductor, systems, and software startups. Ajay has a BA in Physics and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, where he was a Regents’ Scholar. He will be graduating from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business in 2007.

• Donald Smith has been involved in digital image making for more than 10 years. He worked on the animated television series “Voltron the Third Dimension” for Netter Digital Entertainment and “Max Steel” for Sony Television and Warner Brothers. Donald has a BFA degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and is involved in painting, 3D animation, and video. He can be reached by email at [e-mail] and has a online portfolio at http://www.geocities.com/don_3d.

Acknowledgments

First, I would like to thank Brian Jepson, my editor at O’Reilly Media. Brian helped me organize the book from the very beginning and provided key guidance throughout the development process. His thoughtful edits and sharp comments have greatly improved the quality and coverage of the book. Brian has also personally contributed several important hacks. It is a great privilege to work with you, Brian!

R. Emory Lundberg is the technical reviewer of the book. But his contribution is not limited to valuable review comments. Emory directly contributed several hacks. His writings in MobileWhack (http://www.mobilewhack.com/) and other places have inspired other hacks in the book. Thank you, Emory!

Haihao Wu is a personal friend of mine and a fellow mobile geek. He not only contributed two hacks, but also spent hours on the phone and in face-to-face conversations helping me solve problems. But most importantly, he permitted me to play with his N-Gage and PlayStation Portable when I was not writing. Haihao, DON’T PANIC.

I am indebted to all of those who contributed to this book, as well as to the following individuals who offered help and encouragement at various points during the writing process: Michal Bacik, Jonas Salling, Colleen Romero, Khoa Duong, Goldy Lukka, and Kok Seong Khew. I would also like to thank Forum Nokia for contributing a very useful hack on the Nokia Theme Studio.

Finally, I would not have archived anything without the loving support of my beautiful wife and collaborator, Ju Long. She has to endure my long working hours and busy weekends. As a noted mobile commerce researcher, Ju contributed two hacks directly to the book, and her professional opinions influenced many others. You are the best, Ju!