Development for mobile phones?

I saw that Sun Microsystems had a tool for this that runs on linux (I have ubuntu), would that be the way to go or is there something else? And how do I interface a cellphone with my computer? Infrared port right? Also I guess I need a reasonably expensive phone... hmmmm.

- Thanks in advance! :)

I use Game-Editor, its for Windows, PDA, Smartphone and GP2X

And theres also Visual Studio.

Most cells have their special tools to develop games etc. Many of them are using a near cross-model compatible Java variant, this may be the way to go.

Only a few mobile cells are using linux so far. This will be a nice thing, in a few years I think.

Nearly all phones (but all very different) = J2ME (Java)

Smartphones = Windows or Symbian S60 = C++ (or game editor or similar)

Be prepared for quite a lot of pain unless you just focus on one phone model/platform.

Instead of infrared use bluetooth (or a cable!)

Is there realistically room in the market for indie developers to publish games and apps on mobile phones?

No, I just have lots of spare time :)

java 2 micro edition runs with linux so I'll probably get that. I don't really know how to use the infrared port on ubuntu, I'll have to do some research on how to connect...

Most phones will only let you transfer media with bluetooth / IR. For game development you need to use the included Java ME emulator, then host the tested results on a webpage that in my case, on a Linux host, will also need a mime type .htaccess modifier file in the same folder. You then use the phone's browser to install and test.

You can use the toolkit that each phone company provides. Like Nokia freely provides the symbian tool kit. The Sun Java site has an entire section dedicated to mobile development. But heres some others :

- Mobile Basic - http://www.mobilebasic.com/Home.jsp - old and dated, but still works surprising well. includes a map editor also.
- Midlet Pascal - http://www.midletpascal.com/ - very good interface, uses pascal (or delphi) langauge for coding. fairly up to date and FREE. but author uses a crappy hosting and bandwidth is exceeded so you'll have to wait till its up again. Actually i have a local copy somewhere..email me if you need it.
- GapiDraw - http://www.gapidraw.com/ - high quality but expensive
- Edge3d Engine - http://kotisivu.mtv3.fi/Applari/ - a bit dated symbian 3d engine
- AppForge - http://www.appforge.com/products/crossfire/index.html - More of mobile app software. Intergrated with Visual Studios and you can build with .NET
- Simplicity - http://www.datareps.com/index.jsp - Again, more for mobile application development
- GoDB - http://www.consigntech.com/ - similar thing...
- http://www.jroller.com/page/shareme/J2MEResources - good link for J2ME development info
- http://developers.sun.com/techtopics/mobility/midp/articles/game/ - source code for a MIDP (java) cell phone tank game
- Sharewire - http://www.sharewire.net/ - place to sell or distribute or demo your mobile app

And I had several more but their site seems to have gone down....like Omega Basic and another mobile engine called "Yeti".

Obviously you'd want to have some kind of emulator to test your app/game on the PC. Theres a whole bunch of them out there...i'll list someother time. You can either use bluetooth or if your phone has a memory card (SD or MMC) via card reader to transfer your app/game to your phone for testing.

Neuro: excuse any random stuff from me via email... just trying out gaim instant messenger :D

I'll stick with j2me, because I love java. But I've exceed my data cap for my dialup connection... how embarrassing :O

- Thanks everyone for random links, I've saved this thread for future reference :)

Avoid. So far as I could tell, this doesn't work in even the most basic sense.

Your right about that....out of all the mobile toolkits i've used, I never quite got Omega Basic to work...at all. Probably why they shut down.

Mobile Basic