The new k-dimensional tree or KD-Tree index adds a structure in Perst that stores and manipulates point objects in a k-dimensional space by partitioning that space. Practical uses include computer graphics, geographical information systems and biometric applications such as fingerprint matching. In addition to their efficiency in handling multi-dimensional data, KD-trees are useful in “normal” applications in which query predicates contain various combinations of object fields. For example, KD-Trees are used to construct Query-By-Example (QBE) features in which the user selects fields and values, and the application builds database queries based on these selections.

While many Java databases offer limited index support, Perst implements rich options for data access, including specialized collection classes optimized for different data layouts and access patterns, including:

• Classic B-Tree implementation;
• R-tree indexes for spatially-oriented applications such as GIS and navigation;
• Main-memory database containers, based on T-Tree indexes, optimized for real-time memory-only access;
• Patricia Trie index, which speeds searches in networking and telephony applications;
• TimeSeries class to efficiently deal with small fixed-size objects;
• Specialized versions of collections for thick indices (indices with many duplicates), and bit indices (keys with a restricted number of possible values);
• KD-Tree indexes

For McObject’s announcement of KD-Tree support see http://www.mcobject.com/pressroom.php?step=3&article=93.

For general information about Perst for Android, including links to the open source, complete Perst database source code, and to McObject’s Android-ready TestIndex database benchmark, go to http://www.mcobject.com/android/.

Read also :

• McObject, Object-Oriented Embedded Database for Android
• ODMG3 now hosted by ODBMS.ORG
• db4objects Announces db4o Database for Android
• Android SDK Security Release m5-rc15

This merger gives researchers and students, as well as any software developer with interest in object oriented programming and persistence, a one-stop experience to find nearly 1,000 resources aggregated and selected by a team of more than 100 internationally renown experts on object database technology including names such as Alan Kay, Suad Alagic, Scott Ambler, Philippe Kahn, Michael Blaha, William Cook, and Carl Rosenberger.

“ODBMS.ORG is an outstanding resource to the community,” says Rick Cartell, Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems and a lead of the ODMG consortium before it was disbanded in 2001. “The group has done a great job re-igniting the ODBMS research and educational communities. The community no longer debates whether ODBMSs or RDBMSs are ‘best’, recognizing that the two will continue to co-exist. ODBMSs provide the only practical solution for many applications.”

ODBMS.ORG provides the Internet’s most up-to-date resource portal on object database technology, backed by a panel of 100 internationally recognizable experts and financial support from the three leading object database vendors, db4objects (db4o), Progress (ObjectStore), and Versant.

Read also :

• McObject Sharpens its Edge in Database Indexes With New KD-Tree
• db4objects Announces db4o Database for Android
• McObject, Object-Oriented Embedded Database for Android
• Android SDK Security Release m5-rc15

By supporting Android, Tira Wireless partners will be able to convert their applications from JavaME to Android easily. Another porting solution from JavaME to Android is now available after Esmertec and ME4Android. Tira Wireless solution will fit very well for organizations with limited internal development resources or those that require the scalability that Tira Wireless provides.

“Tira Wireless’ move to support Android is in line with our vision to support the major platforms and manage all elements of the mobile content lifecycle, regardless of the device or mobile operator,” said Juan Dewar, CEO of Tira Wireless. “Supporting the Android platform is also a natural extension of the work we have been doing with Java ME applications. Because of our years of experience in this market, we are very well positioned to understand the challenges of developing mobile content in a similar environment, and as a result, can maximize Android’s unique capabilities.”

Tira Wireless customers include Content publishers such Airbone Entertainment, Disney Mobile, Dwango Wireless, I-Play, Warner Bros, Pixiem, THQ Wireless, Dwango Wireless, Hudson Soft, ifone, Jumbuck, Mforma, Mobile Scope, Mobliss, Namco, Sega, SkyZone Entertainment, Sonic Branding Solutions, Sony Pictures Mobile, and Summus; Engineering Services Providers such Babel Media, Mahindra British Telecom, and Absolute Quality; and finally Mobile Operators : Telus, T-Mobile, and Helio.

The GoMobile Edition of the Jump Developer Desktop can be used to commercially deploy a single application on up to 12 handsets. For non-commercial purposes, it is free.

Read also :

• ME4Android, the JavaME Solution for Android
• Android is even better with Esmertec
• Android SDK Security Release m5-rc15
• McObject Sharpens its Edge in Database Indexes With New KD-Tree

“It is too early to discuss details at this point. We anticipate that as Android-based devices become available, and as the platform matures, we will be able to make more detailed product announcements.” a Sybase spokesperson told Open Handset Magazine.

Sybase is a company focused on managing and mobilizing information, it provides open, cross-platform solutions that securely deliver information anytime, anywhere, enabling customers to create an information edge. The world’s most critical data in commerce, communications, finance, government and healthcare runs on Sybase.

Sybase provides a set of services and products for mobile including advertising, applications, messaging, mobile Web, transaction and reporting.

Read also :

• Android SDK Security Release m5-rc15
• McObject Sharpens its Edge in Database Indexes With New KD-Tree
• Interview with Adriano Chiaretta from iambic
• Weekly Android Applications 12/2/2008

Java programmers are delighted with Android’s full object oriented platform they are frustrated by its bundling with a relational database, requiring cumbersome plumbing between objects and tables. db4o fills the gap by providing a fast and secure, native Java object database that makes storing objects and sharing of data between applications simple and easy.

It’s true that Android came with “Content providers” but as Carl Rosenberger, db4object’s Chief Software Architect, said in a blog post “this is not Java, it’s not object-oriented, it’s not even SQL.” Which is the missing element in Android platform : The object database solution.

This Tuesday we had the chance to talk to Nik Wekwerth, the VP of Marketing db4objects, and he told us about db4o solution for Android and how it could help developers to make fully advanced object oriented applications. “It’s all about simplicity” he told us, “In Java you prefer always to stay in Object Oriented. Object is more flexible than SQL, it doesn’t lock your memory”.

There are currently two applications ported to db4o, the Password Manager application and MapMe. It shows the capabilities of db4o and the simplicity of using objects to store and retrieve data. There is no real benchmark at this time Nik told us, but it’s clear from these two samples that using db4o is much easier and very simple to maintain.

Where can you use db4o ? “If you look at our customers, database usage is very large from planes, high speed trains, photocopiers, research …” Added Nik. DB4o proved its performance in many critical usage and their world class leaders customers like BMW, Boeing, Bosch, IBM, Intel, Ricoh, and Seagate, are certainly enough for Android developers to make sure that they have in hands a high level database solution.

Developers can write software applications that enable the backup of user data to a back-end server or their home PC. A consumer use case could be to start a game on the phone, freeze it, and continue playing at home in the evening. Business use cases include field force automation, data acquisition such as with RFID, and complex navigation systems that use locally cached geodata.

Db4o is open source under GPL, you can get started by downloading db4o for Android and start porting your current relational application, or start your new project in a fully object oriented environnement.

Read also :

• ODMG3 now hosted by ODBMS.ORG
• McObject Sharpens its Edge in Database Indexes With New KD-Tree
• McObject, Object-Oriented Embedded Database for Android
• Tips: Howto Connect Android Emulator behind proxy

Sample Flyer application running on Android

We asked Carlos on full JavaME support for Android and he told us in email “right now ME4Android does not support a complete JavaME stack but in the long run it will, specially when the source code becomes available.”

The good news is that ME4Android will be open sourced with Android, Carlos confirmed to OHM “Since Android will eventually be fully open sourced, I intend to do the same with ME4Android. Actually as soon as Google releases all of their source code, I’ll do the same.”

When asked about Esmertec solution, he told us “I am familiar with Esmertec Jbed and given the fact that it will bean optional commercial component on the free Android platform, you can guarantee that it will not be used much and will never have 100% deployment on Android. ME4Android as a free alternative with complete source code available has absolutely no barriers for adoption and provides the best bridge for JavaME developers to take to Android.”

ME4Android could be the solution for JavaME developers looking for a quick way to get their application running on Android at low cost. Actually they can continue to develop on their own platforms, then just wait for full JavaME support using ME4Android from Poliplus or Jbed from Esmertec. Handset Manufacturers will have to decide on this.

Read also :

• Tira Wireless Extends ‘Go Mobile’ Solution to Support Android Platform
• Android SDK Security Release m5-rc15
• McObject Sharpens its Edge in Database Indexes With New KD-Tree
• Interview with Adriano Chiaretta from iambic

It’s true that, for example, Symbian support programming in C++, but here is the full and real situation. There is a lot of application developed for Symbian, but you have to always compile your application for the different platforms separately. Applications for Symbian 3rd edition don’t run on 2nd, or 1st edition devices. Sometimes applications for S60 3rd edition are compatible with N73, but not with N80, while it should be the same operating system and there is no reason for an application to be hardware dependant.

Now back to Android, the fact is only Java language is supported doesn’t mean that you cannot develop applications in other languages. This have been proved by many developers, hackers and experts in application development for mobile. The guys at Elements Interactive B.V., the company behind Edgelib library, succeeded to run native C++ applications on the Android platform, even that at this time there is still many issues on display and sound … etc. This include the S-Tris2 game and a 3D animation demo of Edgelib.

Wouter ten Brink, Elements Interactive CTO, told us by email “As our company focuses on native (C++) development only, we will keep looking for solutions to bring native applications to Android.”. He added “Personally, I believe Google will eventually offer a way to run native code, but we’ll have to see what will happen on this area the coming months.”

Performance Vs Portability

It’s clear that Google, by making Dalvik the Java Virtual Machine for Android, is looking for maximum portability against performance. The MSM chipsets, currently supported by Android, include a Java hardware acceleration, which is supposed to provide high performance for Java applications running on Android Handsets. But it’s not everything.

The Google answer on running C/C++ applications on Android from the FAQs is : “No. Android applications are written using the Java programming language”. Very simple answer, but the problem here is for developers and companies having ready to use code and applications for other mobile platform and looking to get their code ported to Android at low cost.

Java-Not-In-Time and JIT

The performance issue in reality isn’t due to Java itself, but to the virtual machine running Java code on mobile devices. You can run Java very fastly on PCs today with JIT VMs, thing not available for mobile devices, which make Java applications and games very slow on mobile. So what about Dalvik ? Dan Morrill posted on the Android developers group that “a just-in-time compiler is definitely on the Dalvik roadmap”.

This should answer the performance question about Java, Android and Dalvik, even that we don’t know much at this time on the Dalvik VM.

Conclusion

Finally the choice of Java on Android is to make mobile application developement faster and easier for developers, and to make Android platform more stable. Probably many don’t agree on coding in Java for Android and looking for native support. This could solve some problems for native developers, but will open the door for a huge new problems and incompatibilities. If Google decided to make Android the best open mobile platform, it’s also their choice to keep this platform safe for a better future.

Read also :

• What’s on Android
• Weekly Android Applications 24/12/2007
• Android is even better with Esmertec
• Android SDK Security Release m5-rc15

“Ascender is proud to be providing the font solution to the Android platform built by the Open Handset Alliance. We believe that handset manufacturers, wireless carriers and application developers will be very happy with the fonts provided and we look forward to addressing the future font needs across the platform,” said Ira Mirochnick, President of Ascender Corporation. “We are also very excited that the platform supports our Ascender Compact Asian Font solution (ACAF) which will make it easy for manufacturers to implement additional high quality Asian fonts in a small footprint.”

According to the press release, the Droid family of fonts consists of Droid Sans, Droid Sans Mono and Droid Serif. Each contains extensive character set coverage including Western Europe, Eastern/Central Europe, Baltic, Cyrillic, Greek and Turkish support. The Droid Sans regular font also includes support for Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean support for the GB2312, Big 5, JIS 0208 and KSC 5601 character sets respectively.

It’s interesting to get Asian fonts supported for Android especially Japanese, Chinese and Korean, this also reflect the Google strategy to target the largest population. But what I notice here is that Android is missing middle eastern fonts such Arabic and Hebrew, in addition to other Asian fonts. So you will be missing these for current release, but we will probably see them supported in future releases according to Ascender.

Read also :

• New Open Handset Magazine
• Android SDK Security Release m5-rc15
• McObject Sharpens its Edge in Database Indexes With New KD-Tree
• Interview with Adriano Chiaretta from iambic

Synaptics is the only touch interface company in the alliance, and they are already providing mobile solutions for Onyx, Pantech, Samsung and many others. According to the press release, Synaptics will provide mobile handset designers with a powerful yet easy to use tool to develop advanced, multi-touch gestures for the Android platform.

“Synaptics is proud to be a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance,” said, Joseph Virginia, Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Handheld Business of Synaptics. “Our contribution to the Android platform will help bring dynamic touch user interfaces to everyone in the mobile market. By creating an open environment conducive to collaboration and partnering, the Alliance will allow key influencers to deliver innovative devices and services to meet the needs of the fast-changing mobile industry.”

Read also :

• The Linux Phone Standards and the Open Handset Alliance
• Android SDK Security Release m5-rc15
• McObject Sharpens its Edge in Database Indexes With New KD-Tree
• Interview with Adriano Chiaretta from iambic

Application Framework

The application Framework enable Android application to reuse and replace existent components. The Framework include Activity Manager, Window manager, Content providers, View system, notification manager, package manager, telephony manager, resource manager, location manager and XMPP service.

Android Libraries

Android system is based on set of C/C++ libraries used by various components of the Android system. Core libraries include :

• System C library- a BSD-derived implementation of the standard C system library (libc), tuned for embedded Linux-based devices
• Media Libraries- based on PacketVideo’s OpenCORE; the libraries support playback and recording of many popular audio and video formats, as well as static image files, including MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, and PNG
• Surface Manager- manages access to the display subsystem and seamlessly composites 2D and 3D graphic layers from multiple applications
• LibWebCore- a modern web browser engine which powers both the Android browser and an embeddable web view
• SGL- the underlying 2D graphics engine
• 3D libraries- an implementation based on OpenGL ES 1.0 APIs; the libraries use either hardware 3D acceleration (where available) or the included, highly optimized 3D software rasterizer
• FreeType- bitmap and vector font rendering
• SQLite- a powerful and lightweight relational database engine available to all applications

Dalvik Virtual Machine

Dalvik is the Java Virtual Machine that power Android systems, optimized for mobile phones, owned by google, and best of all going to be open sourced ! Dalvik executes files in the .dex format optimized for minimal footprint. The system itself is optimized to run multiple Dalvik VMs efficiently.

Android applications

The current SDK released came with a set of applications including Home, browser (based on webkit), contacts manager, Phone application, Maps, XMPP client, and according to documentation there will be also sms application, calendar and many others. I bet there will be other basic applications by Google such notes application, some games … etc, but the big job is left here for developers who will participate in the challenge.

Development tools

Android SDK, released this monday is defintely the best development environnement for Android applications. A plugin for eclipse is available to help coding, debugging, memory and performance profiling, in addition to the device emulator to see your application running live in Android before to see it on real handsets.

Some others Android’s Technical features

• Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification
• Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF)
• GSM Telephony
• Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi
• Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer

Be sure to check Android documentation to learn more about this new technology.

Read also :

• Running C++ Native Applications on Android, The Final Point
• Weekly Android Applications 24/12/2007
• Android is even better with Esmertec
• Android SDK Security Release m5-rc15