It looks like Google is sending out more invitations for the Google Wave Developer Preview program. I got an invitation today, and have to admit that the user interface looks very clean and nice. I’ve been testing with Safari 4.x, and  Wave doesn’t run into major problems with the browser. I’ve read that some people had problem with IE8, even in compatibility mode, but I haven’t tested myself.

Google Wave Developer Preview

In combination with GMail, Google Voice, Google Apps and all the other Google products Google is in the position to be the first company to deliver web mail, office functionality (word processing, spreadsheet), unified communication and cloud storage as an integrated web-based solution. And such a product could – in the long run – generate more revenue than the search engine/online ad business does right now.

When a Canadian working for SUN in 1991 ended up with the task of writing a new compiler for a programming language, he would never imagine the software development revolution he triggered with his work: the entrance of Java into the world of software development, and the Canadian was James Gosling. Meant for set-top-box development, the language quickly made its way into the way browser with Java applets in 1995, then bouncing back to the server side with Java Servlets in 1997.

But Java made its way back to set-to-boxes with standards like OpenTV and Java MHP (Multimedia Home Platform). In a way you could say, that was Java TV 2.0, influenced by the idea of applets running inside the browser. Here’s a short description of MHP from Wikipedia:

MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) was developed by the DVB Project as the world’s first open standard for interactive television. It is a Java-based environment which defines a generic interface between interactive digital applications and the terminals on which those applications execute. MHP was designed to run on DVB platforms but there was a demand to extend the interoperability it offers to other digital television platforms. This demand gave rise to GEM, or Globally Executable MHP, a framework which allows other organisations to define specifications based on MHP.

One such specification is OCAP, the OpenCable Application Platform created by CableLabs which has been adopted by the US cable industry.

While several companies and the European Union  pushed digital TV and interactive TV based on the MHP standard, it never was a success in most parts of Europe. Finland, Italy and South Korea deployed interactive TV application based on MHP successfully, the only attempt to ship a larger amount of set-top-boxes in Germany failed miserably – most of the boxes crashed after a few days and had to be returned to the service center.

Otto TV - Java/MHP based e-commerce TV in 2004

But the ability to stream Java software with the TV channel to set-top-boxes, including the ability to have a back-communication lead to the creation of many interesting TV concepts. Otto, the world’s largest mail order company operating in more than 20 countries even started a project for an MHP based shopping channel on TV.

While MHP as a standard never took off in Europe, competing technologies like DHTML/Ajax or Adobe Flash were equally unsuccessful in the interactive TV world – until Yahoo! announced their Yahoo! Connected TV solution in 2008.

At JavaONE 2009 Sun introduced the final missing pieces of the JavaFX technology: JavaFX Mobile, JavaFX 2.0 Tool in a preview and JavaFX TV – or what I’d call Java TV 3.0. Here’s a short video showing a demo application, and a little of the JavaFX timeline based authoring tool:

The following information was published in a press release by Sun:

At the JavaOne conference, Sun demonstrated a proof of concept of JavaFX TV running on a next-generation LG Electronics TV. JavaFX TV extends the JavaFX platform vision, bringing rich and expressive interactive content to televisions and set-top boxes. It is built on the same family of Java technologies as the Blu-ray Disc standard BD-J, tru2way and other global TV standards, helping to enable developers and content authors to leverage existing skills and tools. JavaFX TV makes it significantly easier for developers to target TV platforms and create customizable and interactive viewing experiences.

JavaFX TV is expected to be available to consumers in early 2010. Java is – at least in my opinion – the best technology available for running applications on embedded systems and entertainment solutions. Java is open source, the virtual machine has been optimized for years, and garbage collection works well – which means the risk of memory leaks and crashing TVs is very low. The huge disadvantage until now has been the complexity of building modern user interfaces with Java. With JavaFX that’s possible, and as soon as the JavaFX Tool is available to the public – you don’t even have to be a developer to design and test JavaFX user interfaces.

With support for streaming video in JavaFX and the availability of a Sun Streaming Server since 2007 the technology is there to take TV, ITV and video-on-demand to the next level with JavaFX TV. The question is, how the consumer electronics business fits into Oracle’s strategy.

If you are interested in running a powerful, Java based office solution on your mobile Internet device (MID), check this presentation of Thinkfree Office Mobile MID Edition at CTIA:

Another great product from Thinkfree, provider of the most innovative online and offline office solution – and a tough competitor of Google and the GoogleApps solution (actually I think that Google will have a hard time to competing with Thinkfree in the long run, since Java is the much better technology for building an office solution than Ajax and GoogleGears).

The technical requirements for Thinkfree Office Mobile MID Edition are:

• Operating system: Linux (e.g. Midinux, Ubuntu Mobile edition), Windows XP/Vista
• Java: J2SE 5 or higher
• HDD drive: 70MB
• RAM: 128MB or higher
• WVGA screen (800X480, 1024X600)

I’ve been testing Thinkfree Office (the standard edition) on Intel Atom 270 CPUs (1.6 Ghz), and the software felt very responsive and good. As much as I like the idea of open standards and open source software, I’ve had too many experiences with OpenOffice choking on the proprietary Microsoft formats. Thinkfree Office works much better for me, and the fact that’s is written in Java was one of the best decisions Thinkfree could make. I’ve heard that Oracle has plans to integrate OpenOffice with other Java-based products into a powerful SAAS office solution, but I’ve the feeling that the company is still far from having a product ready for the consumer and business market.

Personally I’m still working on a MacbookPro, a heavy notebook to carry around with you every day. I’ve thought about buying a netbook with Intel Atom CPU, and would love to get one of the Fujitsu Netbooks with Thinkfree Office pre-installed – but they are unfortunately only available in Asia. I’d still use the MacbookPro for my software development work, but would use the netbook on business trips where I just need access to email, an office solution and some simple programs.

Kabel Deutschland, Germany’s largest cable television company, announced a new mobile offering for their customers in Germany, thereby entering the quadruple play market. A quadruple play service combines the triple play service of broadband Internet access, television and telephone with wireless service provisions.

Kabel Deutschland starts mobile service offering with O2 Germany

The mobile service at present is available only for KDG Kabel Internet & Phone subscribers and is dubbed as Mobile Phone. The tariff offered by the operator has no monthly costs. The subscribers will also enjoy free on-net calls to KDG telephony subscribers and other Mobile Phone subscribers. The calls will be offered to other German fixed and mobile networks at EUR 0.15 per minute. For EUR 4.99 a month, the subscribers will get a flatrate for calls to German fixed networks.

SMS within Germany will be charged at EUR 0.15/SMS and every cable subscribers can order up to five Sim cards. The activation for those Sim cards is EUR 9.99 per card. KDG also offers a mobile internet daily flatrate for EUR 2.50 per day, which costs EUR 1.99 per day as introduction offer. 

Jörn Krieger of RapidTV News has more details on the story:

“The services are provided through the mobile network of O2 Germany, a KDG spokeswoman explained. It was rumoured in March that KDG plans a partnership with the subsidiary of Spanish telco Telefónica.

KDG is the first cable operator in Germany to offer a quadruple-play package of TV, internet, fixed line and mobile telephony, thereby stepping up competition with ADSL providers such as United Internet, Arcor, HanseNet and NetCologne, which are already offering mobile phone tariffs in combination with broadband internet access.”

The trend to a media and communication convergence creates the need for more advanced portals, integrating the various service offerings with an easy-to-use user interface. Rich communication portals like Laszlo Webtop can help in the process of creating a unified, converged solution offering.