iPhone
The iPhone has become something of a legend with its introduction last year. Although the first generation device fell short of many corporate needs, the ease of use and Steve Job's magic touch attracted a cult following. At the moment, native iPhone apps are developed with Objective C.
iPhone Developer Program
Official iPhone developer site from Apple. Developers can download the SDK to develop and test new applications. It also has information on distributing new apps on the iPhone store. The free iPhone SDK includes Xcode IDE, an iPhone simulator with Open GL ES support, Interface Builder, Instruments, frameworks, compilers and Shark analysis tools.
iPhoneMinds
This iPhone developer's blog from Mindcomet highlights developer related news such as best app contests and reports from the Apple developer's conference.
iPhoneDevelopment Central
This online database of free iPhone SDK tutorials has over 600 minutes of video tutorials developed by over 1950 registered users. It includes links to the iPhone SDK Forum, a weekly challenge, developer blogs, and news.
iPhone Development
A blog from Jeff LaMarche, a programmer and author focused on the iPhone and Mac platforms, who wrote "Beginning iPhone Development. The site provides tips & tricks on reusable components, new loaders, and various tutorials.
Interactive iPhone
Read about what Kumagai Kentaro has to say about creating a JSCocoa based interactive console for the iPhone.
Windows Mobile Specific
Windows Mobile Development Center
Provides a central repository for content on building apps with the .NET Compact Framework, SQL Server and Windows CE/Mobile/Everywhere/Compact. A section on Applications for Smart Devices targets native, managed, and SQL Server Compact topics. A Mobile Web section covers the nuts and bolts of building web sites designed for mobile devices such as .MOBI standards, W3C Mobile Web best practices and the XHTML Mobile Profile.
Windows Mobile Development Network
Microsoft mobile developers site with links to upcoming events, an application showcase, help and tips, along with a variety of podcasts.
Windows Mobile Team Blog
Official Microsoft blog relating to Windows Mobile development links to news, tips and tricks about .Net Compact Framework, application compatibility, and Silverlight.
Windows Mobile Development
Christopher Fairbairn provides his insights on some of the technical challenges of Windows Mobile Development. He covers topics such as programmatically changing the device name, the .Net Microframework, debugging, and native interoperability.
Native Mobile
João Paulo Figueira provides his take on native mobile development on Microsoft platforms. Topics covered include enumerating foreign key constraints, native pointers, and code changes.
Jajah Development Blog
A technical blog from Jajah developers. The company specialized in a number of unique telephony applications. The site provides a number interesting tips & tricks insights relating to Windows mobile development such as hooking into a Windows Mobile keyboard, Windows Mobile Memory leaks, and upcoming conferences.
Other Smart Phone Platforms
BlackBerry
Main BlackBerry development site with information on browser development rapid application development, and Java application development. The site includes an eclipse IDE plug-in, as well as simulators for many of the phone models, including the new Storm smartphone.
Symbian
The main Symbian developer's page with technical information and news, tools, discussion forums, and tutorials. Symbian is the market leading mobile phone OS, with approximately 226 million cumulative shipped phones by June 2008. A wide variety of user interfaces run on top of the base OS including Nokia's S60, NTT DOCOMO's MOAP user interface for the FOMA 3G network and UIQ, designed by UIQ Technology, a joint venture between Motorola and Sony Ericsson. Symbian phone manufacturers include Fujitsu, LG, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp and Sony Ericsson.
S60 Development Forum
S60 is one of the most popular smart phone platforms with over 180 million devices shipped by June 2008. This site provides an overview to S60 development with information on getting started, tools and SDKs, and technical specs for S60 enabled devices. It has sections for C++, Java, Flash Lite, and Python developers.
S40 Development Forum
S40 from Nokia is the world's most widely deployed mobile device platform. It is designed for phones with fewer resources than many smart phones, yet still runs Java and Flash Lite applications. Nokia provides IDE plug-ins for Carbide, NetBeans, Eclipse, and Aptana.
Qualcomm Brew Developer's Home
Qualcomm's Brew doesn't get all of the publicity of the iPhone and the Blackberry, but it silently handles a lot of applications. The company estimates that Brew applications generated an average of 80.5 million transactions per month in 2007, while paying out over $1 billion in earnings to Brew developers and publishers. This site contains a link to the SDK, tutorials and learning guides, and information on how to create a business on top of the Brew platform.
Sun Mobile Device Technology at a Glance
Official Sun site provides an overview and in-depth information on all aspects of mobile Java development including J2ME and JavaFX. Resources include a bug database, code samples, a device matrix and links for downloading mobility tools, third party tools, and the Sun Java Toolkit.
Google Android
Android is a mobile OS based on Linux and championed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. Developers write managed code that use Google libraries. Members of the OHA alliance include HTC, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, Sprint, Sony Ericsson, and Vodaphone. Initially, T-Mobile is the only company to deploy the phone. However, the phone is getting quite a bit of spotlight because of Google's backing. This site includes the Android SDK, and a variety of tools to develop mobile apps on the Android platform. The SDK is designed for use with Eclipse, but the SDK includes other tools for debugging, packaging, and installing applications on the emulator.
Another WebKit win with Android
WebKit keeps chugging away. I hear more and more developers talking about how they use Firefox for Firebug debugging, and WebKit nightly for browsing as it is so fast. In mobile, WebKit had another win as you get it with Android.
Adobe Flash Lite
Flash Lite is a stripped down version of the Flash Player for mobile phones. This version is designed for phones and consumer electronics devices like the Chumby and media players. The Flash Lite player supports ActionScript programming language. This site is the main Flash Lite Developer page with links to tools, tips, tricks, and a sample gallery illustrating Flash Lite possibilities.
Multi-platform sites
Developer.Com Wireless
Provides news and tutorials on WAP, J2ME, Bluetooth, and Windows CE.
Mobile Phone Development
Blog by mobile developer Simon Judge on Symbian, Windows Mobile, Android, iPhone, Java ME and the Mobile web.
MobiForge
MobiForge is the world's largest independent mobile development community with over 20,000 members. It has information on starting, designing, developing, testing, and running mobile apps. The site is provided by dotMobi, based in Ireland. It exists to accelerate the mobile web and promote best practices for mobile sites. It includes a directory of suppliers, services and tools for designing developing and testing mobile sites.
Mobile Development
Mobile dev blog maintained by Sunil Kumar, a mobile app developer from Singapore. This site highlights lesser known facts to mobile developers, such as how to detect if a phone is 3G enabled or how to force apps to use AGPS rather than GPS.
Device Atlas
The world's most comprehensive database of mobile device information includes multi-sourced data, for maximum reliability and scope. It is free to use for development purposes. It includes information about the components in the device as well as development information, APIs, properties, DRM, and other technical information.
QT Software (Formerly Trolltech)
Qt is a cross-platform application framework. It allows developers to create applications once using C++ and Java that can be deployed on top of Windows CE, and embedded Linux platforms (and the Symbian S60 in Q2 2009) without rewriting the source code. The company was acquired by Nokia in June 2008. This site includes a link to a trial version of the development tool IDE and various mobile development white papers, webinars and tutorials.
Navteq
Navteq is one of the world's largest providers of maps, traffic information, and other geographic data. This site includes tips and tools for developing mobile mapping applications for consumers and enterprises. The NAVTEQ Network for Developers provides application developers access to the extensive collection of highly accurate and robust digital NAVTEQ maps, and the resources needed to bring new location-enabled services to market.
