May 6 - 4:35pm EDT   Sun Microsystems on Tuesday announced it will soon be releasing JavaFX Rich Client Technology, a family of products for creating Rich Internet Applications without resorting to complex programming associated with Java. The announcement took place at the 13th annual JavaOne Conference. JavaFX programs will allow easier access and therefore appeal to more people who wish to create Java applications, the according to Sun's executives. [full story]

April 30 - 12:45pm EDT   Swedish cellphone maker Sony Ericsson is hoping to encourage new kinds of applications through a new set of APIs, writes IDG News. The company has announced that it intends to allow developers to merge Flash Lite and Java ME into a single Java application, bypassing technical shortcomings. Specifically this refers to an absence of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and secure payment hooks in Flash, and conversely, a lack of interface capabilities in Java. A game, for example, could be written mostly in Java, but use a Flash-based menu. [full story]

April 29 - 8:45pm EDT   Apple has released Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 1 for 64-bit Intel Macs, finally enabling Java 1.6 on the newest Mac OS X Leopard release. The update adds support for Java SE 6, specifically version 1.6.0_05, although v1.6.0_06 is the latest release. Apple says that the release "does not change the default version of Java" and is only for Mac OS X v10.5.2 and later; it should not be installed on earlier versions of Mac OS X: "This release is for 64-bit Intel-based Macs only and cannot run on PowerPC-based or 32-bit Intel-based Macs," Apple wrote in its documentation. The 58MB update is available via the Mac OS X Software Update. Apple notes that the release, first ... [full story]

April 23 - 11:20am EDT   WaveMaker has released the v3.2 update to Visual Ajax Studio, its development tool for both Ajax- and Java-based web applications. As with many visual tools, the software allows users to avoid entering custom code, forms or frameworks; VAS, though, is a free and open-source program, with a drag-and-drop interface. It is nevertheless intended for enterprises, and when combined with the Rapid Deployment Framework can quickly deploy apps to IT architectures such as Apache Tomcat and J2EE. [full story]

April 9 - 9:20am EDT   New Zealand's Innaworks has introduced the first limited beta of alcheMo for iPhone, a conversion tool for developers. The software is mainly intended for mobile game developers, who typically write their games in Java code; because the native iPhone platform uses Objective C however, developing for it can be unusually complicated. alcheMo is theoretically able to convert J2ME code for the iPhone instantly, without any need for manual adjustments. [full story]

March 24 - 2:20pm EDT   CardRaider 2.0.2 ($20) utility for recovering photos and movies from digital camera memory cards. Recovered images can be sent directly to iPhoto. It can even find photos and movies on damaged or reformatted media cards that don't show up in the Finder. In addition to JPEG files, CardRaider will detect and recover professional "raw" formats, as well as MPEG, AVI, and QuickTime Movie files.The new version adds support for recovering additional pro formats including Hasselblad H3D (3FR), Epson Raw (ERF), Leica Raw, and Mimiya Raw (MEF). It also fixes an issue with recovering some Kodak Raw (KDC) formats. [Download - 2MB] NetFinder 3.1 ($25) website and general file management and ... [full story]

March 8 - 11:00am EST   Sun intends to use the newly established iPhone SDK to provide a Java virtual machine for the device, the company's Java marketing VP Eric Klein said late Friday. The company hopes to implement a native version of Java Micro Edition that would provide a direct framework for most any application that can run with the mobile-optimized virtual environment. Implementing the engine should allow the Java games that often land on most phones as well as business-grade tools such as customer relations management and enterprise resource management software, Klein adds. [full story]

December 17 - 11:20pm EST   WatchGuard Technologies recently updated its Firebox X network protection hardware to neutralize the latest Java threats against Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger users. Malicious web pages are reportedly the most common methods of implementation for viruses or attacks, but WatchGuard says that its equipment prevents against these kind of incursions by running network traffic through its Application Proxy technology – a proxy that separates user traffic from web-source to neutralize these exploits. Application Proxy is currently available in all of WatchGuard's products, including the Firebox X line of protective hardware. [full story]

December 14 - 8:50am EST   Apple has officially released a new Java client, specifically tailored to Mac OS X 10.4. Release 6 requires that a Mac be updated to Mac OS X 10.4.10, specifically, and is an 80MB download. The update is said to improve "reliability and compatibility" for Java SE 5.0 and Java 1.4; the former shifts to v1.5.0_13, while Java 1.4 has been patched to v1.4.2_16. The download is a Universal Binary; as of press time, Apple has not properly updated its release notes page to document all changes. [full story]

December 10 - 4:55pm EST   Excel Software recently unveiled QuickUML 3.0, an update to its Unified Modeling Language programming software, adding new features and functionality. Users can now generate PHP code in addition to C++, Java, Delphi, and Objective-C. New presentation features allow for class-definitions of operations, properties, and events, with customized color, access, data type, and visibility options. Users can view an entire project in a multi-pane window, where work is saved as a platform-independant XML formatted text file. New users can purchase QuickUML 3.0 for $300 directly from Excel Software. [full story]