It is now possible to keep up-to-date with Internet discussion groups on mobile devices. MobileNews is an application that allows you to browse and read your favorite NNTP newsgroups right on your mobile phone. MobileNews keeps track of what articles you have read previously and offers you any new articles that have been posted after your last visit.
MobileNews is developed using Java 2, Micro Edition and the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) version 2.0. Since it is a Java application, it is able to run on many different mobile devices from a host of manufacturers. For example, the user interface of MobileNews scales from a Series 40 device to the big screen of a Communicator.
With the growing popularity of communication over the Internet, people are increasingly looking for ways to keep in touch with their friends on the Internet even when they are not at home. With advanced, networked mobile applications, people can get in contact with their friends even if they are left with nothing but their mobile phone.
The NNTP specification has been around since 1979, so the idea of Internet discussion groups is not a recent one. Advances in mobile data connectivity allow today's mobile devices to communicate on the Internet just like computers in homes. The research issues with a mobile reader for discussion groups were mainly related to the implementation of the application itself.
The main challenges of developing a mobile NNTP newsreader were compatibility issues between different Java implementations, performance considerations, and user interface flexibility between mobile devices. As part of MIDP 2.0, most Java implementations have the needed networking support and there is adequate processing power in mobile devices to create a useful newsreader application.
In order to promote interoperability as much as possible, we chose to build MobileNews on top of the screen-based MIDP 2.0 user interface environment. That lead to some limitations in displaying items and controlling user input, but the upside was that compatibility between different devices was greatly enhanced. Each device can display the MobileNews UI in its own way, optimized for that particular device.
Even though mobile devices only have a relatively small display, MobileNews was designed to make as much use of the screen space as possible. For example, it supports opening and closing article threads, so that entire threads can be skipped easily. There are also options to hide any quotes in articles, making room for more of the actual article text. The sender identification can be hidden as well.
Usability was considered as crucial for this type of application. Since people are expected to use the application as often as every day, it has to be quick and straightforward to operate. On the other hand, people can then take their time learning to use all the advanced features that the application has.
We decided to publish the software as open source to be able to get more feedback on different devices and also facilitate further improvements to the software. As with any software, there is always room for improvement. In an open source environment, anyone can innovate.
For downloads, please see the OpenSource.Nokia page.
