Ben Galbraith's Blog

Java in Your Stereo?

For the past few weeks, I've been playing with MacSense's new HomePod device. The HomePod is a compact MP3 player with WiFi built-in, a scroll-wheel interface not unlike that of Apple's iPod, and peer-to-peer media streaming software developed by Gloo Labs.

Unfortunately, the HomePod user interface does not work like the iPod. After playing with it for a few days, the differences between the iPod and the HomePod really began to bother me and my wife. If the HomePod were like any of the other consumer electronic devices in our home, we'd just live with it. But in this case, I can take matters into my own hands: the HomePod runs Java!

I downloaded the source code to the HomePod, tweaked the interface code in a few hours, FTP'd the new class files to the device, rebooted, and shazam! The HomePod user interface now behaves just as the iPod. Cool! This is one of the first times I could take my career skills and actually do something useful around the house.

The HomePod isn't the first consumer device I've owned that allowed me to run Java on it -- I'm still recovering from the pains of MIDP 1.0 -- but it is the first Java device that I've enjoyed playing with. I think that enjoyment is related to the following factors:

• The HomePod runs J2SE 1.3. I don't have to do HomePod development in a subset of the "real" Java that I'm used to working in (i.e., J2ME).
• The HomePod exposes everything to developers. The HomePod's user interface, its networking code, the application that streams music from my servers to the HomePod, it's all in Java! How refreshing this is compared to today's Java-enabled cell phones which continue to expose a subset of handset functionality to Java developers. I can tweak this thing in every way imaginable. There are some components written in C (device drivers, audio codecs), but even in those cases, the source is still made available.

The advantage of owning a device I can modify became especially apparent to me when the Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg recently reviewed another WiFi streaming home MP3 player. While he generally gave the product high ratings, at the end of his review, he had a stinging criticism:

[This] system doesn't let you just select "All Tracks" and then play them randomly, as you can on an iPod portable player... [This feature's] omission is a real loss.

After my glowing experience with the HomePod, you can bet I'll be shopping for more Java-powered open-source consumer devices in the future.

Comments

• more info
  How much was this homepod and what were the features? Have you considered doing a sourceforge or java.net project with your work?

  -Heath

  Posted by: heaththegreat on January 19, 2004 at 03:52 PM

• more info
  Hi Heath,

  A pre-release, developer edition of the HomePod currently sells for around $350, I believe. I think the consumer model doesn't ship until March. As far as features, take a look at www.gloolabs.com or www.macsense.com for the full rundown.

  Gloo Labs is actually very excited about having developers improve their product for free (who wouldn't be?) so they're in the process of setting up a public CVS repository for folks to contribute their changes. I've encouraged them to consider java.net as a home for it.

  In the meantime, I've made my changes available to Gloo (and anyone else who wants them) via my own CVS server.

  Posted by: javaben on January 20, 2004 at 05:56 AM

• If only something like that for Pictures
  If only they had something like that for pictures. I would love to have an attractive wireless device that would allow me to view pictures stored on my computer.

  Posted by: username on January 21, 2004 at 06:35 AM

• more info
  Hi, I find all of this very exciting. Do you know if we will be able to make the changes you described on the consumer edition or do we have to pay $350 for the developer edition? Thanks! PS - Do you know if there are any screenshots of the interface around...hope it isn't too tiny.

  Posted by: nbreslow on February 19, 2004 at 01:33 PM

• more info
  I don't think you can modify the non-developer edition; not sure.

  The interface is quite a bit larger than the iPod, but the resolution is quite a bit lower. Don't have more specific measurements, sorry. Check out the gloolabs.com and/or MacSense to see if you can run across some screen grabs. If not, maybe you can get me to take some pics and send 'em to you. :-)

  Cheers -bg

  Posted by: javaben on February 24, 2004 at 06:56 AM

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