Open Source Software for Mobile Phones

Gear from DigitalApes is a full blown open source framework aimed to provide a consistent infrastructure for Java Mobile developers. It provides a powerful set of tools to rapidly develop truly device independent Java ME applications.

Key features:
* Scalable and skinnable widget system
* Multi-threading structure
* Event based thread communication system
* LocationAPI independent localization library
* Network communication facilities
* Powerful string and image handling utilities

The framework is open source (LGPL) and is published on Sourceforge. You can find more information about it on The Apes Corner blog.

Mewt is an advanced widget toolkit for Java ME devices, providing a wide array of widgets (tree, tables, lists, buttons etc.) which automatically resize across different screen resolutions, and an array of attractive, customiseable themes.

LWUIT is a UI library that is bundled together with applications and helps content developers in creating compelling and consistent Java ME applications. LWUIT supports visual components and other UI goodies such as theming, transitions, animation and more.

BlueLCD is a J2ME application that emulates a serial text LCD screen, so it can be used to show computer information using in a independently of the OS.

Kuix (Kalmeo User Interface eXtensions) is a development framework that allows to create easily high end Java ME applications. It provides most graphical elements (buttons, textfields, lists, menus, etc.) needed to create advanced user graphical interfaces and uses an XML/CSS approach to describe the screens and the user actions in the application.

Synclast UI API is an extensible toolkit for creating colorful custom user interfaces on MIDP devices in an intuitive yet efficient manner.

Thinlet is a GUI toolkit, a single Java class, parses the hierarchy and properties of the GUI, handles user interaction, and calls business logic. Separates the graphic presentation (described in an XML file) and the application methods (written as Java code).

Thinlet runs with Java 1.1 to 1.4, Personal Java, and Personal (Basis) Profile. Its MIDP version was dropped, but you still can find the last MIDP version at Thinlet Download page.

Related Links:
xthinlet: ScriptableThinlet and ObjectWrapperThinlet
Theodore: XUL Editor for Thinlet

Nextel’s Open Source J2ME Toolkits contain libraries for user interface and RMS development on J2ME handsets.

The windowing toolkit, OWT (Open Windowing Toolkit), employs a container/component model, and provides interfaces to permit developers to create their own user interface components. The toolkit is designed specifically for MIDP handsets with a small amount of screen real estate. It is built on top of MIDP’s Canvas class.

The RMS toolkit provides classes that simplify record management on MIDP devices.

jMobileCore library is powerful tool for creating J2ME applications. jMobileCore provides support for developing compact and rich GUI, fast data access and reliable communications and simplifies creation of multithreading midlet applications.

Inspired by its UI big brothers as AWT, Swing and SWT, Micro Window Toolkit (MWT) comes into the scene providing an UI framework designed and optimized for small devices.

The MicroFont-Maker is a J2SE command line program to create a font strip or a png folder from a TTF file or a custom bitmap.