Guest Monolithix [MVP] Posted January 30, 2003 Report Posted January 30, 2003 Last night in the #spv channel on irc.xnet.org we were visited by Marc Palmans, one of the developers of the "Odyssey" game that recently became available for SmartPhone OS. We had a long chat on SmartPhone software development and the support they have recieved from Orange/MS etc. Odyssey is currently waiting to be signed for full distribution, and it seems the waiting list for application signatures is either very long or, by the sound of it, a time-consuming process. Maybe Orange should pull their finger out and get a move on with the certification of current applications. It also turns out that the actual signing is done by Handango. There is also support for signing available from Microsoft through a 3rd party company called Cellmania. This company provides the infrastructure and support for developers to sign and distribute software, its a shame Orange don't have a similar programme. Also Cellmania only has MS contacts, and as Orange removed all MS certificates on the SPV, they may not be albe to provide support with signing applications. Also as we all well know, the phone is divided into Privelidged and Unprivelidged environments in which the software is run. To access the GSM layer of the OS, the exploitable part viruses are likely to target, you need to have privelidged access to the phone. To run all other software, which is what we want to develop, you only need unprivelidged access rights to the phone. This is where Oranges certification lockdown has come into place and is the area we have circumvented with the de-certification mod. The implication of this lockdown has made the GSM networks no less vunerable to viral attack then if certificates were never implemented, which of course, we all knew already. It's a shame Orange don't. It also turns out his company was provided with certificate-less SmartPhones' to develop on. However this was through Handango and Microsoft (I think through Cellmania), incedentally the MS provided handset was a Tanager, so they DO exist. Other than that we discussed further software idea's, prefereably utilities, as we now have plenty of games. All in all it seems as usual, Orange have provided little or no support to the development community, and third party companies have had to be used to get the software available to buy today. You can read the log of our conversation here Marc would appreciate feedback on Odyssey,or any other software idea's, you can e-mail him at [email protected] An Odyssey demo, plus other software can be downloaded from here And the irc channel we use is #spv on irc.xnet.org
Guest mikey808 Posted January 30, 2003 Report Posted January 30, 2003 Thanks for posting that very interesting chat Monolithix. It's good to hear the thoughts of a developer who is working hard to support the SmartPhone OS. It must be very frustrating for him not being able to get his games out... Time and time again we hear "What is it with Orange and certification ?"..IMO they want to shoot themselves in both feet not just one ! btw I love his demo of Odyssey, runs very smoothly. Think I may pay a visit to the irc channel.
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