Do you know a JVM for PocketPC that will run GMail Mobile?

November 21, 2006 7:56 PM

Do you know a JVM for PocketPC that will run GMail Mobile?

I very much want to run Gmail Mobile on my PocketPC, model PPC-6700.

It's a PocketPC with a built-in Sprint phone, and I already have the data plan for it all set up and working.

The problem is that my phone didn't come with a built-in JVM (Java Virtual Machine) solution. Google refers me to IBM, which wants me to pay for a PocketPC-compatible JVM that appears to still be in a beta gray area.

I've Googled around and found that there are in fact free JVMs for PocketPC, but when I tried one, it wanted a .JAR file to run, and wouldn't even recognize the .JAD file that Gmail Mobile is packaged in. I even tried renaming the .JAR to a .JAD, and that didn't work at all.

I would simply install the free ones, one-by-one to see if any work, but installing and uninstalling apps on a PocketPC is a pain in the ass, and uninstalling also leaves programmatic garbage from the ininstalled program in my PocketPC's precious memory.

I've also Googled around in some forums discussing the issue, but I've found no hard answers. There was a rumbling in one forum about being able to buy IBM's (or was it Java's?) JVM for PPC for only $6, but I haven't been able to find a purchase page for any such thing. I'm willing to pay $6 if it works.

And so, Hive Mind, the question is: Whither is my JVM that will for sure run Gmail Mobile? Do you know a free one that will work? Do you know where the infamous $6 deal is?

Bonus Question: Tabbed internet browsing for PocketPC. I found MiniMo (FireFox for PPC), and my model doesn't run it well. Is Opera tabbed? Any others?

posted by SlyBevel to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Ok, the Opera part was easily Googled. It is tabbed. Sorry for the easily Googlable subquestion.

Other options for browsing?
posted by SlyBevel at 8:42 PM on November 21, 2006

Google was running ads in the dead tree version of major papers today re: running gmail with the same interface as on a pc on your mobil phone. I am not sure if this would help or not with your issue.
posted by caddis at 8:50 PM on November 21, 2006

Can I piggyback on this and ask if anyone has any JVMs for a Treo 650 as well? Have the same problem, different phone.
posted by Heminator at 8:51 PM on November 21, 2006

A .jad file is (usually?) just a text file that describes where to get the .jar file and has some meta-information about the application in it. Peek inside and see if you can find the URL where you can pull down the .jar file itself.
posted by xiojason at 9:03 PM on November 21, 2006

Herminator, you might want to see this article: Can I use the Gmail application on my Treo? from Gmail's Help Center.
posted by xiojason at 9:05 PM on November 21, 2006

Additionally, here's an article about How to run Gmail locally on a Pocket PC that talks about installing and using the IBM JVM to run the app for Windows Mobile machines and references a forum post about how to get it for free.
posted by xiojason at 9:09 PM on November 21, 2006

It's aliiiiiive!

So now I need to figure out how to launch the applet from my Today screen or Start menu. That could take some work, but after installing the IBM JVM (Thanks, XioJason), I was able to log on to my Gmail account.

So it works.

And it looks like I need Opera. I know they've given away keys before, and had lots of sales. Does anyone know of a current special on Opera, or if they'll have some kind of promotion soon?

Thanks!
posted by SlyBevel at 9:59 PM on November 21, 2006

BTW, I hadn't remembered that I have an academic account with IBM, so downloading was probably easier for me than for many others.

Still, I'm not sure if it was free because of that, or if I was offered more options because of it, or neither. Anyway, IBM worked.
posted by SlyBevel at 10:01 PM on November 21, 2006