Monday, September 7, 2009

The BlackBerry Simulator


I have been working with the BlackBerry simulator for the past while, working on arguably simple code to better understand and appreciate how BlackBerry applications are written using J2ME. Here is one example of code that I have had running successfully, based upon an example given in the BlackBerry Developer Zone.

I am intrigued by the BlackBerry. Would I be able to use the BlackBerry as a remote control for the NXT robot? While I can certainly write an application for the PC to control the NXT over Bluetooth, the PC is necessarily stationary. The robot cannot move outside of the Bluetooth broadcast range. On the other hand, if the BlackBerry were used as the remote control device, the remote control is now portable. The user can now move along with the NXT. The NXT's range of movement is theoretically unlimited.