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Bargain of JavaOne: Sharp hand-held for $300, WLAN card included

It's almost worth flying out to San Francisco for JavaOne just for the bargain of the show - a Sharp SL-5500 Java-driven hand-held computer at just $299, including wireless LAN card!

The hand-held is probably best-known for having Linux as its embedded OS; but for Sun, its inclusion of the micro edition of Java, J2ME, is worth a substantial promotion at the JavaOne conference and exhibition.

Attendees will not be able to join in the fun without one. There's a "Wireless Treasure Hunt" set up in the Moscone centre, with hidden Java code fragments. All eight bits of code are needed to enter the "What time is it?" challenge.

"To start, each person will be able to select and download a single piece from the network. The goal is to exchange pieces with other players, using JXTA peer-to-peer communications over the wireless network, until you have collected all eight," says the show documentation.

Behind the geek-fun of writing code to a time deadline to win prizes, is the serious promotional objective of boosting public perception of Java in mobile devices, against the background of rival promotions by Microsoft for .Net frameworks.

The promotion is also designed to draw attention to the "proliferation of Java in mobile devices," according to ZDNet reporter Matt Broesma. His report emphasises the Java Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP), which "is set to make its way into millions of handsets this year from manufacturers like Siemens, Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola ... it is "a version of Java designed for low-end, mainstream phones with low-powered processors and limited graphics."