Rating: 
Summary: Solid foundation material
Review: If you're looking for a book on wireless application development from a code perspective this is the wrong book. The value of this book is it provides a solid foundation that needs to be in place before coding starts.It begins with basic concepts of how wireless infrastructure works. Developers can safely ignore this section of the book. I liked it because it sorted out the "moving parts" as well as the technological underpinnings. It also answered a lot of questions I had regarding where standards and the industry as a whole were headed, and the strengths and weaknesses of existing technologies and why 3G is so important. As an aside, I learned one trivial fact that had been bothering me: where did the name "Bluetooth" come from? Answer: It was named after a Danish king, Harald Blatand who brought unity among different groups of people. Blatand means Bluetooth in English. Not only does the name capture the spirit of Bluetooth as a technology, but this piece of trivia might gain you "Alpha Geek" status at a seminar or convention :-) From chapter 3 on, however, is of paramount interest to architects and developers because it gets into lower level details of GPRS, 3G and Bluetooth. The author provides all of the key characteristics of each technology from which a design and development strategy can be derived. Chapter 6 is where both developers and architects will gain information for performance aspects of their products. The author is meticulous in describing the issues and factors that will arise with protocols (the realities of TCP/IP over wireless in chapter 6 is priceless), and is supported with graphs and diagrams that a developer should carefully go over before writing a single line of code. Because of my focus in QA and SQA I thought chapter 14 on testing was particularly strong. Again, this is something that developers need to fully understand (as well as the rest of a project team), and the information provided in this chapter fills a large gap in the testing body of knowledge. In response to previous comments about this book: (1) Although the content on the CD ROM is out of date, the author's web site contains up-to-date artifacts and URLs. (2) I contacted the author directly (contact information is provided in the book) about the missing test documents cited on the cover of the book and found out that last minute copyright issues prevented their inclusion on the CD ROM. He sent me to where these documents could be obtained (for free) and they were well worth the effort. (3) The book is anything but basic - it gets into some low-level details such as timing and state diagrams that are essential for *properly* developing wireless applications. The author has a talent for packing an incredible amount of information into a paragraph and still holding your interest. He also comes across as authoritative and manages to cover a wide spectrum of issues and facts without compromising on details needed by developers and architects (or anyone who wants to update their knowledge on the latest wireless technologies).
Rating: 
Summary: Only an ordinary, average book
Review: Let me confess, the author's being an Ericsson member (me, too :) further helped me to add this book to my library.
I found this book an average book that is nothing but a good collection of information which you can find through internet.
I expected the author to tell me from how to define effective user interfaces to how to combine servers, which directions to take about future apllications (positioning services, notification, charging etc.)
I expected good examples from the industry, since the author was a practician, but I didn't find any concrete example from the real world that can really change the way I develop a WAP application (if I develop one).
I didn't find these...
Another reason for me to buy it was the CD-ROM. I thought it would be a good idea to have a collection of tools compiled in one CD for me. Let me tell you before you get frustrated like me. The whole 650 MB capacity CD contain the Nokia WAP Toolkit (an old version), and a WAP Toolkit of Ericsson plus Ericsson R380 emulator and that's it! No editors, no GPRS simulators. I still can not understand why did they stick such a content-less CD at the back of the book.
Good luck...
Rating: 
Summary: Good view of basics
Review: Nice coverage of the basics of wireless communications, and trends in the market and technology domains. The CD ROM contains some useful tools, but was missing the testing templates promised on the back cover of the book. Since I work in SQA this oversight makes the book a major disappointment. If you want to quickly immerse yourself in the technology, this is a good place to start. If you are looking for meatier details, this book is not particularly valuable.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of coverage, but lack of depth
Review: The table of contents looks very impressive, with wide coverage and lots of fancy looking terms and acronyms, but the book contents are quite disappointing, lack of depth. Good for someone who wants to know the terms. Not helpful for developers and industry professionals.
Rating: 
Summary: Great starting point
Review: This book is a great starting point for learning about the wireless application technology landscape. There are many useful architectural and infrastructure diagrams. The author has written clearly and concisely on what is possible without taking the reader through details of APIs or technical specifications. This book is a comprehensive tutorial of current GPRS and 3G wireless technologies and very helpful to me as a new wireless application architect and designer. This book will be valuable to a general technical audience and also for product managers, technical product marketers, and project managers. This book is also going to be useful in understanding GPRS application development. This book is not intended for the developers seeking implementation detail or examples. I also would have liked footnotes or more technical references in the book - however, the author provides a URL for a companion website. Some thoughts on each of the three main parts of the book: Part 1. Great overview of 2G - 3G evolution. This section helps application designers understand the importance of QOS and roaming issues. The Bluetooth section was generally more detailed than others - I would have liked some discussion of IEEE 802.11b and maybe IEEE 802.11a. Part 2. Very helpful discussion of the importance of TCP/IP issues in wireless applications and IPv6. Comprehensive overview of WAP 1.2.1. I would have liked a deeper examination of WAP PUSH, UAProf, WIM and WTA.. Part 3. Nice overview of mobile devices, application architectures, and testing. I would have liked more advice on testing and some guidelines on how service management influences design.
Rating:
Summary: e-book thing very difficult
Review: This book is fine. The e-book is a ripoff unfortunately. Two reasons:
(1) the cd packed with the printed book is omitted.
(2) amazon's e-book download page doesn't work properly; you have to hit escape, then use "view source" then pick out the download URL.
Rating:
Summary: e-book thing very difficult
Review: This book is fine. The e-book is a ripoff unfortunately. Two reasons:
(1) the cd packed with the printed book is omitted.
(2) amazon's e-book download page doesn't work properly; you have to hit escape, then use "view source" then pick out the download URL.
Rating:
Summary: Great for even we amateurs!
Review: This book was great for giving me an understanding of the application's market. Though I'm not a truly technical person, Mr. Andersson explained systems and applications in layman's terms that were easy to understand. The layout of the book is great because one can skip certain chapters if they're too technical. Great job in creating a book that is both technical enough and simple enough for anyone to read. Two thumbs up!
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