JIL SDK Beta – Serious mobile widgets without the serious…. well theoretically

If you haven’t heard of the new JIL platform (www.jil.org) yet, I’m sure you’ll come by it pretty soon somewhere on the interwebs. Basically, JIL can act as a middle layer allowing developers to write simple widgets that can easily access the different features of the phone. It’s cross-platform and provides full PIM integration as well as access to other phone hardware, including the accelerometer and GPS.

The only problem right now is that it’s still in (super) beta. I say “right now” because the potential of the JIL SDK is so big, that I’m sure it will be able to do everything it boasts soon enough. And now is probably the best time to hop on board the JIL train since very few developers have experience using it — you’ll be the front line for the next generation of widget development.

Major phone manufacturers have already stated their intention on supporting the framework so we’re not too far off from being able to create small application-like widgets that work on a variety of phones running a variety of Operating Systems — all working off one code project. As I continue to develop on this platform, I’ll keep posting issues and tips as I come by them .