Samsung Releases Bada 2.0 SDK with NFC Support

Samsung Releases Bada 2.0 SDK with Support for NFC Wi-Fi Direct and Speech-to-Text / Text-to-Speach

The Bada 2.0 SDK is now available and represents a significant upgrade on the old 1.1 version. Samsung’s Bada platform is maturing nicely and now has support for multi-tasking which was badly needed. Bada 2.0 also comes with a new UI and the applications now use a distinct header, footer and TabBar layout a la iOS. Add to that the three layout resolutions that support WVGA (480×800), HVGA (320×480) and WQVGA (240×400) and a new feature Samsung is calling “the Layout”, which in simplified terms acts like CSS positioning and comes with three different “Layout” styles that developers can use to position various elements and controls. The Layout styles are called Linear, Grid and Relative.

Samsung Bada 2.0 NFC Support

The NFC Forum defines three different modes that an NFC-enabled device can function with: peer-to-peer, emulation mode and read / write mode. The Bada 2.0 NFC API currently only supports the read / write function, which means NFC tags can still be written and read but no contact swapping, file transfers or NFC payments will be possible in this version of the SDK. However, we think it is still a move in the right direction for Bada to support NFC in the first place – even Apple’s iOS doesn’t cater to NFC’s needs. We would have just liked to have seen peer-to-peer added for payments and contact swapping.

Other Bada 2.0 features

The improvements between Bada 1.1 and Bada 2.0 are immense and the laundry list of new features include push notifications, in-app ads, OpenAL, speech-to-text and text-to speech. The Bada 2.0 OS also supports Flash, HTML 5 and HTTP live streaming. What caught our eye though is the Wi-Fi Direct feature which allows file transfers between Bada 2.0 devices to be done without a router. Imagine you are in a park and you take some photographs of your child and your friend’s child playing. With the Wi-Fi Direct feature it would enable the setting up of an exclusive short distance network and files could be transferred quickly between yours and your friend’s device. We think that the NFC support along with the Wi-Fi Direct feature are the major take aways from the SDK. That said, the Samsung Bada 2.0 OS is coming along quite nicely.

Samsung is rumored to release three Bada 2.0 devices in the not so distant future. We have already seen the Samsung Wave 578 NFC phone that features Bada 2.0, and now it looks as if others could follow it. Whereas the opening of the SDK doesn’t firmly confirm this rumor, it certainly adds to the possibility. If you are interested in developing for Bada, jump over to the developer website by clicking here.