Mobility

Nokia e71 and the iPhone

Chris Haaker — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:23:46 GMT

For the past three weeks I have been testing the new Nokia e71 and Apple’s iPhone 3g. Both phones are well built and deliver as promised in almost all areas. Below I will give a few tidbits about my experiences with each one. I am also at the same time working on deploying Microsoft’s System Center Mobile Device Manager (SCMDM). This will not come in to play with either of these devices though. Although they have licensed and support Exchange ActiveSync, SCMDM will only support devices running a minimum of Windows Mobile 6.1.

If you have specific questions about the functionality of each device, post it below in the comments and I will try my best to answer. I do not have expert level knowledge of the devices yet, so your best bet is general usage questions.

iPhone: the iPhone is the best device IMO for the consumer or business user that needs something that delivers entertainment options and applications that are easy to consume and install. It also delivers corporate email via Exchange ActiveSync, but as with the music, videos and apps, you “get what you get” with no customization options. There are preferences, but you cannot travel off the reservation. Apple wields total control over what you can do, right down to the apps you load. iTunes is the interface for managing data on the phone and synchronizing it with your library of music, videos, podcasts and applications.

iTunes will allow you to backup and restore your phone as well, but only the basic configuration information, accounts and preferences. It does not back up data such as music, photos and apps. You also use iTunes to upgrade the OS on your phone to the latest version.

Corporate email from an Exchange Server (Exchange 2003 SP2 or later) is supported and works very well. There are several limitations and hopefully the list will get shorter with each version update. The calendar is the weakest link, and unfortunately, this is an application that corporate executives are highly dependent on. You cannot create an appointment and invite others from your company. When an appointment is cancelled, there is no option to “remove from calendar” it stays there and in the body of the appointment says “cancelled.” You cannot forward appointments on to others in your company.

Email functions well but also has it own nits. HTML rendering is very small and you almost always need to zoom in and scroll sideways to read an email. Rendering an email with a large distribution times out often leaving you with a blank screen. There isn't an option to type in landscape orientation.

I had to wonder if Apple even threw up an Exchange server internally to use during the development of the enterprise email features. Obviously they do not use Exchange email at Apple, and this is evident in the way some things were thought out. They missed some very basic things Outlook users rely on.

I would also like to see an unread email count on the screen when locked. You have to unlock the screen in order to check on received emails. It shows appointments and missed calls without unlocking. There is a simple PIN lock you can employ from the device and if you run Exchange ActiveSync you may also employ a password policy for locking out the screen.

There is no full disk encryption if your information security team requires this.

And of course, you have to be down with the soft keyboard. They have the best one I have used but some people just cannot get used to it. I was capable on it after about a week. Your mileage may vary.

In a nutshell: it does everything you may want to do, but what you may want to do is limited by Apple.

Tomorrow part II: Nokia e71

Technorati Tags: SCMDM,Apple,Nokia,Nokia e71,iPhone,Apple iPhone,mobility

Microsoft SCMDM Team Blog Unveiled

Chris Haaker — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:16:24 GMT

From the mobility space: Microsoft’s System Center Mobile Device Manager team has started blogging! Follow Dieter and his team as they share their large and collective wisdom on SCMDM and all its related goodness. Hey guys? Can we get iPhone support in the next version? I can dream …

Skyfire Mobile Browser Beta

Chris Haaker — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:18:07 GMT

Skyfire is a mobile browser that delivers rich web media "real fast." You can:

Watch streaming video like YouTube
Listen to streaming music like last.fm and Rhapsody
Access social networks like Facebook and MySpace

Skyfire promises "blazing fast" page loads, as fast as your real PC. Skyfire also supports QuickTime, Java and Flash.

Technorati Tags: Skyfire,Rich Media,Windows Mobile

TechNet SCMDM Forum is Now Open

Chris Haaker — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:54:44 GMT

The public TechNet SCMDM (System Center Mobile Device Manager) is now open.

Here are some links to some good SCMDM blogs I have come across as well (link love):

Marco Neilsen: http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/mnielsen/
Patrick Salmon: http://patricksalmon.blogspot.com
Enterprise Mobile (MS Partner): http://blog.enterprisemobile.com

Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile,SCMDM,System Center Mobile Device Manager

Reply to All With Windows Mobile 6

Chris Haaker — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:47:39 GMT

Reply to All

As a person new to Windows Mobile 6 after being a corporate Blackberry user for many years, one of the first things that annoyed me was when I "replied to all" I also got a copy of the message in my Inbox. Even worse, if I was OOF, this also triggered my OOF message and I got that as well! The Blackberry doesn't do this and I was sure there was a way to fix it in Windows Mobile. Thanks to Vik for providing the info I needed. Although I am not sure why WinMo doesn't know this by default when you set up the email account for EAS ... I have provided a video demo using Jing on how to set it up.

Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile,Windows Mobile 6,WinMo,Reply to All,Blackberry