Email is great but Instant Messaging is a fantastic way of getting answers really quickly from colleagues and partners! Until we release our Live Communication Server Mobile Client the best way to do this is using Pocket MSN. The new version comes with Windows Mobile 5 and you can see a demo at:
On our Exchange Unplugged Tour – I’ve had lots of questions from customers about what they have to do to get Push Email with Windows Mobile 5 devices.
I have to re-iterate that you need two components:
1) Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2
2) Windows Mobile 5 devices that have AKU 2.0 integrated – all new devices from Q1 next year will have this integrated however existing Windows Mobile 5 devices will need an upgrade – you need to check with your OEM/Operator on when they will have an upgrade.
From an infrastructure perspective you have to deploy Exchange Server Activesync – there is a great document on our website that describes step-by-step how to do this –
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/business/strategy/exchangemobilemessaging.mspx
Once you have that in place then all you have to do is:
1) Upgrade your Front End Server to Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 – you do NOT need to upgrade all the Back-end servers.
2) You then need to extend your ISA or other Firewall timeout from it’s default of 120 seconds to 1800 seconds (30 minutes) – the reason for this is that the Push Model needs the SSL connection to stay open (but not using data) for >15 minutes to support the Push Model.
Many customers are about to hit change freeze for the Christmas period so if you want to take advantage of this in the future it’s important to make those changes ready for when the flood of devices appears early next year!
I do love this device – for those of you who haven’t had a chance or touch one of these…
Mobile TechReview has an excellent review of the I-Mate K-Jam on their web site. Check it out at:
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/i-mate_K-JAM.htm
We are now half way through the Exchange Unplugged Tour so far we’ve been to London, London, Coventry on Monday (and were greated with snow!), Manchester Tuesday at the Lowry Theatre and now we are in Southampton at the Mayflower theatre!
We’ve got Chesterfield tomorrow which we are travelling to via London tonight and then next week we have Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh!
It’s a great tour so far with the huge majority of customers really interested in what Windows Mobile can provide once they have moved to Exchange 2003!
Late last week Vodafone announced their support for Windows Mobile with a standard tarrif for email access as well as future support the ‘Push’ capability natively within Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2.
For those customers not using Exchange they also announced their own branded email solution using ‘Visto’
Check out the details at:
http://www.vodafone.com/assets/files/en/VodafoneBusinessEmail.pdf
I got reminded by a customer that I haven’t updated the – what devices am I carrying post for the past couple of months – so it’s about time I updated it! Last post I was desperate to get my hands on an HTC Wizard and an i300 – my wishes were granted 
IN
SP5 – I’m now using an Imate SP5 as my main phone – I was using the HTC Wizard but decided to try the SP5 – I had the SP5m for a while but I much prefer the larger numeric buttons on the SP5 as it makes texting/emailing much easier.
Wizard – I still *love* this device – it’s the best compromise between size and functionality – if I only had one device – I’d probably pick this one!
Universal – I’m actually using this a lot – mainly as my 3G data modem but also for the typical Pocket PC Phone capabilities such as email and opening attachments. I’ve been using it a lot recently for reviewing Powerpoint presentations ahead of my Exchange 5.5 unplugged and IT Forum presentations.
Samsung i300 – I got loaned one of these by a colleague – it’s a GREAT phone – I use it mainly for the combination of music (with it’s 3GB hard drive) and just being a really good phone!
Still with me
Samsung Portable Media Center – In the past month I’ve been in Munich, Madrid, Paris, Barcelona and Milan. My PMC entertains me whilst I’m travelling as I can watch it on the plane or even plug it into the hotel TV
Out
HTC Typhoon with Windows Mobile 5.0 – I’ve got the SP5 now.
As always – there is also all the other secret stuff that I carry that I can’t tell you about…
As part of our Exchange 5.5 Unplugged Tour – I thought it’d be fun to show some of the devices that were around in 1997 (when Exchange 5.5 launched) – our first devices didn’t really start appearing till 1999 so I’ve just picked a couple of those. They seem HUGE compared to today’s devices!
The Philips Nino 300 was the first Pocket PC (Palm-sized PC) I had – what a beauty that was – Black and White screen but a 75Mhz Processor!
The first colour device I had was the Compaq Aero 2100 – this baby had a 70Mhz Processor a massive 8MB of memory
The specs are even still on HP’s website http://h18002.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10019_div/10019_div.HTML
Haven’t we come a long way in the past 5 years!!
Now that Office 12 Beta 1 has been announced I can share the great news that one of the components that it has is a 2-way Sync for OneNote.
If you’ve never used OneNote it’s a must have application for note taking – whether you have a Tablet PC or Not! I use it with my laptop to capture meeting notes and action along with all the to-do’s I have day today.
The Office 12 capabilities allow you take capture notes on your Smartphone/Pocket PC and sync them to your laptop/tablet!
Chris Pratley one of the OneNote team has written a great article about it’s capabilities!
http://blogs.msdn.com/chris_pratley/archive/2005/11/21/494990.aspx
This whitepaper http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/features/mobility/e2k3sp2.mspx has just been released detailing the benefits of Service Pack 2 and Windows Mobile 5
Included in the document are the following
| • | Introduction |
| • | The Microsoft® Mobile Messaging Solution |
| • | Mobile Devices Overview |
| • | Exchange Server SP2 and Windows Mobile 5.0 MSFP Advances |
| • | Meeting Enterprise Needs |
| • | Customer Experiences |
| • | Conclusion |
| • | Related Links |
Myself, Ewan Dalton, Allister Frost, Eileen Brown, Brett Johnson and a few other folks are on the road with the Exchange 5.5 Unplugged tour right now!
Our mission – help customers migrate from Exchange 5.5 to 2003!
We’ve started a parallel blog tracking our antics at : http://blogs.technet.com/technet_uk_-_exchange_tour/default.aspx
You can also find out about the tour at : http://www.microsoft.com/uk/technet/unplugged/default.mspx
For customers who are interested in how to make the move then feel free to sign up and come along!
