If MobileMe is Apple’s “Exchange for the rest of us”, then ActiveSync is Microsoft’s “Exchange for the most of them”. After Windows and Office, it’s arguably the 3rd pillar of Microsoft’s business domination. Blackberry’s can (and almost de facto do) connect to them, Windows Mobiles certainly connect to them. Even the aging Palm OS Treo’s have ActiveSync support. And with the 2.0 software, the iPhone does as well.
Caveat: Microsoft loves them some monopoly power and proprietary solutions (in this case, for example, using their own MAPI rather than the IMAP IDLE standard for “push” email). They may be becoming increasingly open in the face of Web-based competition, but their crown jewels are still closely guarded. So, while Outlook connects directly to Exchange for — according to them — the “richest experience”, and Windows Mobile probably follows a close second, iPhone like other ActiveSync licensees connects via something called Outlook Web Access, the same way a web browser might.
How does this experience stack up in richness? Read on to find out!
Read the rest of this entry »
Ouch! Was that the sound of Crackberry Kevin Hulking Up for another NERD FIGHT, or RIM CEO Mike Lazeridis smashing the desks over at R&D?
Seems like Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz has just put Apple’s new MobileMe push Email, Contacts, and Calendars service through it’s iPhone paces and their verdict?
BlackBerry is dead, dead, dead. Dead.
And this from a self-confessed former Crackberrian, no less, using a Spanish SIM, on a UK Network, over EDGE! Along with the better, faster, and more powerful OS, Diaz credits the flawless App Store, media, and new enterprise and consumer features as making the Blackberry look “like a brick”.
Yowzer, they say there’s no such thing as bad press but… Yowzer…
As to MobileMe itself?
Not a single glitch—the thing just worked almost instantly. Knowing that Apple is using Sun Java Messaging Servers, probably paired with Synchronica or Consilient’s over-the-air synchronization modules, I’m not surprised. It feels like they have put together a rock-solid operation.
Sign me up! (D’oh, I’m already legacy’d in!)
Ah, .Mac, the poor abandoned stepchild in Apple’s 360 degrees of spherical integration. It’s the online service Google, Yahoo, and even Microsoft Live kick sand at on the playground.
Sure, Back-to-my-Mac can rock, and syncing can be oh-so-sweet, but c’mon, what have you done for us lately?
Could be a lot, if rumors pan out. We’ve already brought you word on possible iPhone 2.0 .Mac “push” mail, and even reports of a total revamp. Now it seems the revamp may be more of a full on renovation, including a brand spanking new name!
[Dmitry Chestnykh, the CEO at Coding Robots] went through the iCal Localizable.strings file in the recently released 10.5.3 update and found a number of changes. In particular, he found a lot of evidence that the .Mac brand name is going to be replaced. Apple is apparently using a placeholder %@ which will be dynamically replaced by the new name, whatever that is, when it’s released.
If Apple wants to keep charging $100 a year, then changes, and big ones, are a very necessary way to justify it. Here’s for something game-changing in the online “cloud” services realm. What do you think?
Read
During the iPhone SDK Roadmap event today, Apple strolled up to RIM, slipped out a glove, dropped a brick into it, and slapped out one “boom” of a challenge.
Blackberry is an email monster, no doubt about it. Intoxicating “push” delivery and back-end IT administration have made it the darling of the enterprise world. But it isn’t without problems: due to the centralized server-model RIM utilizes (where all mail is collected by RIM prior to being pushed out to end-users), there’s a single point of failure for all Blackberry users everywhere (as seen in two recent, service-wide outages) — and a single point of exploit as well (where an attack on RIM’s server could compromise the privacy and security of the entire user base).
Read on for more!
Read the rest of this entry »
