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Interim BlackBerry experience and life without Exchange
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Apple, Mobile at 5:08 pm on Wednesday, 4 October 2006

As I’m between Enterprise servers it’s been interesting to see how the BlackBerry works in ‘interim’ mode and life without Exchange

When I was removed from the corporate BES server my BlackBerry 8700 was server side refreshed as a new Vodafone branded device. Contacts, Calendar all wiped (as you would expect).

I was confused why there was no Browser any more. Checking the BB forums, as all data goes through RIM, no BES relationship = No Data. Not even the Browser icon. Interesting. Quite different from a standard IP enabled mobile.

With no data, there’s no way to get my Gmail on the BB.

I’m syncing my BB against GMail hosted calendar, using Apple iCal and AddressBook and PocketMac for Blackberry (sync tool free from RIM). I like iCal, especially the multiple Calendars. Gmail and iCal seem to work great together.

I’ve mentioned this before: Apple should try to make iCal, AddressBook and Mail.app great Exchange clients. Stepping out of Outlook for a while shows you lots of ways it could be better.

I actually tried using a mail client over my hosted Gmail account (Mail.app). Downloading sucked. I can’t believe it but I actually liked the web client better. Email, you would think, is a naturally fat client application though, with its rich editors. There seems to be a great opportunity for a hybrid - that provides the benefits of Hosted Email with a Client. The current alternatives are poles apart, so something that was smarter at when it downloaded and how much it stored. Something more cache focussed, web serviced, a bit like how Blog editors like Ecto work. (Send me stock if someone runs with that idea please.)

None of the productivity software providers appear to have stood back and actually interaction designed how people work. We have to cobble together our own solutions, always compromising.

A professional user has multiple identities. iCal gets close by integrating all your Calendars into a single view and then allowing them all to sync to your mobile. I still want the enterprise group scheduling of Outlook\Exchange but it would be great if I could also unify\separate (you know what I mean) my mail experience.

Still lots and lots of broken things.

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Comments(3)

    Comment by M Freitas at 8:42 pm on 4 October 2006

    That’s why I disliked the BB fist time I used it: either you are with them, or you are disconnected…

    Much closed architecture.




    Comment by BigFella at 10:17 pm on 5 October 2006

    So you’ve moved from BES to BIE/BIS? Even if you haven’t, a BES subscriber can use BIS. Call VF Solutions Support (0800 921 021) and ask them to re-send the service books to your BB - the browser icon will show up.

    If you go to http://www.vodafone.co.nz/myblackberry/ you can add your gmail account no problem. The BIS/gmail functionality is pretty good - emails sent from the BB end up in the sent items folder in gmail, items deleted on the BB end up in deleted items. Email sync with gmail is almost intantaneous, compared to integrating a standard pop/imap account in BIS.

    Pocketmac v4 was released a couple of days ago - available from blackberry.com.




    Comment by Roman Paljk at 9:13 am on 19 November 2007

    Hi All,

    You can also get hosted blackberry (BES). We provide Hosted Exchange and Hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server (And we’re an NZ company).

    Cheers

    RP