September 23, 2008
Now that the iPhone supports Microsoft Exchange Push/Pull and is 3G network capable, the notion that road warriors should make the switch is becoming more and more popular. But is it practical? I love my iPhone 3G but here are some reasons why it might not be ready for the enterprise just yet.
- Email:
- The iPhone will only download the entire email message if you choose to view it and have a cell signal or attached via Wi-Fi. This means that if you don’t have a signal, you will not be able to read an email that hasn’t been previously read. On my old Treo 750 running Windows Mobile 6, I had an option to choose to download some or the entire email when it gets pushed to my phone; giving me the ability to view mail offline. I looked all over the iPhone and did not see that option.
- You cannot search your emails or even apply a filter. Recently, I had to find an email dating back over a year and was forced to browse through hundreds of emails. This time consuming endeavor wouldn’t have been necessary if I would of had search or the ability to filter by sender, size, keyword, etc…
- Contacts:
- Mass contact deletion is not available. I know there are other ways to do it through your laptop but some on the road won’t have a laptop to perform these workarounds.
- GPS:
- No true turn by turn navigation, yet?
- Map download: Why is this not an option? The GPS is great but I get increasingly frustrated with waiting for Google Maps to download and the inability to use the GPS, if I’m out of cell range, because the map won’t download. It would be nice to have the ability to load a US map onto the iPhone so I could utilize the GPS when cell coverage is lacking.
- Battery
- Battery life could be better. I hear there has been improvement with the 2.1 update but I can’t see a noticeable difference.
- Inability to change the battery yourself. It’s not realistic to expect a road warrior to give up their phone for a couple of days to get the battery replaced.
- Copy and Paste
Would I recommend the iPhone for the enterprise? Only if you can live with the shortcomings mentioned above. Right now, much of the iPhone’s functionality depends on wether it has a signal or not. To reach it’s full potential, more “out of cell range” functionality is needed.
Posted in Exchange and Outlook, iPhone 
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September 15, 2008
I know I expressed my frustration in a previous post regarding the upgrade for the iPhone. Now I’m singing a much more positive tune. One of the biggest complaints that I have heard about the AppStore is that when you update your app, it doesn’t put the icon back where it belongs. Looks like that has been addressed with this new upgrade. I have updated quite a few apps since last Friday and the icons end up right where they below. This isn’t going to change the world or anything but this little added convenience keeps me just a bit happier.
Have you found any new bug fixes or features worth mentioning?
Posted in Software, iPhone No Comments »
September 12, 2008
This past week, there as been a lot of talk about Google’s new browser Chrome. It’s definitely not a Firefox or IE killer but I don’t think it’s meant to be. My thoughts are that Google didn’t like how their apps performed within IE and Firefox and therefore introduced Chrome as a blueprint for the other browsers to follow. I would say it’s a challenge of sorts to the big 2 browsers. Time will tell if I’m correct but one feature of Chrome that I love and hope IE and Firefox adopts is the application shortcuts feature. I can now have a link on my desktop or quick launch toolbar to my favorite web apps, like Adsense, Analytics and Gmail.
Making a shortcut:
- Within Chrome, go to the site that will be a new shortcut.
- Click on the “Control Current Page” button on the upper right had corner.
- Select “Create Application Shortcuts..
- Choose what kind of shortcut and click on the ‘OK’ button.
- You’re done!
There has been a site or two that I haven’t been able to create a shortcut for. I tried to create one on rockymountainnews.com and it would not continue. Is there something about certain sites that Chrome won’t respond to or is it the site? What is your favorite Chrome features and/or what don’t you like about Chrome.
Posted in Internet No Comments »
September 12, 2008
I thought the iPhone 2.1 update was supposed to be out on Tuesday. I checked and checked but it never was made availabel. I got it for my iTouch but no luck for the phone. I’m wondering if Apple was trying to roll out the update to avoid issues like the 2.0 fiasco. Anyway, the update was made available to me this morning. I updated and wished that I would have waited.
I’m assuming that the new software gives you the use of the “Genius” playlist maker, some bug fixes and hoping that copy/paste and mass contact deletion would be available. As I write this the bug that I’m experiencing is that I can’t access my mail. Both Exchange and my IMAP to a different server will not come up and when I click on the email icon, I get a white screen and the mail program crashes on me.
This is twice now that I have updated my software and it has either rendered my iPhone useless or with limited use. If Apple really wants to be an “Enterprise” player, these updates will need to go more smoothly. Road warriors will ditch their iPhone for something more dependable if bugs like this keep on rearing their ugly head.
UPDATE: After about 20 minutes of turning off the iPhone and reconfiguring the email, the email client is working fine now. It just started to work. I don’t think it’s anything that I did and maybe just a bit of patience was needed. Still no copy/paste and the contact deletion issues are still there. We’ll see about the improved battery life and possible new GPS features.
UPDATE: Backing up of the iPhone does seem to be faster now. It took onlyh about 10 to 20 seconds to backup the unit instead of the minute or so that it used to. Also it looks like the 3G and the Edge (E) indicators on the iPhone are different.
UPDATE: Love the Genius and it’s potential. If you have a lot of indie music, it doesn’t work as well. I kept getting “Genius is unavailable for the song “song name” error when I choose lesser known artists. I’m hoping as people keep using this option, it will get better. So far I have some pretty interesting playlists now.
Posted in Exchange and Outlook, iPhone 1 Comment »
August 24, 2008
A while back, I did a review of the Guitar Toolkit on one of my other blogs. In order to have a accurate review, I needed screenshots to show my readers how the interface looked. In past experiences with hand held devices, I have had to use 3rd party screenshot solutions that usually cost money. I was afraid that this would be the same story for my iPhone but luckily I was wrong.
To create a screenshot of you iPhone’s display, press the sleep/wake and the home button at the same time. A white flash will appear and then your display comes back to normal. You will find your pictures in the camera roll or your can explore the iPhone’s storage while it’s connected to your computer. I found the screenshots within the DCIM folder and they were in .PNG format. This will also come in handy when I have to start creating tutorials for my clients. Hope it helps you!
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