Windows Phone 7 to support multiple Exchange accounts

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Michel de Rooij

I seem to have missed the news from a few days back that during a broadcast on the @ch9live development network , Joe Belfiore, Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Windows Mobile, confirmed multiple Exchange account support in Windows Phone 7 Series. Goodbye to unsupported hacks or POP/IMAP’ing those additional Exchange boxes. I assume includes all the additional benefits like Direct Push (hello battery life!).

In addition, Belfiore stated that on Windows Phone 7 various calendars will be displayed in a single view using coler coding to differentiate between the calendars (i.e. accounts).

Thanks to fellow Exchange guy Magnus Björk for spotting this one.

Windows Mobile 6.1 update for Exchange 2010

Posted on March 20, 2010 by Michel de Rooij

An update for Outlook Mobile has been released for Windows Mobile 6.1 users who connect to Exchange 2010; users running Windows Mobile 6.5+ do not need this update. This update adds the following functionality to Windows Mobile 6.1:

E-mails conversation view
Free/Busy lookup
Sync text messages to Exchange
Enhanced Voice Mail, e.g. Unified Messaging voice mail preview

More information with screenshots in the related Exchange Team blog here. When your Windows Mobile 6.1 phone is connected to Exchange Server 2010, you are automatically informed if there is an update.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Michel de Rooij

Today at the Mobile World Congress, RIM announced the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express (BESE). BESE is positioned by RIM as a free(!) alternative for small to medium sized companies which require BlackBerry’s security and manageability, but don’t require all enterprise funtions. For example, this also means lack of advanced monitoring and high availability options found in the enterprise product. BESE will work with Exchange 2003 SP2, 2007 SP1 and 2010 in combination with Windows SBS 2003 and 2008. Very helpful is the BlackBerry comparison chart you can download here (PDF).

You can read the full press release here. BESE is scheduled for release in March. BESE has its own webpage on RIM’s website here.

Windows Phone 7

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Michel de Rooij

Windows Phone 7, shouldn’t that be Windows Mobile 7? Yes and No. Windows Phone 7 (WP7) is the successor to Windows Mobile 6, but the rebranding also hints at changes in the approach towards Windows Phone 7, being a mobile platform instead of an operating system. At first glance WP7 is very social networking, multimedia and game focused. The (clean and neat) GUI is also full of animations when you interact with it. I wonder what that will mean for battery life.

You can watch the recording of the press conference from Mobile World Congress 2010 here. For more information on WP7, check out Engadget’s hands-on review here or check out the online demo here.

Update: More information in this hands-on demo on Channel 9 here.

Windows Mobile 6.5.3

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Michel de Rooij

Today Sony Ericsson released a new phone, the Aspen. Normally that wouldn’t be worth blogging here, but the press release contained something of interest:

Operating system: Windows Mobile® 6.5.3

So, that might imply Windows Mobile 6.5.3 is now official. Exchange-wise nothing changed; changes are mainly UI focused or under the hood. These include capacitive touchscreen support, multi-touch, touch controls (bye stylus), consistency, horizontal scroll bar instead of tabs, magnifier, Start Menu drag & drop, increased browser performance (IE), improved memory management, smoothed pan & flick gestures and speed improved zoom & rotation speed. It also contains updated runtime tools (.NET CF 3.5 and SQL CE 3.1) as well as Arabic read/write document support.

Also, it seems Sony Ericsson licensed SPB Mobile Shell as both Pro and Lifestyle models contain SPB Mobile Shell 3.0. Apparantly plain Windows Mobile isn’t appealing enough; Sony uses SPB Mobile Shell and HTC has HTC Sense UI.