Exchange Server 2007: Listing Exchange ActiveSync users and device information

In How to get a list of Exchange ActiveSync users we list EAS users on Exchange 2007. Some users may have more than 1 device, or perhaps the user simply got a new smartphone and the old device partnership has not been removed.

Output from Get-ActivesyncDeviceStatistics -mailbox foo@somedomain.com:

FirstSyncTime : 12/22/2007 1:34:10 AM
LastPolicyUpdateTime : 12/22/2007 1:34:43 AM
LastSyncAttemptTime : 1/14/2008 7:45:15 AM
LastSuccessSync : 1/14/2008 7:45:15 AM
DeviceType : PocketPC
DeviceID : *******************************
DeviceUserAgent :
DeviceWipeSentTime :
DeviceWipeRequestTime :
DeviceWipeAckTime :
LastPingHeartbeat :
RecoveryPassword : ********
DeviceModel : WIZA100
DeviceIMEI : ************21900
DeviceFriendlyName : Pocket_PC
DeviceOS : Windows CE 5.2.19134
DeviceOSLanguage : English
DevicePhoneNumber : 1650*******
Identity : foo@somedomain.com\AirSync-PocketPC-*******************************

The * characters in the Identity field are for the DeviceID.

Here's a a quick code snippet (it can probably be scrubbed up a little... ) that will list users and all their devices, along with first sync and last successful sync times:

$mbx = get-casmailbox | where {$_.hasactivesyncdevicepartnership -eq $true -and $_.identity -notlike "*CAS_{*"} ; $mbx | foreach {$name = $_.name; $device = get-activesync devicestatistics -mailbox $_.identity; $device | foreach {write-host $mbx.name, $_.devicemodel, $_.devicephonenumber, $_.deviceid, $_.FirstSyncTime, $_.LastSuccessSync} }

Related posts and links
- Cmdlet: Get-ActiveSyncDeviceStatistics
- Cmdlet: Get-CasMailbox

HTC Touch Diamond: Cure for iPhone Envy?

While I was out at TechEd last week, the new 3G iPhone was announced. From the previous announcement, we knew it'll have EAS support. While many await the new EAS-capable, 3G iPhone, and yet many debate on whether it'll make inroads in the enterprise, there's something else on the horizon that's quickly becoming the object of desire for many folks. Yes, I'm talking about HTC's Touch line of Windows Mobile phones, and the HTC Touch Diamond.

Looks like an exciting new version of Windows Mobile? It's actually the current version of WinMo— v6.1. With HTC's own shell on top called HTC TouchFLO™ 3D. Yes, you can touch, swipe, shake, rattle, and roll. :)

A glance at the features:
- 2.8" LCD
- HSDPA connectivity
- 3.2 Megapixel camera
- 4Gb memory
- Integrated GPS

To top it all, the dimensions— it's 11.35 mm thin and weighs all of 110g, with batteries!

More info about the Touch Diamond on the HTC web site.

Engadget reports spotting the Touch Diamond at CompUSA. I'm waiting to get my hands on one of these.

Update: Available on CompUSA.com, unlocked, for $779.

India not looking to ban BlackBerry, keen to resolve issue

India's Dept of Telecom (DoT) says it has asked Indian wireless carriers to specify a timeframe by which they will resolve all security concerns. India is not looking to shutdown BlackBerry services, but it is keen to resolve the issue.

There has been a lot of speculation about the DoT having given a 15-day notice to carriers and RIM to allow snooping or face a shutdown. The Economic Times says "all players offering BlackBerry in India said that that the government had not issued any such directives."

Excerpt:

DoT is looking at various possibilities, including asking RIM to create a mirror image of all emails and data sent on these devices in India and store the information for at least six months to address the concerns of security agencies.

DoT is also looking at other options such as asking RIM to migrate all data traffic originating from Indian mobile networks to servers in India.

More in "DoT calls up BlackBerry providers".

India wants access to BlackBerry encryption algorithms to fight terrorism

India's half a million BlackBerry users may have to live with the prospect of the Indian government having easy access to their wireless communication.

India says it needs access to RIM's encryption algorithms, used to encrypt email sent and received by BlackBerry smartphones, to fight terrorism. The Indian government is delaying a license to offer BlackBerry services to wireless carrier Tata Teleservices, and may cancel the licenses already issued to other Indian wireless carriers— Vodafone Essar, Bharti Telecom and Reliance Communications, if RIM doesn't comply by March 31st. The Information Technology Act of 2000 provides the government of India the right to intercept electronic communications for security reasons.

It's no secret that terrorists are increasingly using the internet and email to communicate. Bringing BlackBerry handhelds under the scope of lawful interception shouldn't come as a big surprise, but it does pose interesting questions for RIM.

The Department of Telecom's intent and its notice to carriers is anything but abrupt. The DoT had requested access some time last year. The March 31st deadline is an extension to the earlier deadline of December 31st. DoT officials are meeting with carrier execs and RIM officials to resolve the issue.

More in "BlackBerry under security scrutiny in India" on washingtonpost.com.

What makes the whole episode more interesting are reports that the Indian government wants significantly weaker encryption keys to be used across the board. If true, this could make security of online banking and e-commerce transactions questionable, and may even pose threats to India's growing outsourcing sector. ISP Association of India President Rajesh Chharia says "Routine check-ups are fine with us since the issue is one of national security. All ISPs must, and will, cooperate. What is of concern, though, is the fact that we have been asked to reduce the encryption from 128-bit to 40-bit, which is ridiculous.” (More in "BlackBerry security issue makes e-com insecure").

As similar incidents involving India's bureaucracy have proven in the past, better sense does eventually prevail in India (Read previous post: "Update: India blocks access to blogs"), but not before giving massive doses of anxiety attacks to those concerned.

iPhone, meet Exchange: Apple announces Exchange ActiveSync support

Finally, Apple announces Exchange ActiveSync Support.

Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior VP of Marketing, announced minutes ago what many have suspected all along - Apple chose to go with Microsoft by licensing EAS. Schiller demonstrated EAS on the iPhone, including the ability to remotely wipe an iPhone.

Without taking names, Phil also criticized the BlackBerry approach of routing mail through its datacenter, and the accompanying risks and reliability issues. Devices compatible with EAS, including devices running Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS, can synchronize email, calendar, and contacts directly with an Exchange Server.

Terry Myerson, Microsoft's corporate VP for Exchange, met Schiller daily for 2 weeks to make the agreement possible. Says Myerson, "When it comes to mobile phones, Windows Mobile still delivers the premier mobile e-mail experience for Microsoft Exchange Server, by delivering the Outlook experience on a mobile phone and with the most complete support for Exchange’s many enterprise device management policies. But, we also partner with many mobile device makers – including Apple – and believe that by making Exchange an open platform, our customers and partners, ultimately, will be the beneficiaries."

Update:
- The new iPhone 2 firmware with ActiveSync support will be released in June.
- Apple is accepting applications for its iPhone Enterprise Beta Program

iPhone, meet Exchange: Will Apple make them talk?

March 6 is here, and the iPhone's software roadmap, including the much talked about "enterprise features" should be public in a few hours, along with the release or another announcement of the iPhone SDK.

In the past, there have been plenty of rumors and some "confirmations" about Apple having licensed Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) protocol (read previous post "Apple Licenses Exchange ActiveSync for the iPhone?"). If Apple does announce availability of EAS on the iPhone, will it become the new smartphone of choice in the enterprise?

It may not be an easy task. IT departments would need to be convinced about security and manageability of the device. Being the closed device that it has been since its inception, it will be interesting to see whether (and how) Apple provides this much needed control to IT.

ActiveSync isn't the only option available to Apple. iPhone users can use IMAP protocol to connect to mail servers that support it, including Microsoft Exchange. However, the experience isn't quite comparable to EAS or RIM's BlackBerry, and IMAP isn't supported in many organizations.

Given the high penetration of RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) in organizations world-wide, making a version of RIM's BlackBerry Connect software available on the iPhone would instantly make it much more attractive to enterprise users. BlackBerry Connect allows non-BlackBerry devices to work with BES (read previous post: "RIM does a BlackBerry on Windows Mobile").

Yet another option would be to buy or create its own middleware - the Apple version of a BlackBerry or GoodLink server. It's hard to see what Apple would gain with such an approach - it wants to sell more iPhones, not compete with the big boys RIM and Microsoft.

Another important question Apple will need to answer— will the iPhone finally become carrier-independent? Tethered to a single wireless carrier with a slow wireless data network, it is unlikely to get as serious a consideration as it otherwise would if IT could simply buy the device and configure it to work on any carrier - either out-of-the-box, or perhaps using a configuration tool provided by Apple. Apple's "fixed battery" approach isn't likely to win it many fans in IT, and has attracted lawsuits in the past.

Whichever route Apple decides to take, time is right for the iPhone to make its enterprise move.

Zenprise and the BlackBerry Blackout of 2/11/2008

At Zenprise, we do not revel in outages and issues that cause service disruptions or service deterioration for our customers. However, when such incidents do occur - whether in the Exchange messaging infrastructure or in BlackBerry service, we take pride in the fact that Zenprise is able to help customers by providing early warnings and timely alerts about such outages, or conditions that may lead to one.

The accolades are coming in, from customers and prospective customers alike. The difference between having Zenprise and not having Zenprise on the afternoon of 2/11/2008 couldn't be clearer.

An email from a satisfied customer - the Canadian subsidiary of a large consumer electronics manufacturer:

Dan, zenprise is amazing. For Feb 11’s network outage. I was alerted immediately. When I called Rogers, they are not even been informed by RIM at that time. Thanks for the good monitoring software.

Figure 1: The end-to-end view of BlackBerry service shown in the Zenprise Console. Alerts for connectivity issues to RIM's SRP network and a high number of pending messages for a user are displayed in the above screenshot of the User Dashboard

An email from another organization that was affected by the outage (not a Zenprise customer):

“After having to call 2 different carriers the other day and waiting on hold for about 20 minutes each, I am ready for a change. These IT engineers and managers that are at their laptop most of the time don’t understand how much our execs and sales people that are out on the road depend on their Blackberry. When RIM had the outage, our entire Management lead team was out of the office and every one of them only had their Blackberry with them. Needless to say, an hour after he called me the CIO was not too happy when I finally was able to give him a definite answer that the problem was with RIM’s network. I have been trying to decide whether to send your message up to him, but I think I just answered my question as to whether I should. I’ll get back to you within a week to give you an update.”

Not to forget the accompanying media attention:


BlackBerry Outage Caused by Upgrade

TMCnet: Zenprise on BlackBerry Outage


InformationWeek: RIM Confirms BlackBerry Outage, Investigates Cause


ZDNet Exclusive: BlackBerry outage indicated by IP address connect refusals


CNBC: BlackBerry Outage Caused by Upgrade


BlackBerry Outage Caused by Upgrade


InfoWorld: Outage knocks BlackBerry users offline


BlackBerry Cool: North American outage reported


PC World: RIM's BlackBerry Service Getting Back to Normal


BlackBerry outage leaves 8 million users disconnected


Why Your Blackberry Crashed



Outage blamed on upgrade

BlackBerry service out in N. America: Zenprise customers benefit from proactive detection

North American users of the ubiquitous BlackBerry service are hit by another outage - it's second major one in less than a year. The extent of the outage isn't known, nor an ETA available from RIM. Update: According to Bloomberg, 8 million users are impacted - about two third of its 12 million users.

Users of Zenprise for BlackBerry benefited again from the proactive troubleshooting approach of Zenprise, that can provide advance notifications for many issues before they turn into deterioration of service or outages impacting users. Zenprise notified customers about the outage at 12:26 PM PST, before wireless carrier AT&T learnt about it. More in "North American outage reported" on BlackberryCool.com.

The last major outage was back in April 2007, also automatically detected by Zenprise users (read previous post " Zenprise proactively detects BlackBerry N. America outage!").

Reuters has more (as do a lot of other web sites): RIM reports "critical" BlackBerry outage

Update: The outage ended at 6:45 PM Eastern, according to Bloomberg.

Sony Ericsson jumps on the Windows Mobile bandwagon with Xperia X1

If you're in the market for Windows Mobile smartphones, your choices are going to grow at a rapid pace this year. Amongst the more exciting announcements at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - Sony Ericsson's first Windows Mobile phone, the Xperia X1. Yes, Sony finally jumps on the WinMo bandwagon.

The Xperia X1's all-metal body fits an arc slider design, a QWERTY keyboard, a 3-inch wide WVGA screen (800x480, compared to the iPhone's 3.5 inch diagonal at 480x320), a 3.2 megapixel digital camera that also does 30fps vga video. The phone supports aGPS, WiFi, quad-band GSM/Edge and UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA.

The X1 supports a Touch interface, in addition to a 4-way key and an optical joystick. At 17mm, it's not as svelte as the 11.6mm iPhone. However, if it's the convenience of a full QWERTY keyboard (as in a "hardware keyboard" you can actually type those reasonably long emails on), a fast 3G network, Windows Mobile OS and Exchange ActiveSync support for mobile email you're interested in, this certainly looks like one attractive device.

The X1 will be available in the second half of this year, and probably won't be tied to a single wireless carrier.

More X1 details, specs and pictures on the X1 minisite. Also take a look at this image gallery on Engadget Mobile. As usual, Engadget's doing great job of covering these events, and the accompanying avalanche of new products and announcements.

Zenprise alerts customer about data outage at AT&T

The end-to-end view of BlackBerry® service provided by Zenprise has always been of (a lot of) interest to me. Besides detecting specific issues impacting users, Exchange and infrastructure issues affecting BES, what has been particularly exciting is our ability to detect issues with RIM's SRP network, and also those with carrier networks in use by Zenprise customers.

Both of the above types of outages are rare, but when they do occur, the resulting user impact, help desk calls, and time spent troubleshooting before narrowing it down to RIM or the wireless carrier results in many wasted man hours.

Zenprise for BlackBerry has successfully detected (and provided advance warning for) a RIM outage in the past (read previous post: "ZDNet: Zenprise gave indications 2 hours before the BlackBerry outage").

Reproducing the equivalent of a RIM outage in a test environment isn't difficult, but how does one reproduce a carrier outage? Could we ask AT&T, Verizon or Sprint to turn off their wireless network so we can test Zenprise? Or just have them switch off the data network? Of course, there are other more realistic workarounds in test environments, but how do we validate this in real-world situations?

What just popped in this morning from my Google Alerts should make Zenprise, and our customers, very happy:

My company just installed the Beta Version of Zenprise Tuesday of this week. This morning we started getting requests where our Blackberry users were not able to send messages. Instead of our regular ‘reboot the BES to fix all’ process we normally would follow, I was able to see that the all the devices affected were from the AT&T network. I immediately contacted our AT&T rep and she was able to confirm an outage that was affecting the central and northeast regions. Although we have not purchased Zenprise yet, this was an excellent real life proof of concept of its ability to save my team hours of time troubleshooting.

More in Data outage nails AT&T subscribers

InsideMicrosoft: Windows Mobile 7 To Focus On Touch and Motion Gestures

I haven't written much about the exciting new developments with Windows Mobile, and the high expectations with it. Without a doubt, the iPhone has raised the bar a few notches, with typical Apple design finesse and consumer orientation (Yes, still no EAS, and still tethered to a really slow data network!). If you've been waiting to find out how Microsoft and Windows Mobile will respond to it, InsideMicrosoft has some interesting details and plenty of screenshots.

Purportedly from an internal Microsoft doc, so it's not really official, but the detailed descriptions and abundant visuals do appear quite real. Nathan Weinberg points out "the document appears to be from last summer".

More in: "Exclusive: Windows Mobile 7 To Focus On Touch and Motion Gestures"

Zenprise at Fenway Park: How the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox's IT Shop Keeps BlackBerrys in the Game

I haven't posted too many updates from Zenprise lately. Zenprise v3.3 will ship soon, and the regular stream of customers throughout the year has been a great validation of Zenprise's approach to monitoring and real-time troubleshooting of Microsoft Exchange Server and BlackBerry environments.

The exciting news - standing here during the attendee party at TechEd 2006, I couldn't have thought of this possibility. Yes! The Boston Red Sox became a Zenprise customer earlier this year (Go Red Sox!).

Al Sacco writes about the Red Sox's Zenprise experience in this CIO magazine article.

Excerpts:

Twenty-four/seven connectivity is a must for the 2007 world champion Boston Red Sox's behind-the-scenes champions, and the team counts on a mobile device management (MDM) product from Zenprise to ensure that its BlackBerrys never strike out.

"Within four days of having the product in, we were able to correlate root cause and be able to show ROI from that," Conley says. "Within a month, a problem that was ongoing for five to six months just disappeared." Better yet, he notes, fewer people were calling his team with problems. Instead, the Zenprise tool began offering early warnings on issues so he could report them to users before noticeable problems appeared.

Conley says that since the day his team installed Zenprise for BlackBerry, the Red Sox IT staff has been able to find root causes for every BlackBerry-related issue they've encountered, major or minor, and promptly address those issues with confidence that the suggested fixes will work.

Today, Conley has only one person who spends any of his time—a mere 10 percent—on BlackBerry support. Zenprise does the rest, he says. A year ago, two IT staffers handled BlackBerry support and the organization had only a quarter of the devices it supports today.

Read more on CIO.com: "Eyes on Zenprise: How the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox's IT Shop Keeps BlackBerrys in the Game".

Exchange Server 2007: How to get a list of Exchange ActiveSync users

Getting a list of actual Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) users was not an easy task with Exchange Server 2003, and certainly not one that could be accomplished in a hurry.

Yes, it indeed is a one-liner shell command with Exchange Server 2007:

Get-CASMailbox | where {$_.HasActiveSyncDevicePartnership} | select Name

Zenprise in Network World's '9 Wireless Network Companies To Watch'

Zenprise was named as one of the '9 Network Wireless Companies To Watch' by Network World.

From Network World:

Why it’s worth watching: Zenprise for BlackBerry software was launched in February 2007. Two months later, when RIM’s North American BlackBerry network crashed, Zenprise customers were perhaps the only people on the continent who knew hours before anyone else that 1) there was a problem, 2) it was serious, and 3) it was in RIM’s NOC. What everyone else saw as a third-party service that customers were dependent upon, Zenprise understood to be a critical enterprise asset that customers needed to manage like any other. The software makes it possible to actually enforce service-level agreements and improve support to mobile e-mail users.

One more thing: iPhone's 33% cheaper in 10 weeks

Did you rush out to buy the cool new and way overhyped 8 Gb iPhone on Day 1 for $599? You must love Jobs' announcement this morning - the music player + cell phone + web surfing + email (sans Exchange ActiveSync, of course.. ) device just got a 33% price cut. You can now have it for $399!

No Exchange ActiveSync support announced yet - that's rumored to be in the works with another 33% price cut in early 2008... :)

Exchange Server 2007 SP1: Take control of your Windows Mobile devices

Microsoft announced availability of SP1 Beta 2 as a community technology preview (read Exchange product group GM Terry Myerson's post "Announcing Service Pack 1 Beta 2 for Exchange Server 2007"). Yes, the much awaited bag of goodies that SP1 promises to be is now within reach, if you're a TechNet Plus or MSDN subscriber.

SP1 greatly enhances policy-based control of Windows Mobile devices - ActiveSync policies now have enough settings to please most IT security folks and administrators who require more control over mobile devices.

Here are some screenshots.


Figure 1: The Password tab now allows you to enforce encryption on storage cards inserted in Windows Mobile devices



Figure 2: New Sync Settings tab allows control of messasge sizes (that can be synched to device), restrict synch when roaming, allow/disallow html mail on device, restrict attachment downloads and control attachment sizes (that can be downloaded). You can also control how many days/weeks worth of past email and calendar items can be downloaded to WM devices.



Figure 3: New Device tab allows control of device components like Wi-Fi, camera, removable storage cards, infra-red, and Bluetooth (including ability to limit Bluetooth connectivity only to hands-free headsets), restrict RDP sessions from device, restrict synchronization from a desktop, and restrict internet sharing from device.


Figure 4: New Advanced tab allows control of browser usage, consumer mail (i.e. home/personal email accounts), unsigned applications and unsigned installation packages, and also restrict which applications can and cannot run on a device, (comparable to some Group Policy settings that can be applied to Windows desktop/client and server operating systems)

As the screenshots above state, the settings on the Device and Advanced tabs require an Enteprise CAL for each mailbox that has these settings enabled.

Windows Mobile shops have a lot to be pleased about with SP1, as Exchange ActiveSync + Windows Mobile get ready to give BlackBerry a run for its money.

Xandros licenses ActiveSync and MAPI

Linux vendor Xandros has licensed ActiveSync and Outlook-Exchange Transport Protocol, formerly known as MAPI. This will allow its Scalix mail server to push email to Windows Mobile (and other ActiveSync-enabled) devices, and Microsoft Outlook clients will be able to talk to Scalix using their native protocol. InfoWorld has more: "Xandros expands Microsoft partnership".

Other ActiveSync licensees include DataViz, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Palm, Motorola, and Symbian.

Whether Apple belongs to the above list of ActiveSync licensees has been the subject of never-ending speculation since before the launch of its iPhone cell phone + PDA + music player, which does have Exchange as one of the options for configuring mobile email, but is currently limited to using IMAP4 (read previous post: "Apple Licenses Exchange ActiveSync for the iPhone?").

Exchange ActiveSync, ISA 2006 and Error 0x85010004

When publishing Exchange ActiveSync with ISA Server 2006, you get an error 0x85010004 on the device. The error:

Result:
Your account in Microsoft Exchange Server does not have permission to synchronize with your current settings. Contact your Exchange Server administrator.

Support code: 0x85010004

After hours of troubleshooting, deleting the ISA rule and recreating it, playing with the ISA web listener and Exchange's ActiveSync virtual directory settings, it turns out the server fqdn had a typo in the Public Name tab of the ISA rule. ISA responds to a HTTP request if the host header matches the Public Name - akin to host headers in IIS when publishing multiple web sites using a single IP address.



About authentication settings on the web listener: The same web listener can be used for publishing OWA and ActiveSync. The Authentication settings for the listener can be set to HTML Form Authentication. At first look, this doesn't seem too intuitive given Exchange Server 2003's issues with Forms-Based Authentication and Exchange ActiveSync (KB 817379: Exchange ActiveSync and Outlook Mobile Access errors occur when SSL or forms-based authentication is required for Exchange Server 2003), but it works.

Apple: Time to iPatch your iPhones

Within weeks of the iPhone's launch, it's time to patch your iPhones! Yes, Apple has released a bunch of fixes for Mac OS X and the just-launched iPhone. The iPhone patches get delivered to you next time you synch your iPhone with iTunes.

Apple's security woes: Has less than 7 days to fix iPhone vulnerability

The company that designs its products "to be secure from day 1" is facing some security headaches of its own.

First, the vulnerabilities in its beta release of Safari browser for Windows, ironically discovered on "day 1", within hours of Apple Wizard-In-Chief Steve Jobs announcing it with much fanfare (read previous post "Safari, Meet Windows: Apple's cool browser comes with security holes"). Followed up by vulnerabilities in its cool (but way-too-overhyped) new iPhone. On Monday, Independent Security Evaluators revealed a vulnerability and a "a proof-of-concept exploit capable of delivering files from the user's iPhone to a remote attacker".

Part of the interesting Q&A on ISE's web site (linked above):
Should I turn my iPhone off and lock it in a drawer until Apple fixes this?
Not unless you plan to do the same to all the other computers you own. The iPhone is an internet connected device running a relatively full featured software suite: this research shows that it is vulnerable just like many other similarly capable devices, both PCs and embedded systems.

Does this add credence to Apple's position that 3rd party applications are not allowed on the iPhone for security reasons?
We don't think so. Almost all of the security engineering effort on the iPhone seems to have been spent protecting the revenue model, rather than protecting the user (which is, of course, an entirely understandable position). For example, a constrained environment is used to prevent users from loading new ringtones onto the phone, but the applications are not run in a constrained environment to contain damage caused by hackers who exploit them.

ISE's Dr. Charlie Miller will reveal more details in a presentation on Monday (Aug 2nd) at BlackHat. Apple has fewer than 7 days to patch the iPhone, according to InfoWorld. More in this report "Black Hat spurs Apple to patch iPhone".

Rist's interesting take on iPhone and Windows Mobile

After having used (or should "played" be the word?) the iPhone over the weekend, I'm a little underwhelmed by it. Clearly the product doesn't quite live up to the hype and the aura surrounding it in Apple's commercials and on its web site.

Nevertheless, Apple has a good version 1.0 product on its hand, and many of its issues are easily fixable. Like the "Exchange" button that shows up as an option when configuring email, only to inform you that you need to have IMAP enabled on the Exchange server. The Exchange team blog clarifies the difference between iPhone's connectivity to Exchange using IMAP, and the ability of Windows Mobile/Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) to use DirectPush, amongst other benefits (read "Mobile Device Connectivity to Exchange using IMAP vs Exchange ActiveSync").

If you've ever used ActiveSync, you're not likely to cherish the iPhone's IMAP experience, for reasons mentioned by Paul Robichaux in "The iPhone and Exchange, Part 2".

Given the rumors about Apple having licensed Exchange ActiveSync that surfaced days before the product's launch, fueled further by the Exchange button on the iPhone, it's likely Apple did in fact license it but couldn't complete the code to meet its internal deadlines. Most speculate it will show up in a future software update - perhaps it'll be part of Jobs' "And one more thing..." announcements in one of his keynotes.

However, even with EAS ported to the iPhone, it's unlikely to be a device as manageable as one running Windows Mobile, and certainly nowhere near a BlackBerry. It just may be cool enough for everyone to want one.

InfoWorld columnist Oliver Rist has an interesting take on iPhone v/s Windows Mobile platforms. Excerpt: "Sure, Apple messed up the iPhone. Nothing ticks off the geek set more than a company promising great things with vagaries, then delivering lots of not-so-great specifics. Locked-down APIs mean no mobile app coolness for the foreseeable future, no hardware price breaks, a nasty phone plan relationship, and difficulty integrating with the desktop stuff with which the biz people like to integrate."

Rist is none too pleased with Windows Mobile either. His advice for Microsoft: Windows Mobile needs fixing, fast.

Apple Licenses Exchange ActiveSync for the iPhone?

Has Apple finally seen the light, and licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft? Will iPhone users be able to get Exchange email pushed out to their iPhones using DirectPush?

Gadget blog Engadget.com reports on rumors that indicate what many thought nearly impossible (but certainly something that would make a lot of sense for Apple - read previous post "iPhone buzz refuses to die down after a Mac-less MacWorld") may already have happened. Thanks to fellow Exchange MVP Dustin Smith for pointing this out.

Sounds interesting, but till this is confirmed by either Microsoft or Apple, rumor it is. Given Apple's tendency to keep such details secret, such an announcement or confirmation may not happen till the moment the device is released. The Engadget post claims it may be announced tomorrow. If it does indeed happen, the question most would want answered is - will it be available in the shipping version of the device on June 29th, or perhaps a downloadable update at a later date.

Update: ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley confirms it here: "The iPhone will be compatible with Microsoft Exchange, after all"

It's great to see Apple play nice with Microsoft - (ignoring iTunes and QuickTime), there's Bootcamp, the utility and drivers that allow Intel-based Macs to support running Windows in a dual-boot configuration, and Safari browser for Windows a few days ago.

iPhone with Exchange ActiveSync - sure sounds tempting!

French govt bans BlackBerry citing security risks

In an interesting twist, the French government has banned members and their advisors from using BlackBerrys, citing security concerns arising from the fact that data flows through servers in the U.K. and N. America. Says InfoWorld, "This concentration of data poses a threat to national security, according to Alain Juillet, senior economic intelligence advisor to the French Prime Minister, because of the risk of data interception".

Research In Motion, the Canadian BlackBerry-maker and service provider (email sent/received from/to BlackBerry devices flows through RIM's data centers), disputes that assessment, saying data is encrypted using 256-bit AES encryption - the origin of a message on RIM's network cannot be traced, the content cannot be analyzed even by RIM.

More details in InfoWorld's report titled "Update: Security risks prompt French BlackBerry ban".

Zenprise Wins Best Of TechEd 2007 Award

An interesting week in Orlando, as TechEd weeks generally are. The Zenprise team returned home with the Best of TechEd 2007 award! That's 2 years in a row - first time a start-up has won Best Of TechEd two years in a row! What's a cause for cheer for most of us - this time it's in the Mobility category, for Zenprise for BlackBerry! (Last year, Zenprise for Exchange won the Best of TechEd in the Messaging category - read previous post "Zenprise wins Best Of TechEd 2006 award").

It was great to see customers visibly excited about Zenprise for BlackBerry, and the new User Dashboard feature in Zenprise 3.1 (in beta right now, this is what attendees saw at our TechEd booth last week) promises to make the job of IT/messaging/mobility help desks a lot easier. For Exchange, the User Dashboard provides a quick snapshot of all the important user properties and real-time performance stats of a user's mailbox server. For BlackBerry, the User Dashboard shows BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry device-related properties and performance stats, and also an end-to-end availability state for a particular user. The dashboard also enables instant testing of a user's device.

The rapid-fire software release cycles of our times means we're working on some exciting new features for v3.2, in our mission to go where no Exchange and BlackBerry monitoring & troubleshooting products have gone before. :)

WES 2007: RIM extends office phone sytems to BlackBerries

At its Wireless Enterprise Symposium - WES 2007 in Orlando, FL, Research In Motion announced the BlackBerry MVS (Mobile Voice System), a suite of products that extends enterprise PBX systems to BlackBerry devices, enabling users to have a single phone number and making BlackBerries part of the enterprise telephony eco-system - as extensions of their desk phones.

MVS allows users' BlackBerry devices and desk phones to ring at the same time, the ability to dial extensions from BlackBerries, make conference calls, and route outbound calls made from the device through the organization's PBX.

The system consists of:
1. BlackBerry MVS Client software installed on BlackBerry devices
2. BlackBerry MVS Connectors installed on an organization's BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Servers)
3. Ascendant Voice Mobility Suite (software gateway to PBX systems)

Interestingly, RIM will make these available later this month as free updates for existing BlackBerry devices and BlackBerry (Enterprise) Servers. (I'm guessing the Ascendant Voice Mobility Suite gateway for PBXes is what customers will need to pay for - Bharat)

More details on RIM's web site.

ZDNet: Zenprise gave indications 2 hours before the BlackBerry outage

Before the world knew: insider’s diary of BlackBerry service shutdown by ZDNet's Russell Shaw -- For two hours before the BlackBerry email outage two weeks ago, the Zenprise BlackBerry service monitoring system in place at the County of Alameda (Cal.) data center in the 1.5 million-populaton county seat of Oakland "gave us some indications connectivity was intermittent," senior server engineer Paul Hinsberg told me just a few minutes ago.

The engineer adds that as the afternoon progressed, the (scored) confidence levels of successful BlackBerry network connections as scored by Zenprise gradually descended from Very High-This Is Fixed to " 'I am completely sure I cannot connect. '"

Read the complete article (and get a glimpse of the performance chart from Zenprise for BlackBerry) on "The BlackBerry Beat" over on ZDNet.com.

RIM does a BlackBerry on Windows Mobile

Interesting announcement from RIM - it will offer the BlackBerry application suite for dev